Recommend Students a laptop

[networkmangler]

I have been asked to look at possibly recommending students a laptop for home use especially the new intake for next year

 

We aren't looking to go down the one-to-one route. More of a if you wanted to buy a laptop to use at home to do homework we recommend XYZ. It would ideally be more of a budget laptop than a gaming one (Although I know what the students would prefer)

 

I would just find a laptop and share a link but I know from experience some can have a high turn over. So I may recommend one and within a week it will be sold out and not available

 

Has anyone done this before?

Or have you even gone down the route of purchasing/selling laptops to students?

Or been a go between? where they buy the laptop from a third party but because they are all coming from us there is a discount?

 

We use Microsoft 365 so I would rather stick to a windows solution rather than a Chromebook or iPad is possible

[hardtailstar]

I would advise against recommending laptops for home use, If someone buys one you recommend then it goes belly up within a month it'll fall on you.

 

Recommend specs like

 

160GB SSD

8GB Ram

Win 10

i5 or newer.

Edited June 16, 2020 by elsiegee40

[Davit2005]

I would advise against recommending laptops for home use, If someone buys one you recommend then it goes belly up within a month it'll fall on you.

 

Recommend specs like

 

160GB SSD

8GB Ram

Win 10

i5 or newer.

 

+1 for this, only recommend specs.

 

I've been in a school where the IT curriculum staff had previously brought in representative who recommended a specific model/brand and it did go belly up. If it was for a friend then I probably would but for this I defo would not.

Edited June 16, 2020 by elsiegee40

[paulkerton]

Recommend a minimum spec, but don't recommend a device.

If someone goes off with the device, they'll point directly at you for telling them to buy it.

[networkmangler]

I would advise against recommending laptops for home use, If someone buys one you recommend then it goes belly up within a month it'll fall on you.

 

Recommend specs like

 

160GB SSD

8GB Ram

Win 10

i5 or newer.

 

This is probably the easiest solution to doing it and my most preferred. As you say I don't want to end up in a situation where i am getting emails saying you recommended this and now it doesn't work

 

The idea has partly come about because we have seen some companies selling cheap devices in bulk to schools. This is fine if buying as a school but not if individual families want to buy a laptop. It may even be a case of we could recommend a supplier of cheap devices rather than a particular device

Edited June 16, 2020 by elsiegee40

[elsiegee40]

Definitely don’t recommend anything specific.

 

- If there’s a problem with it... it’s your fault

- If they can’t buy it... it’s your fault.

 

Also, a significant number of parents will assume that what you say is the only thing they can use even when it isn’t.

 

Simply recommend a minimum specification. Your school will get considerably less aggro!

 

If your school’s SLT pushes you, remind them that manufacturers change the models available far too frequently. As soon as you write a list, it will be out of date.

 

Families can take a specification to any retailer and make their own judgement on affordability.

[jmak]

Agree with all the above. The only thing I'd add is that it might be worth giving a couple of options of spec, i.e. an absolute bare minimum, a recommended value option and a mention that if they're doing video processing, even that might not be enough.

 

We read lots in the press about kids being excluded because families can't afford a laptop. For most of them, something that'll run a decent number of browser tabs for online learning apps and Office 365 could be transformational whereas if you suggest a minimum of i5 with SSD, they might take one look and write the whole idea off as unaffordable.

[DrBeaker]

As per others..... Massive can of worms here.

 

As IT pros we'll all have a different idea of what we count as a minimum spec.

 

Make recommendations, not specifics.

[dhicks]

I have been asked to look at possibly recommending students a laptop for home use especially the new intake for next year

 

Depends on if there's a branch nearby (although they do online orders too), but we generally simply recommend John Lewis - their prices are okay (sometimes, actually, very good, and they sometimes do returns for cheap), you get good customer service and after-sales care and you can have a cup of tea and a scone while you're considering you're purchase.

[Norphy]

Depends on if there's a branch nearby (although they do online orders too), but we generally simply recommend John Lewis - their prices are okay (sometimes, actually, very good, and they sometimes do returns for cheap), you get good customer service and after-sales care and you can have a cup of tea and a scone while you're considering you're purchase.

 

Good call, actually, considering you also get a free two year warranty thrown in with any electrical goods purchase from them.