Suggest Me a 'Bring Your Own Device' for High School

battler on 21/01/2019 - 10:46
Last edited 21/01/2019 - 12:48 by 1 other user

Looking for a BYOD device for high school.
Please, I don't want a debate about the pros and cons of BYOD and whether i5 is really required. Just point me to some deals please!
Hoping to pick up something in the ebay 10% sale if someone can assist (or can use the 15% ebay plus offer, or POOLSIDE 20%).
Also have access to Amazon Prime and all the usual egift card offers.

Specs required are:
Laptop or ultrabook
Screen Size: 11"-17"
Windows 10 or MacOSX 10.11+
must have 5GHz dual band 802.11n
battery life of 6+ hours
recommended: i5 (or AMD Ryzen equiv), 128GB+ SSD, 4GB+ RAM

Year 7 student, not likely to be video processing or photoshopping, but would like to get a few years out of it.

I suggest 13" screen is better for portability/weight. 15.6" seem to be cheapest bang for buck spec-wise but are too much or a kid to carry IMHO.
Budget around ~700, but of course happy to go lower!

Thanks

• 

  User2049 on 21/01/2019 - 11:31

  +2

  I would make sure to try and get one with 8GB ram and 240gb+ otherwise you will run out of storage quickly.

  • 

    gmail92 on 21/01/2019 - 13:50

    -1

    what's an average kid going to be doing in junior high school that requires over 4gb ram and over 200gb space?

• 

  EightImmortals on 21/01/2019 - 11:36

  -4

  Bring Your Own Date?
  Build Your Own Dog?
  Breach Your Own Data?
  Bring Your Own Drink?

  ??

  • 

    Nugs on 21/01/2019 - 11:48

    Dodo
    .

• 

  altomic on 21/01/2019 - 11:54

  +3

  I bought my daughter a [Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14IBR as BYOD device - 14" WXGA/Intel C-N3060/4GB/31GB EMMC/Intel HD ram for $120 from this deal](Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14IBR 14" WXGA/Intel C-N3060/4GB/31GB EMMC/Intel HD $119.20 @ Grays Online eBay)

  added a 128gb m.2 ssd for $60 (this model has a m.2 slot as well - bonus!! - it really needed the additional storage as 31gb was not enough.

  the laptop is really light.

  battery life is ~8 hours

  when not used for school work then it is streaming movies on to a 40" TV.

  if you are not using the laptop for strenuous stuff - e.g. 3d rendering, and want a light weight laptop for "basic stuff" i.e. word, internet, watching movies then something like the ideapad is great.

  plus for <$200 if something happens to it then not so much of a drama

• 

  thatonethere on 21/01/2019 - 12:08

  +2

  Can be worth asking the kids class teacher or schools IT dept what they prefer or not recommend. eg if the IT dept hates Macs then don't get that as your kid won't get good support.

  Make sure you get a tough case that attaches to the laptop and THEN get a knock resistent protective sleeve for when the laptop is in the school bag.

  • 

    ms_caz on 21/01/2019 - 12:39

    The catch with a BYOD policy in schools is that there IS NO tech support - so whether it is a Mac or something else doesn't really matter in this regard.

    At my school, the techs are able to help the students connect to the intranet and school wifi, but any other support needs to come from the teacher or from home/private IT technician/repair.

    Having said that, we do provide info to families about what we would recommend, but that is more to do with ensuring it has the required specs.

• 

  Hybroid on 21/01/2019 - 13:51

  Can't go wrong with a Surface Pro in my opinion.

  • 

    Findo on 22/01/2019 - 03:29

    NSW DoE corporate staff in the new Parramatta office building are all getting surface pros issued upon arrival. Take a look at the existing T4L vendor list for an idea of appropriate laptops for teaching and learning purposes.

    Can’t go wrong with HP ProBook/Lenovo thinkpad T series/Dell Latitude/surface pro/MacBook Air for students