The boy (14) is back at school embarking upon his first year of GCSE's and we're considering buying him a laptop. I don't want a mega super ace gaming one because then he'll just play games on it. So a relatively shit graphics card and a basic-ish processor would be better as it'll discourage him from even trying... I don't particularly want to spend over £400 on one either.

His maths homework is all done via the school portal thingy and they use Google Docs for written submissions. A lot of their revision material is online, like BBC Bitesize, podcasts etc.

He's chosen to do Computer Science, Product Design, History and Business Studies along with all the regular subjects. So a lot of his learning and homework will be internet based too.

I'm not sure what software the schools use for the computer science - are they all vastly different or basically the same? Like, is the basic premise the same across all of them? It might not be apparent, but I literally know nothing about it whatsoever! I thought for product design, when he has to start getting his portfolio together, doing drawings in SketchUp or similar would be okay. It doesn't have to be fully rendered walk-through standard but he'll need to be able to produce 3D line drawings.

I don't think any of these needs fall outside of 'everyday' sort of use so like I say, masses of processing power isn't essential and probably something I'd want to stay away from as he has a couple of consoles at ours and TV's and a PC at his dads house for gaming.

But, he's also just a kid and watches back to back YouTube videos of all sorts of nonsense when he's in bed so something that could convert into a tablet would be ideal and cover all of the bases he'd want it to. For me, that isn't an absolute must but if I'm buying something, it may as well be what he'd want it to be. He's having to give his brothers ex-girlfriend her iPad back and he's pouting a bit about that!

So, what do we think? I don't want to work into PC World with no idea what I want...

2 in 1 laptops are inherently more expensive than "normal" laptops (which are more expensive than desktops). With a low budget I'd be tempted not to care about the tabletness of it.

2 in 1 laptops are inherently more expensive than "normal" laptops (which are more expensive than desktops). With a low budget I'd be tempted not to care about the tabletness of it.

I'd get him a normal laptop, personally. If he's doing CompSci he needs to get good at driving one anyway.

In fact, when you get it, mess with some things and let him fix it.

Ideas:

Open bios and diable the processor's L2 cache if you can
Windows+break : advanced system settings : Hardware tab : Device Manager : Mice and other pointing devices : Right click on the mouse / trackpad and choose "disable"
Right click on desktop : View : uncheck "show desktop icons"
Edit autoexec.bat and add `shutdown /s /c "Fix me, loser!"`

Right click on desktop : View : uncheck "show desktop icons"

I think 2 in 1 laptops are just always going to be somewhat compromised at both functions on any given budget.

I don't really understand them. If we're talking a Windows device, does anyone actively want a Windows tablet?

I think the Lenovo Yoga Pro series is quite nice, but they are pricey, and they have come up with a design that doesn't really compromise them as laptops, but they just turn into a bulky tablet if the keyboard is in the way.

I'd prefer buying a good laptop and a cheap tablet to spending a bit less on something that's worse at both functions. In fact that's what I did.

Is Windows essential? Especially in the £400 price range, I'd be more tempted to get a Chromebook (and I'd pick one of the models that has a touchscreen and is getting Android app support). Maybe the Asus Chromebook Flip?