Daughter is starting at a new high school next term - Old school was ipad based but new school requires a laptop which I need some help with on deciding
Minimum specs as requested by school:
i5/Ryzen 5 or above
8gb RAM
256gb HDD
13/14" screen size
Battery last at least 6-7hours of use
Budget: Would like to spend maybe $1k on a laptop for these specs. I know PCs but know nothing about laptops
Recommendations would be great thankyou
That was my original thought.The kids have spent the last 2 years using iPads at the previous school. We wanted to buy an apple laptop as the battery on them is far superior to anything else really but they are not on the supported list. Has to be windows based machine :(
A good place to check is the laptop deals: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/laptop
Refurb can be a good option, just need to make sure it's got enough battery life left.
If you want new, here is a Lenovo one that meets your needs: https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpade/thinkpad-e14-gen-5-(14-inch-amd)/21jrs0e100
Thanks for the link - That lenovo looks good. I just need to find out if it can charge from USB C
I looked at a few refurbs - Price is good but unsure about battery life
Yes, it will charge through USB C. It has one USB C 3.2 Gen 1 and one USB C 3.2 Gen 2. Either can be used for charging.
From one reputable College:
We prefer Year 7 and 8 students to have a Chromebook. There are many reasons for choosing the Chromebook as our preferred device for Junior students including:
● Low cost
● Educationally sound
● Robust and light casing
● Secure and easy to use
● Long battery life
● No installations required as browser-based
Chromebooks are generally low-quality POS machines aimed at primary school kids. The i5 recommendation already indicates that it's well past a typical Chromebook.
Most of my tech friends have played around with Chromebooks at one time or another, short of the really high end ones that cost the same as a decent laptop, they have all been toys.
I guess if you consider the machine disposable and lasting 2 years max, it might be doable for a kid without an interest in tech, visual arts or music. But I'd hope my kids would outgrow a browser-reliant machine very, very quickly. Come to think of it, he's installed virtual machines in the first year, so he's already past what a Chromebook can do.
Lots of them around - but the school specifically states it must be a windows based machine. It then gets loaded with all the required software from the IT department
I am also looking at refurbished Thinkpad X1 Carbon as an option for a high school student. The model in the ebay link was released in 2020, and today's version sells for $2.5k new. The benefit of paying a fairly high price for this vs something retailing new for $1k is not just its low weight but also its superior build quality and durability, so it is more likely to withstand some knocks at school. Still, $800 is premium price to pay for those features on an older model, and if you are willing to get something only slightly heavier but without losing build quality and durability, there are many more refurb options at around the $400 mark.
https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/lenovo-thinkpad… I found a bit older 6th gen aswell which could be a bit cheaper
Can these be charged via USB C powerbank? If so what kind would I need to get?
Battery life is really the big thing that im worried about getting a refurb laptop.
I can either get a USB C powerbank to top it up if required, or could opt to put a new battery in it if its an issue
Can also get 6th gen versions too which seem to fit the requirements - https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/lenovo-thinkpad…
Battery life is really the big thing that im worried about getting a refurb laptop.
Or buy a replacement battery for ~$70
I've ordered a refurb HP Elitebook from that store and will be replacing the battery (with assistance from a youtube vid). The powerbank alternative would be easier but doesn't seem worth it to haul the extra bulk and weight of it around when you've gone to the trouble of choosing a lightweight laptop. I am sure that a tech shop in the local mall will also be able to fit a battery for you, if you order the battery yourself. If you choose a business laptop with usb-c then it should be a chargeable from any laptop powerbank with a high enough rating - Anker do a few. That does take up a port that you might need for something else though.
I ended up messaging these guys and seeing if they could supply a new battery for extra before buying. They said the ran tests on the 2 they have in stock and come back at 86% and another one at 90% so I will see how it goes.
Yeah, my HP Elitebook arrived from them midweek, I ran the battery test and it's at 84% and has only been through 144 charge cycles. Overall laptop condition is great so I am happy with my purchase from them and would buy from there again.
Whatever the laptop you decided to get, must run the screen not at max brightness and turn off blutooth/wifi when not in used and carry big enough USB-C powerbank (if laptop uses said charger)
I would suggest a Lenovo Yoga. I can't recall the specs but I'm sure they were around that mark. I picked this laptop for uni work because it was much much lighter compared to other laptops around similar range.
If you go for Lenovo, it's probably a good idea to buy from their education store for slightly better pricing. But it may also be worth nothing that some items from Lenovo's online store can take a long time to arrive. I bought a laptop from them a couple years ago, and it took a few months to arrive.
I had a quick look on the Lenovo store, but everything at around the 1k price range seemed to have a fairly small battery, or the screen was a little crap (45% NTSC looks like garbage). I would recommend getting something close to 100% sRGB (~72% NTSC). I don't know much about colour gamuts. All I know is that I hate 45% NTSC with a passion.
Perhaps consider the Asus Flow X13. This was fairly popular in this deal.
Yes, it's marketed as a gaming laptop and looks a tad edgy, but it's 1.3kg with fairly solid specs on paper. ASUS' website doesn't seem to actually list this model (probably because there are too many variations), but:
Display: Every variation seem to have at least a 1900x1200 glossy IPS display with 100% sRGB (brightness uncertain)
Battery: Likely a 62 WHr battery. No idea if it'll actually last 6-7 hours during practical use, but it's a fairly decently sized battery in a fairly small form factor
Graphics card: Nothing special. Just an iGPU.
Now apparently there are some issues with overheating that people have reported. I have no idea if this will happen to you or not (should you choose to buy this), and some people seem perfectly happy with their unit, while others complain. And people have mentioned sleep issues, but this isn't necessarily just an ASUS thing, as most manufacturers aren't implementing something called S3 sleep (the good stuff).
I went through trying to help out a mate pick a non-Apple laptop for one of his daughters when they had this requirement and it didn't work out well. Even though we found a laptop for a good price and it met all of the specs minus the battery life (supposedly the school(s) don't like this either because they don't want kids plugging in chargers etc while there, I don't know but they made an issue about this), it was a pain in the butt because even though the laptop wasn't chunky, she whinged that it was a pain to lug around. I honestly just think the schools (and the kids) want everyone to buy a Macbook Air.