laptop vs desktop computer

When my son was in 6th grade I bought him a laptop. The main reason was so he could do homework both at home and at my office. He doesn’t take it to school, even now that he’s in 8th grade I’d be afraid something bad would happen to it.

Another nice thing about the laptop is that it can be put away, so doesn’t take up any desk space when it’s not in use. You do have to make sure that your child is careful with the laptop and understands that dropping it could possibly break it.

Your other consideration is cost. You can get more computer power for the money if you get a desktop computer. However, in our case, portability was more important.

Good luck!

Alpha Smart is a portable word processor that is very durable and affordable. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a computer, but it can get a child started on having word processing access at school. Many districts have Alpha Smarts that they will loan to eligible students. That way you could try it out before deciding what to purchase.

Alpha smart is a keyboard type machine with a data entry window. They are very, very sturdy-they can handle kids. They run a long, long time on AA batteries. The newer models have a keyboarding instructin and spell check builtin. They store a 100 pages of text. Newer models also have inspiration builtin. About $200 about 30 more for infrared pod or cable transfer. Does a good job-I know elementary computer teachers who use their Alpha Amarts more than their laptops. similiar machines are quickpad

If your child were older, the laptop would give him the internet capability and all the formatting bells and whistles, along with the same software that he uses at school eg. Word, Powerpoint. But a laptop is heavy to carry around and very vulnerable to damage.

I would go for an Alphasmart now and a PDA in a couple of years.

I have been looking at the different options for my older son going to high school next year. I have looked at laptops, they are so expensive and we already have 3 desktop computers at home (all different ages, my husband is a computer guy at work). I have been looking at the alphasmart DANA. Any opinions as to what would be better at the high school level? It seems like the DANA would be a little more user friendly. Of course this is from a mom who is asking the kids how to cut and paste, or how to save something. Basically I am pretty computer illiterate. I do email and surf. My 11 yr old learned powerpoint in elementary school.
Thanks,
Amy

I did a google search recently on DANA reviews and from what I read this seems to be a very good alternative to a laptop for students. It’s made by Alphsmart, has a full size keyboard, and works with all the Palm applications. It also works with either a battery pack or AAA batteries. For older kids it seems to be a great solution - looks and works like a laptop, but costs $400.

We own 6 computers in our house right now (2 are out of commission) and my son is already complaining that ‘his’ desktop is out of date compared to his friends.

You think that he will only want to learn keyboarding, but let me tell you what he will grow into real quick. He will want to buy games(my kids love the Sims, Sims City, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Oregon Trail, Skateboard Park games etc.) The new versions all require very high end graphics. My son got Skateboard park for his bday from a friend and our 2 yr old desktops won’t run it! Our video is not high enough resolution (you want to get at least 32MB video these days). He will also want to get on the internet and be able to download music - i.e need a CDRW. A DVD drive is also nice - when the kids have friends over, they rent DVD movies and can play them on their computer vs. on the TV hogging it from the rest of family. So you may want to consider a DVD/CDRW combo drive. Windows XP is a dog running only 128MB of memory - therefore you need to consider upgrading to 256mb. I know many folks you are now buying 512mb! He will also want to get on internet and do instant messaging with his friends - this is all the rage with my son (the girls are the worst) and it started in 5th grade. Have his own email box etc. This does not take any processing power, but I also recommend getting a graphics SW package. I like Printmaster- but there are lots of programs out there. My son has learned to use it and when he types up projects (i.e. Poetry Anthology) - he creates colorful borders, imports pictures from our digital camera, adds cool graphics etc. and really spiffs it up. Takes Wordprocessing one step further.

Do depending on your budget - you can get a fairly nice ‘entry’ desktop that meets these requiremenst for $700-$800 and that may even include a monitor - lots of specials even on the 15” TFT. Of course, if you can afford the 17” that is even better. (do not consider a 15” CRT -you will regret it). Processor speeds these days have really topped out on performance. You won’t see a drastic performance difference with going with a faster processor vs. an entry one.

A laptop fully loaded to run the above may run you $1500 - $2000. You can buy an entry type laptop for $800 now, but it will not come configured with the options that your son will want to use. I would also get one with wireless. If you have cable modem or DSL connection in your house, you can hook up laptop with wireless network and connect anywhere in house. That would be a real plus!

Sounds like our house! The boys have the oldest desktop computer, it’s about 4 yrs old, does what they need it to for now, I am using one that is about 2 yrs old, and my husband is using one that is less than a yr. My husband is the branch chief for information systems for NATO and just got his MS in Information Systems this past May so he is big on the latest gadgets and stuff. We currently have ethernet which is great, no wires all over the place.
Me, I am a computer dud, I went to college when we still used the card catalog to do research. The kids have their own email (we have TOTAL access!)and access to the other goodies on my computer and their dad’s. Certainly makes writing papers and stuff easier, I recently tried to describe using correction tape to my older son. Oh my Gosh!! What an improvement!

Anyway, I was considering something like the DANA, it could be used with computers at school and home, plus the palm operations, my son wouldn’t need to also try and keep up with a pda or something like that.
Amy

My son is only in 6th grade and would be extremly disappointed with an AlphaSmart. If your kids are computer literate and you have 3 computers at home that they use - they are probably well past ‘user-friendly’. :) But it really depends on what he wants to do with it?

You can find an entry laptop for not much more than the AlphaSmart these days ($400 for DANA, $700-$780 for laptop). Many companies are coming out with versions with Intel desktop processor vs. the intel mobile processor - much less cost - although you sacrifice battery and weight. Per my post below - an entry may not do everything your son may want to do with it, but it will do more than an AlphaSmart. However, if you are only going to do notetaking, wordprocessing etc. you can take the AlphaSmart and dump to your desktop.

Laptops are all the rave right now for college students and starting to see the trend in high schools -esp private schools. Schools are buying them as part of their curriculum - each child gets one as part of their tuition.

My advice is to wait until summer - there will be back to school specials on both desktop and laptops in the consumer/retail space. March and June are both good times as well - it’s end of quarter.

We buy our laptops from “The Laptop Guy” in Columbus, Ohio (he has a website). He owns a business where he buys out laptop leases from corporations and re-sells them (refurbished, if necessary). I bought my husband a very near top of the line laptop from him for about $600.

However, I do not see a laptop as being a good choice for our third grade son who has a small motor coordination disability which makes writing extremely difficult, not to mention illegible. We will probably include the use of an AlphaSmart in his fourth grade IEP. They are simply much more durable than a laptop.

JAO

Check out www.perfectsolutions.com/pc6fasp
Let me know what you think

My daughter, 4th grade, currently uses the Dana. It is a step up from the Alphasmart, and the planner is fairly user friendly, but our problem is that we have trouble getting it to print. She has had it since December and it’s still not working. We have grown very tired of the trouble it has been. She uses a laptop in her gifted class and does much better on that.

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We’ve done both. My son had an alphasmart starting in first grade and used it until fifth grade. For middle school, we bought him an $800, 6 lb. laptop (lots of rebates) with a reasonably fast processor, 256 megs of RAM, DVD, and decent graphics. It is capable of running all of my kids’ current games, including all the Sims and Roller Coaster games, but we try to limit those to the desk top and keep the laptop for school stuff. I think the Dana or alphasmart is a great choice for younger kids, but, in my view, once a kid enters middle school, a laptop is the best choice. It is way cooler than the Dana (very important in those years) and has far more functionality. If you need to print something at school you can put it on a disk, or use one of the portable USB storage devices to transfer between computers. We added MS Word (much better than MS Works), Inspiration and Power Point and these programs have been used repeatedly by my son for his school work. We also use a CD-ROM dictionary for all those pesky vocabulary words Its a lot easier to block and copy a definition than it is to write it out. Laptops are heavier than a Dana or Alphasmart, and more fragile, which is why I don’t recommend them for younger kids.

Andrea

Believe me, I’m not knocking the Dana, I have one and use it personally almost every day. But it doesn’t “look” at all like a lap top (if you don’t count that it’s black) It looks just about the same as an Alphasmart, with a larger, touch sensitive screen. It also runs all the palm software, which is handy. The battery life is phenomenal.

While for my business writing purposes, the Dana is ideal, my NLD 6th grade son uses a notebook computer. (Toshiba Portege) The advantages are that it is a fully capable computer, with all the bellas and wistles in an under 3 lb. package. The disadvantages are that it is delicate, time consuming to boot up when you need to uses it, and like most lap tops, battery life is abysmal.

This year that’s not a problem, because most of the classrooms my son uses are old science labs, and the kids work at long tables which (conveniently) have lots of electrical outlets spaced along them.

Karen

I actually like that my son’s Portege, which is used for school will NOT run the graphic-intensive game programs. We have other computers for game playing. For his school computer, we wiped the hard drive clean, installed ONLY the programs he needs for school work, and set up “file folders” for each subject. We wanted to make it very clear that this was a “working” tool, not a glorified Gameboy.

Karen