best mini laptop (w8.1 or w10) for primary school students

[adrianjt]

Been in the hunt for appropriate sub-notebook/2in1/whats the proper name/ low spec asus t100/surface type device for primary school students (10 & 12 yo).

NSW (.au) education dept. require 5mhz wifi which can be overcome (fingers crossed) by;

Dual band wifi (2.4mhz & 5mhz) std  size usb receiver/sender nodules can be bought & delivered for $15au! – I am of course assuming they have decent range etc. They appear to do the full gamut of current and draft 802.11 wifi standards, which means a whole range of cheaper 2in1 are good to use in schools across australia (which predominently only have 5mhz wifi, so parents had to buy more expensive  t100 etc).

So, if you had to buy a “value” netbook(?) for students aged 10 -13yo, with touchscreen/decent keyboard & touchpad(?)>mouse thing  & at least 1 full size usb 2.0 port(for the 5mhz wifi adapter above)& one micro usb/charge port, w8.1 or w10, say min 9.7″,  with speaker(s) & mic & preferably basic front & back cameras,  robust, 2/32 with memory card slot, hdmi out nice luxury & decent (say min.) 1366? x 768? or 1280?x800 (ips nice) which of the current crop would be best suited?

say under $200US ($280au). I think ergonomic (ie screen angle not fixed position) also important. Build quality (longevity), warranty & customer service should also be  considerations.

Appreciate all genuine opinions (ie no vested interests please!)

 

cheers

Adrian

[Dal]

adrianjt wrote:

Build quality (longevity), warranty & customer service should also be considerations. Appreciate all genuine opinions (ie no vested interests please!)

You should look for local vendors, not overseas. While Chinese tablets tend to be cheaper and do have warranties, if you do have issues you might face problems (time and money value) with shipping the tablet back and forth. Customer service is also close to non-existent because as you can guess, they might not even provide support in English. Support will mostly come from your seller (banggood.com has decent aftersales service, btw.) and community of people buying the same tablet. Brands like Cube and Chuwi do have pretty good build, though. Just make sure you read reviews before buying.

[Adam]

I was looking into something similar last summer when helping my niece get ready for her first year of primary school. What helped us a lot was a program she attended at new york summer school they had some hands-on tech activities, and it was clear which specs and setups worked best for kids her age. Based on that, we ended up going with a compact Windows 10 device, and it’s been smooth sailing so far.

[Author]

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