I need a laptop recommendation for a kid. I want one that’s reasonably sturdy and will run Windows 11, but it doesn’t need to run games more demanding than say Minecraft Dungeons.
I’d prefer a screen size less than 15”, at least 256 GB SSD, and USB C charging, but I also don’t want to spend too much. Ideas?
I feel that around $800 seems a reasonable amount but I honestly can’t say why. If someone said that I would just have quality and warranty hassles at that price point I could probably go up to $1,200, but I’m not interested in him having another game machine and there’s a decent risk it could get damaged, so I’d rather get a basic model now and upgrade in a few years.
The Windows 11 stipulation is more to avoid unknown performance traps than anything else.
You might have to spend on the higher end of the scale if you want USB-C charging and at least 256GB of RAM.
I can't really give any recommendations, but the Lenovo ThinkPads have USB-C charging. So do Microsoft Surface laptops. A Laptop Go might suit, but they're on the higher end of the budget, so wait until there's a 20% off sale at JB Hi-Fi.
why windows 11? it's still buggy at the moment and you could probably get a better deal on one that isn't designed to run it (with their ridiculous requirement of TPM 2.0) as retailers will probably try to offload incompatible machines now that it's out.
with a bit of tinkering you can get incompatible machines (lacking tpm 2.0) to run 11, but i just don't see why you'd want to
MacBook Air through education store and AppleCare+ for accidental damage. It can all the usual Office programs (which he can probably get for free through school) and you won't have to worry about it being a gaming machine.
It should last for a minimum of five years with OS upgrades included and won't slow down to a crawl after 6 months.
A lot more money than you were expecting to pay I know.
Acer Nitro 5 15.6-inch i5-11300H/8GB/512GB SSD/GTX1650 4GB Laptop
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11…
$898
Yea, it's gaming but it can do anything and it's cheap.
no USB-C charging though.
Way too big to carry around at school, not to mention the battery life will probably suck.
Lenovo's Education store usually has pretty good deals and can be accessed through StudentBeans with your child's email. Dell Inspirons are also decent, but usually aren't as good a value as Lenovo.
StudentBeans seems to be restricted to students 16 and over; this is for a 12 year old.
It's not. It just needs a school email address, it doesn't matter what age.
Maybe let us know what your budget is? ‘Don’t want to spend too much’ doesn’t give much to go on