Replacing netbooks

[crc-ict]

We have 7 trolleys of netbooks here currently, and quite a large batch of them are becoming due for replacement this year.

 

With the general demise of netbooks and the resulting non-availability, I was wondering what other schools are doing about replacing them?

 

As I'd like to be trying to keep the same trolleys, and that the small size suits our KS1 and 2 children, I would be looking for similar-sized machines and similar price-point to a netbook.

 

What has everyone been doing about this?

 

I was thinking about the tablet route (especially as we are a Win 8 school) but prices for a decent x86 Win8 tablet are still quite high and I'm not sure we are ready for the form factor just yet.

 

Cheers!

[DarrenM]

To stick with the price and size of netbooks you'd have to go for a tablet of some kind.

 

I'm buying a stack of Asus S3 ultrabooks, they come in at just under £400 but they are 13 inch screens so too big for your trolley.

 

I did a search for "Windows 8 netbook" and found Acer Aspire One 725 Netbook PC £242 sounds like a good fit but the review I found didn't rate it as much of a keeper.

 

Hope you get a decent solution together.

[jmak]

Why not snap up some netbooks while they're still around? We have some Samsungs that I've been impressed with - I know they're not as "good" as small notebooks for only £100 more, but for us the form factor works, they're plenty powerful enough for our purposes and I can get 50% increase in numbers deployed to the kids. The current models with the dual core atom processors are significantly better than the HPs I bought a couple of years ago. And if you're ready for Win 8, I'd hazard they'll be significantly quicker too.

 

I don't know what I'll replace mine with in another couple of years - maybe convert them to thin clients...

[DavidScott]

Netbooks will continue to be around for the foreseeable, this is because they provide decent enough performance at a relatively low price and this ticks a lot of boxes for schools. Add in the fact that they play nicely on a domain and run most previously used educational software (if it isn't written in Android or iOS then tablets tend to disrupt things) and you'll see why netbooks will remain on the market for use in classrooms - albeit from a smaller range of suppliers and potentially a bit more specialist in use.

 

Take the Classmate 2S Classmate 2S - a netbook and tablet in one, a product designed specifically for use in primary classrooms.