Hi.. I am after a laptop for school for my kid and overwhelmed by research.
Minimum requirement is i3, 4gb ram and 128gb HDD. I obviously want something that will last long so thinking i5, 16gb and 512gb.. is that reasonable?
I have only been a Macbook person for so long so not sure about Windows laptops.
Any recommendations on brands and good deals?
I can stretch my budget to $1200 if needed but by a quick search, I found many in the range of $700. Are these good enough?
High school.. thank you :)
128GB hard disk is not enough for Windows.
My advice, don't get new as it will be thrown around and given abuse.
I recommend this: https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/dell-latitude-7…
It is portable, touch screen and comes with 12month warranty.
plenty of other laptops on australian computer traders.
I would not recommend that particular Dell, as it has a low-res screen.
And prices seems to be very high at ACT right now, compared to past deals here from them.
Minimum: i5, 16GB, 256GB. SSD doesn't need to be huge, because the school work will largely be stored in the cloud (most likely Google drive or Microsoft OneDrive, depending on how the school is set up.)
What you can buy for $700 in a store will either be low spec, heavy to lug around, or an easily broken plastic build. Or all of the above!
If for high school, I'd look for a 2nd hand Thinkpad. Either T14s (reasonably light, extremely robust) or an X1 carbon (even lighter, also extremely robust). And I'd look for an Intel gen-10 processor (i5/7-10xxxxx) or newer (i5/7-11/12xxxxx).
If for primary school, you might want something older, knowing that your child (or their friends!) might be rough on it. But no older than Intel gen-8 (i.e. i5-8xxxxx). And if you are buying something of that age, be aware that you might need to replace the battery.
I just bought my grandson a HP probook 14" laptop $1549.00 core i7 512GB ssd 16gb ram. I was overwhelmed & took my computer shop recommendation I think the $600-$700 options would be disappointing. Let us know what you decide.
$600-700 definitely wont be disappointing.
You can comfortably get an i5/512gb/16gb ram for that price. And unless they're going to be gaming or heavy video editing, there isn't really any need for an i7, especially for a school student.
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpade/thinkpad-e14-gen-5-(14-inch-amd)/21jrcto1wwau2
Perfect option for $777.
I would suggest upgrading the SSD to 512gb which brings it up to $829.
M1 macbook? Or does school require windows?
Yeah windows is a requirement otherwise I would’ve offered given her my old macbook that I can’t justify replacing.
Is your old macbook an intel model? Could easily install windows on that.
Nah it isn’t that old :) M1
I already have Paralells on it but don’t want the kid stand out too much and will just get her an ordinary looking Windows machine 👍🏼
Primary school? High school?
Refurbs like this (example, but similar show up regular enough) would be decent school machines and cause less worry about needing to replace it.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/821529