Recommend a laptop for trolley use

[localzuk]

I've been asked to spec/price up 30 laptops for trolleys for our primary school, that would need to last 5 years.

 

Any recommendations?

 

I'm thinking the spec needs be not much more than Core i3, 4GB RAM, 14 inch screen.

 

So far I've got the Dell Latitude E5420 on my list, Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E320, and the HP ProBook 6360b.

 

Anyone got any thoughts?

[Dom_]

Would also recommend the 3550's, have 5 schools with trolleys of 30 each, no problems so far

[edutech4schools]

Dell does a nice 5 year warranty offer.

 

I have recently purchased some Samsung 400B and they are very nice. I got them with a discount from stonecomputers but they only have 3 year warranty.

[JaTayler]

Most of our laptops in our Trolleys are HP Compaq 6730b machines.

Really reliable and if anything happens i.e. keyboards get broken, lcd's break etc... they're really easy to replace and quite cheap (if you don't go through HP Directly anyway...)

[difinity]

Big fan of Dell laptops and Lapsafes to keep them in. Easy and cheap, to source new and second hand Dell parts.

[Haptic]

If you go down the Dell route and opt for the high capacity batteries with the laptops, just ensure you get the revised dimensions. They tend to strut out slightly with the larger battery, which can then lead to problems with them fiitting into trolleys in that a trolley for 30 laptops as standard may only then fit 25 in.

 

 

Hope it helps.

 

Chris

[difinity]

If you go down the Dell route and opt for the high capacity batteries with the laptops, just ensure you get the revised dimensions. They tend to strut out slightly with the larger battery, which can then lead to problems with them fiitting into trolleys in that a trolley for 30 laptops as standard may only then fit 25 in.

 

 

Hope it helps.

 

Chris

 

Or do what we did and get secondary batteries that replace the cd roms.

[localzuk]

Or do what we did and get secondary batteries that replace the cd roms.

 

Wouldn't be much use to us, due to the amount of CD-ROM requiring software they have over there.

[exim]

How many of you guys now have to ship laptop trolleys between classrooms all day because teachers can't be arsed to teach and would rather have their students stick their heads in a laptop all day in the name of it being an "essential resource" and management bowing down to keep them happy because there supposedly aren't enough IT suites?

[localzuk]

Moving laptop trolleys around is the job of the teacher who wants the laptops in their lesson. They collect it, or send some kids to collect it, then return it at the end - where it is checked by a couple of our teachers (who volunteered to do the booking/checking), and if it is in a mess, the person who borrowed it is told to sort it out.

[Guest Guest]

Do you/your lea have a Dell premier account? Have a look at the "standard build systems". I'm just ordering a load of Optiplex 390s i3 4gb ram, 21.5 pro 1080p led monitors, 5yr warranty, £413.

 

For the same thing if I specced it myself would be over £500.

 

Only mention it as I don't usually look there as they tend to be very underspecced.

 

 

Personally I like the Vostros. Not badly built for the money.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Guest