Is something other than a laptop best for grandma?

I am a husband, father, grand father, great grand father so I guess you could call me old but that does not mean we have stopped learning how to use new things. LOL, I did not even start using computers until I was in my 50's. The easiest would be a Google Chrome Book and probably the cheapest as you do every thing through a web browser and online and save all files to the cloud. I do not recommend a Chrome Book for most people but they have there uses for some people. About Chrome devices http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?h...

You should buy here a new low to mid priced full featured Windows 8 laptop and take some time and patients on teach her the basics or buy her a iPad even though they are on the expensive side they are ralatively easy to learn how to use as no mouse or key board.

she might enjoy a tablet like the galaxy 10 or the nexus 7

An iPad mini would be something cool! They are fun, you can buy apps (billions of apps) and they are small and you can put them in your purse! <3 They are like 400 $ I think.