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Resolved Decent Windows Laptops for teen?

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PhoenixDown

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 12, 2012
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So my sister is leaning toward getting her daughter a MacBook Air but my neice is insisting on a windows based laptop. Anyone have recommendations on brands that reliable and half way decent? My neice isn't a power user or power gamer. Minecraft seems to be the biggest game she plays.

I am tempted to tell my sister to go with the MBA and I'll install Parallels and Windows 11 on it for my niece. I feel thats the best of both worlds.
 
Your niece wants Windows. Get her Windows. No reason for anyone to force their OS preference.

Given your sister is willing to buy her a MBA. I'll use that for a price point. I think Lenovo is the best of the big brands for reliability and quality. At least for mid range prices. The Thinkpad T14 is probably the most durable. It offers excellent battery life and a decent screen. Although there are others with better screens for the price.

The difference between the two is the CPU and integrated GPU. They are upgradeable allowing more storage. You can build to order on the Lenovo website. If you wanted to get her a higher end screen. As these come with the base screen.

www.newegg.com

Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (AMD) 6650U (2.90GHz) 16GB Memory 256 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 660M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 DG Windows 10 Pro 64 21CF003UUS - Newegg.com

Buy Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (AMD) 6650U (2.90GHz) 16GB Memory 256 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 660M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 DG Windows 10 Pro 64 21CF003UUS with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com

www.newegg.com

Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U 16GB Memory 512 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 680M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 21CF003TUS - Newegg.com

Buy Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U 16GB Memory 512 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 680M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 21CF003TUS with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com

If you want to get her the ultimate in screens. Look at the Samsung Galaxy Book3. With a 2880x1800 AMOLED screen. It will suffer some in gaming. Due to the Intel integrated graphics instead of AMD integrated graphics. But the screen is beautiful. Battery life is good and will last the school day. But isn't as good as the Thinkpad.

 
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Keep in mind that if you go with an MBA with Apple Silicon, Parallels would only be able to do the ARM-based version of Windows...so it may not be the best of both worlds. She'll have a Mac/macOS she doesn't want, and a "crippled" version of Windows. Sure, Windows 11 on ARM has x86/x64 emulation, but it doesn't work for everything and there'd be a performance hit compared to a native install on a PC.

I have to agree with the previous post. Get her what she wants...not what you or your sister wants. If your niece isn't familiar with Macs, at least have her try one out first to see if it's something she's open too.

Personally, I've always liked the Dell XPS line and Microsoft Surface in the past, but I'm not really up to snuff on those anymore to make any recommendations.
 
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PhoenixDown said:
I am tempted to tell my sister to go with the MBA and I'll install Parallels and Windows 11 on it for my niece. I feel thats the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
If she wants windows, then installing Parallels (which is a subscription) and running ARM windows will almost certainly be a disappointment given the performance of ARM windows, and the compatibility, or lack there of.
 
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PhoenixDown said:
So my sister is leaning toward getting her daughter a MacBook Air but my neice is insisting on a windows based laptop. Anyone have recommendations on brands that reliable and half way decent? My neice isn't a power user or power gamer. Minecraft seems to be the biggest game she plays.

I am tempted to tell my sister to go with the MBA and I'll install Parallels and Windows 11 on it for my niece. I feel thats the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
no.. that depends on what your niece is using it for...
my parnets are also trying to get me a MBA, but i literally cannot use one (im a minor, just for clarity, lol)
why? because i run a repair business, so things like 3utools, balena etcher arent avablive on mac (ik there are mac friendly alternatives, but i prefer my software im already famillar with, okay?)
also gaming isn't really good on macOS, but if you did install 11 on it, that would work for gaming... i don't know how well though.
i would also recommend looking at a framework laptop, as the are more repairable than most laptops :p and its a windows laptop (or chrome os.. but im assuming you might not want that if you want a iphone to sync, but i use one with an iphone, and kinda collect chromebooks, lol)
 
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velocityg4 said:
Your niece wants Windows. Get her Windows. No reason for anyone to force their OS preference.

Given your sister is willing to buy her a MBA. I'll use that for a price point. I think Lenovo is the best of the big brands for reliability and quality. At least for mid range prices. The Thinkpad T14 is probably the most durable. It offers excellent battery life and a decent screen. Although there are others with better screens for the price.

The difference between the two is the CPU and integrated GPU. They are upgradeable allowing more storage. You can build to order on the Lenovo website. If you wanted to get her a higher end screen. As these come with the base screen.

www.newegg.com

Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (AMD) 6650U (2.90GHz) 16GB Memory 256 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 660M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 DG Windows 10 Pro 64 21CF003UUS - Newegg.com

Buy Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (AMD) 6650U (2.90GHz) 16GB Memory 256 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 660M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 DG Windows 10 Pro 64 21CF003UUS with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com

www.newegg.com

Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U 16GB Memory 512 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 680M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 21CF003TUS - Newegg.com

Buy Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U 16GB Memory 512 GB PCIe SSD AMD Radeon 680M 14.0" Touchscreen Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 21CF003TUS with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com

If you want to get her the ultimate in screens. Look at the Samsung Galaxy Book3. With a 2880x1800 AMOLED screen. It will suffer some in gaming. Due to the Intel integrated graphics instead of AMD integrated graphics. But the screen is beautiful. Battery life is good and will last the school day. But isn't as good as the Thinkpad.

Click to expand...
i would also do a thinkpad, i have had two actually XD
 
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iStorm said:
Keep in mind that if you go with an MBA with Apple Silicon, Parallels would only be able to do the ARM-based version of Windows...so it may not be the best of both worlds. She'll have a Mac/macOS she doesn't want, and a "crippled" version of Windows. Sure, Windows 11 on ARM has x86/x64 emulation, but it doesn't work for everything and there'd be a performance hit compared to a native install on a PC.
Click to expand...
Not to mention that the MBA isn't real suitable for running VM's, the passive cooling can be a problem.
 
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PhoenixDown said:
So my sister is leaning toward getting her daughter a MacBook Air but my neice is insisting on a windows based laptop. Anyone have recommendations on brands that reliable and half way decent? My neice isn't a power user or power gamer. Minecraft seems to be the biggest game she plays.

I am tempted to tell my sister to go with the MBA and I'll install Parallels and Windows 11 on it for my niece. I feel thats the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
how old is she? what is the use case?
 
If you have Costco nearby, they have great deals on windows laptops. Grab LG/HP/Lenovo/ASUS/Dell depending on the budget.
 
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Depends on budget as well. Our 14 year old uses a Hp Aero 13 and it's been fantastic for him. 13" QHD screen, 500 nits, Ryzen 5 5600u processor. Only has 8gb of ram for his model but they have them with 16gb as well. Bonus is it only weighs 2.2 lbs
 
Consider budget and use case so not just what is affordable but look at the specifications as well...
 
PhoenixDown said:
So my sister is leaning toward getting her daughter a MacBook Air but my neice is insisting on a windows based laptop. Anyone have recommendations on brands that reliable and half way decent? My neice isn't a power user or power gamer. Minecraft seems to be the biggest game she plays.

I am tempted to tell my sister to go with the MBA and I'll install Parallels and Windows 11 on it for my niece. I feel thats the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
Why is your sister trying to get your niece a laptop she doesn't want (and probably is more expensive?) Don't side with the sister for getting the wrong laptop, because that isn't what the niece is asking for and they'll be unhappy because certain things can only be done on Windows (as in, non emulated.) The logical thing here is as @velocityg4 says, get a Windows laptop that's around the same price as the laptop the sister wants to buy her.
 
floral said:
a laptop she doesn't want
Click to expand...
That's the bottom line, I've seen this too many times, the child/teen wants one thing, the parent has something else in their mind and buys the product the kid doesn't want. They're then shocked that the kid is disappointed and/or it goes unused.

MBPs are great machines, but if someone wants a windows machine then force them to use something they don't want - and using parallels isn't really the answer imo.
 
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If I had a teenager I would get them a Surface Go. Powerful enough for work and school. Portable. Well built. But not fast enough for serious gaming so they have to leave their room.
 
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MS Surface laptops are solid and if She has a Samsung phone then there is a plus to owing a Samsung laptop too

Do not forget basic parallels limits you to 8gb of ram including 3GB for graphics, for non power users windows arm is fine
 
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maflynn said:
That's the bottom line, I've seen this too many times, the child/teen wants one thing, the parent has something else in their mind and buys the product the kid doesn't want. They're then shocked that the kid is disappointed and/or it goes unused.

MBPs are great machines, but if someone wants a windows machine then force them to use something they don't want - and using parallels isn't really the answer imo.
Click to expand...
i can contest to this
i have a 2020 MBA sitting in the back of my closet with a ebay listing up for it, lol, because my parents (they have control issues tbh) bought me one, instead of a 500 dollar laptop... they overspent for literally no reason.
 
bobthebuilderissus said:
i can contest to this
i have a 2020 MBA sitting in the back of my closet with a ebay listing up for it, lol, because my parents (they have control issues tbh) bought me one, instead of a 500 dollar laptop... they overspent for literally no reason.
Click to expand...
On the bright side, you can use the money you make to buy an even better one!
 
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