Laptop or Tablet for schoolwork?

skyripper

skyripper

skyripper

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19 Jul 2011
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Been asked for advice by a colleague. They want to get a tablet, ipad, laptop or macbook for their 11yr old to take to school to do their schoolwork.

Macbook is in the list because they have seen the impressive battery life.

Normally when someone from work asks, I say "Buy a bog standard Dell unless you're doing gaming.".. as a low end laptop with an SSD works fine for office, browsing etc. Half the cost of a macbook normally.

But got me thinking - what about a Android/Windows tablet and a clip-on / bluetooth keyboard?

Issues.. school won't be letting this kid charge their laptop during the day - so long battery life, or removable batteries needed. Apparently only 6th formers can "charge devices". No idea why.

Its a school - things get broken, nicked or otherwise abused. So cheap as chips or something with a bit of resilience would be good.

Needs to run general Office type apps - word, powerpoint, browser.
Doesnt need to game, edit video etc.
 
My suggestion would be a nice cheap laptop, like the Dell Inspiron 15 laptop which has about 6+ hours of battery life and these retail for about £199, this is fine for basic school work.

You could also suggest a portable laptop charger, charge these at home and bring it along to give a little extra boost in power, the fact that they refuse to let them charge their laptops is ridiculous.
 
I think an Asus Transformer (whatever they have out atm) would be ideal for an 11 year old. I had a T100 a while back and it was great, just big enough to type well and use yet smaller enough to be portable. Battery life was around 8 hours or so and set me back £250.

Is a lot easier to carry than a 15 inch laptop as well, yet retains some decent specs.
 
I feel the Dell Insp 15 is perfectly fine for what you want to do with it, 6+ hours of battery life is all he needs for school and when at home they can be charging it, and it's not too heavy either. If they do invest in a portable charger for it as well this will solve any power issues they may have.
 
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