Looking at getting my son a cheapish laptop for school and home use. Currently edging towards the Lenovo G50 series:
Our Best Value Laptop | Lenovo G50-70 | Lenovo Australia

The i3 can be got for $500 (including a very cool wireless mouse) and the i5 for $600 - seems to be a lot of computer for the money and Lenovo is a good brand

Any other recommendations?

I've always rated Lenovos - though this X1 Carbon I currently have has been a little troublesome, though nothing massive.

Shopping Express have had some good deals on HP laptops over the last couple of weeks - i3 and i5 models, though I have really got the shits with HP lately, and would rather avoid them.


S

I bought my kids Chromebooks, well cool and cheap.

Chromebooks are good but I need something with a bit more oomph. It needs an optical drive, MS Office and be able to run 3D modelling software - i3 minimum

Ain't school in the 21st century cool

Can you believe that an 11 year old is creating designs in Solidworks and then outputting them to a 3D printer - when I was at school we were filing bits of metal and making a crappy spice rack in woodwork class

The daughter started Kalamunda High school today. We had to buy her a Microsoft Pro 3 computer. The cheapest model was about $1100 including the software. They didn't give us much choice because it had to run windows (rules out iMac), had to be a tablet that had a USB port (rules out iPads), have a stylus, minimum of 11" screen and 8 hours battery life.

So there wasn't a lot of choice. Some families had to buy 2 computers as today 2 years went from primary school to high school instead of just one to bring WA in line with the rest of the country.

A lot of money to be spent. And they don't even have enough lockers to give to my daughters year yet. So I was onto the insurance company to get extra coverage today.

Keel

We had an fella fly down from India, collect all the old laptops, roughly 60 odd he told me, then give them to charity. All worked though a couple of years old and beyond and all fitted with 3D software (not Solidworks) so they all had ooomph.

Just wondering if there is a market or there is somewhere that sells the older laptops for the school kids, cheap but with ooomph. There must be a market for something like this.

Quite frankly, that set of 'requirements' seems to be designed to force you to buy specific MS c**p. As such I'd ask the school to fund the full cost - and if they won't, to be less prescriptive in the specifications. Nobody should be designing a curriculum around that set of requirements - if for no other reason that tomorrow MS will dump their pseudo tablet and leave people high and dry.

I can see the benefit of providing, for free, textbooks in ebook form (to run on any tablet). I can also see the benefits of providing certain tools and simulation in HTML5 form (to run on any tablet), and finally something to hold timetables/homework reqs etc. - but none of that needs a $1100 lump. In fact a $50 should be enough, and should be provided by the school.

A kid and a $1100 lump of delicate electronics is just asking for trouble.

I thought as well. Seems very very specific, and would make me ask who exactly is getting the kickback from M$.

Though I have heard tell of schools creating similar requirements for high spec Macs too. Again - no need.


S

I kind of thought that it was selecting for parents with money, via this backdoor 'requirement'. Requiring one of the most expensive (and overpriced) devices would tend to mean certain kids wouldn't be going to that school.

And, of course, schools are allowed to get away with tapping parents for 'donations' - so want parents with money.

A boot needs to come down on some avaricious fingers...

Hey Zulu,

If you're interested, Harvey Norman have the Surface 2 for $296:

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/181790

Though it looks like it's the RT version, not one with a proper OS...


S

Every store in driveable distance to my abode Brisbane has no store pickup, sold out I guess?

Probably a market for all the passwords on half of them, anyway

MS S2 is good value at that price but RT means it's a no go for my requirements

Great deal though if you can get one

No, RT is a deal breaker for me.


S

What did you end up getting, Zulu?