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Jnr will shortly be starting secondary school and will need to have his own laptop. Whilst I have an outline minimum spec (which pretty much anything built after a Commodore 64 will meet), I have no idea what to look for, what is important and what is not. SSD would be good and id like something quite light s as it will be carted around a bit, but would like to avoid the expense of a MacBook. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
If it's just for school work would a Chromebook do?
Or if doesn't have to be portable, we bought a Raspberry Pi400 for my daughter. Built into a keyboard, runs Linux with Libre Office installed, just plug into a TV or screen with HDMI. Amazingly fast little machine for under £100.
If it has to be a Windows machine, then look at refurbed business laptops from sites like Tier1online. You get a lot more bang for your buck that way.
Ssd is essential really.
Can you give us an idea of what sort of price you are comfy with? You might not need Mac book prices but there is a while range of prints below that with different trade offs, just like bikes. That doesn't lock you too that price but gives a better idea of what my suit
I was hoping £500-£600 would do it, but will up it if need be. In my mind a cheaper laptop will probably date sooner and if heavy, get banged around more. On the flip side, would a 12 year old look after something a bit more expensive that needs to last.
That's a lot of money to get dropped on the floor.
I'd start a bit cheaper tbh and I wouldn't worry too much about future proofing as it's impossible.
As suggested a refurb business one might be a good way to go. For school work (let's pretend he won't game on it) it really doesn't have to be powerful unless they expect him to be doing video editing or the like on it.
No help on spec but I got a refurbished one from Dell. Been spot on and I never found the light scratch to case.
My new job gave me an HP business laptop. I definitely notice the difference in weight after having a Dell XPS (fancy lightweight one) after. I have to take it home each night - a 2 mile walk each way.
Since your lad is only 12 and I don't know how much else they carry in their schoolbag, you may want to consider a lighter weight one.
In Stirling all senior school and many primary school children get given Chromebooks.
I'd ask the school - because the chances are everything is Google Classroom based and a Chromebook will be perfect.
Got to love STW!
Op - I need a laptop, it has to be light as it will be carted around quite a bit
First reply - Get a Raspberry Pi.
It doesn't even have a screen!
In true STW fashion suggest what you have so......I would suggest a refurbished Lenovo T or X series. These are hard wearing business laptops, x series has smaller screen than T series and can easily be repaired/upgraded if needed unlike lots of cheap laptops.
I have a Chromebook, it's fine for what I do but for school stuff which I guess will be mostly Microsoft based, it's useable, but not ideal.
I'd be looking be looking at a refurb from Dell or https://www.box.co.uk/. Likely a small screen, 13" ish, an SSD and as good a chip as you can get for your budget. I'd also be dropping you're budget a touch as it'll likely get beaten up.
For school think light, robust, good battery life. One of mine has a dell 2in1, works well and reliable. Now at uni. Other one has a Windows surface cos school uses that system. Good on light and battery life, waiting to see how robust.
As someone said above, find out what school recommends and go with that, then everyone is likely to have similar chargers, understand the system etc
My kids don’t take laptops to school so portability less of an issue. SSD mandatory, not beneficial. Some software will be accessible via a school license so find out if they’re a Google school or a Microsoft school. Possibly save some back for a monitor keyboard and mouse (+ £150) to allow them to be more productive. I’ve had a Dell Refurb from https://www.dellrefurbished.co.uk and it’s fine and the nature of their business means they get tons of stock. Plus compatible power supplies are easy to get so when your child can’t find theirs and the power light is blinking it’s less catastrophic.
Got my lad a Chromebook when he started his (Google based) secondary school - he's 15 in Dec - and he's loved it. Works fine for all his school stuff, it's been brilliant for Teams when school was closed, it starts instantly, doesn't need updates that take ages etc. He lives with his Mum who's not very tech savvy, he's only with me every other weekend so I really wanted something that would just work without any hassles and it's fitted the bill. Was quite a high spec one at the time but it was still only £250ish. I'm not sure whether it would be as good for him if he was using it out of WiFi range but as it only gets used at home it's perfect.
awesome, thanks. To answer a few of the questions, the spec notes microsoft office can be used, however also suggests a chromebook should be fine. Adds to my confusion...
Used ThinkPad - maybe a t460 / t470
I bought a 'family' laptop, i.e. one thats everyone can use for everything from google classroom to photos/internet, via the Dell Outlet. Was impressed with the price, laptop has been bob on. Lots of options there and stock changes regularly
Worth having a look at Lenovo.com - website offers confusingly overlapping ranges, but some good "sale" deals if you bear with it. Sign up for their Student Store to get better prices, and look out for additional discount codes for first purchase. Worth considering something with an AMD Ryzen processor.
Used business Lenovo. When my 12yo went to school we set him up with a relatively cheap HP first (for dyslexia). Sadly one of his friends stood on his bag. It died. The ex-business Lenovo I replaced it with was hewn from solid. Never missed a beat. Now he has some gaming thing that has it's own gravity field. But it's needed for running flight simulations at college.
Posher Kudos is an older Macbook Air. But likely not yet.
Your price point seems pretty much ideal to me. A second hand T series Lenovo would be lovely but new stuff in that price range is good too. No need for a high end processor for school. 8G of ram is nice but more is nicer. I find 256gb of ssd is enough as with windows and OneDrive stuff gets switched offline. Its nice being a bit more robust if it's being carried to school every day as it isn't just about the case, it's also about crud getting under keys and making them not work properly. I like machines where I can buy a new keyboard online and replace it if it goes wrong. I'm a fan of buying last year's models being sold off cheap as new stuff comes online
At the risk of recommending what I have, I looked into this pretty carefully a year or two ago, and ended up with three Dell Inspiron 13/14 for the wife and two university age students. Wife uses it with a USB-C docking station with extra monitor/mouse/keyboard.
SSD, pretty light, nicely built and have lasted well with no issues. Actually nicer feeling than my more expensive Dell business laptop
I've been really impressed with my asus vivo book, its low spec (i3 with a 120gb ssd), but it's quite stylish and light, and therfore quite portable as its a 14 inch screen.
It's only used for office duties (connected to a second muvh bigger monitor) and internetting, and the built in web cam is not great shyte, and the screen is at best 'average', but I can't fault it for a a cheap lappy.
I bought my Year 7 son the below Dell 14in 5000 during the home school period last autumn. Has done him perfectly for all his school work. Can’t go wrong with a Dell at this price point really.
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops/inspiron-14/spd/inspiron-14-5402-laptop/cn54210sc
Got my 12 year old a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad SSD+2.6 ghz 16gb ram Windows 10 etc for school from newandusedlaptops4u on EBay under £186 with the regular Ebay discount offers.Very impressed so much so I bought myself one.You can spec them to suit your requirements.