Looking to get a school laptop for your kid but are tight on a budget? laptops can be quite expensive and may not be used to their full capability when given to a kid for just school activities. Don’t sweat it, I’ve got you covered. Manufacturers have you in mind, there are an array of laptop devices that would comfortably fit into the budget and would not disappoint when it comes to performance. In this article, I’ve put together a list of affordable laptops your kids can use for school work.
Budget laptops For your Kids’ school activities
Unlike their costly siblings, this group of laptops are equipped with less powerful components but are capable of carrying out day-to-day school activities like typing homework, school projects, Microsoft word, etc. They are lightweight and most suitable for kids to take to school.
1. HP Stream 11
The HP Stream is a lightweight laptop that your kids can easily fit into their backpacks. The Hp stream is a very cheap laptop that was going for a price of $200 at the time of its release. You shouldn’t be expecting it to compete with top-notch laptops but considering it’s just for school activities, it is suitable for kids’ school work.
The design of the laptop is most suitable for kids as it is designed to have a fun toy appeal. It is smallish weighing about 2.5 pounds with 11.6 inches display, it would effortlessly fit into your kid’s school bag. The display isn’t all that colourful, so it might not be suitable for kids in art class. If you’re worried about the brightness affecting the eyes of the kids, the display brightness goes nothing beyond 188 nits.
How about the HP Stream 11’s performance? The HP Stream comes with a 1.6GHz N4000 processor and Intel Graphics 400. Not to mention the 4GiGs of RAM. The HP stream does pretty well under minor stress conditions like coping with the 10 web browsers tab alongside streaming a youtube video. When overworked, you might experience some lag but your kid should be fine with it.
2. Lenovo IdeaPad 1i
The Lenovo Ideapad 1i is available in two colors and is meant to be the right companion for your kid’s everyday school computing needs.
It has 4GB of RAM, which means your kids can perform several tasks without difficulty. This notebook has an 11-inch display with HD resolution and a battery life of up to 8 hours and 30 minutes. Because of its long battery life, this laptop would be perfect for school since it can be moved about without worrying about charging.
When it comes to performance, the laptops come bundled with an Intel Celeron N4020 coupled with an Intel graphics 600 and 4 GiGs of RAM. The 64SSD may be too small since your kid is going to want to have a lot of media files on the system. However, the SSD offers better overall performance as compensation for the small disk size. Anyone would choose performance over disk size.
The “engine” of the machine is covered with plastic, not expensive but also not durable. Anyway, this is expected as other laptops in this range are also covered with plastic.
3. Lenovo Chromebook S330
Like other laptops within its price range, the Lenovo Chromebook S330 comes with a basic plastic build. The Chromebook s330 is the odd man out in this list as it features a MediaTek MTK 8173C processor in place of the dominant Intel or AMD processor. The MediaTek processor is composed of four cores, that is, it is a quad-core processor with speeds reaching 1.7 GHz. Unlike the regular laptop, it features the Chrome OS which is built for performing simple everyday tasks, like typing and reading documents, playing media files, etc.
The Chromebook comes bundled with a 4GB DDR3 Ram which should be more than enough for your kid. Now to the graphics, the Lenovo Chromebook S330 houses a PowerVR GX6250 Graphics with a frequency of 7ooMHz. Your kids can play mid-range games from the Andriod platform comfortably.
The display of the Chromebook S330 comes with an FHD 1920 x 1080 pixel screen resolution. It should provide quality pictures although the viewing angles are poor. The screen is also not so bright, it has a brightness of 220 nits. So there is no need to fear any brightness hazard.
4. Apple MacBook Air (highly recommended)
The Apple MacBook Air is one of the heavyweight contenders on our list. This laptop is more suitable for kids who perform more demanding tasks at school. Unlike other contenders in this list, the Apple MacBook Air features a Corei5 dual-core processor with a frequency of 1.3GHz. It also features a Turbo Boot which means the laptop’s processor frequency can be over-clocked. With Turbo Boost, the frequency can be increased to 2.6GHz. that twice the original speed of the device.
The battery life surprisingly is also awesome, Apple didn’t leave any loopholes in this system. The battery can last up to 12 hours on average usage, it can easily handle tasks like word processing, presentations, email, and more.
Another unique feature of the MacBook in this list of laptops you can get your kids for school is the Flash Memory Storage technology. With this tech, your kids would be able to boot up the device almost instantaneously, and launch applications at incredible speeds.
I already mentioned that the processor belongs to the Core i5 family, however, I forgot to mention that the core i5 is of the 4th generation. For fast transfer of files, the laptop comes with a USB 3.0 USB port which boasts speeds 10 times faster than its predecessor.
The display of the laptop is also remarkable, it features an Intel HD Graphics 5000, and a 1440 x 900 screen resolution. The hard disk drive is also built for speed. It comes bundled with a 256GB SSD which should not only improve performance but also make storing files on the laptop fast and provides space for them.
This is a laptop that your kid can use for a while.
5. HP Chromebook 11 G4
The HP Chromebook 11 G4 is a simplistic laptop built to cover just simple day-to-day tasks. This is designed to mimic an Android device with a physical keypad. This device is small and would be best suited for younger kids who would want to use this as a learning aid. Although, it can still perform simple tasks like word processing, and other tasks it won’t handle the more complex tasks.
It is an old Chromebook with the feeling of an Android device, it does not have a hard disk drive, instead, it comes with a 16GB or 32 eMMC memory chip which is soldered to the motherboard of the device. As I said, it feels like an Android device and isn’t meant for anything hard.
The display is also not the best on the list, although is very mobile and can be moved about easily. The display is 11.6 inches and features a 1366 x 768-pixel screen resolution. The Intel HD graphics would also do fine for simple multimedia applications- it can handle anything fancy. It is not that bright as it can only shine to about 220nits but has an antiglare feature. This means you won’t be seeing your reflection that much on the screen.
To get into detail about its performance, it is equipped with an Intel Celeron N2840 dual-core processor running at a frequency of 2.16GHz. Although it comes with 2GB of RAM installed, it can be upgraded to 4GB RAM at most.
6. HP Chromebook 14
Chromebooks aren’t designed to run the latest photoshop or 3D rendering software, they have a minimalistic build but an attractive outlook. This makes them perfect for kids. The Chromebook 14 has a blue body casing which makes it very appealing to the eyes and would be fit for school kids.
Note that these brands of laptops aren’t built to run any heavy-duty application or task, however, even with their simplistic view, it is still functional and can compete with some window dedicated laptops.
The laptop is about 13.3 inches wide(diagonally) and weighs 2.97 -pounds. The case is entirely plastic, but that is the standard form built for laptops this size. On the side, HP mounts an HDMI-out port, a USB 3. port, a headphone jack, and an external SD card slot.
The body of the laptop is great, but is the performance of the HP Chromebook 14 as ecstatic as the build? The CPU runs at a frequency of 1.83GHz powered by an Intel Celeron N2940 processor. The processor is made up of multiple cores, or more precisely, it features a quad-core processor that can overclock to 2.25GHz. The CPU is supported by Intel Graphics which wouldn’t do much but just enough for simple applications and basic graphic demanding tasks.
There is enough RAM to multitask, however, the 4GB RAM can only do so much on a 16GB eMMC memory card. In today’s world, online schooling has become popular. The Chromebook features HP’s TrueVision HD webcam which can be used for online classes and communication with classmates.
7. Lenovo Chromebook Flex 3
Any laptop that costs that little is certain to have some significant flaws, and the Flex 3 is no exception. If you’re the type of buyer who’s ready to put those concerns aside, however, this small IdeaPad has a few nice surprises up its sleeve. It even gives substantially more expensive smartphones a run for their money in a few areas (most notably battery life).
surprisingly, for just a little more cash, Lenovo installs two USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 1 ports, two USB 3.1 Type-A Gen 1 ports (one on each side, which is incredibly convenient for charging and connecting accessories), as well as a MicroSD reader, an audio combo line, and a lock slot, which is more modern than I’d expect at this price point.
The laptop configuration is powered by an Intel dual-core Celeron N4020 processor. The Celeron is not anywhere close to Intel’s top-tier performing laptops but it does hold its own and is supported by the 4GB RAM. Another feature that I don’t personally like is the eMMC mobile phone type storage that Lenovo has decided to install for this device.
The device can handle multitasking when the tasks are simple programs that don’t require many resources. While the more-than-average laptop user would find this laptop to be an android device with a keyboard, it would be perfect for school kids.
8. Dell Chromebook 11
Dell’s Chromebook 11 is most likely the odd-looking laptop on this list. The stunt-looking machine can be deceiving to the eyes though. The exterior is unsurprisingly made of plastic and doesn’t occupy much space. So it would be easy to transport. The odd look of the Dell Chromebook 11 comes from the rubber bumpers which serve as a cushion during a fall. The laptop measures 8.2 inches but weighs 2.8 pounds.
This Laptop is also available as a 2-in-1 convertible version that can be rotated 360 degrees to use as a tablet. On the side of the Laptops are positioned two USB Type-C ports, it also has the regular Type-A ports. Its smallish size is fit for kids and their school activities. The battery can last for about 10 hours playing videos, so there is no need to worry about battery life.
In the aspect of performance, the Chromebook 11 is powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron N4020 processor supported by a 4GBmemory. This is not a laptop you would want to use to run windows, besides, Chromebooks are much more similar to the Android operating system. The display is not the best but it would serve its purpose.
The Bottom Line
Kids don’t usually need all the features that a regular laptop provides. So getting them “mini laptops” or laptops with specifications just suitable for school activities and entertainment would save you lots of money. These laptops were specifically built as a cheaper but dependable alternative to the other brand of high-end laptops. They support all basic features you can find in the regular laptops and can confidently run basic tasks like typing school documents or assignments, some have webcams for online classes, download-watch, and stream videos, play music, store school files, and many more. To conclude, this article has provided you with budget laptops you can get for your kids for school.
