What Should I Buy My Kid?

At the risk of adding to the confusion that's already out there for you B.Y.O.Disoriented parents. Let me literally take you to the next level. In the previous post, I tackled tablets and hopefully clarified that issue a little bit. And for the buyer who has a child of elementary school age, that was all fine and good, but what if you have kids who are a little bit older? Maybe 5th/6th grade, middle school, or what about those angst ridden high schoolers? What does their B.Y.O.Dear experience mean to you? Well, actually, it's a bit more complex.

I can virtually (pun intended) hear the silent scream through the web now. NOOOooooooo!!!! I'm not buying them 3 devices! Actually, you've already bought them one. I don't know many students of the age we're talking about who don't have one of these. So the first step is simple. If your kid doesn't have a smartphone already, get them on one. Now comes the hard part. Sit with them and work through all the apps that they NEED . Not the 36 versions of Angry Buzzards, and Minecraft, but stuff like, Dictionary.com, finding a useful multifunction calculator, how to access their teachers web content through Google Apps. All the various things that Google Apps does, such as taking the place of M$ Office. Then work out a scheme of how you are going to maintain some semblance of control over their appropriate use, AND last, but not least, make sure they fully understand how to switch to your home's, their school's, the doctor's office, Starbuck's, Lowe's, everybody's free WiFi so that they aren't ringing up a crazy number of minutes on their (yours) data plan! 

I teach high school. They pay me to be with teens. Before that, I taught middle school. They paid me to be with younger teens. I know teens. Before they'll use ANYTHING else, they'll grab their phones, for both useful things as well as things less useful. If you don't work with them on this, you're going to regret it. To them; B.Y.O.D. means using their phones!

Now that we've addressed why older students need something other than tablets..... oh, I think maybe I skipped that part. Anyway, here's the scoop, simplified. As kids progress up the school grades, instead of being "consumers" of academic content (such as using practice apps on a tablet), they tend to move more and more toward "interpretation", and then "creators" of content themselves. As such, they increasingly need to use full-blown software applications, which are often too heavy-duty for tablets, although the gap is closing. One thing that is an absolute struggle for tablets is extended typing. Even the addition of a docking keyboard via a connector or Bluetooth rarely helps, especially as students move to typing full essays and research papers. What now?

This now rapidly moves towards the province of the "clamshell". How's that, you say? That's what they call the form-factor of standard "laptop/notebook" computer. There are two main things here that makes this the dominant form of computing today. Basically, this takes not only pretty much a full computer, but a real keyboard and relatively large screen that doesn't require a ton a scrolling to get all your content. These things come in a variety of sizes and weights. The main categories are as follows:

• "Desktop Replacement"- Full-sized laptops that tends to run about 7 pounds or so, a screen ranging from 16" to 17", a full-sized keyboard generally with a separate number pad. The prices ranging from $450 to 5 times that if you let your kid talk you into something like an Alienware "gaming" laptop! These are not for B.Y.O.D. These are for you to set on that desk in the den to replace the old desktop computer.....hence "desktop replacement".
• "Think & Light"- Actually, not all that thin OR all that light. They tend to be in the 5 pound range, which is a lot in today's world. Think desktop replacement with a smaller keyboard and screen. These are the compromise notebooks that corporations buy their workers by the thousands. They can run anywhere from the $350 Acer at Walmart all the way up to the $2500-3000 ones that Fortune 500 companies buy for their workers jetting around all over the world. However, they do tend to show up on the used market by the pallet-load, so they are great (read cheap) deals if you know where and how to look for/at them. Look at some of my previous posts about why and how to buy them.
• "Sub-notebooks/Ultra-portable"- These are smaller (and consequently lighter) notebooks that are less than 5 pound (often around 3lbs) with screens in the 12" range. This combination of small size and light weight make them almost perfect for the older student. One important caveat though: these are NOT netbooks! These are full computer with full computing capabilities in a smaller size. The new price for them range from $500/600 all the way up to the well over $1000 "Ultrabooks". Like the thin & lights, corporations tend to buy them by the thousands, so they can also be had easily on the used market which I cover briefly later.
• Microsoft Surface Tablet- These are actually kinda cool. They are actually real computers despite what they look like. Basically you have a form that's a bit of a thicker tablet, but they come with kind of a full keyboard. Despite their ridiculous commercials that don't tell you anything useful, they are essentially a full computer. They start at less than $500 for the cheaper version, so they aren't out of the ballpark. Go and touch it and play with it and see if your student is OK with it's idiosyncracies.

OK, now that we have that settled, let's talk about getting them into a laptop that they can carry, vs. carry for a few days and totally not carry again. Kinda like my rather petite student who started the year carrying a full-sized desktop replacement HP with a 16" screen. She completely didn't understand why I was laughing at her, until she stopped carrying it! So, don't be that parent...please. But how do you get into an appropriate sized laptop without, killing the budget? This is where we hear the siren call of the tablet. You see the ads: $300-350 they say.....$249 on "Black Friday"! Don't do it; step away from that Sunday ad! Then what should I do, you say?

Go boring. Many schools like mine will give you the option of "checking out" a perfectly adequate machine. Ours high school has the ThinkPad X200/201. These are not "cool". They are not "sexy". They are NOT MacBook Airs. They do not cost $1000-1200! If your kid breaks this, you might be out $200.

But what if my school doesn't have a program like this? Here are the options:

• Go to Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Micro Center, Fry's, wherever and buy the least expensive computer under $500 made by a company you've heard of. Here's the thing: If you can make this thing last 3 years, you will have only spent about $150 a year. Just don't be tempted to buy the cooler one that cost more. Regardless how cool it was in the store, it will completely not be cool in 6 months.
• If you are brave and know a little bit about computers, go onto eBay or Craigs List and find Dells that are branded Latitude (not Inspiron), Lenovo ThinkPad, HPs that are branded EliteBook (not Pavilion), that are around 3 years old (when they are surplused or come off-lease). Great deals can be had at about half the price of new in a machine that's built for the corporate world. Prices vary a lot.
• Find a small, "Mom & Pop" computer shop that take the "off-lease" laptops and refurbish them. This means that they'll reload the operating system and make sure the machine is working well. You have to look hard, but they can be found around any good-sized city. Dallas has quite a few around Garland, Carrollton/Farmers-Branch, and Arlington. You'll pay a little more, but the hard part is done for you.

Anything else? Yup: don't buy Anti-Virus when you buy the machine. There are a bunch of good ones that are free, ranging from the Avast (that we use), to AVG (which we've used before), to Microsoft Security Essentials (which we used to use). What about an "office" application? If you don't want to spend the $100 on M$ Office for Students & Teachers, use Google Apps, or download Open Office. With everything from Adobe Acrobat Reader and Flash to Browsers, etc. available free these days, there's precious few things you should have to buy.

Here at Frugal Propellerhead headquarters, we just don't believe in spending a lot of money on technology. In today's world, it's essential, and I even love it, but I try to be as cheap about it as possible. I know, I've thrown a lot of unknowns at you if you aren't a computer geek like me. Please feel free to comment or email me and I'll try and answer your specific questions to the best of my ability.