Laptop for 11 year old

[ChevronB19]

All her gaming is done on phone, tablet or switch, along with social media.

She’s in 2ndary now, so looking for a laptop so she doesn’t end up doing homework on her phone. Most of her homework is either handwritten or online apps. So I’m assuming a chrome book would be ok? If so, could anyone recommend suitable specs/model? Hopefully something fairly robust.

[ChevronB19]

This, for example?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Chromebook-314-CB314...

[the-norseman]

it always depends what the school use.

When I was at high school 2000-2005 and college 2005-2007 we mainly used Microsoft office, I did computer science etc. I did all my homework on Linux distributions using compatibility mode for OpenOffice etc. Because I was technical I manager to make it work.

We are planning on getting the missus 10 year old a Chromebook for Christmas, I've used ChromeOS a lot and am confident I get his stuff to work on it but it probably will take some fiddling. Hoping the high school will give us a licence to use Office 365 just in case some stuff doesn't work on Libreoffice.

[essayer]

I have that Acer, it’s a decent little chromebook, but get the touchscreen one (314-1HT) as it’s got a better screen

[the-norseman]

Probably wise to make sure its got Android support which offers more apps.

[anonymous-user]

Both of my daughters are in secondary school, when the eldest one wanted a laptop I ordered one from the Dell outlet site. I ordered one that had been refurbished, and when it turned up it looked utterly brand new, I could not see a single mark, scratch or spec of dust on it.

Personally I would go for a PC based laptop over a chrome book any day.

Just make sure you go for a minimum of an Intel i3/5 or Ryzen 3/5, 8GN of ram and 256gb hard drive.

[colin79666]

If the school use Google Classroom/Education you may as well go Chromebook. If they are a Microsoft house then a Windows laptop may be better.

[ChevronB19]

Thanks folks - having done a little more research on the school’s (terrible) website, it would ‘appear’ that as well as online apps for homework they also use Microsoft 365 and the cloud, so I assume a PC is required, although it seems you can access 365 via a Chromebook?

As mentioned, she has a laptop/phones for games, so this would (in theory) be purely for homework, especially writing essays (when that time comes). I don’t anticipate a lifetime of any more than a couple of years before she needs something better, so any recommendations for a <£250 PC laptop for light use (365, Outlook, web use) and *ideally* with a touch screen, as some of her online homework is timed, so it’s quicker to touch the screen than move trackpad/mouse?

Sorry for questions, when I was a kid I always used Macs, now I use PC’s at work and an iPad at home, so don’t have any recent background in this stuff. Advice much appreciated (and yes, I feel old).

[the-norseman]

For under £250 if you put the same hardware in a machine and put Windows vs ChromeOS, ChromeOS will come out on top every time for speed etc.

[Captain Answer]

My two boys mostly use their chromebook (pair them to a screen thats fixed to their desks so its a bit bigger) https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Chromebook-C223NA-GJ...

They already had windows laptops, rebuilt them a couple HP Elitebooks that had been kindly left with me for disposal after a contract I did... this is the same model on ebay looks good for the price and can choose windows 10 or 11... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234705765526?hash=item3...

[zedx19]

We've had a Asus Chromebook for 2 years, which is used for Homework for a 6, 8 and 9 year old. All online stuff via the schools portal, with the occasional Word document and Excel to download and fill in, plus PDF's to print. Had no issues with doing any of it, boots up quickly, runs everything we use it for fine as well. Has various dents in it where kids have dropped it or dropped something on it, still works fine. Battery lasts a long time as well and it's updated regularly.

[Mave]

We picked up some refurbished dell laptops for our kids for £135 each with a fresh Windows install. Pretty robust although no touch screen. They've seen them through years 5 to 8, although there are a few things (like satchel) where they use their tablets instead - but that's probably 10% of their activity.

[Dave Hedgehog]

I would recommend a Chromebook even if the school is Microsoft since edge is chromium everything runs fine on chrome

All Chromebooks have a built in death day so check any discounted ones, it’s not a bargain if it’s only got 2 years left

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366...

Consider OS Flex, it works brilliantly on old hardware, 4gb windows laptops that took 10 mins to boot now start in under a minute. We Flexed our 2011 MacBook Air which runs a lot faster and now has security updates! It’s very easy to install.

https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/

https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/115...