Buying a first computer for a student

Buying for a student is different from buying for yourself, and the pressure to overspend is considerable.

Here is what actually matters.

Check the school’s requirements first

Before anything else. Many schools publish a specification, and some have a portal for discounted purchasing.

Things schools sometimes require that catch people out:

• A specific operating system. Some subjects need Windows software that does not run on a Mac or a Chromebook.
• A minimum battery life, because there may be nowhere to charge during the day.
• A touchscreen or stylus, for subjects involving handwriting or diagrams.
• Particular software that has hardware requirements.

A student taking a technology or design subject may need considerably more machine than one who does not. Ask the school before buying, not after.

What most students actually need

For a typical high school student writing documents, researching, and using Google Classroom or Microsoft 365:

• 8GB of memory minimum, 16GB preferred
• A 256GB SSD minimum, 512GB comfortable
• A Full HD screen, 1920x1080
• All-day battery, realistically seven hours or more
• Light enough to carry every day, under about 1.6kg
• Built to survive a school bag

That last one matters more than any specification. A well-built machine that survives three years beats a slightly faster one that cracks a hinge in term two.

Budget: $700 to $1,200 covers this comfortably.

For a university student

Largely the same, with the field being the deciding factor.

Arts, business, law, most sciences: the above is fine. Battery life and weight matter more than power.

Engineering, architecture, design, computer science: check the faculty’s requirements. Some software demands considerably more, and some only runs on Windows.

Anything with video or 3D work: genuinely needs a stronger machine, and this is where spending more is justified.

The traps

Buying the cheapest available. A $400 laptop with 4GB of memory and a mechanical drive will be frustrating on day one and unusable by year two. This is the most expensive way to save money.

Buying far more than needed. A student writing essays does not need a machine built for video editing. Put the money into memory, storage and build quality instead of a faster processor nobody will notice.

Forgetting storage. 128GB fills quickly and cannot be upgraded on most modern laptops.

Skipping the case and the backup. A protective sleeve is twenty dollars. A cloud backup is free. Losing a term’s work is neither.

Buying a Chromebook without checking. They are cheap, secure and genuinely fine if everything is web-based. They cannot run installed Windows or Mac software, which becomes a problem in some subjects. Check first.

Refurbished is worth considering

Ex-corporate business laptops are the best value available in Australia. They are built to a higher standard than consumer models, come with a warranty from reputable sellers, and cost far less.

A three-year-old business laptop with 16GB of memory and an SSD, at around $500, will outlast and outperform a new $700 consumer machine. For a student, that is usually the smarter purchase.

Set it up properly before handing it over

Twenty minutes at the start prevents most of the problems that follow.

• Turn on automatic backup, to OneDrive or Google Drive. Students lose work constantly and it is entirely preventable.
• Remove the manufacturer’s bundled software. New machines arrive full of trial versions and nagging.
• Do not pay for antivirus. Windows Defender is included and adequate. See do you need antivirus.
• Set up a proper password, and for a younger student, know it.
• Check what the school provides. Most students get Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace free through their school. Do not buy it separately.
• Sort out the folder structure at the start, so three years of work does not end up scattered across the desktop and Downloads.

A conversation worth having

For a teenager, the machine is also where a great deal of their social life happens. Setting expectations at the start, about where it lives overnight and what it is for, is easier than retrofitting rules later.

That is a family decision rather than a technical one, but the technical side can support whatever you decide.

Ask before you spend

If you are not sure, twenty minutes of independent advice usually saves several hundred dollars, and sometimes reveals that the machine already in the house needs an SSD and an hour of attention rather than replacing.

I sell nothing and earn no commission on any recommendation. Get in touch before you buy.

If the student is interested in IT as a career, it is also worth knowing that a cheap second-hand desktop for a home lab is a far better investment in that direction than a more expensive laptop.