Cheap Chinese laptops, tablets, 2 in 1 whatever Round-up

[Tetsuo Muramasame]

As title said wanna see Cheapo Chinese tablets, laptops for school. Reqs are in range of 200~400$, runs full Win10, Ram size 6gb or more, FHD 1080p display no need to be touch, Tiny bezels for good stylish look, capable of run Windows Powerpoint Excel Documents etc with no noticeable lag, and keyboard and the body of 'kinda-premium(?)' feeling plastics and etcetera. Can be last longer than 1 year and a half or so, up to 2 years would be great. Size can be vary but bigeer that 12', to 14' at most.

 

Btw first time starting a discussion here, nice to meet you all.

[TetraSky]

Just limited to chinese brand new devices?

What about used devices that can be had in that price range and are often better than the brand new ones?

[Tetsuo Muramasame]

2 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Just limited to chinese brand new devices?

What about used devices that can be had in that price range and are often better than the brand new ones?

Yeah, of course, yes. Tho just for me tho just for me I'm currently living in Japan and means that it's way harder to find cheapo used stuffs here.

[dizmo]

I'd buy a used Lenovo or Surface Book before a cheap Chinese device.

[Tetsuo Muramasame]

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I'd buy a used Lenovo or Surface Book before a cheap Chinese device.

Yeah, but let's just see those Chinese stuffs, we all can go for used i3's and i5's anytime so

[Kisai]

3 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Just limited to chinese brand new devices?

What about used devices that can be had in that price range and are often better than the brand new ones?

 

All that means is "not Dell, HP or Apple", even though they all make the systems in China.

 

As for "cheap" laptops, I wouldn't touch them, not even for schools. All the Chromebook experiment has done is turned kids off computers because they have to deal with these ultra-crappy devices that the school board's IT department is ultimately not pleased with having to deal with either.

 

There are three requirements for a laptop to be usable:

 

1) The laptop must last an entire day, there is no excuse for a 14" or smaller laptop not to last at least 6 hours.

 

2) The laptop must be easily repaired without special tools. If two kids smash their laptops, one breaks the screen, the other breaks the keyboard, I want to be able to replace the screen and keyboard with a philips screw driver and maybe a guitar pick. If I can take the working keyboard from the one with the broken screen, I can make one working laptop, and then order a replacement screen and keyboard for the other one.

 

3) The laptop must work with what the school board/administration/government systems. It depends on the IT department's willingness to administrate these but if the kids can root the device then the device is a failure.

 

Kids do not want to use "last years" laptops, they want to keep their laptop for the 4 years or so they are in that school, and then have it replaced. You can not expect the parents to replace a $2000 laptop, let alone a $200 laptop. So at the end of the school year the school should collect all the machines from the kids, clean them up, and then re-issue them to the exact same students next year, thus incentivizing them to not destroy them. So each kid graduates with the same 4 year old laptop they started with and can keep them or return to the school district.

 

At least, that is how I'd do it.

 

[Tetsuo Muramasame]

6 minutes ago, Kisai said:

 

All that means is "not Dell, HP or Apple", even though they all make the systems in China.

 

As for "cheap" laptops, I wouldn't touch them, not even for schools. All the Chromebook experiment has done is turned kids off computers because they have to deal with these ultra-crappy devices that the school board's IT department is ultimately not pleased with having to deal with either.

 

There are three requirements for a laptop to be usable:

 

1) The laptop must last an entire day, there is no excuse for a 14" or smaller laptop not to last at least 6 hours.

 

Yeah, Chromebook , hell no. 

And forgot to mention, battery must last average solid 5 hours or above.

[Firewrath9]

8 minutes ago, Kisai said:

As for "cheap" laptops, I wouldn't touch them, not even for schools. All the Chromebook experiment has done is turned kids off computers because they have to deal with these ultra-crappy devices that the school board's IT department is ultimately not pleased with having to deal with either.

eh, chrome books are decent if all you want to do is access websites. They have huge batteries which is a plus.

 

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, Firewrath9 said:

eh, chrome books are decent if all you want to do is access websites. They have huge batteries which is a plus.

 

The information I've read from deployments has been rather disastrous. What is passed off as cheap chromebooks for education are really what was intended for places that don't even have electricity, so the devices can run off cheap solar panels and inadequate power reliability. Stuff sent to Ethiopia and such simply needs to work so kids can learn to read.

 

What is being marketed as chromebooks in North America and Europe are basically "crappy laptops, with eye-straining screens" that the manufacturers mark up. Why are any of these over $200 at all? $900 You got to be kidding me. You know what would make these laptops a hell of a lot more interesting? Put a solar "kickstand" on the laptop lid. That way it can actually be used longer outside. Add some water-proofing to the keyboard in case it gets left outside.

The core m parts are EXTREMELY slow. They're extremely embarrassing to use, especially when your average $200 smartphone is faster.

[Firewrath9]

Just now, Kisai said:

The information I've read from deployments has been rather disastrous. What is passed off as cheap chromebooks for education are really what was intended for places that don't even have electricity, so the devices can run off cheap solar panels and inadequate power reliability. Stuff sent to Ethiopia and such simply needs to work so kids can learn to read.

 

What is being marketed as chromebooks in North America and Europe are basically "crappy laptops, with eye-straining screens" that the manufacturers mark up. Why are any of these over $200 at all? $900 You got to be kidding me. You know what would make these laptops a hell of a lot more interesting? Put a solar "kickstand" on the laptop lid. That way it can actually be used longer outside. Add some water-proofing to the keyboard in case it gets left outside.

The core m parts are EXTREMELY slow. They're extremely embarrassing to use, especially when your average $200 smartphone is faster.

my local school system has lenovo 300e

From what I can tell, they’re decent, touchscreen, USB C charging (a usb c charger costs 30$ standalone anyways), 768p IPS, and a arm proc.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/techproducts/product-list.aspx?id=308478

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/student-chromebooks/Lenovo-300e-Chromebook/p/88ELC1S9997