Laptop for my 10 year old - homeschool

[mitchelt]

We decided to homeschool our 10 year old daughter and I want to purchase her a laptop so she can take it with her when my wife takes her on trips to the museum or other field trips.

What do you think about these models, any pros/cons or tips would be greatly appreciated. It's going to be either the i5 or i7 8th Gen Intel with a 13.x" screen and 256GB SSD.

When at home, it will be connected to an external monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse.

Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1: battery seems to be very weak.
XPS 13 2-in-1
HP Spectre x360 2-in-1
Lenovo Yoga 920 2-in-1
Microsoft Surface Pro

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The con for all of them is that they are overpriced vanity PCs for trust fund kids and executives who approve their own expense accounts. She's a kid. a) She's going to lose it, b) it's getting stolen, or c) she'll going to break it. Go cheap, back up regularly, and have a replacement handy.

For taking notes on a field trip or something, I'm assuming that she'll be standing, so I'd probably be thinking "8-9" tablet" not a bigger/heavier ~12" convertible. I regularly see grown men (the aforementioned execs) seek out the nearest tabletop in lieu of trying to use those one-handed. Or they do that one-arm cradle thing, but then they gotta bend their necks down and tilt their heads - not good posture.

I'd probably go with a used Surface tablet and a refurbished desktop PC for "real work."

 

[mitchelt]

The con for all of them is that they are overpriced vanity PCs for trust fund kids and executives who approve their own expense accounts. She's a kid. a) She's going to lose it, b) it's getting stolen, or c) she'll going to break it. Go cheap, back up regularly, and have a replacement handy.

For taking notes on a field trip or something, I'm assuming that she'll be standing, so I'd probably be thinking "8-9" tablet" not a bigger/heavier ~12" convertible. I regularly see grown men (the aforementioned execs) seek out the nearest tabletop in lieu of trying to use those one-handed. Or they do that one-arm cradle thing, but then they gotta bend their necks down and tilt their heads - not good posture.

I'd probably go with a used Surface tablet and a refurbished desktop PC for "real work."

You made some very good points, perhaps a less expensive laptop...I want her to be able to take her "work" with her when she comes to my office for a few hours while mom is at work.

As for a tablet...I guess she could always use her iPad.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

You made some very good points, perhaps a less expensive laptop...I want her to be able to take her "work" with her when she comes to my office for a few hours while mom is at work.

As for a tablet...I guess she could always use her iPad.

An iPad with a keyboard cover does a pretty good impression of a laptop when needed. A Chromebook is a little more flexible, IMO, but also usually pretty cheap.

There's also the refurb'd pre-leased route for laptops. Dell Refurb Store usually has some good deals on lightly used business-class laptops. I'd probably lean towards something like this one. Throw in an SSD and you're off to the races.

 

[mitchelt]

An iPad with a keyboard cover does a pretty good impression of a laptop when needed. A Chromebook is a little more flexible, IMO, but also usually pretty cheap.

There's also the refurb'd pre-leased route for laptops. Dell Refurb Store usually has some good deals on lightly used business-class laptops. I'd probably lean towards something like this one. Throw in an SSD and you're off to the races.

Thank you for the additional information...I'll take a look at what Dell has.

 

[ondma]

Why does a 10 year old need to take a laptop on a "field trip"? Seems like it would detract from learning rather that encourage it. She must have a phone, so she can take pictures. And there is always the "gasp" pen and paper to take a few notes. The field trips would seem to me to be a great opportunity to get away from electronic devices for a few hours and interact with her mom. I am sure a laptop of some sort would be nice for home use, but it could be a basic few hundred dollar unit, not the super expensive ultraportable models.