Back to school 2009: The best laptops

By Staff writers on 12 January 2009

(Credit: Apple)

With the government roll-out of laptops for school kids being done in stages, your children may still need their own laptop this year. Here are CNET Australia's recommendations, with a focus on budget and flexibility.

Laptops for school need not be high end — as long as they're reasonably light so they can fit in a backpack, pack in at least 1GB of RAM and have wireless networking capability, they should be perfectly fine for school use. As a result, netbooks are actually quite a good choice.

If you want a laptop that has the most flexibility and has a decent amount of future-proofing built in, it's hard to go past the MacBook. It's cheaper than the MacBook Pro, and can also run Windows when required. As a parent though, you might have issue with your kid taking such an expensive piece of equipment to school every day, and it's the most expensive laptop by far in this round-up.

Of course, if your children want to game on the laptop, that's a whole different ball game altogether, and a subject for a later round-up!

HP Mini 1000 (Full Review, Specs, Images, Video, Where to Buy)

HP may have arrived late to the consumer netbook game, but by lifting the generous keyboard from last year's business-oriented model, the Mini 1000 easily joins the category's top tier.

Topics: to, school, laptops, education, back, laptop

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Comments (17)

  • Gracie (: commented on 06/09/2009 19:47 Report abuse

    I heard that you get to choose what colour laptop....is that true? (:

  • hello commented on 12/08/2009 21:03 Report abuse

    notebooks suk dudes but i like COD4 IDEA

  • peripo commented on 02/07/2009 21:41 Report abuse

    MacBook every time. For $1,599 you can get a superior laptop with excellent battery usage, and you can run Windows beside Leopard if you so desire. Personally I don't understand why anyone would need to; and it's very upgradable....and if you have another $400 you can buy a 13" MacBook Pro.

  • ROG commented on 20/06/2009 00:35 Report abuse

    @ Amnesiaboy
    ---------------
    Man you are at the right pitch of the line. Asus G71gx is a topnotch machine. Im a proud owner of such machine.Every people in the world have to admit that asus rules,cause they make their products so rock and solid consumers feel inspired by the innovation.THATS WHY THEY SAYS "INSPIRING INNOVATION.PERSISTENT PERFECTION."
    Go with it man!!!If u are a gamer their is perfect future for you with this beast.
    With in 6 moths i have earned lot out of this machine.It charmed my life..

  • Amnesiaboy commented on 17/06/2009 13:05 Report abuse

    I wanna know which is the best gaming notebook, what do you think about Asus G71Gx??

  • chad commented on 08/06/2009 15:09 Report abuse

    i have had a dell, toshiba, acer and a hp. but i must say my new macbook is the best!

  • don commented on 03/06/2009 22:40 Report abuse

    dell is thee best

  • COD4nerd commented on 22/05/2009 22:40 Report abuse

    why not the ultimate gaming laptop so i can sneak play during that boring maths lesson... COD 4 FTW

  • Deadly commented on 01/05/2009 22:13 Report abuse

    No 1.
    To get a notebook cheap is to wait to the end of the financial year or just after Christmas when they are chucking stuff out cheap.

    No 2.
    Use catalogs see what other dealers can do to match or better what you see within (I got a discount and a free $180 program)

    No 3.
    Go to a place that has a high volume of sales

    No 4.
    Don't just buy the notebook by other things along with it

    No 5.
    Don't buy straight away leave the store a couple hours and come back to the same person you spoke with in store

    No 6.
    Buy on late on a weekend normally sales persons trying to fulfill a quota for weekly bonus

  • plmko commented on 10/04/2009 01:02 Report abuse

    jdog, every heard of K.Rudds cash splash?

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