Laptop for school work / games

MrBrindle

Hi all, looking for advice on a laptop to buy my 11 year old - first year secondary, and probably needs her own one now for schoolwork instead of using mine or my partners'. It will be her xmas present this year.

I've been a Mac user for years due to my line of work (design/marketing), so I'm a bit of out touch with the PC world. I've read and heard good things about chromebooks, and will probably go down that route - seems a lot of my friends/parents have bought them for their kids. But what sort of model should I go for that can also play games - Roblox/Minecraft, and doesn't cost hundreds and hundreds of pounds?

Any advice welcome. Many thanks

marcia_

From my experience you can play Roblox and Minecraft on most machines but need a much higher spec to play games such as Fortnite. My son was not pleased when he discovered this. 

flaneurs_lobster

Does the school not give any guidance on this?

It's likely that the device will need to connect to the school's network, so they might have a view about what's needed/recommended.

MrBrindle

flaneurs_lobster said:

Does the school not give any guidance on this?

It's likely that the device will need to connect to the school's network, so they might have a view about what's needed/recommended.

Not really. I know the school have used chromebooks, as a large local company purchased them for the school a few years ago as a gift.

They use a cloud based hub which is accessible via any browser/computer.

MattMattMattUK

flaneurs_lobster said:

Does the school not give any guidance on this?

It's likely that the device will need to connect to the school's network, so they might have a view about what's needed/recommended.

Having been asked by friends and family about this multiple times (I am a geek, build my own computers, have built for others), the guidance from schools is at best nearly useless. They will say that they recommend a Chromebook with a spec similar to a few models then link to one that is wildly out of date and would be incredibly slow, with a lower than 720p screen and also link to a pretty much top of the range model. The lower spec would be inadequate and painful to use, the higher spec would be total overkill.

In terms of school work a good Chromebook would sit in the £350-500 range, but with Black Friday at the end of the month could potentially be had for £100 less than current pricing.

For gaming it is a different prospect, even Roblox and Minecraft will be clunky on a lower end laptop and for a child I would also recommend the separation of work and fun devices, getting a laptop for school and a console for fun would make far more sense, provided that is not an issue financially. A PS4 or Switch, both last generation and able to be picked up second hand for £150ish would make more sense as the gaming device.

MrBrindle

MattMattMattUK said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Does the school not give any guidance on this?

It's likely that the device will need to connect to the school's network, so they might have a view about what's needed/recommended.

Having been asked by friends and family about this multiple times (I am a geek, build my own computers, have built for others), the guidance from schools is at best nearly useless. They will say that they recommend a Chromebook with a spec similar to a few models then link to one that is wildly out of date and would be incredibly slow, with a lower than 720p screen and also link to a pretty much top of the range model. The lower spec would be inadequate and painful to use, the higher spec would be total overkill.

In terms of school work a good Chromebook would sit in the £350-500 range, but with Black Friday at the end of the month could potentially be had for £100 less than current pricing.

For gaming it is a different prospect, even Roblox and Minecraft will be clunky on a lower end laptop and for a child I would also recommend the separation of work and fun devices, getting a laptop for school and a console for fun would make far more sense, provided that is not an issue financially. A PS4 or Switch, both last generation and able to be picked up second hand for £150ish would make more sense as the gaming device.

Hiya, many thanks for good advice.

I've done some research last night and concluded that a lower spec Chromebook wouldn't be great, but maybe something second hand with a decent intel and 8gb should be ok?

Just an FYI, we already have an Xbox in the house and both kids also have an Amazon Fire tablet (eldest getting a bit old for that now mind), and they have an older ipad each which also runs roblox. But both of them prefer to use laptops. Atm, one uses my 10 year old Macbook Pro and the other an even older Macbook. Both of them get very hot during gaming, and I would prefer if they had their own laptops to play on.

They also have very little interest in other game, and only want to play Roblox and sometimes Minecraft on the Amazon Fire's. As someone who played the SNES, ps1 and ps2 while younger, Roblox looks like an awful game!! But the kids love it.

MrBrindle

Looking at prices, I could even get a second hand macbook for cheaper than a decent spec laptop PC actually.

At least with the macbooks, I have a bit more peace of mind when it comes to malware and virus. I know they are not bulletproof theseday's compared to 10+ years ago, but I trust them more than a windows/PC/chromebook etc.

MattMattMattUK

MrBrindle said:

MattMattMattUK said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Does the school not give any guidance on this?

It's likely that the device will need to connect to the school's network, so they might have a view about what's needed/recommended.

Having been asked by friends and family about this multiple times (I am a geek, build my own computers, have built for others), the guidance from schools is at best nearly useless. They will say that they recommend a Chromebook with a spec similar to a few models then link to one that is wildly out of date and would be incredibly slow, with a lower than 720p screen and also link to a pretty much top of the range model. The lower spec would be inadequate and painful to use, the higher spec would be total overkill.

In terms of school work a good Chromebook would sit in the £350-500 range, but with Black Friday at the end of the month could potentially be had for £100 less than current pricing.

For gaming it is a different prospect, even Roblox and Minecraft will be clunky on a lower end laptop and for a child I would also recommend the separation of work and fun devices, getting a laptop for school and a console for fun would make far more sense, provided that is not an issue financially. A PS4 or Switch, both last generation and able to be picked up second hand for £150ish would make more sense as the gaming device.

Hiya, many thanks for good advice.

I've done some research last night and concluded that a lower spec Chromebook wouldn't be great, but maybe something second hand with a decent intel and 8gb should be ok?

Just an FYI, we already have an Xbox in the house and both kids also have an Amazon Fire tablet (eldest getting a bit old for that now mind), and they have an older ipad each which also runs roblox. But both of them prefer to use laptops. Atm, one uses my 10 year old Macbook Pro and the other an even older Macbook. Both of them get very hot during gaming, and I would prefer if they had their own laptops to play on.

They also have very little interest in other game, and only want to play Roblox and sometimes Minecraft on the Amazon Fire's. As someone who played the SNES, ps1 and ps2 while younger, Roblox looks like an awful game!! But the kids love it.

I still game and to me Roblox is an awful game, Minecraft is not my thing but I can certainly understand the appeal for kids. Fortnite is a different beast, well designed, well made, most popular proper game in the world in terms of total player counts, but I do just not find it fun. I played with my nieces and nephews and even got to the Unreal rank, still did not enjoy it, I have not touched it since they stopped playing. 

The reason I mentioned separating devices is the psychological aspect, not the hardware itself, kids generally like playing on any device they can hide with, a PS5 and TV in their bedroom would be similarly appealing.

MrBrindle said:

Looking at prices, I could even get a second hand macbook for cheaper than a decent spec laptop PC actually.

At least with the macbooks, I have a bit more peace of mind when it comes to malware and virus. I know they are not bulletproof theseday's compared to 10+ years ago, but I trust them more than a windows/PC/chromebook etc.

Macs are no more secure/safe than a Windows device, Chromebook, Android and iOS devices are a bit more secure but the issue is rarely of ever malware and viruses just do not really exist these days. Most problems are users handing over details (passwords and banking information, or just sending money) in browsers, which they can do on any device.

MacBook wise I would not go anything older than the M1 chips, I am generally not a fan of anything Mac because the hardware is hugely overpriced vs performance, but I recognise some people like it. 

If the school recommends Chromebooks I would probably go with that, especially if they primarily use Google Classroom, if they use Teams for Schools it is going to be pretty much the same (clunky) on every device. 

QrizB

I recently bought a secondhand Dell Latitude 7300 for under £100. It'll do what you want.

This sort of thing (just an example, I've not checked the listing thoroughly):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/286712406291

Other makes and models of ex-corporate laptops are available if you want eg. a larger screen or a keyboard with separate number pad.

Eyeful

You do know I hope, that all Chromebooks will get updates for a limited time only.
Before buying one i strongly suggest, you check for how long the model you buy, will get updates.
Check here:
https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en

Labtebricolist

We got refurbished surface pros for both of ours.  Not the cheapest, but held up well over a few years now…