Hi everyone, my son is starting year 11 and we need a new laptop for him so I'm hoping someone can provide a recommendation.
We're looking for something that is small and light with touch-screen, but doesn't need to be too powerful as I'm hoping it will discourage him from gaming during classes. Budget is probably up to $1,300.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
MUN.
If you can stretch for touch screen (if it's an extra $100 for example) grab it as itll make their classroom interactions 1000 better.
How so? Unless they're doing a design related course, it really isn't too helpful in a classroom setting. Speaking from (recent) personal experience.
Most classes are crammed with 26-30 students. There is no room for teachers to sit next to students. Even if there is, there is the functionality of 'sharing' a laptop without mouse for teaching/learning.
Touchscreens enable teachers to scroll, highlight, click, assist very quickly, over the shoulder with ease. Given the average interaction time is 30 secs during the 'learning/embedding' phase of a lesson, you'd want to maximise this
I’d actually argue the opposite, design requires the accuracy of a mouse, anything else is faster with touch. Wanna scroll? Swipe the page up or down, wanna go back in the browser? Swipe to the side. Wanna put an Excel formula in cell D17? Tap it. Could you imagine if the Point of Sale systems at shops were not touch, how much slower things would be as they bumble around moving the cursor onto the thing they want?
It doesn’t really unlock any extra features, but once you’re used to touch screens, they provide a much faster way to interact with the PC.
"Been a few threads with recommendations already."
Agree 100%
First comment should always refer back to previous threads
Are you certain your BYOD spec says touch screen for year 11/12?
yep, my kids have a touch screen and never use it…
perhaps you could borrow it to navigate the forums of ozbargain more efficiently?
navigate the forums of ozbargain more efficiently?
Do you think I need help with that?
I know our kids schools recommended a touch screen but wasn't hard requirement "just nice to have"
I may or may not be a teacher ;)
The games that kids play during class ain't AAA games that require a super computer to run. It's more like Snakes, Roblox, Minecraft Education Edition, etc. Maybe some Counter Strike 1.6 or Source at most. So buying a "weaker" laptop won't stop that problem.
What I recommend would depend on what electives your son is doing. If he does subjects that require rendering (multimedia, graphics, 3D modelling, etc) then you will need something powerful with good storage. Other than that, everything is pretty much broswer based nowadays.
Assuming the latter, I'd recomend a laptop with a big screen (15.6" minimum) if not even bigger, good battery life, USB C charging, and at least 500GB of SSD storage.
Everyday I feel sorry for the kids with their faces scrunched into their tiny 13-14 inch laptops with the screen zoomed all the way in, scrolling a million miles to get to the other side of the webpage. Then comes the minimum brightness that they can't even see cause they want the battery to last all day… (charger left at home cause it's a literal brick).
You could be just peeping through classroom windows wearing a trench coat.
big screen (15.6" minimum)
No way, too heavy. Kids eyes have no problem getting close to the screen. They can look at their 6" full-HD phones all day! And brightness - my kids annoy me by turning it so low I can't read it.
If they are scrolling excessively, that is all about resolution, not size. The kids may have old 768P displays?
Hard agree, 14" is the sweet spot, IMO. You also want to be closer to 1kg than 2kg, under 1.5kg is a good weight.
High resolution or not, if they can't see the content because the screen's too small then they have to zoom in. And once zoomed it, they have to scroll/pan further…. it's all proportional.
And I haven't even mentioned about what happens when displaying 2 browser windows side by side on tiny screen. Trust me, I see the struggles every single day.
Perhaps they have undiagnosed hyperopia.
Normal kids can just put their face right up to the screen. Primary school kids can clearly see the sub-pixels.
@bargaino: I understand, but just because they can put their face right up to the screen doesn't mean they should.
That's like me saying yeh I'll print out a worksheet in size 4 font to fit more on it cause they simply can just hold it up 10cm from their face. And the principal walks past to see 30 kids squinting with worksheets to their faces.
Most people don't know how it feels using a program on a small screen. All I'm saying is that it's easier on the eyes and brain using a bigger screen. Using a tiny screen is like standing in your house and follwing a car go past through a tiny square window; you have to move around to following it if you know what I mean.
@Bignudge: squinting? I'm not sure you do understand. The point is they have no need to squint. That is you and me. If they really do, then yes its a problem.
This is truly good advice. The only downside with a bigger laptop is the weight to carry around, but even then, it's lighter than just one of the maths textbooks I was carrying around back in the day…..
get a snapdragon if his programs permit it, most games arent compatible on it
most games arent compatible on it
most games are, 'some' are not…
If you want to limit games, install Linux.
It depends what software the school needs, but Microsoft have excellent support for Linux these days, so all the Office 365 stuff is fine. Adobe Creative Cloud is not, so no good if they are doing arty subjects.
Budget is probably up to $1,300.
New surface laptops were that price for the boxing day sales 16gb ram/512gb ssd. Now they are around $1800
I always recommend and use the Dell Latitude systems. For school something a Latitude 5320/5330 2-in-1 touch screen would be perfect.
My who is also starting yr 11 next year has been using a 5330 2-in-1 touchscreen for the past year without issue.
Keep in-mind that newer systems may come with memory soldered on to the motherboard, so don't go buying a system limited to 8GB RAM. 16GB (or more) systems are ok for school/work use.
Or save money and get a better quality 7-series ex-corporate/govt instead of 5-series.
It had to do with the price & condition. Purchased an ex-corporate (excess new stock in box, hadn't been powered on before I bought it) 5330 for $450 last year.
Timing was a pity as the week before I purchased an equally good 5320 (also new) from the same seller for $300, which has been sitting unused in the cupboard, as I can't be bothered to advertise it on the local Perth gumtree..
Nice deal. Anyone would go with that of course.
M1 Macbook Air
Lenovo X1 Carbon - lightweight and is a powerhouse.
Select the Intel i5/i7 - just powerful enough to run memory-intensive applications but won't be enough for full gaming without a dedicated graphics.
There should be a touch screen option available - personally I specifically opt for no touchscreen to allow for a better viewing experience.
I got my kid a M3 Macbook Air for that budget. Does Mac have less games? if so, even better.
Was recommended by the older students.
My school discourages/disallows Macs because "we work on Microsoft software". I hadn't such nonsense since the 80s/early 90s. "What system do you run?" "Microsoft Word." Funny… I can do everything on my Mac.
Anyway, the Macbook Air will be fine. It will run all the same games that get run in the browser normally at school. There aren't as many stand alone installed games for Mac and there are less on platforms like Steam, but they shouldn't be doing that at school anyway.
At a minimum, I would say install Brave Browser as a secondary browser for them, and turn off all the crypto/wallet/news/whatever (easy guides online). It will block ads and be more compatible for developers who only test for Chromium based browsers (like Chrome). Chrome and Edge (now) will just suck up your data. Firefox is popular with some. Safari sometimes has a fit over innocuous websites.
Thanks for the tip re Brave.
The school recommended either i5/i7 or Mac but I’ve had poor experience with x86 notebooks and battery life
Pretty much everything is web based.
Find out what the other kids have.
Either buy the same, so your kid fits in. Or just a bit better so they are envied by everyone else.
That's more important to kids than how well it works.
JB School Portal has "Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 5 / 13.3-inch Touch / Intel Ultra 5 125U / 16GB / 256GB SSD / Pen / Windows 11 Pro National Academic" with 3 year warranty for $1468. I know it is over $1300 but this has 3 years warranty so it is well worth the extra $168 :)
Specifications:
· Intel® Core Ultra 5 125U Processor (E-cores up to 3.80 GHz P-cores up to 4.80 GHz) Non vPro
· 13.3' WUXGA (1920 x 1200). IPS. Anti-Reflection/Anti-Smudge. Touch
· Fingerprint Reader
· 16 GB LPDDR5-7500MHz (Soldered)
· 256 GB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal
· 1080P FHD RGB/IR Hybrid with Microphone
· 4 Cell Li-Polymer 46Wh
· Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 AX vPro® & Bluetooth
· 65W USB-C Low Cost 90% PCC 3pin AC Adapter
· 3 Year Courier or Carry-in
· Windows 11 Professional National Academic
· Ready to Provision (RTP)
I thought they were about due for a Gen 5, seems I was only looking at the AMD version which doesn't seem to be updated just yet. Interesting that that model is showing at $1,533 for me:
Lenovo L13 Yoga Gen 5 / 13.3-inch Touch / Intel Ultra 5 125U / 16GB / 256GB SSD / Pen / Windows 11 Pro National Academic
Model: 21LNS05P00 | SKU: 776483
$1,533.00
Bundle Includes: 1x Lenovo Upgrade to 3 Years Onsite Warranty w/ Sealed Battery (L13)
It's worth noting that that warranty also covers the battery over that same term which could definitely pay for itself. They also offer an extended warranty that covers accidental damage for $153 or accidental damage and theft for $166. It's adding to the price, but that's also pretty cheap for that sort of insurance and the environment it's going into maybe makes that worth while.
We got our first two through JB Schools, but the last one I got for $1,200 with all the upgradeable options selected direct from Lenovo so I figure it was worth the near $300 saving PLUS the additional value in the upgrades on top. We are two years into that gamble and so far it's been worth it.
Get a MacBook Air, battery lasts forever and performance is great. I’m not an Apple user but I know they make quality products.
I recently bought the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5 16-inch and very happy with it. Very lightweight slim design.
Are you a student? 16" is too big IMO for any high school students.
You've left your run a little late, but there are still things around.
My kids have each (so far two) managed to destroy a device in their first year. They just aren't used to moving around high school and carrying stuff from place to place to place. In both cases the second devices have survived pretty unscathed.
My youngest starts year 7 this year and has an 8th gen Intel Lenovo Yoga L13 (as a hand me down that still looks almost brand new). That one was upgraded to have 16GB RAM and larger SSD, this is about what I recommend to everyone anyway, although in education typically a 256GB SSD is fine since they use Google drive or Onedrive or everything anyway. My kids have done pretty well with Lenovo machines which have become my go to.
While touch isn't needed and probably isn't used very much, it's something I would opt for if ever given the option (providing it's not adding a stupid amount of money). Kids expect everything to be a touch screen, hell even I expect things to be touch screen on every laptop. The number of times I've tried to touch my Wifes' MacBook screen is stupid.
I like the L13 Gen 4 AMD: https://www.lenovo.com/au/edu/education/en/configurator/cto/…
Touch screen, built well and has an integrated pen. Although this is slightly over your budget at $1,429 from the education store. Although when it comes to Lenovo, ALWAYS ask for a discount. They are typically pretty good at giving a little more.
The IdeaPad 5 2in1 is currently the cheapest option with what I could call minimum RAM/SSD: https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/configurator/cto/index.html?bun…
(although watch out for the delivery timelines).
Without touch, there is this ThinkPad available now (there is a slightly cheaper model in 16", but I think 14" is better for school.
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpade/le…
MacBook air 13" m1-m3 (what ever suits your budget/what's on sale) is my recommendation but the windows PCs that others mention here should also be fine.
Being on a Mac, some gaming apps won't be compatible compared to Windows so there's a bit of limiting on what can be installed and you also shouldn't have issues with school apps etc I assume most if not all schools should have universal apps that will work on windows or Mac. I think web apps are still very much in use too.
Use parental controls or third party software to simply restrict apps from being opened or installed. Restrict websites and set timers etc.
I do this on all my kids laptops, phones and tablets.
Android - Google family link and bit defender
Windows/Microsoft - Microsoft family safety app and bit defender.
Mac/iOS/iPad OS - built in parental controls and bit defender.
Been a few threads with recommendations already.
Need to prioritise battery.
Look at Dell, HP, Lenovo. Dell XPS 13 or 14 in does well. If you can stretch for touch screen (if it's an extra $100 for example) grab it as itll make their classroom interactions 1000 better.