Kids laptop advice

[moorey]

Son, almost 9 has been saving all his pocket money for 12 months with his heart set on a laptop. I think he's mad, but its his money, but I don't want to see him waste it on something shite that he will regret (valuable life lesson aside)
Its his birthday in a few weeks, so we said we would add $200 to his hard earned savings of $400, but everything in that price range is still clearly shite....
Or is it?
Any suggestions for a basic lappie in that money? Will be used for word processing and school projects, watching a bit of iView and, :sigh: a bit of minecraft.
Should I convince him to consider something good second hand instead?
We have to buy him a new iPad for next year at school (mandatory unfortunately), so I'd rather he wait and see what that can do for him, and save his money, but he's been adamant for 12 months that a laptop for home is what he wants.

Disclaimer: Don't speak to techie to me, I only use a desk top for work and use the smart phone for everything else. Our home laptop is 8yo, fully munted and hasn't seen the light of day for 2 years.

Ta gents :hug:

 

[C0na]

Wtf? you have to buy him an ipad? why?? If it just has to be a tablet, you could kill two birds with one stone and get him a microsoft Surface...

 

[moorey]

Wtf? you have to buy him an ipad? why?? If it just has to be a tablet, you could kill two birds with one stone and get him a microsoft Surface...

Has to be an iPad :mmph:
Will be proprietary to stuff the school is doing...the chunts.

 

[Knuckles]

Chrome book. Around the $400 mark, light, fast to boot, no exy OS upgrades, and you can keep the $200 fur the 222.

 

[3viltoast3r]

Dell refurbished - I picked up one for half it's RRP (in your price range) with a few fingerprints on it.

 

[Dozer]

You can get a laptop around the $500 mark that will do just fine cobber. See this page for an example: https://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers-tablets/laptops/
You'll more than likely need to buy some programs for it but see what it has first as I can't imagine a nine year old will want the latest version of Microsoft Excel. They are a bare essentials package and aren't powered to play online games that need tons of power but he'll love it the same as he would love a $5,000 machine.
I would suggest you get an Apple product but you won't in that price range. Stick with a Windows based laptop and you'll be right.

 

[C0na]

Has to be an iPad :mmph:
Will be proprietary to stuff the school is doing...the chunts.

What has this world come to.....Agree with the above get a chromebook or a laptop on the cheap and shell out for a shitty ipad....
Do some googling into discounts/rebates for school kids.

 

[hach_bee]

You can pick up student MS software online too, much cheaper than instore.

Scratch that, just googled it's only for Uni/TAFE. Surely you can steal/borrow an ID though?

 

[moorey]

You can pick up student MS software online too, much cheaper than instore.

Scratch that, just googled it's only for Uni/TAFE. Surely you can steal/borrow an ID though?

It used to be free if you have an 'edu' address....which I do..... I'll look into that thanks H :hug:

 

[moorey]

Just looked at chrome books quickly (I'd never heard of them)...is there anything they won't be able to do that a cheapie lappy will do?

 

[mitchy_]

father in law just picked up a ~$500 dell, great for general duties. my 5 year old Dell is still going strong with my little brother too.
look into battery life as well.. most are pretty good. my Sony Vaio will last ~4 hours, and my fiancée's will do 5 hours of general browsing.

laptops are cheap now-a-days... i picked up a brand new laptop that easily runs my 3D CAD software for $1500.

 

[Capone]

Just looked at chrome books quickly (I'd never heard of them)...is there anything they won't be able to do that a cheapie lappy will do?

Edit MS applications natively

 

[moorey]

Edit MS applications natively

The bees are in the what now? :behindsofa:

 

[kbekus]

Edit MS applications natively

Yeah, I personally wouldn't go a Chromebook. Whilst you can get Minecraft to run on it not much else will. Similar story with a Mac, unless there's a compelling reason I wouldn't go one of them either though I know lots of people love them. A cheapie from JB might be OK, I would tend to set $800 as the minimum I'd spend

 

[Capone]

The bees are in the what now? :behindsofa:

Chromebooks are designed to run within the Google Ecosystem. So you have to use there apps to get anything done.

Want to write a MS Word document, well you have to use Google Docs

 

[moorey]

Yeah, I personally wouldn't go a Chromebook. Whilst you can get Minecraft to run on it not much else will. Similar story with a Mac, unless there's a compelling reason I wouldn't go one of them either though I know lots of people love them. A cheapie from JB might be OK, I would tend to set $800 as the minimum I'd spend

Cool, thanks. Remember you are talking to a luddite here guys....talk to me about computers like you would to your 95yo grandma... :behindsofa:

 

[kbekus]

hey moorey, what computers do his school use? Are they Windows or Mac? Does he want the same as he'll use at school?

 

[moorey]

hey moorey, what computers do his school use? Are they Windows or Mac? Does he want the same as he'll use at school?

They are currently windows, but removing them all for 2015 and making it mandatory for all grade 4 + to have their own iPad:frusty:

 

[Minlak]

Fujitsu AH552 15.6" Screen Intel i5-3230M, 4GB Ram, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW, Windows 8 with a splash resistant keyboard works great about 8 months old $450 I have this second hand for sale was my daughters laptop she upgraded.

If you don't know what a chromebook is just don't

 

[moorey]

Fujitsu AH552 15.6" Screen Intel i5-3230M, 4GB Ram, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW, Windows 8

Is that a thing?
95yo grandma, remember.....:crutch: