What's a good laptop for a young student?

[ckissick]

My daughter is starting 7th grade. I plan on going out and buying her a laptop tomorrow. What is a good, cheap laptop. She just needs Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. No games. Must be durable and cheap. Thanks.

[74-911]

From my experience it's pretty hard to beat Dell laptops.

[masraum]

Ditto. Dell is a good way to go. I've also had good luck with HP and Toshiba.

Check the Dell outlet where they often have some really good deals. www.dell.com/outlet

Well, that didn't work. http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh. When you get there change the "desktops" to "laptops". I'd also recommend setting the price field to "<500" and setting the Min Memory field to "2000". Click "Filter Results" and then after the results pop up, click the "price" column heading to sort by price. There are a bunch of 15" models with 3GB of RAM 160-250GB harddrives, DVD drives and built in wifi for under $400.


No laptops are going to be especially durable unless you get a toughbook or whatever they are called these days. They are designed to be durable, and they are expensive.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by 74-911

From my experience it's pretty hard to beat Dell laptops.

I find it's pretty easy.

Just use a ginormous BFH.

Seriously, go for a refurbed netbook.

Check dealnews.com.

They had some 900 mhz processors earlier this week for $170 range.

1.6 Intel Atoms are in the mid $200's.

My neighbors across the street got 3 of their kids Acer netbooks for xmas last year and no issues with durability and these kids are tough on stuff.

Just ordered 2 of these, one for my brother and one for step dad.

http://dealnews.com/Refurbished-Acer-One-Atom-1.6-GHz-8.9-Netbook-w-GSM-from-220-free-shipping/316892.html

[TimT]

Toughbook

anyone remember Grid?

[alf]

I bought a couple of used IBM thinkpads T42s for my 2 boys 9 & 11 off ebay running Win XP.

They are almost indestructable, good and cheap <$300. They have taken it with them on trans pacific flights, sleepovers, all over the house, spilled milk on it, dropped it, ate over it and generally treated it like 9 & 11 YO boys would. and it still works.

Compare that to what you could buy new for around that price.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by alf

I bought a couple of used IBM thinkpads T42s for my 2 boys 9 & 11 off ebay running Win XP.

They are almost indestructable, good and cheap <$300. They have taken it with them on trans pacific flights, sleepovers, all over the house, spilled milk on it, dropped it, ate over it and generally treated it like 9 & 11 YO boys would. and it still works.

Compare that to what you could buy new for around that price.

ThinkPad. Good machine.

Deal on a Lenovo Netbook, (bought the IBM line) $270 with free shipping. With 6 cell battery, good option.

http://dealnews.com/Lenovo-Idea-Pad-S9-e-Atom-1.6-GHz-8.9-Netbook-for-269-free-shipping/316802.html

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Seriously, go for a refurbed netbook.

Check dealnews.com.

They had some 900 mhz processors earlier this week for $170 range.

1.6 Intel Atoms are in the mid $200's.

My neighbors across the street got 3 of their kids Acer netbooks for xmas last year and no issues with durability and these kids are tough on stuff.

Just ordered 2 of these, one for my brother and one for step dad.

http://dealnews.com/Refurbished-Acer-One-Atom-1.6-GHz-8.9-Netbook-w-GSM-from-220-free-shipping/316892.html

I was thinking netbook too, but they are marketed as not really being fully featured, mostly being for Internet access, email, that sort of thing. I'm not sure how well MS Office would run on one. But then I haven't ever screwed with one.

[alf]

The netbooks that i saw when i was buying for my sons did not look like they would hold up to kid use for more than a couple of weeks. That is what made me decide on the used Thinkpads.