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Best tablet/laptop solution for a technophobe
QuantumTurk
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So my technophobe mom who still can't send email without explicit written instructions has shown interest in a tablet. Her trying to use my Note 8 went..poorly however. Would a chromebook be a good solution for "emails and googles and majong" or are kindle fires easier to use? Ease of use is paramount here, hardware is not important, she will still netflix using the roku. Youtube would be nice I guess. Does jitterbug make a laptop?
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Older generation iPad then. If it's just for email and web browsing then you don't need the latest and greatest (and most expensive).
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf
I pondered the other options as well, but I went with the iPad for a couple reasons:
-It's dead simple. Set up her email and Facebook and FingerPrint on it and she's good to go. My mom had been using a 12 year old winXP computer previously so I might have thought a cheap windows laptop may have been a better bet for the sake of familiarity- but a little bit of handholding at the start, and now a year later she's more capable with the iPad than she ever was with Windows.
-Everyone knows what an iPad is, even if they have no tech knowledge to draw on. Kindle Fire HDX and the Galaxy and Chromebooks and the Surface might all be great, may be cheaper, may be better suited...but you give them something that they've never heard of and just from the name sounds like something a bunch of sci-fi nerds thought up, and you're automatically starting at a point of "I don't know what I'm doing it sounds so complicated waaaaaah". Even if it's exactly as simple as the iPad in actual fact, it's going to be more of a pain in the ass to get them on board with it. The iPad is familiar and comfortable, they've seen their local news stories about how even 3 year olds know how to use them, so it's far less intimidating to that sort of audience. (A sub-benefit of this familiarity is that if your mom has a narcissistic/materialistic streak like mine, an iPad gives her something to brag about to her friends, more so than something she can't even remember the name of, and would get blank stares if she did.)
-Lots of people have iPads (most notably in this case myself and both my siblings), so it's easier to guide her through something that a lot of people around her are already familiar with, and a lot easier to troubleshoot any problems that may occur. Now, if the rest of your family/her circle of friends are all committed Android or Kindle or Surface users, it may be better to go for something that more people around her have; but I've heard the question, "Hey, do you have an iPad?" a lot more often than, "Hey, do you have a Galaxy Note?", so it's more likely (at least, based on my totally anecdotal evidence) she'll be readily able to get help with one than the other.
Now, these are all terrible reasons to get an iPad, if you aren't intimidated by technology, like most people here. Talking to someone my age, I'd tell them to get whatever fits in their price range and just read the dang manual because all the options are probably just fine, really. But for someone who is scared of technology these are great reasons to opt for an iPad over something else (especially if you're like me, and you don't relish the idea of doing tech support over the phone regarding a piece of tech you have no previous familiarity with.)
It just sucks that it's also one of the more expensive options- for me it was worth the extra money to not to have to deal with a lot of hassles/unknowns; but your mom isn't mine, and if she's savvier/more patient/etc. than my mom is, you might be throwing your money away going that route.
*Also, depending on how old your mom is, I might suggest you don't go for a mini-tablet unless she specifically wants one- just because it's good to have some extra screen real estate to display bigger text a bit more nicely, and then they don't have to get out their reading glasses.
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Absolutely. I gave my mother my Nexus 7 to try and she reacted like so.
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf