any advice on student laptops?

[mzteris]

Needed for online curriculum and a whole lotta "youtube" type viewing. No "gaming".

Any truth to i3 processor being better? Is it worth the cost?

Cost is very important, but durability, speed, and multi-tasking a priority - general recommendations or stay-away-froms welcome.

Can I say on here the brand/model he's looking at and get feedback on that?

[struggle4progress]

1. Is the laptop being purchased because it's smaller than a desktop, or does it really need

to be portable? If portable, is the student likely to treat it very carefully or does it need to be somewhat rugged? If portable, will the student keep an iron grip on it on public places or is the student likely to set it down in the library and wander off down the stacks?

Does the curriculum involve only watching videos, reading and writing, or will the student be writing programs or doing other computational intensive things, like graphics work?

What are the student's needs for hard drive size? If the machine is dedicated to school work, and won't be loaded with junk programs, maybe it's worth getting a laptop with an ssd: there's much less chance of a crash and data loss due to drive damage

I have both a white macbook, which set me back a grand, and an acer aspire one, that only set me back 250. The macbook is a better faster machine, with a handier screen and keyboard, but it's also rather heavier and somewhat more attractive to thieves. The AAO is a much cheaper machine, but it's still got a faster processor and more memory than the first computer I bought in the mid-90s

Whatever you get, invest in a keyboard jimmie: a spilled coke can ruin a laptop in a second, and the manufacturers aren't very friendly about it

[mzteris]

2. it has to be a laptop

to take from his room to the group study room (he's going to a boarding school for dance). Pretty small place and group of kids so things going missing is a little less likely than a large institution.

AFAIK it' just vids, reading&writing. He'll also be watching lots of dance videos and listening to lots of music.

He was already talking about getting an external DD to make sure everything was backed up on. I don't know anything about SSD's. Will that be an "advertised" bit of info - or something we have to "look for". oh - and he's not a gamer or anything either so nothing much cluttering up the 'puter.

We're DEFINITELY getting the "extra insurance" on this.

[struggle4progress]

3. ssd = solid state drive. roughly, the things use memory like that in usb flash drives.

it'll definitely be advertised, and there's the following tradeoff:

ssd is much more expensive per unit of memory than hard drives
but ssd is also rather faster than hard drives
and bumping an ssd is less likely to ruin it than bumping a harddrive