recommendation for a laptop for a teen.
Discussion
ninepoint2 said:
Just find a decent Dell refurbed ex business machine on e-bay from a reputable seller, with a decent processor and decent amount of memory
I was going to say this, but Lenovo X or T series. Current bargain (I think) is around the X250 range and will be much better than anything twice the price from PC World new.ninepoint2 said:
Just find a decent Dell refurbed ex business machine on e-bay from a reputable seller, with a decent processor and decent amount of memory
This, unless the child is clumsy. Then replace “Dell refurbed ex business machine” with “refurbed Panasonic Toughbook”. Edited by ninepoint2 on Wednesday 13th May 22:01
Depends on what you want from it and what age she is.
I just bought my 5yo son an Asus Chromebook Flip and it's one of the best things I've bought in the past years.
It's a chromebook so runs chromeOS instead of windows, but can also run android apps. It has a great touchscreen and can flip over to a big tablet, ideal for android games.
For him it's also dummy proof as there's really not much he can do wrong (he accidentally removed his account once, had to enter his account details and the thing set itself up again like it was within minutes). On top of that it allows some pretty thorough parental controls.
Despite he's 5 and can only just read a bit, he can videocall his grandparents from there, watch videos that the teacher sent him and play (mainly educational) games all on his own now.
I just bought my 5yo son an Asus Chromebook Flip and it's one of the best things I've bought in the past years.
It's a chromebook so runs chromeOS instead of windows, but can also run android apps. It has a great touchscreen and can flip over to a big tablet, ideal for android games.
For him it's also dummy proof as there's really not much he can do wrong (he accidentally removed his account once, had to enter his account details and the thing set itself up again like it was within minutes). On top of that it allows some pretty thorough parental controls.
Despite he's 5 and can only just read a bit, he can videocall his grandparents from there, watch videos that the teacher sent him and play (mainly educational) games all on his own now.
Edited by ZesPak on Thursday 14th May 09:39
We recently bought our daughter a Lenovo ideapad C340. It has a touchscreen so she can draw, write notes on diagrams. She's started Uni from home, her course started in April as it was a late intake. So far it's been brilliant and she's really impressed with it. It's effectively replaced her MacBook and iPad in one device. I'm local tech support and other than installing antivirus and setting up one drive I've not had to fix anything so far.
This is a little old, but I posted this for my (then) 11 year old - Laptop is still going strong and she's still very happy with it. I'm glad I didn't go down the route of a chromebook though, but a simple Windows laptop is made far more superior with an SSD and 4Gb RAM
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
james_TW said:
I'm glad I didn't go down the route of a chromebook though, but a simple Windows laptop is made far more superior with an SSD and 4Gb RAM
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Can you elaborate? For both my parents and my toddlers (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
), the chromebooks have been a lot better at everything they needed to be at a much lower price point.They've been faster, less hassle with installing of all sorts of crap, easier to work with due to less possibilities,...
I wouldn't have one as my primary machine, but as a facebook and internet daily? Immediately.
ZesPak said:
james_TW said:
I'm glad I didn't go down the route of a chromebook though, but a simple Windows laptop is made far more superior with an SSD and 4Gb RAM
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Can you elaborate? For both my parents and my toddlers (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
), the chromebooks have been a lot better at everything they needed to be at a much lower price point.They've been faster, less hassle with installing of all sorts of crap, easier to work with due to less possibilities,...
I wouldn't have one as my primary machine, but as a facebook and internet daily? Immediately.
|For basic internet stuff, gmail, browsing, a chromebook is the perfect tool.
I sorted a couple out for "non-technical" members of our family several years ago: the things are still working, & I have done nothing to support them (which i could NEVER say for any windows unit they had owned!)
One even managed to add zoom on to hers, with some confusion (!), but I would say they are perfect for a basic use case.
As per ZesPak, I would not have one as my main tool, but I work in IT, so it wouldn't make sense!
She uses her laptop for school stuff now and as a result uses Word, Excel and Powerpoint - While a chromebook will run these, the windows laptop does it better. I genuinely looked at Chromebooks and I found the spec to be too varied to make it easy to choose - The deciding factor was that, despite her then school using Chromebooks, her secondary school work would be easier on a Windows laptop.
Plus, I've done enough Windows support over the years (I'm not in support any more, but I can still do things) so that if she ever has a problem, I can fix it or fix it over the phone when she's not here.
A chromebook has its place, but for what she uses it for, the Windows one works better - Plus the laptop she has is still running strong and she's really happy with it. Even though her mum has been hijacking it lately...
Plus, I've done enough Windows support over the years (I'm not in support any more, but I can still do things) so that if she ever has a problem, I can fix it or fix it over the phone when she's not here.
A chromebook has its place, but for what she uses it for, the Windows one works better - Plus the laptop she has is still running strong and she's really happy with it. Even though her mum has been hijacking it lately...
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