Decent, *cheap* laptop for a blogger?

Alright, even as a blogger and someone who deals with a lot of software, I'm a novice when it comes to real techy things. I'm looking for help as I sorely need it! My last two laptop purchases were based on my budget and both died in no time, flat, so I can't really trust my own judgement.

Maybe you guys help? I'm sure people on this forum understand this stuff more than I do.

My budget is low (I mean low, as in $200-$250 bucks max) but I don't need it to do anything special. It won't be for gaming as I'm not a big gamer or anything like that. I need something that makes blogging and Word use easy, but that's slim enough to be portable. Even with an attachable keyboard, blogging on a tablet is a little too much for me but that's what I've been doing since my laptop died.

It should be sturdy enough to take on the road, I don't care if it has a camera or any bells and whistles. Any help at all would be appreciated!

 

I don't think you can get a reliable laptop for less than $250. However, if you opt for a notebook, or even netbook, you can get a good netbook/notebook for less than $250. Since you say, you want a laptop just for blogging purpose and you will only be using word, netbooks/notebooks from Acer are good. YOU can also try iRULU. It is a good Chinese brand.

 

What a coincidence! I have just finished responding to a thread about Chromebooks. Yes, that's what you need. A Chromebook is perfect for blogging. It's very fast because it's equipped with an SSD. It's also very light because it doesn't have an HDD. It also works a long time on just one charge because it uses very little resources. The only downside is that, to make full use of it, you need to be online, but, if you are blogging, like me, you would be online most of the time, right? For your budget, you have plenty of choice. Here's a picture of a Chromebook:

 

Unless you don't need Windows and are willing to sacrifice some performance for battery life and weight then Chromebooks are your best option, the ones made by Acer are the best in my opinion.
You also have the option of buying refurbished devices. For $250 you could probably buy a laptop for $500 which is a much better option.

 

To be honest, I am not well-versed with Chromebooks and I only learned of it in this forum. But I agree that for blogging, the most you would be needing is the word processor and probably the picture editor plus internet access. In that case, you won't be needing a powerful computer for that purpose and a Chromebook is a basic laptop with the facility for internet. And I guess the Chromebook is much cheaper than an ordinary laptop.

 

You can get a new Chromebook for less than $200. For the same amount of money, you cannot even begin to think of getting a laptop. You can probably get a secondhand laptop for $200 but why settle for a used device when you can get a new one?

 

Just get a Toshiba Satellite, they are so cheap and really reliable, specially if you consider the price. The newest models are really great, so light and silent! I've had this for over 2 years and so far I haven't had any kind of overheating issues!