Laptop for High school kids

Hi Guys,

I am needing to buy a laptop for my cousins as a gift. I am hoping to spend $500 on a decent laptop they can use for school and maybe play a game or 2 on.

Is there anything decent out there at the moment?

Comments

    • +1

      Be aware the GT620M graphics card on this is barely more powerful than the integrated graphics built in. A waste of silicon, weight, and battery load in my opinion.

  • +4

    $500 buys you a beautiful tablet, a flimsy, plasticky new laptop or a tough, powerful 3 year old laptop.

    After her $400 tablet got broken (and not wanting to spend $250 to repair it) I got my daughter a reconditioned Dell E6410. Why?

    • Great screen and keyboard
    • Built like a tank
    • Easy to uprade RAM and SSD

    You can get them from Graysonline http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0005-191840/computers-and-it-…

    But a reconditioned item is not a beautiful gift. If you want something really nice and also a great bargain, I'd consider the Surface Pro that's currently on sale.

  • +1

    What does the school recommend?

  • Surface pro for 540, buy a type/touch cover for 100 when you can afford it. Greatest ultra portable and good specs. Screen might be a bit small though.

    • Best place for OP (in Sydney) to buy?

  • You could get a Surface Pro (1st gen). Its a little bit more than $500, but with a Core i5 plus Intel HD4000 it can play older games.

  • Surface Pro!

  • Thanks guys seems like the surface might be the way to go :)

    • Definitely, I'm currently using the Surface Pro 2 at my school (They told us to all get one) and IMO its a lot more efficient than books or paper. OneNote is should be loaded up on it, so that should cover a lot of schooling needs.

      Beware though, as it can get really hot if you lay it down for too long. Even just taking notes on OneNote while laying it is on the table can make it really hot.

  • well at schools I've been around I believe they want BYOD to have a certain amount of batt life (6 hours minimum) so that students aren't bringing charging plugs and stuff (OHS issue), might wanna double check just in case. Although they probably won't be using the devices all the time so the Surface Pro should last long enough (generally gets anywhere from 3-6 hours I believe based on usage).

    • For the surface, you can get a power keyboard which delivers more power for your tablet

      • -2

        which is another $200 (at least), price nor product release date not even confirmed for AUS yet.

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