Hello, I'm looking for a laptop suggestion or my son at high school.
He's broken his last two, so I don't want to spend big dollars again. Looking at recommendations for something 12-13inch screen, i7 preferably, 16gb ram, decent windows install, not tons of bloatware. I did see a Dell Latitude 7280 12.5" FHD intel i7-6600U, are they any good.
Thanks again.
$269 and super lightweight. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/186373807814
Consider the X-Cover option too, especially against accidental damage.
+$19-25 for another 8GB RAM https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204841339028
Information about the laptop: https://asia.dynabook.com/portegeX30W-J
$237 today, ebay 15% off reburbs.
intel i7-6600U
No, "i7" vs i5 is just branding, often little difference. More important to get 8th gen or later. Say 7390. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/dell-latitude-13-7390
All the refurbs will have a clean windows install, no Dell bloat.
Avoid Surface Pro (or any with removable keyboard) as easy to break, hard to repair.
Ask if he wants a touch-screen.
I don't believe touch screen is super important
Non-touch has advantage of no glass, so matt display, a bit lighter, and won't crack.
Any new laptop with the required specs will cost more like $1,400
Refurb definitely a better option
All the laptops under discussion, including the one mentioned by OP, are already secondhand.
Unless Dell is selling new laptops with cpus released in 2015.
Refurb business grade laptop will be more damage resistant, e.g., a Thinkpad T-series laptop like this:
T14s i7 10610U 32GB RAM 256GB $538
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/267000537474
Yeah that would be fine imo, I use the i5 6400u no dramas. Depends what he uses it for though, just office? If doing design work or anything maybe you want more power
6600U (6th Gen Intel) is a bit underpowered and a bit too old these days … would suggest to try to go for something with i5-8350U or i7-8650U (aka 8th Gen Intel) or newer for much better performance, especially as these days neccessary evils like OneDrive chew up quite a bit of processing power in the background. The price difference will be minimal.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/266967561485 — be quick.
Battery life on all old laptops doesnt compare to modern machines. Be prepared to buy an extra charger or two to leave at school/home.
Serious question, does the school have borrowing for laptops and supply a DoE OneDrive/365 account?
Might be worth a computer time out for T4 if you have something at home he can use.
no they don't
I think a $400 budget is going to be a bit restrictive. I wouldn't get anything less than a 8th Gen Intel CPU if you're looking at refurb's with a Intel CPU. 8th Gen is the minimum required for Windows 11 and Windows 10 is going EoL in October next year and won't get updates after that. I'd be surprised you need a i7 either, i5 is more than enough most of the time and you'll get a bit better battery life. Refurb Lenovo ThinkPad's are great laptops, the one posted earlier for $538 looks like a great deal to me. Used Thinkpads at work for decades and they are a solid laptop.
would a Lenovo ThinkPad X390 fit the bill or X13 Yoga Gen 1? he only needs it for the rest of this year and to the end of 2025.
Looks like it would. I haven't got experience with the X390 series. I used the X2xx series for years and they were great as a 12" laptop.
8th Gen is the minimum required for Windows 11 and Windows 10 is going EoL in October next year and won't get updates after that.
You can install Win11 on older CPUs easy. Takes about 30 seconds longer than an install on a later CPU gen.
I did it a couple of weeks ago with an older laptop that didn't meet the TPM 2.0 requirement. It only had 1.2. A minor registry edit and then a normal install, no probs.
Aye that it can currently be done. But Insider build 27686 has removed the '/product server' command switch to bypass some of the TPM 2 requirement checks too. that seems to indicate long term MS will try to block installs on non TPM 2 hardware. For a non tech person I'm inclined to say just get a 8th gen or Ryzen 2 at a minimum to avoid any future headache.
Get a refurbed Dell Latitude.
You'll get a decent machine for your money, that's cheap and easy to repair. There's no reason to spend big bucks on a school laptop.
I picked up a 7490 for under $250 during an eBay refurb sale a couple of years back, and it's still going strong. The screen got broken at one point (which I was expecting would happen eventually), and it was an easy $90 DIY replacement.
Get him a decent refurb…
https://www.ebay.com.au/str/australiancomputertraders/Laptop…