lNomNoml:

If you're going to get a laptop for School don't get one with a discrete gpu in it.

re no discrete gpu, this is good advise, as they cost more, typically are not required for any school work (if the student is doing photoshop or video manipulation they will more likely be required to do it on school owned high performance PCs in a managed lab), plus they reduce battery runtime, which is important.

Cyril

Help it's BYOD time again.

One child has nearly two years on a HP x360 11.6 touch screen, no issues so far other than very modest performance.

Another child to start i new year, the college is suggesting a device with core I3 processor or better.  College will supply Microsoft Office and some other software.

So I need a new device or two.  I could change to SSD and more ramm on the HP, but not sure how much that would help?

Looking for new devices, compact, light weight, good battery run time, reliable, 4Gb ramm plus, I5 processor or AMD equivalent or better, some graphics, touch screen, prefer windows 10 OS, less expensive the better. :)   

My daughter looks to have been allocated a BYOD class next year. My son has been using a touchscreen Chromebook, but we are wondering about getting him something more powerful and flexible so he can use it for other things, like robotics etc. Also wondering about small and lightweight devices.

While it's for intermediate school, I'm going through the same decision process for my eldest son - he'll need a Chromebook, but it's hard to find a kid-friendly device with a performance that is anything but pedestrian.

All the robustly-built models (critical for my kid, for sure!) tend to have low-performing CPUs and 1024x768 resolution.

Quality Chromebooks (like my own Asus Flip C302) may be far gruntier, nicer to use and have 1080 screens, but they're not built to put up with the harsh treatment they're likely to face with young kids lugging to and from school.

I'm also disappointed at how few new models at the 'lower' end have come out recently (compared to the flood of quality ones in the same period). My son's wanting a '360'-type model, and most of the robust 360 models are getting long in the tooth.

At this point, I'm looking at the new Lenovo 500e at around $600, which comes with a built-in stylus but has the same basic specs.

Can anyone point to quality models that may offer a better alternative?

Piece of advice:  School students don't need anything with a fast processor and graphics. Most of the stuff they do at school requires little more than a browser, Word, and Excel (and maybe Powerpoint).  For her last 2 years at school doing science subjects, our daughter used an HP AMD 14" laptop PC (around $450) with Office 365 Family on it, and has used the same machine for her first year at Uni doing Maths, Physics, Biosciences and Earth Sciences, and it's still completely within the capabilities of the machine.  It's not a very rugged machine, so she has learned to take care with it too, which I think is important.  But when she hits the limits, we'll move to something more appropriate to what she is doing.  Oh, and it's fine for watching Netflix movies, which also seems important.

What I can't say is whether such a machine would be fine for, say, a Fine Arts or Computer Science degree -- maybe not.

It bothers me to see students using high-end machines only for trivial (if I may use that word) work such as word processing and browsing.

For what it's worth my daughter has gone through years 9-13 with a 4GB Acer C730 we bought for $100 on TM. She refuses to use anything else saying it's more than good enough for her school work and is not only light but the battery lasts all day. Her friends who have "proper" laptops all complain about the weight and poor battery life.

Our Y11 son's new C720 lasted until the day it was out of warranty before it literally fell apart. He's had a Dell Inspiron 11 for the last 18 months but that now has sellotape holding the broken screen glass together ! He and his mates are rough as hell with their tech stuff so I'm certainly not buying him anything else.

Our Y6 daughter has had a $100 4GB C730 from TM for two years both at home and school and it's still pristine. I'm hoping it will last her all through college :)

Honestly, if you're just writing documents, browsing the web and using Google Apps, I don't see the need to spend $500+ on a laptop. Those three are all 768 screens with older U-model CPU's and they are more than good enough to do what they need them for, and at $100 I couldn't care less if they break.

I'm trying to decide what to get our eldest as she's off to Varisty next year and it's quite likely she will take my i3 Dell Chromebook 13.

Our Y11 son's new C720 lasted until the day it was out of warranty before it literally fell apart.

Wade: What's people's thoughts on something like a Microsoft surface Go 4gb 64gb W10 tablet instead of a chrome book?

Daughter starts high school next year and needs a byod, a $700 baby surface at least to me seems like far better value than a $400 Chromebook

Thoughts/opinions?

kotuku4: I have looked at ex lease Lenovo thinkpad X1 from Pbtech, under 800. Any recommendations?

yitz:

Wade: What's people's thoughts on something like a Microsoft surface Go 4gb 64gb W10 tablet instead of a chrome book?

Daughter starts high school next year and needs a byod, a $700 baby surface at least to me seems like far better value than a $400 Chromebook

Thoughts/opinions?

Have you factored in the price of the matching pen and keyboard? That would be essential for high school especially with digital exams already in force. Also there is the chance the cramped keyboard is not suitable.

Yes sorry probably wasn't as clear as I could have been around price, i realize i'm comparing a $950 solution to a $400 solution, but a high resolution touchscreen chromebook runs not too far off the surface price all in all, if i was a 13yo id rather a surface than a convertible chromebook

On paper the surface go offers decent battery time, W10, and small footprint, downside is a 10" screen which im not sure if thats a dealbreaker for a high school byod

I'm at a crossroads, buy a $400 chromebook, buy a $800 convertible chromebook or look towards something like a Surface Go or Pro m3

Daughter has had a iphone 8+ without incident for a year and an ipad for a few years so i have confidence in her ability to look after a non-rugged device so i'm more looking at the technical spec versus daily demands with a bit of future proofing thrown in

Handle9:

kotuku4: I have looked at ex lease Lenovo thinkpad X1 from Pbtech, under 800. Any recommendations?

If you go exlease factor in a new battery. All day battery life is the number one factor to allow for. Most of the time it won't be possible to charge the laptop during the day which make see windows PCs a problem.

Hi I know but Marlborough Boys' and Marlborough Grils' Colleges want windows or mac, to install office and other software.  They do not want chrome books, ipads etc.

The kids can end up, with arts, graphics/ design, video production, music (Mixcraft Sudio) that the basic spec HP X360 11.6 is not really suitable.