[Answer] Looking for a Laptop Recommendation for My Wife?

[Answer] Looking for a Laptop Recommendation for My Wife?

The most important thing, and I’ll say it three times: looks, looks, looks. Unless your wife is a serious gamer or a professional who does coding or design work (and in the latter case she could probably spec out her own computer), then if you’re buying a laptop for your wife or girlfriend, all you really need to focus on is appearance. From that perspective, none of the models the original poster picked really make the cut.

Back in the days when laptops had basically no aesthetic appeal, most traditional models were just black bricks. Aside from Sony, which used to make machines that could actually catch a woman’s eye, there really weren’t many stunning options. But if you’re still bringing home a black brick in 2020, you might be risking having to kneel on the keyboard in apology. At this budget, if it’s for a woman, a thin-and-light laptop is a must. Performance can—and probably should—come second.

If I were ranking recommendations based on overall value for money, my top pick would be the Huawei Honor laptop sold by third-party vendors with Linux preinstalled. You’d need to know how to install and activate Windows yourself, though (there are solutions for that on Taobao). My second choice would be Acer’s Swift series. Even though the plastic chassis doesn’t feel especially premium, it still wins on being light, slim, and good-looking. Otherwise, there’s Lenovo Xiaoxin. Lenovo’s reputation has taken a hit in the last couple of years, but it still benefits from the quality control of a major manufacturer.

Within this budget, it’s enough to get something with a bit more RAM and a larger SSD. For everyday use, modern processors are all more than powerful enough, so there’s no need to be too picky about the CPU.