Attention tech savvy people! What is the best laptop to get for my 12 year old thats not too expensive?

Go to woot.com (today – these are one day sales on woot) and buy the Toshiba laptop that is selling for $279.99

It’s a refurb, and it is not super top of the line, but it’s a Toshiba (good name) and the specs are respectable.

oh great I’ll take a look at it @elbanditoroso

@elbanditoroso what’s your thoughts on a lenovo?

Excellent quality but they tend to be overpriced when compared to Toshiba, Asus, Acer, HP,etc.

Honestly, a cheap used netbook.

@ARE_you_kidding_me- because my destructive child will probably tear it up!

@ Emmy1234 Great question, because I absolutely know you aren’t the only one wondering this.

I got an Asus P8277-V Intel Core i5 2.5Ghz 2 Core; 750 GB HDD RAM a little over a year ago. I think you can pick them up for about $150 refurbished now. I am delighted with the machine’s performance. It’s plenty fast for everything I want to do. On the 1.0 to 7.9 Windows Experience Index, it rates as follows:
Processor calculations per second: Rating 7.0
Memory RAM operations per sec.: 7.5
Graphics (For Windows Aero: 5.5
3D Business & Gaming Grpahics: 6.3
Primary Hard Disk: 5.9

But if your son is a gamer, you’ll want to go for an i7, 4 core processor with the fastest clock speed you can afford and a high end graphics chip.

Get a Google CHROME notebook! It’s cheap and works!

Whatever you choose to buy, it would be cheapest to wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving to start your actual shopping—the prices will be much better. Do your homework until then. The weeks after Jan. 1st are good as well, especially if the Christmas shopping season was a dud.

Almost all of the parents I know who have recently purchased notebooks for their kids have gone the Chromebook route ($279), and absolutely love it.