mazdeuce - Seth
mazdeuce - Seth MegaDork
11/15/17 9:36 a.m.

Mrs. Deuce thinks it's time for our kids to enter the modern age. Her experience with the current crop of college students is that they ALL have laptops and use them for note taking. As such, this is expected and our kids need to be able to figure out how to use and be responsible with them in a school setting. Other than having an SSD for quick booting and enough horsepower to run modern Windows, what else do I need to know about laptops these days? I'm pretty sure my last laptop had a nipple mouse, so I'm just a bit out of the loop. 

John Welsh
John Welsh MegaDork
11/15/17 10:12 a.m.

My daily drive is a Lenovo E-series 11.6" laptop.  E-series stands for educational.  These are tough little units that Lenovo makes for school-wide deployment where the school district chooses to have a laptop for each kid.  Mil-Spec case on the sturdy little guy.

I bought mine on Woot for $269 last year.   Seemed back then that Woot was blowing them out.  Being for schools, there are made for large orders.  I figured that Lenovo sent them to Woot because a large school district order got cancelled.  That could have been 1k or more units given the sizes or some school districts. My wifes school district has a one to one laptop program with all kids 5th grade and higher.  They all have Apple machines. 

Same/similar on Amazon but at $335 not $269.  Simple but effective processor (low end) but 128k SSD helps speed.  Came with 4gb ram which I upgraded to 8gb.  Real computer with Win10Pro.  

Dell and others have "educational" units also.  That means units designed to be bounced around book bags and dropped on cafeteria room floors, etc.  So, if your looking for something designed for these riggers, I recommend looking here.

Also has served well for a 50 yr old running a small business who puts it into a laptop bag and uses it from the front seat of a car, etc.  

I agree with this review 

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH MegaDork
11/15/17 10:18 a.m.

I'll +1 the Lenovo E-series.

You want at least 6GB of RAM these days, 4 is barely enough for a modern 64bit OS. While SSDs have the advantage of being shockproof, SSDs don't give any warnings before failure like hard drives usually do, and recovery is usually impossible, so backups are extra important.

John Welsh
John Welsh MegaDork
11/15/17 10:20 a.m.

Should be noted to that this laptop is all your kid "needs", but might not be what they "want".  This is certainly not a "gaming machine" and is not filled with all the wizz-bangs.  

Grtechguy
Grtechguy MegaDork
11/15/17 10:34 a.m.

My brief bullet points:

* 15" screen.     13" is too small for most documents/word processing and 17" becomes too heavy to transport

* I would say 8GB ram

* Wireless external mouse

Sign them up with either Student Ed Office 365 or Google docs.   Leverage cloud storage (Helps with theft and damage control)

mazdeuce - Seth
mazdeuce - Seth MegaDork
11/15/17 11:04 a.m.
John Welsh said:

Should be noted to that this laptop is all your kid "needs", but might not be what they "want".  This is certainly not a "gaming machine" and is not filled with all the wizz-bangs.  

These are 100% not supposed to have games on them. Kid#2 has a machine at home he built for that and Kid#1 doesn't game. 

Keep the suggestions coming. Reading and researching right now. Good stuff. 

red_stapler
red_stapler Dork
11/15/17 11:07 a.m.
Grtechguy said:

* 15" screen.     13" is too small for most documents/word processing and 17" becomes too heavy to transport

Screen resolution is important too.  a 15" screen at 1366x768 doesn't show any more than an 11" screen at the same resolution.  

 

szeis4cookie
szeis4cookie Dork
11/15/17 11:23 a.m.

Something else to consider - will the Deucekids have access to power outlets while in class?  If not, you are going to need a model with a battery that is going to last all day. Honestly, I think I'd be looking at Chromebooks.  I have a Windows 10 2-in-1 laptop with close to the same specs of the one John Welsh linked and it is painfully slow. Battery life, light weight, and touch screens are redeeming characteristics, but having more than one app open at a time or more than about 3 Chrome tabs open at once is a painful experience.  ChromeOS is lighter , system resources wise, and should be a little bit less painful on similar hardware.

Grtechguy
Grtechguy MegaDork
11/15/17 11:55 a.m.
red_stapler said:
Grtechguy said:

* 15" screen.     13" is too small for most documents/word processing and 17" becomes too heavy to transport

Screen resolution is important too.  a 15" screen at 1366x768 doesn't show any more than an 11" screen at the same resolution.  

 

True.    anything less than  x1080 is horrid. 

stuart in mn
stuart in mn UltimaDork
11/15/17 12:27 p.m.

I thought that schools these days were pretty specific about telling parents which model laptop to get and with which options/features - have you checked with them?

John Welsh
John Welsh MegaDork
11/15/17 12:37 p.m.

Wow, you guys are a tough crowd on specs and demands.

My resolution is 1366x768 and looks like this. I have a dozen Chrome tabs open on this page and another 6 tabs on another page.  

Life has not ended and the computer does fine with keeping up.

Screen shots:

The0retical
The0retical SuperDork
11/15/17 12:52 p.m.

Biggest bang for the buck is going to be an SSD.

Something with 8 gig of ram and an i5 is more than capable of running most applications these days unless they're doing CAD work for class.

15.6 inch screens seem to be the sweet spot since you can get a number pad the keyboards but it isn't too big to transport.

Discrete GPU's are nice to have but probably not necessary for most tasks.

mazdeuce - Seth
mazdeuce - Seth MegaDork
11/15/17 1:56 p.m.
stuart in mn said:

I thought that schools these days were pretty specific about telling parents which model laptop to get and with which options/features - have you checked with them?

My kids aren't in the kids of district that mandates laptops. My elementary school has 75% free or reduced lunch and a significant percentage of the highschoolers write papers on their phones because they don't have computer or internet access of any sort apart from phones.

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito PowerDork
11/15/17 7:59 p.m.

I'm an "IT Professional" in my daytime gig. I'm in charge of outfitting my company with computers, and I've had to revamp/replace just about every machine in the place in the past 2 years. This is one of those things where there are a ton of correct answers. laugh Unless you want to spend big bucks, let's stick to Windows machines. 

It depends on what the kid is going to be doing. If it's taking notes, they are going to want something that gets going fast so they don't miss out on anything. Like others have said, that means a SSD and at least 6-8GB of RAM, and keep it updated. With Windows 10, if the PC isn't updated, it slows down considerably from my experience. 

I'd be looking at 6th-7th gen Intel i3, i5, and i7 machines. They have been making the three of these for years now, and you have to be careful when selecting one. A newer 2-core i3 might outperform an older i7! A good resource to find out what's good is CPUBenchmark.net. The higher the benchmark score, the more horsepower under the hood. 

If they are going to do anything that is graphic intensive, that means you are going to need a decent graphics processor, and machines with those cost north of $500 and closer to $1000 for good ones.

I also recommend a 1080 full HD display if you can swing it. It really makes a difference. 

Size matters, too. Anything bigger than a 15" is going to be too much and portability and case/backpack selection will be down. I've gone from a 17", to a 15" and now to a 13" for my personal machine at home. 

One annoying thing about a lot of new consumer machines is that access to components means completely disassembling the case. That includes the battery. Business laptops like Lenovo's Thinkpad series still have old-school component parts and easy access to drives and RAM. 

Just about everything comes with massive amounts of bloatware. One good feature of Windows 10 that they now have a feature where you can ditch all non-stock apps in one fell swoop by resetting Windows through Windows Defender. It also makes a list of all the apps it uninstalls and drivers you might need to re-download.

This is the machine I'm running as my "daily driver": http://www.microcenter.com/product/475348/Pavilion_x360_Convertible_m3-u103dx_133_2-in-1_Laptop_Computer_Refurbished_-_Gold_and_Silver?ob=1

I love it. The screen is great, it has a backlit keyboard, and battery life is not horrible. It has a 7th gen i5, 8GB of RAM, and a 128gb SSD so it's lightning quick. I would recommend it. Another great option is an off-lease or refurbished Thinkpad with decent specs. They are built like tanks and are easily serviced. 

bmw88rider
bmw88rider SuperDork
11/16/17 5:41 a.m.

For kids, get a business class notebook. They aren't as glamorous but they are made tougher. Don't be afraid of factory refurbished units either. I've used them exclusively for 10 years now. Specs, to be honest, almost anything will run windows well. Where you notice the speed difference is the hard drive performance. 

 

If you want a coupon for Dell units, holler. I've now been with them 15 years at the start of the new year. 

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
11/16/17 6:06 a.m.

Our school system uses Chrome books. The couple of years my son toted one, it did everything he needed it to do and it survived the experience. 

sleepyhead
sleepyhead HalfDork
11/16/17 8:00 a.m.

I'll through in a vote for considering an iPad Pro with a apple pencil and external keyboard.

 

pinchvalve
pinchvalve MegaDork
11/16/17 10:04 a.m.

First things first, make sure that the school is not going to supply a laptop.  We bought my daughter a real powerhouse of a PC, but then the school issued her one as well.  It wasn't as good, but 90% of the stuff she needed was behind firewalls for security and she could only access it through her school-supplied computer.  This also made things like installing printers and software a pain because the schools IT department had them locked down.   Good for security, bad for dad.  The good news is that it got beat up, and they just fixed/replaced it whenever she needed.  She actually got to keep it upon graduation, but a 4-year old laptop that beat up was essentially useless.  

For college, she got a loaded Apple MacBook Air, the best option, bar none.  Super long battery life, ultra-portable, the best tech there is.  BUT, high schools hate Macs and everything is Windows-based, so you are forced to make due with inferior technology, so a Mac is out.  My wife uses a Surface Pro, and so did the IT person at my last job, so that says something.  My wife loves hers, despite how often she has to turn it into IT for them to fix issues.  (She says it is less than any other laptop they deal with, so whatever. )  It's very portable, and seems to last a long time on the battery.  

mazdeuce - Seth
mazdeuce - Seth MegaDork
11/16/17 11:12 a.m.

The high school they're at doesn't and won't require laptops. My daughter has made it comfortably through a year and a half without one. My son considers himself a PC gamer and built his gaming rig himself. I'm pretty sure he's going to be a snob about whatever we get, and I'm half tempted to go with Sleepyhead's suggestion of an iPad pro just to keep him a bit farther away from his games while at school. Not that he won't find ways around it, but at least I'm trying. 

Another thing is that the kids don't have lockers. They're carrying everything they own like hobo's for 11 hours a day. Along with that, no security of belongings. So heavy is bad, valuable is generally bad, long battery life is good. 

sleepyhead
sleepyhead HalfDork
11/16/17 11:42 a.m.

The 10.5" pro is 1#... and if you can find the text books... could save the weight of hauling those around too.  256gb ver have some black friday savings around.  maybe a grandparent could be convinced to supply the pencil for christmas.  10.5 will probably be semi-inconspicuous vs 12".

Unfortunately, the non-pro's can't use the pencil... which I think is an important to using one for notes... otherwise a $350 9.5" std would be my recommendation

I should note that I'm looking to swap away from my lenovo laptop to an ipad and a 16gb 2012 mac mini for my own needs... since there's some things i prefer to / have to do on desktop

mazdeuce - Seth
mazdeuce - Seth MegaDork
11/16/17 7:40 p.m.

So I talked to the kids today on the sly. I said there was a GRM post about laptops and admitted that I had no idea how highschoolers used them these days. They both said that nobody uses them in their school and they're glad they don't have to lug them around because actually owning one would be a huge pain in the ass. I guess that solves that issue. frown

EastCoastMojo
EastCoastMojo Mod Squad
11/16/17 7:56 p.m.

Well, that de-escalated quickly. laugh

John Welsh
John Welsh MegaDork
11/16/17 9:13 p.m.

But, are all the issues solved?....

 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Mrs. Deuce thinks it's time for our kids to enter the modern age. Her experience with the current crop of college students is that they ALL have laptops and use them for note taking. As such, this is expected and our kids need to be able to figure out how to use and be responsible with them in a school setting. 

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