Laptop for my son

[Mr Gearchange]

Chaps,
I want to get a laptop for my 11 year old son for Christmas - ostensibly for him to use for his school work as he goes up to secondary next year - but he’ll undoubted mostly use it to play Roadblox and watch mindless you tube videos.

Anyway - can anyone recommend something half decent and not too pricey on the basis he’ll almost certainly drop it and/or spill a load of drink over it at some point in the next couple of years!

Thanks

[Munter]

Refurbished Panasonic Toughbook? <I think I'm joking..but...>

There is a question of budget? Are you thinking £200 or £600?

[Mr Gearchange]

I’m thinking around the 350-400 mark.

[grumbledoak]

There are loads of refurb business machines around upgraded to 8GB and SSD. 4th gen CPUs, but far from slow. Search for "refurb HP laptop" on amazon or eBay or laptops direct.

I got my kid one like this, it's been great:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-EliteBook-Ultrabook-Pr...

[Australiam]

Mr Gearchange said:

I’m thinking around the 350-400 mark.

It is difficult to know the 'feel' of a machine before you get your hands on it (the feel of quality is quite subjective), but based on spec. this week I've seen a new machine with an i5 8th gen' 8gb Ram, 256SSD, Win10 for £400, or the same but a Ryzen 5 (with a 3 yr warranty) for £350. These were HP & Lenovo.

Personally, if looking at a refurb machine, I would not go earlier than a 7th Gen' Intel processor, though I know others have a different opinion, and there are some good deals on older kit.

[Baldchap]

Based on professional experience of being responsible for perhaps 1000 laptops over the years, I personally won't buy anything but HP or Lenovo.

[RizzoTheRat]

Unless he plans to play games on it a refurb i5 or i3 should be fine. My 6th gen i5 plays a lot of games pretty well anyway.

If he's going to be lugging it to school and back think about size and weight, My 13" is about A4 sized and a lot lighter than my wife 15". But if you're using Excel or trying to work on 2 documents at the same time it can feel a bit small.

Dell's refurb store is well worth a look, but bear in mind the prices shown don't include VAT

[Mr Gearchange]

Thanks fellas

[Bujinkhal]

Baldchap said:

Based on professional experience of being responsible for perhaps 1000 laptops over the years, I personally won't buy anything but HP or Lenovo.

While I'd agree the HP public consumer market machines are rubbish on build quality. The business machines are good though.

[Somebody]

Agree with going down the route of a refurbished HP Elitebook or Probook, or Lenovo Thinkpad fitted with SSD.

[Gio G]

I think Dell is a good shout..

G