Laptop For a 9 Year Old

[Fast Bug]

As it says, my boy wants a laptop and won't be talked round on anything else! He'll use it for playing Roblox and home work and that's about it other than maybe photo editing. Budget is circa £200 although I'm obviously happy with spending less

I also need to look in to locking the thing down, disabling webcam if it's got one and trying to keep him as safe as possible when online. I was thinking of setting up 2 profiles admin (me) and him so that he can't download anything without me knowing or without my permission.

Any suggestions on both of these gladly welcome!

[AJB88]

Touchscreen Chromebook so can install the Android Roblox?

[Corso Marche]

I'd suggest the same. Touchscreen Chromebook, managed by you as a family device, and he uses it with his own child account.

[grumbledoak]

You are looking at a refurbished laptop at that money. Search for e.g. "refurb hp elitebook" on amazon.co.uk, there will be loads.

[Fast Bug]

What about something like this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MY6VFL3/ref=as_li_s...

[AJB88]

needs to be touchscreen for Android apps to work, this is the one my sister has got.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...

[sgrimshaw]

AJB88 said:

needs to be touchscreen for Android apps to work, this is the one my sister has got.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...

Is that a restriction of the Chromebook's OS?

Any app I've installed on my Samsung Galaxy 12.2 Tablete work fine with a BT mouse and keyboard

[Mr Pointy]

Refurbed Lenovo T series from ebay. As tough as you will get.

[AJB88]

sgrimshaw said:

Is that a restriction of the Chromebook's OS?

Any app I've installed on my Samsung Galaxy 12.2 Tablete work fine with a BT mouse and keyboard

Pretty sure only Touchscreen Chromebooks have the ability to install Android apps.

[Fast Bug]

Both Mrs FB and I have android phones, so does this mean we use our play store account on his laptop? That sounds like a sensible idea to me!

[AJB88]

To login to a Chromebook you need a Google Account. He would need a Google account, but you can set up Friends and Family kind of thing so you can control his (I haven't got experience of this as I don't have little ones)

I would imagine you can set settings so he can only download certain games etc. There's a lot less to go wrong with ChromeOS than say Windows or even MacOS or a traditional Linux OS (ChromeOS is Linux but stripped down)

Here's my ChromeOS deskptop


And that's the menu


That's how simple it is, there is a "settings" menu but thats pretty much the same as the settings menu on Chrome browser.

[Corso Marche]

Minimum spec you want for a Chromebook is touchscreen (a 9yo will expect it), 4GB RAM, and 32GB storage. Don't touch anything with only 2GB of RAM.

For Family accounts;

• Install the app at the following link to your phone Family Link App It's available for both Android and iOS.
• Sign-in with your Google account to set yourself as a parent.
• Follow the 'Step-by-Step' process in the app to create accounts for each of the kids.
• Add your wife/'A.N. Other Responsible Adult' as a parent or supervisor.
• Configure the settings in the app however you wish for your kids. You know best !
• Be sure to configure and grant access to the Play Store for each of the kids. You may need to enable Play Store on the CB after they first sign, but I'm not sure on that point with the most recent version. It'll only take a few seconds if you do have to enable the Play Store.
• Just for security, ensure at this point that 'Guest' is not available on the sign-in screen upon booting. If they can access the Guest account they can access anything online. You don't want that so ensure it is actually deactivated.

Any Windows device you get at that price point will break your heart (and his) with maintenance and updates. So probably best to avoid.
With a Chromebook try and get a model which was launched in 2019. Black Friday is only a couple of weeks away.

[Fast Bug]

Really helpful stuff thank you, I think touchscreen is the way to go. I was thinking of black friday deals, it's usually my reminder to get my arse in gear and buy Christmas presents

[petemurphy]

i was considering this for my 8 year old this christmas:

https://www.asus.com/uk/Laptops/ASUS-Chromebook-C2...

specs not great but seems more suitable for her and i think they have that one at school - am open to alternatives

[ging84]

You don't need touch screen for playstore apps, but anything like games that might require multi touch gestures are going to be a problem without it.
Some of the much older Chromebooks don't support playstore but that is not because they don't have a touch screen.

[Corso Marche]

petemurphy said:

i was considering this for my 8 year old this christmas:

https://www.asus.com/uk/Laptops/ASUS-Chromebook-C2...

specs not great but seems more suitable for her and i think they have that one at school - am open to alternatives

That's an education specific model. 'Ruggedised' as they say, to cope with the knocks, falls, and spills expected in schools. Problem is you may not be able to buy it retail. It might only come through official education market resellers, who may not supply consumers.
But if she likes it then it's worth looking for to see if it's available.

[petemurphy]

Corso Marche said:

That's an education specific model. 'Ruggedised' as they say, to cope with the knocks, falls, and spills expected in schools. Problem is you may not be able to buy it retail. It might only come through official education market resellers, who may not supply consumers.
But if she likes it then it's worth looking for to see if it's available.

currys have it for £169 which is nice but cant seem to find the 4gb ram version anywhere

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...

thinking it will only last 2 years and then she'll need an ipad or something.

would be nervous buying one that is a touch screen at that sort of price point as i imagine they would be frustratingly st.

[Corso Marche]

I've used 2GB Chromebooks, in a school environment. Don't even go there, trust me.
4GB is the starting point, and sufficient for most people for home use.

[AJB88]

My first 2 ChromeOS devices has 2gb ram luckily they were both able to upgrade put 8gb in both ChromeOS seems to need 3gb minimum.

I've got 2 tabs open currently and its using 1.9gb now.

[petemurphy]

Corso Marche said:

I've used 2GB Chromebooks, in a school environment. Don't even go there, trust me.
4GB is the starting point, and sufficient for most people for home use.

noted!