Best Laptop for a Responsible 10-Year-Old: Recommendations and Tips

[babywings76]

I need recommendations if you have them.

My daughter is 10 yrs old and my husband and I want to get her a laptop for Christmas. I know that sounds extreme, but she is very responsible. She doesn't really play with toys, she's not into dolls, she has plenty of craft projects kits. What she likes to do is write stories and play Webkinz. We will have rules and restrictions and set her up as safe as we can and monitor what she is exposed to and she's only going to be able to use it when her chores and schoolwork are done.

That said, what is a good basic laptop that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, yet has enough memory and is fast enough to keep up with things as she gets older and uses it for more schoolwork and such?

 

[PamperedChefLayla]

A dell or an HP would be good and not very expensive

 

[PampChefJoy]

I am looking for my kids as well. They are 10 and 7 and play games online and on CD-rom. And I am tired of them trying to horn in on my computer (plus if they accidentally click on a virus or something, I don't want to lose all my business stuff!).

There are alot of Black Friday ads already sneak-peeked... did you check them out? Black Friday Ads for Black Friday 2009 and Black Friday Deals! or gottadeal.blackfriday.com

Of course, you'd have to wait in line for those great deals.

the only thing I'd recommend is to stay away from a Celeron processor. I have found them to be notoriously slow.

 

[chefheidi2003]

My mom just bought an Acer laptop at Staples for about $450 and she loves it.

 

[wadesgirl]

There are the new mini laptops available that may work well for a younger child.

 

[PampChefJoy]

EEEK - I just hit the buy button on 2 of these for my kids for Christmas....

Newegg.com - lenovo G550 (2958-ACU) NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T4300(2.10GHz) 15.6" 3GB Memory 250GB HDD DVD±R/RW Integrated Graphics - Laptops / Notebooks

 

[babywings76]

I just clicked on that link and it shows that they are sold out of those now.

 

[PampChefJoy]

Aww bummer... I figured they'd go fast. It's posted on every "deal" website right now. Checked the reviews everywhere and it sounds like a decent value for what I need it for. My kids are going to be soooo excited!

 

[mountainmama74]

Oh yikes, I'm sorry I missed that! I'm looking for a new laptop myself right now!! The one I want is backordered at Best Buy!

 

[kristina16marie]

all i will tell you is NOT to get a dell inspiron! i bought one and it hasn't even been a year and the battery will not hold a charge, a few keyboard buttons have popped off and the stupid thing keeps freezing! it freezes so much, i stopped taking it to shows because i was having to reboot 5 times a night! i just do everything on paper now.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

all i will tell you is NOT to get a dell inspiron! i bought one and it hasn't even been a year and the battery will not hold a charge, a few keyboard buttons have popped off and the stupid thing keeps freezing! it freezes so much, i stopped taking it to shows because i was having to reboot 5 times a night! i just do everything on paper now.

Been there, done that, then bought a MAC. Not one problem since. I am a Mac convert!

 

[jj16]

I would have to second what Kristina said. I got a Dell Inspirion and I got the extended warranty and it only lasted 1 1/2 years and then the hard drive went out and the store wouldn't honor the extended warranty. I decided I'm done with pcs and I got a Mac yes more expensive but not the issues of viruses, etc either. There is a learning curve but I love my mac!! I will never go back to a PC.

 

[babywings76]

I'd love to get her a Mac, (we just converted our main family computer to an iMac), but I don't know if I can spend $1,000 on a laptop. I wish there was another smaller version I could get that would be cheaper. Or, are there websites where you can find Mac's for cheaper?