Disadvantaged children across England are set to receive laptops and tablets

[enjay]

HP225 g7 , AMD A4 processor, 4GB, 128SSD. "pre-installed mobile device management for the collection of addresses websites visited when using the device". Links to Office 365 on desktop.

 

So, according to Intel Core i3 3220 vs AMD A4 5300 that CPU is out-performed by an i3. So, the laptops will browse but not much else in the long-run. Seems a bit like someone looked at the spec of the Chromebook and then got similar in Windows without understanding the different technologies.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I've not even had the invitation to register yet!

 

Me either. I wonder whether the laptops will arrive before or after the students return to school...

[jimmy_2k]

Were an LEA school so all of the communications has gone via one of our Assistant heads and someone at the local authority. They lowered our original allocation number but I think the devices have now been ordered. I might or might not be the delivery contact!

[Arthur]

If they’re offering A4 powered kit, I’d suggest that someone has (very smartly) used this situation to offload a batch of old, weak selling units.

This is precisely the reason I made sure my school selected Chromebooks. The Windows laptops were always going to be underpowered.

 

Btw, this is the Chromebook the students get (in England at least)...

 

 

The Dell Chromebook 3100 has Chrome OS updates from Google until June 2026.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Arthur

[3s-gtech]

Interestingly, the devices that are being revealed as part of the Welsh Government’s IT improvement funding are modern units (typically Ryzen powered). Whoever put together the bid process for that knew exactly what they were doing.

[Tester2000]

So, according to Intel Core i3 3220 vs AMD A4 5300 that CPU is out-performed by an i3. So, the laptops will browse but not much else in the long-run. Seems a bit like someone looked at the spec of the Chromebook and then got similar in Windows without understanding the different technologies.

That's a 8 year old i3 to boot! They are fairly quick at getting into the OS, however being a 2 core/2 thread CPU it is worked hard for basic tasks.

The ones we have received so far have been issued by the DFE through our local council under a slightly separate scheme to the one outlined by Government I believe. I could however see them using the same supplier/product for the second scheme. The supplier for these ones has been Computacenter.

 

This is precisely the reason I made sure my school selected Chromebooks. The Windows laptops were always going to be underpowered.

 

Btw, this is the Chromebook the students get...

 

This is very interesting! We were initially offered the option of Chromebooks and/or Windows PC's however were later informed that Chromebooks weren't available and we'd only be supplied Windows machines, which while we're grateful for having devices provided, it does cause our particular schools a lot more headaches than Chromebooks would have. At least they aren't cheaping out on the Chromebooks opting for the 4GB RAM models over 2GB ones.

[mikes]

Interestingly, the devices that are being revealed as part of the Welsh Government’s IT improvement funding are modern units (typically Ryzen powered). Whoever put together the bid process for that knew exactly what they were doing.

 

How did you get these units dude? We had to buy chromebooks ourselves so obviously we bought the cheapest most basic ones we could find. (Mind due to Chrome not being as bloated as Windows, even the cheap ones run very well)

We were even given some old units from another school; we get their unwanted units and they get brand new units in return?

This is in the Vale.

We have just bought 50 so we have 55 in total. We just bought 20 and then the news came out we will be returning in July so it does seem a bit pointless; however if we can keep them they will make great classroom loaner laptops.

Or is the plan that the disadvantaged pupils will keep them for as long as they are in School for (as they'll still need to do online homework?)

Edited June 4, 2020 by mikes

[3s-gtech]

Not got them yet! The options drop all the way to low-end stuff, but the kit ranges are varied and pretty good. This is for Hwb funding rather than disadvantaged learners though - I just thought it was an interesting comparison.

 

As for the machines for disadvantaged learners, which just pulled together all of our laptops, took them off the domain, and sent those out. They can stay with those students as long as they need to - certainly won’t be having them back while the return is only partial.

[mavhc]

Surely a Celeron is worse than an A4.

[OllieC]

No sign of the registration/ordering link yet, but we have picked up a load of the Windows laptops through the LEA on Friday - I'm leaving them as-is. Don't have any cloud filtering solution and don't fancy adding force-tunnel load of these to the VPN (plus, it's something else for someone to have a problem with and need support with). As long as the kids have them I'm not precious about how exactly they're set up as long as I know there's the filtering safeguards on there.

 

I had a rare trip in to school yesterday, brought one back with me to work out any quirks (like installing 365) to adapt documentation to our requirements; then just need to write a loan agreement then someone can slap asset stickers on them and hand them out.

 

I imagine that by October 2020, we'll be taking them back off them for use in school, at which point I can just nuke and set up as per normal school devices (maybe I'm being optimistic.. who knows!).

[Andycat]

Yes we've not had the invite to register yet either.

[pete]

In Lincolnshire we've just had the email about social care laptops being delivered to schools in the next 2-3 weeks.

[mikeprice]

Education Sec is just answering question in the House at the moment

 

Many have been delivered and the rest are on their way and are on schedule

 

other versions of reality may exist

[paulkerton]

Surely a Celeron is worse than an A4.

 

Not always, as well you know.

[DavidLong]

I have just had the email and been able to order, 5 working day delivery apparently! We shall see.

[fiza]

We have just had a delivery of Dongles. I received a login for a Dashboard where I can see that each dongle has a limit of 3 GB of data per month. That will get eaten up very quickly!

[pete]

We have just had a delivery of Dongles. I received a login for a Dashboard where I can see that each dongle has a limit of 3 GB of data per month. That will get eaten up very quickly!

 

They said they were revising that to 6GB/month a few thread pages ago. Depends if yours had already been provisioned at that point, but I'd hope they'd bump limits retroactively too.

[mwnci]

We've started to take deliveries of Chromebooks at our schools. In each instance we have received the Chromebook and cover - but no record of the management licence. Any ideas how we get hold of that and link it to our Google tenancy...?

[Arthur]

We've started to take deliveries of Chromebooks at our schools. In each instance we have received the Chromebook and cover - but no record of the management licence. Any ideas how we get hold of that and link it to our Google tenancy...?

The management licenses should get added to your G Suite domain assuming the person who ordered the Chromebooks through Computacenter's TechSource website correctly filled in the domain and (non-G Suite) recovery email fields.

 

If you email [email protected] with your order number and school name they might be able to help.

[keyboards]

Is there anything in g-suite to see who added what licenses and when? If no there should be, as we don't know if we've had ours added as we didn't know our total before

[ianurlgriffiths]

DFE Laptops\Chromebooks, any one got a copy of a letter for parents etc I can copy?

 

 

 

[keyboards]

I've sort of got caught in the middle of this, are they mean to be assigned to certain pupils or for schools direction

[johnpd]

So, the website for techsource has been published and I've not had an email about it yet for invitation to submit my order. I know my allocation for my trust, but that's all.

 

Am I in the same boat as others?

 

Incidentally, the website https://techsource.computacenter.com/ doesn't load for me.

 

Thanks

John

[Green_Goblin]

The link works for me, but like you I still haven't received the invitation

[browolf]

Received 98 boris laptops today.

 

They are 15.6" HP with AMD A4 processors which are about as powerful as a dual core E6600 but they have a 128 ssd at least. 4gb ram.

 

On the first boot it automatically logged on as ./localadmin. I joined it to my wifi and discovered it was locked down and couldn't install any other software. They come installed with chrome, updated Edge and Office tiles that link to office365. I couldn't see any other software.

 

On the second boot it went to the login screen and wanted me to put in the password which I don't know. After 5 minutes it magically transformed to the normal win10 login screen and invited me to log in with a work or school email.

 

However despite being connected to the wifi it doesn't let any email log in.

Edited June 11, 2020 by browolf

[Meldrew]

The link works for me, but like you I still haven't received the invitation

 

We haven't received the invitation either... but a load of devices has turned up today at different schools within our MAT.

 

I am so confused.

 

Edit: one of the deliveries I am told was dropped off by the fire service. I am starting to question my own sanity.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Meldrew