Retired mothers happily use iPhones and iPads for most digital needs, but music libraries and digital photos, and some websites use old, low-spec Windows 7 laptops for Microsoft Office documents for various committees. Navigation and other tasks not easily done on small devices
I am using a Mac Mini through a 42-inch TV and am interested in the availability of a mini PC connected to a 32-inch TV. The target budget for PCs, keyboards and all adapters is £ 300.
For OS evangelists among readers, it would be nice to repurpose the laptop using Mac and Linux, but Mum wants Windows. ant
Mini or micro PCs are great for what you do unless you expect too much. It can also be attached to the back of a monitor or TV set with a standard VESA mount, saving space. If you are not familiar with the form factor, you can read the answers from November 2018. What is the point of a mini PC?
But Mini PCs come in at least three overlapping categories. First, there are entry-level models for £ 100 to £ 350, which are essentially television set-top boxes. Secondly, there are desktop replacement minis that are widely used in large enterprises due to their convenience and space saving characteristics. Prices range from £ 300 to £ 1,500.
The third category consists of so-called barebone machines that appeal to computer enthusiasts and others who want to build their own compact systems. It may be a set-top box or desktop replacement, depending on the parts used. But it's not appealing to home users who want off-the-shelf set-top boxes for media streaming, and not to businesses that buy large quantities of standardized mini PCs from HP, Lenovo, and Dell.
Real problem
Your question is about the possibility of using a £ 250 mini PC connected to a 32-inch TV for other purposes, such as Microsoft Office and music and photo library management. This is not a good idea for two reasons.
The main problem is that it is not practical to use programs such as Word and Excel at a typical TV viewing distance. Especially not on small TVs. In the past, interface designers distinguished between a “3ft experience” using a computer monitor and a “10ft experience” using a TV set. They fundamentally needed different approaches and different sized icons and text.
Assuming you can clearly display small text on your TV, your mom needs to be about 3 feet / 1 meter away from the screen to use it. Based on your long experience of watching TV in a normal-sized living room, you will be surprised if this is practical. But if you connect your mom's current Windows laptop to the TV, it's easy to see.
Another problem is budget. There are a lot of very inexpensive mini PCs, but the specs typically include old and slow Intel Atom processors, 2GB or 4GB of memory, and 32GB of eMMC chip storage, which is about the same as an SD card. Surprisingly, a computer like this runs Microsoft Office using a home-sized document, but with a performance penalty compared to what your mother needs.
Moreover, PCs with limited storage space of 32GB or 64GB can use an external hard drive as temporary storage to handle the upgrade, but they may have problems updating Windows 10 twice a year. (Maybe my mom already has one for backup purposes. If not, install some sort of backup solution as soon as possible.)
If your mom's music and photo library isn't very small, 128GB might not be enough. Fortunately, buying a product with an SD card slot can solve this problem. Put all your mom's music, photos, and documents on a 128GB SanDisk Ultra (16.98 lb) or similar card, put shortcuts in three directories on your Windows desktop, and reserve a default eMMC or SSD drive for your operating system and applications.
Mini PC Recommend
You can still buy a reasonable mini PC for your budget. I generally suggest a Beelink J45 with a quad-core Pentium Silver J4205 processor, 8GB of memory, 128GB SSD, and £ 241.90 for Windows 10 Home. Including the cable, you probably run out of budget with the Logitech K400 wireless keyboard, which is probably sold for almost half price (17.99 pounds) on Amazon.co.uk. The Logitech MK270 (£ 17) is a standard keyboard and mouse because the K400 keyboard has a touchpad.
In general, the same Beelink page on Amazon has a better deal. For example, the Beelink J45, which is the same as a 256GB SSD, is currently being discounted from £ 75 to £ 193.80, so a 256GB storage version is much cheaper than a 128GB version.
Or you can buy the Beelink L55, which is faster but somewhat older Core i3-5005U processor with £ 218.84. The difference from the Beelink U55, which has the same specifications for £ 299.90, is still a mystery.
Vendors rarely sell PCs with lower specs than PCs with lower specs, so missing or obvious anomalies don't last long.
Do you want to add a monitor?
Small TV sets can be a problem, so you can spend a small amount of money on large TV sets or computer monitors. For example, you can get your mother a £ 29.99 for a 21.5-inch Dell SE2219H IPS screen and £ 79.99 for an HP 22w of the same size. One of these 1920 x 1080 pixel Full HD screens works on a mini PC, allowing you to see a pair of aging eyes much more comfortably.
If you buy a mini PC close to 200 pounds, you can keep track of your budget price using one of these monitors as long as your mother can find room for extra screens.
It's worth considering because moms can combine mini PCs and monitors to get better screens, keyboards, and better systems than cheap laptops or all-in-ones.
The package price is also compared to the price of the iPad or iPhone, not to mention the Mac Mini (799 pounds with 128GB of storage).
Notebook options
Depending on the situation, you can easily escape and replace your mom's old laptop with a new one. Not long after looking at cheap laptops, the most recent answers used up to 500 pounds of laptops. You can buy fewer "real" laptops, but less than £ 300, the experience gets worse.
Yes, you can buy a laptop with limited screen resolution (1366 x 768 pixels), a slow Intel Pentium or Celeron processor, 4GB of memory, and a traditional hard drive, but it's a huge boost without spending more money.
For example, the 15.6-inch Asus X540 is a low-end laptop with this kind of spec (Pentium Silver N5000, 4GB, 1TB HDD) and is worth 249.99 pounds on Argos. However, you can get similar systems like HP 255 G7 with Full HD screen, slightly faster AMD Ryzen 3 2200U with Vega 3 graphics, 8GB memory (expandable) and 256GB SSD (£ 329.98 in eBuyer).
Indeed, the preferred price is the same price as the HP laptop version with a 399.99 pound Intel Core i5-8265U processor, or the smarter Lenovo V155-15API with Ryzen 5 3500U and Vega 8 graphics.
Lower specifications are wrong economy. Currently 8GB of RAM is about 30 pounds, so if you put 4GB instead of 8GB, you'll only save $ 20 at retail. You'll need to save even less at the wholesale price that HP and Lenovo pay for when you buy more than 1 meter of memory modules a week. Unless you plan to add more memory immediately at the current price, buying a 4GB PC is crazy.
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