Recommendation of Chromebooks for a high school

[aia125]

Hi, Are there any recommended models of chromebooks? Requirements as below:

 

- Budget below £250 each

- At least 4 GB RAM, with 64GB storage

- Display: 14"

- Usage for high school students (mainly Chrome browsing, Frog and assessments, web-filtering enabled)

- Prefered brands : HP, Samsung or others (but not Lenovo)

 

We are looking for something similiar to this model:

https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/product.aspx?id=4H2A1EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks alot!

[dhicks]

Are there any recommended models of chromebooks?

 

The current issue of PC Pro magazine has a group test of Chromebook Plus devices, capable of running things like the web-based version of Photoshop. About the cheapest device they look at is the Asus CR11 Flip, arouynd £317 retail, but you might get a cheaper price than that via a reseller in bulk. The reviewer wasn't that impressed, but most of the things they disliked (somewhat chunky if robust design) might actually be features for an education device.

[PotNoodleTech]

Good luck with the under £250 requirement the days of picking up lenovo 100e or dell 11 for £150 each are long gone.

[Millgate_Jimbo]

Hey Aia,

 

Any particular reason not Lenovo?

 

I can look for some other brands for you though if you want to PM your details i can drop you a quote

 

Cheers,

 

Hi, Are there any recommended models of chromebooks? Requirements as below:

 

- Budget below £250 each

- At least 4 GB RAM, with 64GB storage

- Display: 14"

- Usage for high school students (mainly Chrome browsing, Frog and assessments, web-filtering enabled)

- Prefered brands : HP, Samsung or others (but not Lenovo)

 

We are looking for something similiar to this model:

https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/product.aspx?id=4H2A1EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks alot!

[rogerdnixon]

ASUS Chromebook Plus CX3402CBA - 8Gb, i3-1215U and 128Gb SSD. Great device and very fast - about £217 ext VAT on Amazon.

[TheHyperTechie]

If you can get them from a supplier, I would recommend these - ASUS Chromebook Plus CX3402 14" (https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Chromebook-CX3402CBA-i3-1215U-Operating/dp/B0CFM5SG9B)

 

I have a supplier who can get these currently for £240.

 

i3, 128gb SSD, 8gb ram, backlit keyboard, lots of ports and has auto updates until 2032.

[Chris_Cook]

Are you after touch or non-touch? That will add to the price.

 

Asus and Dell are good. ICT direct had something some chromebooks at one point I think.

 

We've been using Asus CR1s for last years 1-2-1 devices and are staying with the same for this coming september as well. The only thing we didn't like was the screens pop out quite easily. Otherwise they are strong and easy to fix.

[aia125]

Thanks for the reply wi th recommendation. Non-touch should be meeting our current basic requirement.

[PotNoodleTech]

I would strongly advise non touch if you wish to keep them going for 5 years, as touch Chromebooks generally can be unrepairable due to lack of replacement touch screens.

 

Also I would avoid Acer as 60% of our acer fleet is now in the skip which is much higher than any other brand I've had.

[dmj]

I would strongly advise non touch if you wish to keep them going for 5 years, as touch Chromebooks generally can be unrepairable due to lack of replacement touch screens.

 

I didn't find this to be an issue. I ran a 1:1 device scheme with 2000 devices and we allowed 20% for repairs. There will be enough broken bodies/mainboards that you will be able to salvage the screens from. These were Lenovo Yoga's though so other brands may not be as robust. (£180 at the time, but this is going back a few years now).

[PotNoodleTech]

I didn't find this to be an issue. I ran a 1:1 device scheme with 2000 devices and we allowed 20% for repairs. There will be enough broken bodies/mainboards that you will be able to salvage the screens from. These were Lenovo Yoga's though so other brands may not be as robust. (£180 at the time, but this is going back a few years now).

 

If you allowed 20% of the project cost in repairs then I can see why you did not struggle. I am trying to keep it to 10% here. :/

 

The problem is nowadays your paying more for the chromebooks and more for the parts. 150 for a Lenovo screen for a 300e touch (100% of it's value) or 30 for a "budget" screen for a 100e (15% of it's value) That's why I am only buying 100e now as a screen break doesn't write the Chromebook off.

 

I know of a school that went all touch screen and now has 75% of the fleet damaged. Is it better to have people go yay touch screen for a year and then have no working chromebooks in year 3? I think it's better to say sorry no touch screens and then have 99% of your fleet running after 3 years. Sustainability is the hidden cost of 1:1 for a lot of schools who don't realise like you did that you gotta pay 120% of the project costs over the lifetime.

[dmj]

If you allowed 20% of the project cost in repairs then I can see why you did not struggle. I am trying to keep it to 10% here. :/

 

Yeah, the estimate turned out to be pretty good.

The actual attrition was 20% over three years. We'd buy in bulk for each yeargroup (300 is students) so would buy 360 machines and sell them back to parents with 3yrs support.

I don't think we ever needed to pay for additional parts as we always had stock.

School would pay for FSM or discount is there was more than one child from the same family.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yeah, the estimate turned out to be pretty good.

The actual attrition was 20% over three years. We'd buy in bulk for each yeargroup (300 is students) so would buy 360 machines and sell them back to parents with 3yrs support.

I don't think we ever needed to pay for additional parts as we always had stock.

School would pay for FSM or discount is there was more than one child from the same family.

 

Oh right even easier to keep your budget in check if your selling them to parents.

 

I'm funding it all myself here.

[dhicks]

I know of a school that went all touch screen and now has 75% of the fleet damaged.

 

We have touch (and stylus) capable devices for pupils in all our classrooms, stored in charging cabinets overnight rather than being carried to/from school daily. We've not had any problems with large numbers of device screens failing, just the odd one or two. It maybe depends on the school, our pupils tend to be quite well behaved but they are still children and do sometimes bash the devices around a bit. We tend to get a lot of broken USB ports where they pull the charging cables out, fortunatly most devices have two charging ports so we haven't had too many devices completly dead. The devices with syluses stored in the case itself got them instantly lost, so I don't think anyone uses the stylus.