Tablet Needed for BYOD

Lnener on 17/12/2016 - 09:57

Just looking for advice regarding the purchase of a tablet for my son to start High School with next year. The school has listed some examples, but none of them are really doing much for me. eg:

ASUS T100
ASUS T200
leader W230
Leader W450
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (m3)

Requirements are:
Screen size between 10" and 15"
Front and rear camera
Windows 10 preferred
Battery life of 6hrs min.
Wireless capability of 5GH 802.11n

I'm really torn between getting a cheap one and getting something more expensive (hoping it will last longer). If I were to go the Surface Pro for example, I don't think the 128gb/m3 would really cut it, so would probably look at the 256/i5 instead, but I'm just not liking the $1799 price tag. Any help and assistance regarding the above tablets (or any other you could recommend) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Computing

Comments

  • Savas on 17/12/2016 - 10:23

    Check if the school actually needs one. Especially for year 7, it is more of a distraction. At my school nobody bothers and we use the computer labs

    • nener on 17/12/2016 - 12:00

      It's a requirement of enrolment. They will be used everyday for most lessons

  • sane on 17/12/2016 - 10:23
    +2

    They gonna supply it?

    If not, then they need to stop with the high priced specifications. A $99 cheapo should be enough for them.

    Assuming you give in and buy it, how about the Chuwi Hi12 or HiBook Pro? Hits all your stated specs, has a metal shell, can run Windows AND Android (if you get the right model) and costs $300-400 on import. Provided they aren't doing anything too processor intensive, it's well able to keep up, and you could get through 4 of them before you hit the cost of 1 surface.

    • nener on 17/12/2016 - 12:02

      Thanks Sane. I haven't heard of either of those, so will have a look…

        • nener on 17/12/2016 - 16:48
          +1

          The Chuwi Hi12 Looks ok, but I'd be concerned about having to sending it back overseas if there's a warranty issue; Price is good though. I'd also prefer a stylus as I believe they need them for maths. Do you know anyone who's had had them? What have their experiences been like? Will look into the HiBook Pro shortly. Thanks for your help

        • sane on 17/12/2016 - 20:20

          @nener:

          You can get a stylus to go with that tablet - although quite how they work that into a maths lesson is anyone's guess. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9imGLMcGz1A

          You get them from various chinese sellers (aliexpress, gearbest, banggood, geekbuying, etc.). As far as warranty is concerned, they tend to be OK for immediate issues, but less so as time goes by. However as I say, you can buy 4 for the price of one surface pro. In fact the insurance for a surface pro is half way to one of these.

          If you get the keyboard, get the newer one (the original was 'orrible).

          Personally I wouldn't want to give anything over a few hundred to a kid - it will get broken for sure. No school should be trying to push parents into it either. Are the other parents OK with this kind of behaviour, because I wouldn't be.

  • holdenmg on 17/12/2016 - 12:37

    Apart from the Specs, look at a Case (for Protection) and how you will save and back-up the Tablet. If you do go expensive, look at Insuring the Tablet against loss and/or damage.
    e.g. https://www.studysure.com.au/

  • Rorschach on 17/12/2016 - 13:27

    Latitudes from the Dell factory outlet are good value for money.
    These will take a beating and still last a while.

  • iridiumstem on 17/12/2016 - 13:34
    +1

    Slight sidenote, m3 model on Surface Pro 4 would be fine, judging from how they have Asus T100 in the recommendation (which uses Atom CPU, which performs worse than m3).

    • nener on 17/12/2016 - 16:42

      Yes, I'm very surprised that they've gone as low as the T100, but I suspect that may have only been thrown in there for those that may be from a lower socio-economic background, that can't afford anything better. In fact, I'm actually surprised about a few of the suggestions as I think there are better options out there (but that's where I'm getting a bit confused). I was hoping to future proof it a bit, but also save on battery life which is why I thought the surface pro 4 256gb/i5 might have been ok.

      • iridiumstem on 17/12/2016 - 18:21

        Hmmm, I think it's kinda bad time to think about future proofing with Surface Pros. Next model would probably feature Kaby lake and USB-C. If it were laptops, I would've been more OK with the idea of future proofing. That said, these 2 in 1s I reckon becomes better with each generation far more compared to laptops because heat is an issue and efficiency improves almost always.

        That said, I completely do agree that 256GB i5 would be better in the long run, because of the RAM being 8GB. 4GB is kinda pushing it a little I feel.

        I don't know, wouldn't the requirement be more based on the low end of the spec than high end?

  • PVA on 17/12/2016 - 18:27
    +1

    M3 128GB is fine. you son doesnt need an i5 or 256GB of memory.
    (my son had a 128GB Mac Air for 4 years at school. 128 was fine, especially school stuff. He had Office, Adobe suite etc on it - he did used to fill it up with music but thats nothing and can be moved around, or even put on a mem card.

    • habibby on 18/12/2016 - 09:43
      +1

      Agreed. As a highschool maths teacher, I use the SP4 m3 128gb and it works great. I have had no problems in terms of performance. Granted, running light room and Photoshop takes a little longer, but they still work fine. I have even run more powerful math programs (Maple 16) without problems.

      In terms of software, I strongly recommend OneNote. Great options for organising different subjects and lessons. Pen and handwriting is great for maths as well. You can print PDFs or word documents into a OneNote page and then write over it which saves a ton of time.

      Storage isn't a problem if your child doesn't hoard games and movies on to it. That said, running Counter Strike Source and Torchlight II work great. You can just get an external SSD for storage on the cheap or a microSD card (the slot is under the kickstand).

      • nener on 18/12/2016 - 12:28

        Thanks PVA and Habibby. Its good to hear from people who actually use them for the same purpose. Its not necessarily the storage space I was worried about, more the 4GB of RAM (as opposed to 8GB RAM). I think I've ruled out the m3 as I can get the i5 for only $100 more through Harvey Norman. Not sure I can justify an extra $500 on top of that for the 8GB…

  • iridiumstem on 18/12/2016 - 15:33

    I do use Surface Pro 3 for my university stuff. I have 128GB i5 model, so 4GB RAM.

    There are three things that irks me and while two of them might be more of a SP3 being old model, one would probably be relatable to you.

    4GB RAM feels limiting fair bit of times I use the tablet. I open Firefox and Onenote and it starts to slow because of memory. I do have to adjust how I use the device to accomodate that. If you are looking at using the device for longer than 2 years, I think 4GB RAM would be fairly limiting. It's still servicible as is and the chances are, it's not going to affect your son's school work. When you look at using it outside of that, it can be very limiting.

    Other two were the battery life and fan noises, two of which would be better on SP4 (though I've seen people complaining about those on SP4).

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