Choosing a notebook

[Skybird]

I am assisting a friend of my mother to restart his computer ambitions, he is 70 years or so, and a burned child from having totally messed up his former notebook which now has a ruined software installation, and I also suspect hardware malfunctions (4.5 years old).

He just does Words, a bit of emailing, surfing, printouts of letters and photos, and arranging his huge collections of photos.

I want a "fail-safe" solution, which means the hardware quality must be reliable and the thing must be not superfast (no games!), but should allow fluent working. 15" monitor, HD size can be small. The budget is set at 500-600 Euros. A criterion is that the WLAN connectivity must allow one house-floor between sender and receiver in the vertical and a range of around 10 meters in the horizontal. Battery life is unimportant. Win7 is a must, so no old Vista stuff.

Idea: the thing should run fool-proof, because i cannot always be around and nurse the system once I deleted the inevitable software overlaod that is pre-installed, and prepared the system for duty.

Two Samsungs to which I tended because my Mum is so satisfied with the one I picked for her (it has a very good display), I rled out because customer reviews indicated they tend to have rather weak WLAN connectivity.

I so far tend to favour this one:
Acer Aspire 5742G-374G32
intel core i3 370M, 2,4 MHz
4GB RAM
320 GB HDD
ATI HD5470
DVD
Win7
software

Could get it for 550 Euros.

Questions:
what do you think
- of the manufacturer?
- the system composition (working ergonomy and reliability)?
- alternatives you would recommend to compare to?
- in general?
- or specifically about this model?

Thanks

[Sailor Steve]

As you know I'm a complete idiot when it comes to computers. I just wanted to say that I've known several people with Acer brand notebooks, and they seem uniformly happy with them.

[the_tyrant]

I personally recommend fujitsus, they have never failed me
I had a samsung r18 once, its ok. but i would really recommend a tablet if its within your budget, i can get a good tablet around here in canada for around 1000$

what my dad uses:http://store.shopfujitsu.com/ca/EcomCA/buildseriesbean.do?series=TH700

[HunterICX]

My younger brother recently bought an Acer notebook for something like 620€. roughly about the same specs but he has a Ati HD4870 card in it (for a bit of gaming he does) so far he's pleased with it and haven't encountered any problems so far.

as for WLAN he mostly uses his notebook on his own room while the router is on my room downstairs on the other end of the house making the distance between roughly 10 - 15 meters I would say.
I could take a close look at the signal strenght this afternoon when I'm home and ask him about connection drops but so far I heard no complaining about it when he is using the internet or is playing online.

but from those specs&price I think your friend will have a good notebook for what he plans to use it for.

HunterICX

[Skybird]

Thanks everybody. I just learned that the notebook I mentioned was also voted test winner and price-value-winner by a magazine over here . Think I go with it - those winner-seals look too impressive to the unknowing mind. :D It also copies the single-key-design of new apple computers, which adds a design-plus.

[AVGWarhawk]

Thats a good one Sky.