How to Choose the Best Chromebook for kids ?
Chromebooks are inexpensive, fast, secure, work well, and can fit in your eighth grader's backpack. Here's what's going on with Chromebooks in education today and how to choose the right one for you and the students in your life.
Students in your family are likely already using a Chromebook. According to Futuresource Consulting, Chromebooks accounted for 56% of the Kindergarten to Grade 12 school market sales. It is not just elementary and secondary schools. IDC reports that sales of Chromebooks are now well ahead of sales of Apple Macs.
Chromebooks at school
Chromebooks are great laptops for school kids ages four to 40.
Why? Because Chromebooks are cheaper, safer, and faster than Windows 10 and Mac laptops.
For example, laptops are stolen every day. If your schoolwork is there, you're out of luck. But, if you're using a Chromebook, it doesn't matter. By default, all of your documents, emails, and notes are safe in the Google Cloud. You can get your work back by purchasing a new Chromebook, then logging into your Google Account, and you're back to business. If you got your Chromebook from a school, Google has made it easy to deactivate stolen or lost Chromebooks. This makes it an unnecessary target for any thief.
Schools also have other reasons to prefer students to use Chromebooks. Google offers a school-only suite of programs called Google Apps for Education Suite, as well as a class-specific ChromeOS and Android app called Google Play for Education, and Chromebooks that come with Google Play for Education at prices ranging from from $ 199 to $ 227. In addition, with a management fee of $ 30, schools can manage Chromebooks.
According to Google, for schools, Chromebooks have a 61% lower total cost of ownership on a Windows PC. Their deployment also takes 91% less time. From my experiences with Windows PCs and Chromebooks, these numbers seem good to me.
Why? Because, for example, Chromebooks don't require any antivirus programs and automatically update with the latest patches without any problems.
The initial price is correct. Valerie Truesdale, chief technology officer for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg North Carolina school system, was quoted in The Journal: "HP arrived with an offer of around $ 220 per device, which is important when trying to provide 32,000, price is the key. "
These same benefits work for you as well as for schools. For example, starting Chromebooks in less than 10 seconds. Generally speaking, they have a long battery life. And, as cash-strapped school systems have noticed, Chromebooks cost much less than equivalent Windows notebooks, and we're not even talking about MacBook prices.
Some people still have the illusion that Chromebooks can't be used when they're offline. It is not true. I write documents, reply to emails, read e-books, listen to music, and watch movies on my Chromebooks without finding a Wi-Fi signal. I'm just as productive on my Chromebooks when I'm offline as I am using Linux, Mac OS X, or a Windows desktop without an Internet connection.
Plus, as a co-worker in New Zealand told me, "The schools here in New Zealand are big consumers of Chromebooks. They work very well; no one complains, and the more adventurous students install Crouton [which lets you run Linux on a Chromebook] and compile stupid demo apps they download from wxPython, FLTK or any open source framework site given. "
In addition, on some newer Chromebooks, you can use on Android apps. With 1.5 million Android apps, I think we can now say that Chromebooks will do just fine for almost any use without a Wi-Fi connection.
So what is the best Chromebook for kids ? My recommendations are in the gallery below, but you may want to consider getting a used Chromebook instead of a new one. You see, it doesn't take a lot of processor, RAM, or storage for Chromebooks to function properly.
Until recently, I was still using my Samsung Series 5 from June 2011, the first commercial Chromebook. I only got rid of it because I no longer needed it. It still works very well today.
Although I don't recommend buying a 5 series, even the 2014 models used such as the Acer C720P Chromebook or the HP 11 Chromebook cost only $ 150 and work as well as ever. You see, unlike Windows PCs or Macs, the Chromebook is not cluttered with unwanted software or leftovers from old uninstalled programs. In addition, Chrome OS is very light. It does not require the latest hardware to function properly.
When you are considering using a used Chromebook, you should also keep in mind that while erasing personal data from a Mac or Windows PC can be a titanic struggle, getting rid of personal information on a Chromebook is child's play.
Just follow these steps:
Log in to your Chromebook.
Click on the status area where your account photo appears.
Click Settings> Show advanced settings.
In the Powerwash section, click Reset.
Click Restart, then don't sign in with your Google account.
Whoever then signs into the Chromebook is their new primary owner. That's all we can say about it.
This means that you can trust a Chromebook that is used so that it does not hide malware. It also means it's easy and safe to switch to another Chromebook when the one you currently use no longer meets your needs.
So what should you look for in a Chromebook?
In general, RAM is not a problem: 2 GB is enough, although 4 GB is better but not necessary.
The processor doesn't have to be that fast either. If all you're going to be doing is light work on the web, say Google Docs and email, even the slowest processor will do. That said, if you want more punch, you'll want to avoid the ARM processors and turn to the faster Intel processors.
One thing you will want is 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Chromebooks can work without Wi-Fi, but they show their best advantage with a fast Wi-Fi connection. Of course, if your school only supports 802.11n Wi-Fi, you don't have to worry about that. As with all networks, you can only go as fast as the slowest link. In this case, it would be the actual maximum of 100 Mbps of 802.11n Wi-Fi.
Storage room? Do not worry.
Certainly, Chromebooks don't offer a lot of storage. They average 16 GB to 32 GB of SSD storage or up to 500 GB of hard drive space. Do not worry!
Chromebooks store almost all of your data on Google Drive. And, by the way, every time you buy a new Chromebook, you get two years of at least 100 GB of free storage on Google Drive.
You also can't run specific Windows PC or Mac programs on a Chromebook. However, you can run Microsoft Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, such as Office 365, in a Chromebook.
If you absolutely need to run a specific Windows or macOS program, you can run them remotely with Chrome Remote Desktop or Chrome RDP. If your school uses Citrix for virtual Windows desktops, you can also run Windows applications from your Chromebook with Citrix Receiver. If you want to take one of these paths, you want to use a Chromebook with a fast x86 processor and not an ARM processor.
In the end, Chromebooks are great for students and they're not too lousy for all users. I have largely replaced my use of high-end Lenovo ThinkPads with Chromebooks, as they cost less and work better for my needs. Try one and you might also become a fan of Chromebook.
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