netbooks for school

[SeanFL]

My kids school has asked me to help them get some notebooks for 7th and 8th graders. They'll be looking at 12 notebooks and want to maximize value (read: they don't have a big budget, $350 - $450 per machine?). I think they would rather spend $300 every couple years than spend $600 and hope it lasts longer.

They'll use them to all head to the same website for a math or science project. They might use it for writing projects. Durability would be an issue; although I don't think there's talk of letting them take them home...but 7th and 8th graders will probably not treat them as nice as we would like.

Would you look at a netbook? As I've considered which one to buy, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, and HP seem to have the highest rated ones. anything you would consider? The smaller keyboards (95-97% normal) might work fine with their smaller hands. Or would you look at an inexpensive dell with a larger screen (13 or 14")?

Thanks for any guidance as I start to work through this.

Sean

 

[IlllI]

would battery life be a concern or would they be plugged in most of the time?

 

[SeanFL]

I think anything better than 2 hours will be fine; if they use them unplugged, it wouldn't be for more than 2 hours.

 

[hans007]

if you are ok with windows, i think that the acer 751h is $270 or so now. its an atom 1.33, but the 11.6" screens and larger keyboards i think would be what you'd want in the $300 and less range. I mean if they are just doing the type of stuff 8th graders do i doubt it would matter much.

cant spreak for durability but well, i woudl assume most netbooks being cheap are all going to be made fairly cheaply.

 

[TheStu]

Dell made a line of Vostro (or was it latitude?) Netbooks that were supposed to be more durable and school friendly.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I would literally find the netbook with the best keyboard. It is my ONLY gripe about my Eee 900 (celeron 900mhz, 2GB DDR2, 4GB SSD. 4GB SDHC, 9" LCD). They are ALL powerful enough for every day tasks.

Edit: Those IBM/Lenovo netbooks look pretty bad ass.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

yeah keyboard is a huge plus. i've used the HP mini before and I like it's 92? 93% full size keyboard?

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: SeanFL
Would you look at a netbook?

Sure, just for the lower prices, but there are also great values in much larger laptops when portability is not really a factor, as it seems in this case. Semi-random example, Lenovo G530 at Frys for $400 AR. That these are more likely to be seen as tools than cute toys is a plus in my view in this context.

Among netbooks, I'd only consider the biggest ones -- there's little point in limiting web and document sizes and straining viewing and ergonomics when portability and size reduction are not important.

 

[firewolfsm]

You're quite right. Cheap 15" laptop approach netbooks in price sometimes.

 

[WildHorse]

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[WildHorse]

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