Advice please on laptops for my daughter entering nursing school

She is in urgent need of a new laptop before she starts the nursing program in August. The selections available anywhere are limited in availability and usefulness it seems. Through exhaustingly horrible experience we know that a Dell is not an option and Chrome works best with her school’s tech. Also chrome book is not compatible with the lockdown browser she will need so that is not an option. The lockdown browser is also not compatible with Windows 10S. Most affordable laptops seem to all come with 10S. If anybody has ANY suggestions at all about where or what kind she should get one they would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for any help.

a reply to: wehere

Not one of the tech gurus around here but I'd stay away from HP. My son has one and it


is


slow


as


hell.

Also, what kind of money are you looking to spend. Good ones are not cheap, but if it's something that will last, it would be worth it.

If availability and price limitations are important to you, they're important to whoever is helping you.

We need to know budget, and at least a country to generate any informed opinion.

I've worked for two of the largest computer OEM's in the world, and I had a lot of direct interaction with retail laptop computers at all price ranges.

Give me a little more to work with, and we can figure this out.

a reply to: wehere

Any Windows 10S computer can be upgraded to Home or Pro for about $50... so any economic laptop, even if it has 10S on it is still a viable option.

a reply to: wehere
I normally don't post in this forum, because what do I know? I've only been in the industry for decades.

Why is Dell not an option? I have sold literally hundreds of Dell products. I can count on one hand how many I've had problems with out of the box.

What price range are you looking at? What most people consider "affordable" will buy you little in the way of quality.

Forget the brand. As long as you buy a machine with a midrange CPU (i5 or Ryzen 5), 8GB or more of ram, and a machine with an SSD large enough for her uses, you should be good to go. Windows 10s usually only comes installed on el cheapo's. Stop looking at machines meant to bilk you out of your money and buy something that will give good service for you dollar.

you might also consider a backlit keyboard and a matte screen. Both are very useful if you're going to be spending a lot of time on a computer.

Where are you ?

How much can you spend?

What does the school recommend in terms of OSes and compatibility with their own requirements?

These are the most salient starting points. The school should be able to give you some specifics that would narrow down your search options. Once you get there, questions here could be more easily answered. With what you've said, it doesn't seem to me that we have enough information to give you any really informed, useful advice.

a reply to: wehere
Take a look at this one. I had a lady order one of these recently for school. She loves it.
Link

If you really have that much of an aversion to Dell, make note of the specs and find a different brand with similar or better specs to price ratio. HP, Acer, Lenovo, etc.

a reply to: Klassified

Nice system all around, but I personally wouldn't shell out $700 just to get stuck with Intel integrated graphics, even if it's the new stuff, it's still going to bottleneck graphical workloads, and any software optimized for parallel compute using graphic SP's.

EDIT I wasn't even really nitpicking yet, but if this thing is using an integrated graphics solution, isn't it a little bit janky to have non-paired RAM sizes, nixing the speed boost from dual channel speeds? This thing bottlenecks itself twice.

If I'm wrong because of some interesting kick with this new tech that I'm unaware of, please enlighten me.

Thank you all so much for your response and willingness to advise. I’m lost in this arena lol .
We are in the USA in NC. We are working with a $1000 budget with a little wiggle room if it is going to make a fair difference. She knows price is comparable to quality and would like something that will last through the next year and a half definitely and hopefully further on.
Her last and current dell has been an absolute pain since day one she doesn’t feel she can afford to risk it. The school when asked straight out has been less than helpful. Their entire system has always been slow and infuriating to work with. They say Chrome works best with their stuff and school computers are HP. Because of the respondus browser chrome book however is not an option as it is not compatible. Most of this we figured out the hard way since the school doesn’t have any other ideas they are willing to share.
I wasn’t sure if refurbished was a sensible route. I also wondered if there was a way to remove the “S” from the 10S if she was left with only that option. For the next year and a half at least it will only be used for school. She has been plagued with setbacks leading up to her acceptance into the program and several since so she wants to have the best advantage possible going in.
I hope I have answered your questions. If I haven’t just let me know please. I may not be tech savvy but I am grateful for the time any and all of you are willing to spend helping us. I also know y’all have lives to live and families to love so I will try my best to accommodate and catch on quickly so as not to take up too much of your time.... like with these long-winded responses😁.
a reply to: wehere

Thank you. I will share this with her when she returns from work. a reply to: Klassified

Thank you. I will share this with her when she returns from work. a reply to: Klassified

originally posted by: Archivalist
a reply to: Klassified

Nice system all around, but I personally wouldn't shell out $700 just to get stuck with Intel integrated graphics, even if it's the new stuff, it's still going to bottleneck graphical workloads, and any software optimized for parallel compute using graphic SP's.

EDIT I wasn't even really nitpicking yet, but if this thing is using an integrated graphics solution, isn't it a little bit janky to have non-paired RAM sizes, nixing the speed boost from dual channel speeds? This thing bottlenecks itself twice.

If I'm wrong because of some interesting kick with this new tech that I'm unaware of, please enlighten me.

You're thinking like the geeks we are. The machine I posted is meant to do what a nursing student would need it for. I have purchased machines for more than one medical student in my own family, so I have an idea of her needs. What I posted will exceed what she needs to do with it by far, and it stays within a reasonable budget to do it.

Laptop for kids generally I'd say get it insured as theft or **cough** loss can be a big hit and dont forget to backup your data as no money can recover your kids thesis if the device is stolen.

originally posted by: wehere
She is in urgent need of a new laptop before she starts the nursing program in August. The selections available anywhere are limited in availability and usefulness it seems. Through exhaustingly horrible experience we know that a Dell is not an option and Chrome works best with her school’s tech. Also chrome book is not compatible with the lockdown browser she will need so that is not an option. The lockdown browser is also not compatible with Windows 10S. Most affordable laptops seem to all come with 10S. If anybody has ANY suggestions at all about where or what kind she should get one they would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for any help.

Have you searched the nursing school online or asked anyone there what they recommend? If not, do so before buying anything. Schools may have requirements for the students’ computers to be able to run certain applications and access certain data bases, etc. Make sure that whatever you buy doesn’t end up being useless.

Thank you for the advice. You ain’t wrong lol. ANYTHING can happen and does to this youngun especially when trying to get an assignment turned in on time. Many lessons learned the hard way about procrastination. She and I both must’ve been Murphy’s in a past life as his law seems to have been written with us specifically in mind. 😂 a reply to: Maxatoria

Exactly the way we are thinking. However,the school is not much help with that unfortunately. She actually had her orientation today through zoom and had to do it on her phone. There was very little discussed about it and most of the information given referred to the school in general as opposed to nursing specific. She is going in person on Monday to get more specific details if she can. She had to go to work and the school is closed on fridays. I’m trying my resources in the mean time which is YALL. a reply to: 1947boomer

I was actually wondering about this. Thanks. a reply to: Encia22

originally posted by: Encia22
a reply to: wehere

Any Windows 10S computer can be upgraded to Home or Pro for about $50... so any economic laptop, even if it has 10S on it is still a viable option.

It doesn't cost anything to turn off windows 10s and make it windows 10 home.
Google it,it's a setting in the update settings I think.
The only problem might be that the computer has basic hardware and might struggle with windows 10 a bit.
I bought a ASUS Vivobook with a Ryzen 5, 4500 processor and 8 gb of ram for £550 last xmas.
Handles everything I've thrown at it with ease,6 cores and much better value than the Intel equivalent.

If she is going there in person on Monday, she should definitely talk to one or more students if she can. They will know what works and what doesn’t. a reply to: wehere

originally posted by: wehere
Thank you all so much for your response and willingness to advise. I’m lost in this arena lol .
We are in the USA in NC. We are working with a $1000 budget with a little wiggle room if it is going to make a fair difference. She knows price is comparable to quality and would like something that will last through the next year and a half definitely and hopefully further on.
Her last and current dell has been an absolute pain since day one she doesn’t feel she can afford to risk it. The school when asked straight out has been less than helpful. Their entire system has always been slow and infuriating to work with. They say Chrome works best with their stuff and school computers are HP. Because of the respondus browser chrome book however is not an option as it is not compatible. Most of this we figured out the hard way since the school doesn’t have any other ideas they are willing to share.
I wasn’t sure if refurbished was a sensible route. I also wondered if there was a way to remove the “S” from the 10S if she was left with only that option. For the next year and a half at least it will only be used for school. She has been plagued with setbacks leading up to her acceptance into the program and several since so she wants to have the best advantage possible going in.
I hope I have answered your questions. If I haven’t just let me know please. I may not be tech savvy but I am grateful for the time any and all of you are willing to spend helping us. I also know y’all have lives to live and families to love so I will try my best to accommodate and catch on quickly so as not to take up too much of your time.... like with these long-winded responses😁.
a reply to: wehere

You've got a grand,you'll easily get a decent laptop.
A Macbook Air with the new M1 processor is about that price if you go for the base model.
I've heard good things about the M1 processor.