Staff Laptops

[lmrogers]

I have been asked to look at getting around 90 laptops for our teaching staff. They want them to be mobile, light and have a minimum of 4GB RAM and an SSD.

 

What's good on the market at the minute and what are others using?

 

Cheers

[Dos_Box]

Are you bothered about using refurbished equipment?

[Passat1983ICTech]

windows surface i would go for but look a refurbished laptops ICT direct CSS media bist group and Refurbished Desktop PC and laptops - Buy a Cheap Second Hand Laptop UK, Tier1Online.com her is the link as we for Tier1i have got contacts for both CSS media and bist group just message us Edited May 9, 2018 by Passat1983ICTech

[ITJS2015]

Refurbs would be a very good option depending on supplier. I would future proof them to be I5s and at least 8gb ram but depending on the processor generation.

 

You should not be looking at anything below an i5 as your machine will be slowing down a lot and would require a rebuild after it first year. Generation5 chip and about would be your best bet for future proof of going down the refurb root

[ICTDirect_Dave]

We can certainly help!

 

All our laptops are i5 too! Drop me a PM and I'll go over some options with you.

[yac2016]

Brand new Dell Vostro - i3 7th Gen, 4gb, 128gb ssd, with 10 pro and 3 year warranty are around £370 ex VAT at the moment...

[Andycat]

We've gone for Lenovo L470 last 2 years. Custom build how you want. Solid so far

[blu4]

We have the Dell Vostro i3 6th gen, 4GB, 128GB SSD, AC Wi-Fi. The are around £400 inc 3yNBD warranty.

[lmrogers]

We have the Dell Vostro i3 6th gen, 4GB, 128GB SSD, AC Wi-Fi. The are around £400 inc 3yNBD warranty.

 

Where are you purchasing them from?

 

Thanks,

[mavhc]

Dell do decent education discounts, however they stopped making the Dell Vostro 5468 14" laptops we bought, annoying. Got them for staff, even the one that was thrown across the room still works, although the case is bent and a bit if missing, screen survived though.

[yac2016]

We have the Dell Vostro i3 6th gen, 4GB, 128GB SSD, AC Wi-Fi. The are around £400 inc 3yNBD warranty.

 

Miss these ones January 2017 - £289 each with 3 year warranty. Can't get them prices in 2018!

[robjduk]

Bought our lot HP 430 G5 laptops. 8th Gen i5, 8GB RAM, SSD and 13 inch screen makes them light. About £500 each. Really happy with HP support too.

[Andycat]

Bought our lot HP 430 G5 laptops. 8th Gen i5, 8GB RAM, SSD and 13 inch screen makes them light. About £500 each. Really happy with HP support too.

 

We're having a disaster with HP support at the moment, I won't buy Laptops again.

[psydii]

Make sure they have a TPM 2.0 and support SecureBoot. Without these features you (and your users) will have all sorts of hoops to leap through to ensure they are not a liability wrt data protection.

 

128Gb could easily be too small an SSD. 256 seems prudent. You can get away with 4GB ram providing you do have SSDs.

 

Make sure you get 2x2 802.11ac wave 2 cards that support MU-MIMO, even if you don't have a wave 2 wireless network at the moment, if you are investing in laptop strategy, you will likely have wave 2 APs while these laptops are still in circulation. In my experience wave 2 kit gives sufficient additional capacity that thing like WU don't cripple the end user experience.

[HTCPCP]

In Education, I bought a bunch of VeryPC ThinBook 14s - and I think I had 1 where it was actually killed by a teacher (out of 30). Has the option of branding so teachers are less likely to 'forget' to bring them back etc

 

In business I tend to go for the HP Probook 440, with 3yr NBD warranty, and not had any issues with them. They don't take well to being dropped or yanked about with the charger plugged in, as they use the same charging connectors as a lot of the thinner Dells do (but are more robust than the dell ones).

Lenovo X2 Series - Not quite as light, but will take a few knocks and a bit of a battering.

[blu4]

Where are you purchasing them from?

 

Thanks,

 

We got them from Millgate IT

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

In Education, I bought a bunch of VeryPC ThinBook 14s - and I think I had 1 where it was actually killed by a teacher (out of 30). Has the option of branding so teachers are less likely to 'forget' to bring them back etc

 

In business I tend to go for the HP Probook 440, with 3yr NBD warranty, and not had any issues with them. They don't take well to being dropped or yanked about with the charger plugged in, as they use the same charging connectors as a lot of the thinner Dells do (but are more robust than the dell ones).

Lenovo X2 Series - Not quite as light, but will take a few knocks and a bit of a battering.

 

Thanks for the mention @HTCPCP, that's ace :-)

 

Hi @lmrogers what you are sounds exactly like a VeryPC Thinbook to me! Pricing is pretty good now since the rebirth of Microsoft STF. Feel free to get in touch.

 

Best,

Col