Best Laptop For Under Or Around $500?

Q:  I’m 13 years old, I’m going into high school next fall. It’s tradition in my family to receive a computer when entering high school and the child always get to chose. So, I was wondering if maybe you had some advice for choosing the right laptop, because this laptop is supposed to take me through college or until I can buy a new one with my own money. Plus the laptop can’t be too pricey (I'm looking for something about $500 max). If you can help me I would be grateful. Also, I have some preferences for my first laptop, some of them being that the laptop can’t have any plastic, a full keyboard is required, a camera, and it has to be durable. Thank you so much even if you can’t help me, I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read my email.

A: Ok, so sorry that I took a little while to respond but I wanted to make sure that I had done my research and asked around before I started making recommendations. Finding an all metal (or non-plasticy) laptop for around $500 is actually really hard, and quite near impossible actually. When you said non-plastic I immediately thought of the MacBook Air by Apple, however, with a price tag of around $900 for the 11” entry level model it is hardly within your price range. But first, since you also said that you didn't know much about computers I just want to provide you with a little info on what the differences are between different laptops these days.The operating system or OS which a computer uses is a very big thing when it comes to choosing a computer. While there may be hundreds of different computers available to choose from, there are only three main operating systems which you can choose from: Google Chrome OS, Mac OS, and Windows 8. Though Apple only allows Mac OS to come installed on computers that they make, Google and Microsoft let computer manufacturers like HP, Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, Acer, or Dell to ship their computers pre-installed with Google Chrome OS or Windows 8. Because each of the three operating systems available are so radically different from each other, I would personally recommend you take a trip to your local computer store (Staples, Target, RadioShack, etc) to try out some computers and see which one you like.

Rather than now spend the time to try and explain all of the other features of a laptop which you might want to consider such as screen size, battery life or memory, here’s a link to a website which explains it all rather nicely. Anyways, I hope that somewhat helped to clear it up. Here are the laptops I thought looked the best that fell within or near your price range:

Microsoft Windows OS:

Lenovo G580 15.6” (~$480)

Asus Transformer Book T100TA 10.1" (~$400)

Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (~$590)

Acer E1-510-4487 15.6" (~$370) or Acer Aspire E1-572P-6857 15.6” (~$525)

Google Chromebook OS:

HP Chromebook 14” (~$250)

Toshiba CB35-A3120 13.3” (~$270)

Apple Mac OS

Macbook Air 11.6” (~$875)

I hope this helps give you a good direction to start looking. Good luck!

Comment Question: What Do I Need To Buy To Start Making Gaming Videos For YouTube?

Q: "What is the best stuff that i need to make really good?What are the things i have to get for a gaming channel on YouTube?"
A: First things first, you want to get a good game recorder to capture your gameplay directly so that you can get the clearest footage possible. The second thing you would definitely want is a mic so that you can record your comments and thoughts while you play. The Yeti by Blue Microphones is a good bet. You might also want to have a camera to record yourself depending on what style of gaming videos you are wanting to do. A good, relatively cheap camera I might recommend is the Canon Powershot SX600HS. It shoots full HD and also has cool built in features like Near Field Communication and WiFi so that you can connect to your phone or tablet and remotely view what your camera sees and make sure you are in frame. And of course you obviously will need a computer with video editing software so that you can edit your footage and sound together.

Question: Now that you have used the Tascam DR-40 for almost a year, how do you feel about the audio recorder?

Q: "OK, now that you have used this [the Tascam DR-40] for almost a year are there any things you feel differently about the recorder?  I am looking to purchase a recorder and am just researching them.  Thanks for your updates."
-Chris Johnson on Tascam DR-40 Unboxing, First Look, Built-In Mics Sound Test, & Review (Budget Sound Recorder)


A: I still am very happy with my purchase. Even though the Zoom H4n is pretty much the go-to when people are looking for a 4 track/2 input audio recorder for under or around $200, I think the Tascam DR-40 is superior in many ways. This was made clear to me this spring when I was taking the entry level film production course at college. We were given Zoom H4's (don't even think about buying) to use for recording the audio for our projects. When I asked the professor why the college didn't have the newer Zoom H4n's instead, he replied that all of the onboard mics had simply broken off within the first semester of use. This is one of the main flaws of the H4n which the DR-40 addresses by incorporating metal microphone guards. Even if you don't plan on using the onboard mics, it is still nice to have them not break off just in case you need to use them as backup.
I would definitely still recommend the DR-40 to anyone who was looking for an audio recorder for under $200. I have had nothing break on it and really my only complaint is that the SD card slot's rubber door is sometimes hard to get open.