Hello, I am looking for a laptop for $300 for my child currently in highschool. It will be used to do schoolwork.
This is an absurd budget but it seems like one of his teacher is adamant we should get a device for him as it would help him at school because he won't need to use slow school devices. She suggested that there are laptops that are perfect for school at $300
I haven't found any, so let's see what you can do.
Don't all high school kids have to have laptops these days? Is the budget set by you or the school? I'm confused.
At any rate, at $300, buy used or refurb.
help him at school because he won't need to use slow school devices
$300 laptops 💻 if you do find one are really slow… not sure if it’ll solve that problem, unless there isn’t enough school laptops to go around?
Was the teacher talking about Chromebooks? Thats all I could think of at that price point.
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/lenovo/student-chromebo…
$399 if you can get in via the austudentbeans site:
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/austudentbeans/laptops/lenovo/s…
Failing that, OP, its time to get freaky:
https://www.banggood.com/New-EditionOnda-Xiaoma-31-13_3-inch…
$274 after $20 coupon and including free shipping. May Cthulhu take mercy on your soul.
Found a couple second hand items on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Ultrabook-1-90Ghz-…
That screen res makes me want to power myself down though, so for the extra $70 bucks something like this would be better…
https://www.amazon.com.au/Dell-Latitude-M5-6Y57-1-10GHz-Rene…
I'm actually using a similar device right now (HP Elite X2, m5-6Y57 8GB RAM 256GB SSD) which I bought 2nd hand off Facebook Marketplace for $325 and it does everything - Edge/Chrome, Office, basic Photoshop, plays all my media inc x265 1080p, even lets me scrape by playing Age of Empires II Definitive Edition on low settings.
Where I am, the second hand market for laptops went stupid expensive, or I'm looking in all the wrong places. You can't even pick up a second hand i5 for that. For $300, about the only decent thing you'd pick up would be stolen.
Anything new for that price range will suck.
Do you just need Office? Because there's Office for iOS and Android now. Not too bad with a tablet and bluetooth keyboard. You can use your phone to do the research and the tablet to do the typing.
had the same dillemma recently, ended up getting HP from JB when they had a 15% off, was roughly twice more expensive, but at least half decent (8 ram, 256 disk) and not crippled with Chrome OS
She suggested that there are laptops that are perfect for school at $300. And you asked her…where?
Chromebook https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/lenovo-100e-81ma000nau-11…
A 5-7 year old i7 laptop upgraded with an ssd and probably another stick of ram will be more than fine for school work.
Used prices are a bit inflated at the moment due covid so might be pushing your luck even for used in that price bracket.
factor in a new battery too. kids usually require "all day battery life"
Give the teacher the 300 and say you find the right one that's not slow etc etc and buy it for me
Did the school not give you a spec sheet for the laptop? It’d be a $300 piece of junk if it can’t run what the school wants your kid to run on the laptop.
I thought the school would have some kind of a deal for buying laptops through the school or used ones from graduating students.
From $225
https://renewd.com.au/collections/laptops
From $339
https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/Refurbished-Lap…
From $459
https://www.dell.com/en-au/outlet/shop/laptops-tablets