Which Laptop for Teachers?

[BatchFile]

Now the new financial year has arrived, I'm starting to think about getting our next batch of laptops for teachers in. The following are all available within £5 of each other from one my usual suppliers though I'll ask the Edusponsors for quotes later. Based on your experiences, rumours or manufacturer predjudices, which ones would you go for?

 

Toshiba Satellite Pro L450-17K Windows 7 Laptop PS - Laptops Direct

 

Lenovo G550 Laptop NTD4YUK - Laptops Direct

 

Samsung R510-FAADUK Laptop NP-R510-FAADUK - Laptops Direct

Edited April 12, 2010 by BatchFile

[jcollings]

I think of those I'd go with the Samsung. I've always found Samsung pretty reliable too.

 

These are a good offer at the moment if you can eek a bit more cash out.

 

Compaq 610 Notebook PC - Misco.co.uk

[BatchFile]

Yeah, the Samsung's a slightly higher spec, too- Core2Duo rather than straight Celeron.

 

Interested to see you've found them reliable - I'm glad I posted this now, my only experience with a Samsung was in my previous job - they gave me one and the motherboard died, whereas we've had quite a bit of Lenovo and Toshiba kit here and it's been pretty well fine, but if Samsungs are generally OK the chip could swing it:)

[Potato-Peeler]

Samsung are normally cracking never seem to break.

[jcollings]

Yes - we used Samsungs a lot in the early days of laptops for teachers and they seemed ok. We also use loads on NC10 etc netbooks and they seem good too. Mind you I could equally say that about Tosh & Lenovo as we've had good experiences of that too. The processor would swing it for me if I were choosing.

 

Thing about laptops for teachers is they send the laptop but still make us keep the teachers - I thought it was a swap scheme!

[Haptic]

How about Dell Laptops ?

[Iain.Faulkner]

We've been buying these recently....

 

Toshiba Satellite Pro A300-2C4 Notebook PC - Misco.co.uk

 

I know it's a little more expensive, but with the £50 cashback it's a significantly higher spec than the other Toshiba on the list and only a couple of quid more. We've now got about 10 of them, and not had a fault as yet, plus the cashback offer seems to come through fairly quickly.

[BatchFile]

How about Dell Laptops ?

 

I'm listening...

 

Some of the D505's these are to replace are in their 9th year! (others that have croaked have been canibalised for parts to keep them going having said that)

[laserblazer]

Toshiba has always had a good educational 3 year warranty scheme but like the Cashback, you need to follow their rules to the letter.

[Haptic]

Take a look at the Dell Vostro range as shown below , they are superb and I say this as not only a seller but a user who owns a 1520 which is stylish , quick and well built,

[FN-GM]

Take a look at the Dell Vostro range as shown below , they are superb and I say this as not only a seller but a user who owns a 1520 which is stylish , quick and well built,

 

Below where?

[BatchFile]

Glad you said that, I'd been looking at my feet for several minutes but the laptop hadn't appeared:p

[Haptic]

oops failed lol

 

Vostro Laptops / Notebooks for Business | Dell UK

[WadeR32]

We have used Dell Vostro's, Latitudes and Acer's with the odd toshiba.

 

My personal opinion is to stay well clear of the Vostro's and go for the latitudes. From my experience the vostro's appear to have a poor build quality compared to the latitude.

 

If you get chance have a look at both of them for yourself.

[Haptic]

We have used Dell Vostro's, Latitudes and Acer's with the odd toshiba.

 

My personal opinion is to stay well clear of the Vostro's and go for the latitudes. From my experience the vostro's appear to have a poor build quality compared to the latitude.

 

If you get chance have a look at both of them for yourself.

 

interesting that you say this as out of the thousands of vostro's we have provided to schools and colleges i would say we have only had issues with delivery damage and like I say as a Vostro 1520 user I have first hand experience of the build quality which for a sub £500 laptop is exceptional ,

what problems di you have ?

[FN-GM]

From my experience i would also day go for Latitude than Vostro. The build quality tends to be allot better.

 

Z

[Soulfish]

I'd also agree to go with Latitude rather than Vostro if at all possible. I've found the vostro range tend to use NICs that make it difficult to image a PC through FOG/Ghost/WDS whereas the latitude range use Intel NICs.

[BatchFile]

I was having a look at this last night on Dell's website - it looks like Intel NICs are a no-cost option on the Vostro but they're about fifty quid (?iirc) out of the price range we're looking at with the dual core (unless Simon can work some magic) and only the roughly same spec as the Samsungs that I was looking at anyway

 

Edit: Ignore me, that's the wireless NIC that can be Intel on a no cost option

Edited April 13, 2010 by BatchFile
Brain rot

[Haptic]

send me over a quick pm with volume details and spec requirements and I'll work on a quote for you straight away Tony

[ITCONSULTANT]

The Toshiba's are highly reliable and a good fit for education, with the warrant and money back guarantee it is great value and I have worked with lots of schools that have used them.

[Rydra]

I bought 3 toshiba L450's a couple months ago, and bought my wife one before Xmas.

 

My only complaint as far as use in schools, is the lids on them have a LOT of space in them, resulting in the lids being a little flimsy. So chances of cracking the cases the way most teachers treat them is quite high.

 

But the price and spec of the toshiba's otherwise is good.

 

On the chip side, Core2Duo > AMD > Celeron is the order i'd base my choices on, and i'd happily spend 20-50 more on a C2D or AMD than one of their celerons.

[aerospacemango]

From my experience i would also day go for Latitude than Vostro. The build quality tends to be allot better.

 

Z

 

My college bought in 100+ of the Vostro's last summer.

 

The imaging of them was easy....however, as pointed out, the build quality seems to be lacking a little.

 

Out of the 100+, we had about 5% with initial start-up failures. Some of these were HDD problems, some were motherboard.

 

Almost a year in, and I still worry about the fragility of the keyboards (which tend to bend easily). Though I have to say that we have had less than 1% come back to us since the build went on. We started with a Vista Business build, and have progressed to a 7 build, which will be rolled out over the summer. This should be a way to keep them as fresh as possible.

 

Hope this helps you make your mind up!