Simplify your laptop buying
Community Newsletter: Q&A: Laptop recommendation for children
- 6/20/08 12:13 PM
Laptops for kids
by Sunfell - 5/20/08 8:54 AM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'll admit that it seems like you're throwing money away in giving laptops to young boys, but that is your decision. I guess it's because such incredibly expensive things were not available when I was a kid, and no amount of begging would get me the cassette radio I coveted. I had to share it with my sister. It's clear that things have changed in 30 years. So, since you've decided to do so, the best thing to do is make a recommendation.
I recommend getting a refurb system for your kids. Yes, they are older, but their specs are often as good as a brand new machine. You would be responsible for adding the OS and other software on the machines, but there are great deals to be found at both the manufacturers sites, as well as Tiger Direct.
The major hazard for a laptop- especially with younger kids- is the destruction of the hard drive from roughhousing. If solid state drives were cheaper, I'd say go that route.
Laptop for kids
by Bwaanaa - 5/20/08 9:28 AM In reply to: Laptops for kids by SunfellProblem with a used or refurb laptop is the screen is usaually the first thing to go. Getting it repaired or replaced could be expensive. The other thing that could go is the battery which adds to the cost. So keep that in mind.
computers for kids are always tricky,
by ida45 - 5/20/08 12:37 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
anything you buy now will probably be too slow for the new gaming programmes in 18 months, if your boys are very keen online gamers, with everything else secondary, you will get nothing @reasonable\, as compared to what us grown ups use,real gaming platforms that give speed and good graphics are crazy prices,i suggest you find something with a really good warrenty, that is kid disaster proof. I gave my 14 year old an amount that i was prepared to spend, he had to pay for any higher spec, we ended up spending almost £1000.00,between us,(on a pc tower) now 3 years later its obsolete,as far as gaming goes but ists ok for msn and e mail and college work. good luck!
Laptop recomendation for children
by Beto_1000 - 5/20/08 3:33 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I also thought a laptop was too much for a children under 12 or 13 years old; but having a 7 (almost 8 now) at home made me change my mind. I found a Dell Inspiron 1520 under $700 by christmas and I got it for her. It was a good deal. She is not watching TV as much as before, she is learning to use Word, Power Point and Painter at the School in her Computer Class and she is practicing her skills at home; I stress the fact that a laptop is not a game machine so she is not using for gaming (she has also a PlayStation, Game Boy, etc, which se used as a privilige when she has completed her chores. I think the laptop was good for her. She has improved in Reading, Spelling and Math in the last 4 months.
Laptop recommendation for children
by Isabirye - 5/20/08 11:01 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The laptops being for kids it would require robust machines that can withstand shock, a little fast with reasonable though not very high memmory to handle gaming. I would recomend a 2GHZ Pentium IV with 256MB RAM.
I like the idea
by salthedog - 5/21/08 3:48 AM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
A laptop sounds like a good solution for your kids. The mobility offered can't be beat, and there are some good deals out there.
I think you should get them the laptop that I have, the Compaq Presario C700. It's basically the lowest price laptop with a duo core processor and vista that I could find - and $299 was a great deal for this baby.
Face it - a toughbook is a little over the top, so go with what will work the best and be the most affordable... that way when it gets monkied up you won't be out any major cash.
This unit gives a solid 3.1 on the rating scale and can easily handle all the tasks you describe. The wide screen looks great. I did add some memory.
If I were looking for a laptop for my kids, this is what I would get.
Good Luck!
Compaq 700 isn't good for gaming
by dittersdoodles - 5/21/08 5:43 AM In reply to: I like the idea by salthedogI looked at the 700, at least online. It is being discontinued. As far as online gaming, it is not a good option. The 751 is what I have and it has great online gaming compatibility. SRP is $499 at Best Buy. I bought (then on sale for $35 from $92) two 1 gig ram sticks and upgraded the ram. The old sticks I put in my boys laptops to increase their ram to 1.5 gigs. That helped improve their experience with Runescape online, however they are still on celeron processors. Avoid celerons like you would poison ivy. Celerons are very irritating (locks up games, sluggish, temporary freezes).
the right lap top for the kids
by chatichblue - 5/21/08 3:50 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi,
here in London GB, the very question has arisen recently.
Kids care for lap tops if they are giving them what they want i.e. gaming, internet conectivity & dvd viewing.
Ask you Office facilities manager what hes going to do with the office laptops when they become obsolete. In our office of 400, laptops get damaged or are made obsolete on a fairly frequent basis. I bought 2 with pretty good specs this month, for a paltry £20 x 2 donations to the charity of my own choice -JDRF. I did have to reload Windows, plus every other bit of software (all available on the net) & buy a mains adaptor, but hey, whose complaining?
The EEE PC Is the way to go
by Leauxra - 5/21/08 6:07 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would recommed the EEE PC as a really good "starter" laptop for children.
http://usa.asus.com/search.aspx?searchitem=1&searchkey=eee+pc
1) It is not expensive (I would even say "cheap")
Amazon has several syles to choose from to fit different budgets:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=eeepc
I would recommend the Asus Eee PC 4G (7" Screen, 800 MHz Intel Celeron Processor, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) as it is easy to upgrade.
2) It comes in different colors
3) It is small, kid sized even
4) It has an internal memory is solid state, so it can take a bit more of a shock than a hard drive. It can be expanded with SD cards if you need more space.
5) It comes with an easy to use linux interface with several learning games preinstalled, open office, and a really nice wireless card and web cam, browsers, chat clients, and a number of other useful little programs
6) If you insist on Windows, XP is supported
7) The online support is comprehensive.
8) I bought a leather case for it, and it is about the size of a dayplanner, lighter than a hard back book, and with the case, I don't worry about dings or scratches.
In fact, get one for yourself, too. I made the switch to smaller and lighter, and barely touch a full sized computer anymore. 
Laptop recommendation for children
by fz750 - 5/22/08 4:31 AM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Bob, my kids are around this age, and a short answer to your question is that any new laptop for sale will fill happily fulfill your needs.
Runescape runs quite happily on my Asus EeePC, to give you an idea of the processing/graphics needed, but I (or the kids) don't find the Asus PC advisable for their needs. (too small screen, poor keyboard), but it's ideal for what I use it for.
I'd basically recommend either an XP or vista machine with any processor that you're likely to be able to buy now (or similar secondhand, above 1.5Ghz), a 14/15" display (bigger not mobile, smaller is too small) and obviously a Wi-Fi connection, ability to write DVDs, at least 60Gb hard drive for all that music they will "discover" at around age 12.
We recently bought an Asus 5720z for my 11 year old and fulfills all of this, and cost not much more than a secondhand model.
Regards, Kevin
vista & epson
by fitra trisna wibowo - 5/23/08 7:36 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i have a problem about my printer.
my OS is vista home basic and my printer is epson stylus c90.
but the printer doesn't work corectly.
and the driver doesn't recomended.
please help me.
thanks
Posted in wrong thread.
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 5/27/08 9:50 AM
In reply to: vista & epson by fitra trisna wibowo
Hi fitra trisna wibowo,
This discussion thread is on laptop recommendations for children and more than likely you will not get a response to your question. My suggestion is to please repost your question in the Windows Vista forum here, which will be better suited for your question.
Cheers!
-Lee
Laptop recommendation.. how about an iBook..
by renegadesoftware - 5/23/08 7:59 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I think getting your kids a laptop is a great idea. My kids are 2 and 4, and my 4 yo (daughter) has a Mac iBook that I gave her when she was 3. She actually started using my PowerBook when she was 2, and once she had learned to use the mouse and navigate the desktop (launching Opera and going to Noggin.com for example) I gave her her own machine. She is able to use the Internet, print, and launch her own apps, and now she's teaching her 2 yo brother to use it. Aside from one broken keyboard that my son damaged trying to figure out how the keys worked (cheap and easy to replace on a Mac) and crayon on the LCD (which cleaned up fine) I've had no problems. Both kids spend plenty of time outside, and spend plenty of time with real books and real toys, but the computer has helped them to learn how to concentrate on performing complex tasks (like printing a document from a Web site) and working together to share the computer. And, the computer stays in our playroom (common area) only - no computers or TV in the bedroom. I would much rather have them on the computer than staring at the TV, and since my PowerBook is also in the playroom we can use them together. As for a laptop recommendation, I would highly recommend an older iBook. You can pick them up fairly cheap on eBay and Amazon, and even an older iBook is plenty powerful. Also, there are a lot of good apps for kids for Mac, and OS-X in my opinion offers a friendlier user interface for kids (and adults).
Panasonic "TOUGHBOOK"???
by ArtDept - 5/23/08 8:32 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Or is that too obvious? 
http://www.GroupMobile.com/Toughbooks
Kind of expensive though.
"Gaming" computer
by Chipmoney - 5/23/08 9:02 PM In reply to: Laptop recommendation for children by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would recommend buying as much power as you feel comfortable paying for.
If you feel that your kids can take care of the computers well then by all means spend a little more. Also Asus offers one year accidental damage warranty on all of the notebooks they sell, not sure if this applies to EEE PC or not though, along with their 2 year global warranty that covers any part defects.
Runescape and any other browser will use the CPU of the computer and not the GPU. The most important factor of a computer would be the speed of the CPU, though if they do non-browser gaming a dedicated card would greatly improve performance. If they intend on playing newer games with fair performance then an Nvidia 8600GT or ATI mobility 2600HD should be the minimum level to go to. A laptop with wither of those cards can be found for around $1000 if one looks hard enough, I suggest newegg.com for good prices just keep your eyes open for sales. A trade off comes with the dedicated graphics cards, they have shorter battery life then those computers with integrated graphics.
If web browsing and word processing are the main things, or the only games being played are older ones then an integrated graphics card would perform fine, keep the heat lower, and increase the battery life. An Intel X3100 should perform well in Vista and allow the computer to run smoothly. If the laptop does include Vista, as most laptops do, then 2GB of RAM is a must. Vista will technically run on 1GB, but it will be horrendously slow and annoying to work with.
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