Laptop for 11 year old

[withgraceinmyheart]

Hi, my 11 year old has asked for a laptop for Christmas. Budgets £150 so I’m looking at refurbished.

She’s not a big gamer she mainly wants it for typing up scripts/stories/creative writing projects.

I was looking at chromebooks but I’m also thinking of getting her a drawing tablet so want something that supports Adobe.

Any advice on what I should be looking for?

Please note that Chromebooks aren't made to store much on and they will likely need an cloud/online storage and access to the internet if they are wanting to save multiple files. They may not be able to download the software they might want on a Chromebook either. My personal preference would to always have a laptop over a Chromebook.

I would not reply on stores either to give me the advice I'd need. I know some well known tech stores that have hired people with little knowledge of the products. Of course there will be some that do have the knowledge but I'd do your research first too as they will often up sell to you as well.

It will also be good to know what ports the device you are buying has - many items now need USB or USB C ports, you can get adapters but you might want to account for this when buying the laptop/Chromebook to save any disappointment if they wish to plug mouse and keyboards or other items in.

A family member has bought a Vivobook from Argos and they were pleased with it, that seems to be near your price range. Even if it is refurbished, you want to make sure if it is a Windows laptop that it is on Windows 11, otherwise it might not be as safe, due to them slowing rolling out stopping safety/security updates for older versions.

I hope you find the perfect gift, good luck!

I always look on ebay as tech people often want the latest thing available. You could ask the person themselves which one would be useful unless it is a surprise. You could tell them you need their advice for someone else and see what advice you are given.

Chromebooks are quite frankly shite imo. We got them for Dts in y6 and they were just not intuitive. We replaced with Dell, nothing fancy and not gamers.

Thanks everyone! I’ll have a look around.