The last time I used Windows was when Windows 95 was still fairly new, so I'm a bit of date on what to get for my son who's entering year 7 this year and will need a laptop.
I don't want to spend a bucketload, and don't care if he can game on it or not (PS4, Switch and other gaming devices at home).
This seemed like good value for money:
Acer Aspire 5, Windows 11 Home, AMD Ryzen 3-5300U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - Refurbished $609
Any thoughts?
Thank you, that's really good advice, particularly about the weight.
The weight and size of the laptop is more of a concern, I'd be looking at a much lighter and compact 13.3 inch or 14 inch device. You also need to consider the battery life too — most schools will not really have enough places for kids to charge their laptops.
6 hours is the minimum, if the marketing material claims to have a 6 hour battery life, that's in lab conditions and in real world use you might expect a little less.
The school I used to work at: we deployed laptop charging racks in the IT office and in the library but that's only a dozen or so slots for users to charge.
Can't see any good laptop deals right now but if you're okay with refurb this Acer Swift 3 14" is a better option for $449. I'd also recommend scoping out the refurbs from Dell Outlet
Thank you, good advice, really appreciate the note about the battery.
Refurb Dell 7490 or similar business grade laptop with 8250U/8350U might be a better buy around $350-$400 on ebay.
Thanks, I didn't even think of checking eBay
Thanks, great advice
It's not great. Pretty slow CPU from 2 years ago and for a little bit more you can get a lot more (like this - https://www.jw.com.au/rfb-acer-aspire-5-15-6-fhd-i7-1165g7-8…). Something with an 5300U a good price would be $600 new, not refurb.
I'd also consider something smaller? 1.7kg is a bit to haul around, a 14" would be closer to 1kg.