Do all in one PC's have a short life span?

[stirling]

Really need some advice!
Looking to buy two laptops or PC's for dc both at secondary school. Although they both want a nice chrome book each, which I like because no frustrating updates, quick start up etc... I feel I have to prioritise their health.

Ds is very tall and Dd has poor vision and strong prescription. I'm inclined to buy them desktops and we have a small space therefore thought about all in ones. But read they have a short life span?

Can anyone please advise!

I need something that's not going to harm their eyes, as they often have lots of homework. And that's reliable and not going to break down or slow down so easily.

Can't do apple, cost wise too.

Thank you

PCs are fine for day to day use, word processing etc. More resilient than a laptop (with the bonus that it's not portable, so they can't sneak it into their rooms and get up to stuff you'd rather they not).

Thanks RolytheRhino, do you know if the all in ones have a short life span? I read somewhere it's 4 years. Given that each one is going to cost about 550, that's a lot for just a few years...

AIO (all in one) PCs, are no worse than a laptop for longevity, and I wouldn't really consider it a problem given that my midrange, 7-year-old desktop is still absolutely better than fine for all work related tasks (i5 3570 processor, 8GB Ram and 512Gb SSD).

Have you considered the best of both worlds?

Buy a chromebook plus a Decent monitor / keyboard and mouse and set it up so you can use the laptop by itself, or 'docked' to the workstation.

the most important thing is budget.

The AIO PCs generally all use laptop components in order to save space, this means that compared to a traditional desktop it can be more difficult (not always impossible) to replace or repair or upgrade components if they fail, and if one bit fails, the whole thing might be toast (much like a laptop). On a full size dekstop you can generally just replace a failed component and have the option to upgrade bits.

I'd just get a proper desktop. Also, you've got to bear in mind that desktops won't just die at four years- that's the point at which technology is predicted to have moved on enough to make it worthwhile upgrading. As your kids just want them for homework- mainly the Internet and word processing etc.- the computers will be able to keep up for a lot longer.

Thank you both, really good advice. In fact a friend was talking about getting a monitor separately to connect to a laptop. Certainly something to look into