Be Excellent To Each Other

The boy (14) is back at school embarking upon his first year of GCSE's and we're considering buying him a laptop. I don't want a mega super ace gaming one because then he'll just play games on it. So a relatively shit graphics card and a basic-ish processor would be better as it'll discourage him from even trying... I don't particularly want to spend over £400 on one either.

His maths homework is all done via the school portal thingy and they use Google Docs for written submissions. A lot of their revision material is online, like BBC Bitesize, podcasts etc.

He's chosen to do Computer Science, Product Design, History and Business Studies along with all the regular subjects. So a lot of his learning and homework will be internet based too.

I'm not sure what software the schools use for the computer science - are they all vastly different or basically the same? Like, is the basic premise the same across all of them? It might not be apparent, but I literally know nothing about it whatsoever! I thought for product design, when he has to start getting his portfolio together, doing drawings in SketchUp or similar would be okay. It doesn't have to be fully rendered walk-through standard but he'll need to be able to produce 3D line drawings.

I don't think any of these needs fall outside of 'everyday' sort of use so like I say, masses of processing power isn't essential and probably something I'd want to stay away from as he has a couple of consoles at ours and TV's and a PC at his dads house for gaming.

But, he's also just a kid and watches back to back YouTube videos of all sorts of nonsense when he's in bed so something that could convert into a tablet would be ideal and cover all of the bases he'd want it to. For me, that isn't an absolute must but if I'm buying something, it may as well be what he'd want it to be. He's having to give his brothers ex-girlfriend her iPad back and he's pouting a bit about that!

So, what do we think? I don't want to work into PC World with no idea what I want...

These are the 2 in 1 laptops PC World are doing in your price range

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/2-in-1-la ... teria.html

I would look at the ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP301UA.

PC World are saying that its good for most of things your son would want it for.

It also comes with an SSD @128GB which will make it faster than most of the others in the range, there are a lot with 1TB (so 8 times the disk storage) but there is no way you will get an SSD that size in this price range.

So if storage is key then go for one of the others with 1TB drives, if not the SSD one looks to be the best in price range

Computer Science means MatLab. At least at university level

I bought my son this recently

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HU6E4QM

He is 18 and started uni with it, latest i3 (the i5 version goes £50 above your budget limit), it's alright, and if you don't mind the Chinese Government stealing your son's homework it should do the job

Oh ignore me, I missed the 2-in-1 aspect of it, my son specifically didn't want that

2 in 1 laptops are inherently more expensive than "normal" laptops (which are more expensive than desktops). With a low budget I'd be tempted not to care about the tabletness of it.

In my experience they also tend to be a bit more crap han non 2 in 1 things.

Currently I have a Lenovo yoga 2. I don't really use it in tablet form. Because it's just much more hassle

Yeah. I have a Surface Pro, and only bust it into tablet mode if I need to take up less space on the train.

I was thinking this too. My laptop is a small refurbed i5 with an SSD and cost just over £200, leaving money for a separate tablet if need be.

Yeah, I need to have a look at the value for money aspect in him having a separate tablet and laptop, versus trying to squish it into one package. Christmas is coming I guess!

I figured you'd get a lower spec machine for the money but as that is less of an issue considering what it'll be used for, I thought that compromise wouldn't matter an awful lot.

He splits his time between two houses so it'd be better if it was portable, and if he has a desktop it'll have to go in his room, I'd rather him be doing his homework in the kitchen so I can check on him and see how he's doing. He actually likes some involvement and is happier if you're around, whereas the others would rather you leave them to it. Mostly so they can avoid doing it... This one will offer you his books so you can test him or give you his homework to check to make sure he's going in the right direction.

I'd get him a normal laptop, personally. If he's doing CompSci he needs to get good at driving one anyway.

In fact, when you get it, mess with some things and let him fix it.

Ideas:

Open bios and diable the processor's L2 cache if you can
Windows+break : advanced system settings : Hardware tab : Device Manager : Mice and other pointing devices : Right click on the mouse / trackpad and choose "disable"
Right click on desktop : View : uncheck "show desktop icons"
Edit autoexec.bat and add `shutdown /s /c "Fix me, loser!"`

I'm definitely leaning that way. I'll see what kind of deals are on and look at a tablet as separate buy towards the end of the year.

I... Erm. What?

Thanks for the input, guys You have been most helpful and on topic. Which is kind of amazing in itself...

Obviously what you should actually get him is an Xbox 360.

I think 2 in 1 laptops are just always going to be somewhat compromised at both functions on any given budget.

I don't really understand them. If we're talking a Windows device, does anyone actively want a Windows tablet?

I think the Lenovo Yoga Pro series is quite nice, but they are pricey, and they have come up with a design that doesn't really compromise them as laptops, but they just turn into a bulky tablet if the keyboard is in the way.

I'd prefer buying a good laptop and a cheap tablet to spending a bit less on something that's worse at both functions. In fact that's what I did.

Is Windows essential? Especially in the £400 price range, I'd be more tempted to get a Chromebook (and I'd pick one of the models that has a touchscreen and is getting Android app support). Maybe the Asus Chromebook Flip?

My three year old daughter managed to do this once. Took me ages to figure out.

A chromebook will be great until they invariably require him to install something that won't run on it. Like every dev tool he'll likely use in the CS class.

I got one of the Lenovo Yoga 700s like this for under £400 and it's been excellent.
Very fast and well built with a full hd screen.

It's mostly used in laptop mode but I fold it over as a media player too.

They are regularly on sale.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-11-6-In ... B017LVZFKU

Have you considered getting him a refurbished ex-corporate Thinkpad? They run £50-£100, are tough as nails (they even have drainage channels from the keyboard out the bottom), are plenty powerful enough for what your lad needs, and if he breaks it - oh well, you can just get another.

I got a refurb X200 a year ago just because I'd read what a design classic they are, and love it so much I use it as my main laptop now. I massively prefer it to the brand new Lenovo laptops we had at my last contract - which really are just generic Chinese laptops now.