Students on technology, engineering, programming and other courses may need a powerful PC with at least 8GB or 16GB of memory. Students on general courses might be able to get by with low-end hardware such as a tablet, a cheap Windows 10 laptop or even a Chromebook. However, some students need to run professional software from AutoCAD, Adobe, Microsoft and other suppliers, and some will need to run sophisticated modelling or statistical software. On course for uniĪsk your granddaughter to check with her university department to see what kind of software she will need, whether there are any special requirements for her course and whether student discounts are available.
A full “educational IT” system could include a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop and a USB backup drive, plus a laptop riser or docking station with an external keyboard and mouse. In most cases, a laptop will be the best answer, but many students use more than one device. There are lots of things to consider, including course requirements, the usage scenario (portability, ergonomics etc), the user’s previous experience, support and backup strategies and your budget. This is a common question every summer, so a broad reply might help a few people. We will discuss this with her, but some advice from you would be welcome. Our granddaughter is off to university this year and we will be buying her a laptop.
