Best Chromebook for Students

Alias on 05/02/2021 - 13:53

Hi there. So the school is suggesting the kids to get a chromebook for school or option to bring existing iPad to school if we are not buying.

I am in a bit of dilemma.

  1. Upgrade our personal iPad (which we don’t mind) and give the old (still reasonably new) to him to take to school

  2. Buy a chromebook for him. But which one?

The chromebook we see (limit size 11” as school said too big otherwise for young kids) all pretty average. Bad screen or quality a bit nah. Happy to give him our iPad but wondering there must be a reason school opting for chromebook? So I don’t want to disservice my son by giving him an iPad with no keyboard thinking it’s the best for him.

Any suggestions from experienced parents or teachers would be much appreciated.

And if we opting for chromebook, any good suggestions on model or make?

Much much appreciated. Thank you.

Ie. son is still in primary school if it matters.

General Discussion Chromebook

Comments

  • rkl on 05/02/2021 - 17:19
    +2

    Don't actually have one but was researching for my niece.
    looks like schools prefer chromebooks as they are more easily controlled by teachers, less destractions etc. But this is just part of the chromium environment.
    From what I can tell they seem to be made more sturdy so can handle the rough and tumble of a child's schoolbag too. I ended up of reccomending an asus c214ma as the specs seems good, 2in1 (flips into a tablet), has spill resistance keyboard and a rugged body.
    Personally a big fan of ASUS with computer gear too.
    PB tech also has some good insurance plans for not much money that would replace without excess.

    I would be hesitant with an iPad as they are comparatively fragile and with the amount of apps they can run, more likely to spend times of games and less on their work

    • Alias on 06/02/2021 - 15:15

      Thank you so much. Had a look at the asus online and love it! Will try to go in have a look in person.
      My main concern when it comes to buying a chromebook was last time when I went in to look at it in person, the quality of chrome books doesn’t look at nice as normal laptops. Looks almost cheaply made. But maybe I couldn’t differentiate quality and being robust. The screen resolution almost looks quite a few years behind.
      Thanks for your suggestions - will check it out this weekend.

  • Sadie on 05/02/2021 - 17:20
    +1

    Chromebooks are easy for them to administer, any problems they can be power washed and they set themselves up again.
    Easy for kids to use, both of our primary age boys have Lenovo 300e gen 1, they have touchscreens so can be used like a tablet, they can use a pencil as a stylus, the school uses Google so they can access everything they need to.

    P.s we have one for sale if you are interested as our Intermediate needed a Windows laptop.

    • Alias on 06/02/2021 - 15:17

      Hi thanks for the feedback. Will most probably go for a good one at this stage - but keen to hear how much you are selling ur gen 1 for consideration? Thank you.

  • Gatkins on 06/02/2021 - 09:25

    What age is your child? - this has a big outcome on the answer.

    • Alias on 06/02/2021 - 15:11

      Only 7 years old … but would like something that would last till at least end of primary school.

      • Gatkins on 07/02/2021 - 09:57
        +2

        Well if you guys want a new iPad anyway, I would go that way and save the Chromebook purchase for later. The reason being as you will definitely need a chromebook for years 7 & 8 at school, and if you buy one now it will be crap by then, so you will end up buying two.

        If you don't want a new iPad, then use the school loan/pool Chromebooks. We did this up to year 6 ourselves for our twins. There was 'pressure' to buy our own ones from both the school and from peer pressure because the other parents were. I also work in IT so had to resist the urge to buy new gadgets. But as it turned out there were plenty of school devices, and my kids ended up with their own assigned ones anyway. Only downside was the kids couldn't take them home. But they just used our home iPad and laptop to access the online content anyway, and frankly they would just use them mainly for gaming at home if they had their own ones.

        Just my 2 cents on it.

        • Alias on 07/02/2021 - 22:18

          Thank you for this. Much much appreciated. We love our gadgets too, so I understand how hard it is to resist wanting to just go out and buy one. That was our concern too, I want him to have a good one when it was actually essential, so buying now seems very likely we will ended up buying two. Thank you for your opinion. Very useful. I guess at the end of the day, there is no right or wrong.

  • huffboy on 06/02/2021 - 15:16

    Usually schools have a pool to borrow from?

    • Alias on 06/02/2021 - 15:21

      Yes, there is. Talked to his class teacher yesterday (after my initial post) and found out that there’s heaps from the pool to borrow.
      Only problem (if you called it a problem) is he is only one of two students with no personal chromebook. As a parent I am on a crossroad whether to do this unnecessary splurge and spoil him as all other parents have done in his class…

      • huffboy on 06/02/2021 - 15:23

        I see… same situation with my kid… gave her a lesson on unnecessary spending and jealousy. Told her that I can sell her switch and ipad to buy a chromebook if she really needs it. She stopped bothering me after a while, and I haven't heard about a chromebook for a while now.

  • Hasselhoffia on 07/02/2021 - 11:36
    +1

    Before buying, especially if debating between two different models, it might be worth checking how many years a particular Chromebook make/model will receive updates from Google for:

    Auto Update Policy
    https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en

    • Alias on 07/02/2021 - 22:18

      Thank you. Never knew this. Much appreciated.

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