We're thinking about buying our son a laptop for school work/tv streaming for his birthday.
It will either be a Windows laptop or Chromebook. He doesn't want/need anything too powerful and expensive but us being an Apple household, and therefore not touching a PC for years, we are like fishes out of water when it comes to knowing what we can expect.
So, hit me. What's your real world experiences of £200ish laptops?
Any recommendations/reviews would be ace. We have a month before his birthday so get typing 😉
Other than internet research, what other stuff does he need for homework? Word processing? Printer?
Other than internet research, what other stuff does he need for homework? Word processing? Printer?
He needs the Office Suite or equivalent (Google docs etc) and that's pretty much it for the time being as it's strictly not for gaming. Our printer is a wireless HP unit so anything that has simple connectivity would be a bonus
So, hit me. What's your real world experiences of £200ish laptops?
My experience...?
You get what you pay for!
As someone who is used to Apple products, any PC is going to infuriate you and your son. So why buy one with a fraction of the processing power of most mobile phones!
Basically, the unwritten rule as far as I'm concerned with PC laptops is pretty much anything sub £400 is just a paperweight, and even then you've got to spend quite a bit more so that it's not extremely frustrating to use.
yeah about 400 should be the target for something reasonable enough, HP's in that price range are alright, they'll lack a decent graphics card though, but the onboard card isn't completely terrible, won't play the latest games though. Might get something for 300/350. £200 will struggle.
pc's are perfectly fine, and it's a very good thing you are getting him one, everyone should be able to switch between osx and w10 effortlessly. functionally they are no different. And being tied to one or the other is just pure fanboyism, nothing more. It's creating a crutch for yourself for no good reason.
...you've got to spend quite a bit more so that it's not extremely frustrating to use.
This is what I fear will be the case.
As someone who is used to Apple products, any PC is going to infuriate you and your son. So why buy one with a fraction of the processing power of most mobile phones!
Yawn... he probably uses MS at school and which phones are you talking about there?
You want processing power to match your needs
http://www.dell.com/au/p/laptops?c=au&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn#!dlpgid=inspiron-laptops
Something from the basic Inspiron end of things would probably be decent, take a look in the outlet for the refurbs etc.
Something from the basic Inspiron end of things would probably be decent, take a look in the outlet for the refurbs etc.
I will have a look there, thank you.
check out the cpu on this when you find a spec
a score of around 4500 will be reasonable, you'll also want 8gb of ram.
I just got a Dell Inspiron 7-something with i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, SSD and a Radeon graphics card for £550.
OP: A £200 (RRP) windows laptop won't be very good, just like a £200 apple laptop wouldn't be very good.
If money is tight I'd consider this from the Dell outlet: http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=7&fid=1895
Inspiron 15 - 3567
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-6006U (Dual Core, 2.00 GHz, 3 MB Cache, 15W)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
8GB (1x8GB) 2400MHz DDR4 SDRAM Non-ECC
1 TB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Admittedly over budgte but 'only' £335.
There are some chromebook experts on here who I'm sure will be along soon.
Edit: what do you mean by TV streaming? Wouldn't a chromecast be better for that?
I would prefer a £200 chromebook compared to a £400 laptop.
Thanks @balls I'll take a look there too.
Edit: what do you mean by TV streaming? Wouldn't a chromecast be better for that?
He doesn't have a TV in his room so it will (possibly) serve as a TV with Sky Go or Now TV app.
I would prefer a £200 chromebook compared to a £400 laptop.
I'm leaning towards this way of thinking too but what's your rationale for this?
If your a mac household through and through; then what about a refurb macbook ?
ok; so the spec is nothing to write home about; but at least you'll know what you are doing with it !
Why can't he use an ipad? office apps are all free and surprisingly useable.
I've helped my 7 and 9 year olds do their summer projects on the ipad and it was great.
Wireless hook up to a HP 3 in 1 printer and you're done.
We're not an apple household by any means, we've got a laptop, but it was about £300 5 years ago and is only used for putting music on iphones.
Refurb Mac may not be a terrible idea. We bought a refurb Macbook Air for £400 or so back in 2011 and it's still going strong(ish) now.
I run 2x companies on chromebooks. My current favourite only cost £250. The cheapest that Jr uses cost £100 (refurbished).
Will never go back to clunky Os and hardware overhead.
If your a mac household through and through; then what about a refurb macbook ?
Refurb Mac may not be a terrible idea
Pretty much every Mac we've had for the past nearly 20 years have been refurbs so I can vouch for their quality. In fact the only one that wasn't was the one that went back a couple of times. 🙄
We have 2 (plus the broken one) MacBooks in the house but I can't really justify spending that much money on something just for homework and the odd steaming service. It's a bit of independence too so he's not sharing with Mrs E and his sister. Yeah, I have my own because I'm a mean father and husband (it's also my work one) 😆
