Need help choosing school laptop for sister.?

[067]

Hello. I need help choosing a laptop for my sister. Her birthday is around the corner and I have the support of the family to pitch in. I have a limit of $700 to spend on this laptop. I believe that it should not cost more than this because she doesn't need it for much.
MY sister needs her laptop for very few things: web browsing, video streaming, writing text documents (with Word and Power Point) , and an occasional download here or there. Her laptop doesn't need to be decked out.
She insists on a Apple product laptop because she likes the fact that getting viruses on an Apple laptop is extremely hard. I believe that it costs way too much for what she needs.
I was thinking of buying a Chromebook with a large USB key for storing he files for school. The issue is that I heard rumours that the Chromebook saves everything on the cloud. I need to be able to have a laptop that can run offline without a problem and save the occasional file on the HDD.
If you know of any laptop that follows both our needs (my money limit, and her necessities) then please leave a reply. It is greatly appreciated.

Chromebook:
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/hewl...c4dc02en02
I meant to show this:
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/acer...e8329den02

[fly.chinook]

You don't have to use cloud storage, but it is designed to be tied in with the file system. Google Drive shows up in the file browser just like a traditional "hard drive". However, if your sister is going to be using the computer offline very often, then a Chromebook might not be the best choice. Chromebooks run web apps instead of traditional installed programs, and the majority of those web apps require internet access.

[Wesley Files]

The first step you might need to do is talk her down from an Apple computer. Currently, she may never be happy to get anything besides an Apple laptop, even if the device you get her does everything really well.

Chromebooks can do quite a bit offline, but it depends on your needs if those things are meaningful. Google Docs (a Microsoft Word equivalent), Google Sheets (Excel), and Google Slides (PowerPoint) all run offline after enabling the offline mode of Google Drive (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...idlhopknpk ). There are not too many games you can download for offline playing, though, and game support in general can be hit-or-miss since Chrome OS doesn't support Java, Unity, or other plug-ins, as well as being unable to download and play games formatted for Windows operating systems.

The particular Chromebook you linked to has USB ports for USB keys, but most other models feature SD card slots that you could keep an SD card in, and out of the way, to expand local storage. The HP Chromebook 11 you linked to is also not as high powered as other Chromebook models. I have the Samsung Chromebook, which has the same processor; as I type up this answer and gather links I have Spotify playing music for me in the background, and it all runs quite smoothly. But it's definitely not as smooth of a browser experience as I think you'd find in a recent Apple laptop, which again your sister may not appreciate. Other models would provide a smoother experience, but the HP Chromebook 11 has a better screen than you'll find in other models in the same price range. I'm not sure how much of a surprise you hope this computer is, but you might be able to check out the HP Chromebook 11 at a local Best Buy with your sister. When it comes to a computer, I really think you'd be better off including her in the purchase process. Let the surprise be "I wanna buy you a computer!" instead of "Here's a computer!".