Every year for Christmas, my father gets my kids one big gift. My son is getting older and has to use the computer more often and I am usually on the only laptop that we have for either work or school so giving up mine is kind of hard because in the case something should happen to it I am in big trouble. My Dad offered to get him a laptop but does not want to spend no more than $400. I have only had an HP which works and does what I need it to do, I also had a Dell before this one but do not want to spend that amount of money.
I have thought about a tablet for him but he will be needing it to type up papers for class and do some research as well. I have seen a couple smaller laptops that are Toshiba and the price is right, but what is the best to have that can withstand an 11 year old but in the price range.
Thank you to those who have responded. We have decided to go either with a Toshiba or HP.
Beth, I would just give them both mine but it is only a couple months old and I am a drafter so mine also has three times the amount of space, and other things that he does not need and mine was no where near cheap :) They did have my old one for awhile.
I think a better option is to get you a new laptop and give the kids access to your old one. That way he doesn't have his OWN laptop. Kids tend to think that if it's theirs they have control of it.
If you think he HAS to have a new one , get a netbook instead of a full laptop.
They have a lot of ultrabooks on sale around three to four hundred. Those are the really skinny light laptops. If you flip for the extended warranty and install lojack you should be pretty protected against the what ifs.
I've had a netbook for about 6 years and I love it. Asus eee
My 9 year old and 14 year old both have the Samsung Chrome Books ($249). They are able to type papers and wirelessly send it to our printer.
Our daughter's first laptop was a Dell Latitude and it worked very well for her. It still works but it is just full and slow now. It is used as a back up if needed somewhere in the house.
When she started Sr. High school (11th grade) it was evident that she needed a better system. Her AP classes all but require a personal laptop, they take them to school to use as well with some of the classes. We got her a MacBook Pro (out of your stated price range) and it has been a great little machine for her. She is in her Sr year now and she still uses it a LOT for school work.
I have a Dell XPS 14Z that came out last year. I love it. I run my company financials on it thorough Quickbooks and it is a great machine. It still is more than your stated budget.
You can get cheaper Dell's. Possibly look at refurbished machines and see if you can get a warranty with one.
At 11, he will start using the computer more for school.
Good luck.
I bought my HP Compaq for $300 at Best Buy 2 years ago. I've seen the newer models on sale for about $300 several times.
My niece got at netbook for Christmas when she was 10. As far as I know, it has served her well.
I suspect any laptop currently on the market would be sufficient. They usually have 10 times more memory than most kids would use, and the processor speeds are just so much faster than they were a few years ago. Most of people that need to be looking at memory and processing speed are those who work with graphics and videos and other specific programs. For those of us using your basic Microsoft Office products and the internet, just about anything currently on the market will be just fine.
I have a Toshiba laptop at home and I like it. My 10 year old has used it some too. And my 13 year old.
