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Eldest child has asked for a laptop for Xmas - heading off to college next year so basic requirements are usual office stuff for submitting coursework and will be used for browsing, zoom etc as well. Not expecting to be gaming on it or anything like that. Budget is £200-£300.
Not knowing anything about the current market:
1. Worth spending the extra for SSD if it is an option? Most seem to be offering 4gb ram at this stage so it won't be super fast at anything anyway
2. She's been left scarred by poorly functioning Chromebooks supplied by the school - they were likely very cheap which probably didn't help but the experience was slow and prone to crashing. The local college also doesn't seem to have great WiFi access options which might hinder a Chromebook usability on campus - anything else to consider in the Chromebook Vs laptop debate?
Dell. Know any students?
SSD is totally worth it but last time I bought a laptop you got better value buying the spec you wanted and swapping the HDD to an SSD and adding more ram at the same time.
Laptops are an ergonomic nightmare especially if they are wee. When she goes to college a screen and keyboard and mouse would be a really good idea.
£200 for a laptop? I'd be looking at Cash Converters. Or a notepad and a nice pen.
4GB is fine. I wouldn't run any machine without an SSD as the system drive these days.
£200 for a laptop?
I would agree.
We ended up at £500-600ish to get decent ones, with good build quality that survive being carried in a bag.
It's worked well - the first one needs replacing after 4 years constant use. Funnily enough its the cheapest one and it's the most plastic. Trackpad and keyboard both stopping working, cracks around screen hinges.
Replaced with Asus Vivobook which is alloy cased, £579 for 15.6", i5, 16gb, 256ssd.
Yep, you getting celerons for that money and I wouldn't waste your money.. try refurbed, if that is all your budget:
https://www.edinburghremakery.org.uk/buy/refurbished-computers/#1528800506360-5d2d25be-9c8d
Is she going to a Further Education college? At my one, we have tons of laptops and desktops for students, you are never more than 6ft from one. There is a strong desire to develop digital skills, so the kit is there. Laptops can be loaned out. All part of the aim to reduce digital poverty etc.
Most college provide college emails linked to Office 365, so students can access it via a web browser on any machine including personal ones or in case of Mac's download the programmes, not sure about pc's. So no need to buy Word etc. Stuff is stored on the One Drive.
You cant go wrong with a Dell, its what we have and can survive a kid using them. You may be able to get educational discount. Other than that iPads are quite reasonable now and they could blend that with using College machines for doing coursework
Other than that iPads are quite reasonable now and they could blend that with using College machines for doing coursework
Careful with advice like that, they are fine until you hit a web application that doesnt like Safari, then you are stuffed as thats the only browser allowed.
£2-300 will get you a belting chromebook.
The ones supplied by the school must have been very poorly spec'd or set up as I have a 5 year old one that cost £130 and still boots faster than my Macbook.
Ask the college exactly what the device needs to run. If it's just stuff that can be done in the browser or Google docs then you're laughing.
Careful with advice like that, they are fine until you hit a web application that doesn't like Safari, then you are stuffed as that's the only browser allowed.
Strange, as I use chrome on my ipad, not disagreeing that ipad's have limitations though & she's be better off with a computer.
Careful with advice like that, they are fine until you hit a web application that doesnt like Safari, then you are stuffed as thats the only browser allowed.
Safari is the only browser allowed on a iPad by who?
I’m typing this in Chrome on a iPad
Thanks for all the advice, did think that following all the chip shortages etc these days that the budget on a laptop might be a little on the low side - my own searches weren't coming up with much promising.
After some discussions with ex pupils now at the same college think we have swung round to a better specced Chromebook as a better option for what she wants/needs. As suspected the school supplied Chromebooks were pretty poorly specced and filled with reporting bloatware (all activities were being recorded which is either a good or bad thing depending on your point of view I suppose but certainly slowed everything down).
I would add that its worth keeping to a 14" screen size where possible, they are structural stronger, as the flex is less, my family have killed quite a few 15.5" and 17" laptops in recent years.
Not sure about chrome books, but 4gb ram is still OK, but would always check the motherboard either has a spare memory slot, or that the 4gb memory can be swapped for larger, ie, it isn't hardwired to the motherboard.
Finally, if a windows o/s longevity and security is a requirement, then also check the processor is supported by the new Win 11 spec.
I'd beware of chromebooks. Our instituion has plenty of support for mainstream OSs, but our VPN supplier only provides clients for Windows, MacOS and Linux. With the pandemic making remote connections to access various resources essential, those who were reliant upon chromebooks were pretty much screwed...
We always recommend people buy a windows or mac laptop purely since they are better supported when it comes to more unusuall software.