Need a computer for stepmother

[goldenfooler]

Very basic stuff for her(office, power point). She wants to get either an apple laptop(she has no experience other then ipad with apple) or a Lenovo (gets a discount through brother-in-law). I am not sure about the build quality of the Lenovo. I know they are much less expensive.
She will not be moving the laptop ... pretty much at all.... yes I know she should get a desktop. Can't force that issue any longer. If I showed a picture of her current lap top you all would be cringing. Looking to pay around $600 or so. The website has a few around that pricing. I am more concerned about build quality.

[K PhaNTOM]

How does she want an apple and looking to only spend 600 bucks?

Also, get her an apple if you don't plan on being there 24/7 as tech support. Apple for old people = good.

And by the way they said Acer had really bad build quality but I've had one for over 6 years. Granted, I'm really good with my stuff but 6 years on a 500 dollar laptop is magical to me.

[Qicmee]

$600 seems low for a reasonably powered laptop. I paid $800 or so last year for a fairly cheap Lenovo Thinkpad. No single manufacturer has 100% home runs across all models. However, only the manufacturers knows which units are great, and they aren't talking. Below are FAILURE rates per company. It would be more valuable to know "per model", but I couldn't find that.

After you narrow your choices (sale offers, etc.), do a careful read of Newegg & Amazon reviews. Ignore feedback like, "This computer sucks because it got a virus and they wouldn't let me return it."

Asus: 15.6%
Toshiba: 15.7%
Sony: 16.8%
Apple: 17.4%
Dell: 18.3%
Lenovo: 21.5%
Acer: 23.3%
Gateway: 23.5%
HP: 25.6%
http://lifehacker.com/computer-manuf...tha-1467145338

[goldenfooler]

would you consider with windows 8.1 to have a touch screen at 15.6 or a 17.3 screen without the touch screen?