Deb in NZ Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Ds#2 is going away the end of this month for his final year of high school. Just before Christmas he was offered a scholarship to a school 8 hours away that has a great high performance sports program. He will have a homestay with a local hockey family as the school doesn't have a hostel. Here at home he uses our ancient 2009 Acer net book or our 2014 iMac when he needs a computer for school. He can't take the iMac with him as it is our only home computer, but I'm worried that the ancient net book won't be enough as it is still on XP & is getting slower & slower. He plans to take Statistics, Physics, Physical Education, Mechanical Engineering, and one more class (High Performance Sport or Economics.) He used his old iPod for the past few years if he needed Internet access at school. The new school doesn't allow phones or IPods for BYOD. What would be the best device for him to take? Is it worth trying to upgrade the ancient net book or should we look at getting him something new? He is aiming at starting an apprenticeship in 2016, so we don't need a computer powerful enough to get through university. Would a tablet be enough? He would need to be able to do word processing, emails, & spreadsheets. Does MS Office 365 work on tablets for more than read-only? Are USB ports still important or are most things saved to the cloud now? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 You can't upgrade a netbook. Get him a cheap laptop. There's tons of returned items on sale at Best Buy this time of year, they try to get rid of them by the 11th because of inventory & tax purposes. If you want more than one a manager will likely sell two to you for a buy-one get one half off sort of deal, or more than 30% off for a single item. He might also need a graphing calculator, depending on if he's in a computer based math course or a calculator based one. ETA: google docs or apache open office are free, no need for another office license unless you really want him to have it for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Did you check with the school? They might specify the computer (or at least its required capabilities) I would buy him a laptop. Tiger Direct, Newegg and NextDayPC also often have deals. I hate writing on the ipad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb in NZ Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 Ds#2 has a graphing calculator as he needed one for his maths 2 years ago. Most of his computer needs this past year in Y12 were for writing papers in Phys. Ed. or Business Studies. Y13 Phys. Ed. is said to be even more writing intensive than Y12 was, so that is my main worry. Paper & pencil should be fine for the rest of his classes. Ds#2 isn't into gaming, so powerful graphics isn't necessary. He uses computers for research, word processing, internet banking, email, Facebook, & watching the odd movie. Some of those things his smart phone or iPod will be useful, but not for word processing. I wish prices here were as low as you can get in the States. Even a cheap, not name brand laptop will be about $500. A nice 11" Mac Air would cost about $1300. Hopefully the school office will open soon & I can get a bit of info to go on as to what requirements he has in the tech area. This is the only info on the school webpage: Recommended Specifications for Student Devices Wireless networking capability using 802.11n, A colour screen 10â€+ preferably, An on screen or external keyboard or other means of entering text, A camera that takes both still photos and video, A microphone, An audio-out port and ear buds or headphones, A minimum 4 hours of use from one battery charge, The ability to run a full functioning, current web browser(eg Chrome) that will allow it to access Google Apps or other learning resources, Virus protection programme (for computers running a Windows or Macintosh computer operating system), Cell phones are not appropriate mobile devices. You may also wish to consider these features: Productivity software (word processing presentation, drawing, spreadsheet tools) that can be used when an Internet connection is not available, The capacity to run graphing calculator software eg Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 or comparable applications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I just got a macbook air for $750 last week. Seriously, check BestBuy tonight. Returned items are at a huge discount, and they have more of them this time of year than any other, and they are highly motivated to discount them even more if you are buying more than one item. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Check with the school. I am in Nelson, NZ and at least one of the high schools recommends a chromebook. Before that they preferred iPads. Supposedly Chromebooks have a long battery life and aren't at risk from viruses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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