Laptop for dyslexic thirteen year old

[mrswoodentop]

Ds2 who is 13.5 needs a latop for next year.i say needs,he boards at a specialist school and he is now the only one in his class without a laptop ,he has managed fine up until now and the message from school is he could always use the school ones but we did say they he could have one for year 9 so here we are.

I want something portable yet sturdy ,able to cope with office applications including powerpoint,and watch dvds ,use the internet for research etc(this is heavily restricted at school)and possibly play a few games .

Budget about £350 any recomendations

Can't help much,but DD is Dyslexic and I have been told by various people that there is a gov. fund that purchases laptops for Dyslexic students-this may be for university rather than school? and also may now be in the cuts but one boy certainly benefitted as recently as last year.

May be worth some investigation-good luck

Does the "Home Access" scheme apply ?

There was mention on radio a week or two back that there may still be funds for certain categories of user, and a quick search should find the national number at BECTA - here it is: 0333 200 1004

Sorry, with it being called Home Access grant I suppose it might not cover you, but if there's some other scheme, BECTA ought to be a reasonable starting point to ask.

Good luck.

Not sure that we qualify for any schemes at this stage ,more make/model advice needed!

Is there an Asda Living nearby ? Saw a couple around the 300 pound mark (one was Compaq, the other a Lenovo, but latter was in stock room, not on shelves).

Most laptops these days will be running Windows 7 and should have 2 GB minimum of RAM, so unfortunately quite a lot are in the upper 300s if not 400-600. Google 'shopping' may find some others and review sites will give some views from users. HTH.