Best computer for an 8 year old?
November 2, 2019 8:48 AM Subscribe
My daughter is turning 8 soon. She wants “something with a keyboard”. There are so many options out there with different pluses and minuses, I’d love to hear what your kids are using and how it’s working out or any other advice.
She has an original iPad mini which she loves and wants to keep. We have an iMac but it’s well away from the living space we use most of the time. I’m a software developer but don’t really enjoying fiddling with drivers etc. Options vary from getting her a Bluetooth keyboard to use with her iPad (just to scratch that itch in the short term) all the way up to a used MacBook, but I don’t really want to get something too expensive or heavy.
She’s quite academically oriented and also interested in coding and engineering in general.
She has an original iPad mini which she loves and wants to keep. We have an iMac but it’s well away from the living space we use most of the time. I’m a software developer but don’t really enjoying fiddling with drivers etc. Options vary from getting her a Bluetooth keyboard to use with her iPad (just to scratch that itch in the short term) all the way up to a used MacBook, but I don’t really want to get something too expensive or heavy.
She’s quite academically oriented and also interested in coding and engineering in general.
If you have an HDMI screen to hook it up to, a Raspberry Pi. Add SD card & cheap USB keyboard and you're set.
posted by farlukar at 9:11 AM on November 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by farlukar at 9:11 AM on November 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
Seconding the Raspberry Pi. The Model 4B has recently come out and it's a decently capable machine (up to 4GiB RAM, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac wifi, Bluetooth, USB3) at a ridiculously low price.
Install the Chromium browser on it and it will do everything a Chromebook can, as well as running native software under any of a wide range of Linux distributions.
I got a nice Flirc case for mine, which looks really tidy and helps it run cool and silent.
posted by flabdablet at 10:02 AM on November 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
Install the Chromium browser on it and it will do everything a Chromebook can, as well as running native software under any of a wide range of Linux distributions.
I got a nice Flirc case for mine, which looks really tidy and helps it run cool and silent.
posted by flabdablet at 10:02 AM on November 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: Many thanks for answers, I should have specified that I’m really looking for a kitchen table option here which means laptop or e.g. tablet plus keyboard case.
posted by tomcooke at 10:43 AM on November 2, 2019
posted by tomcooke at 10:43 AM on November 2, 2019
I think the iPad will likely have spoiled your kid for other lower quality displays that come with some Chromebooks.
Also Chromebooks are cheap but are also kind of locked down and a bit awkward (at least for this PC user). So you get stability and cheapness but at the expense of flexibility. So how much flexibility do you want/need? For an eight year old I'd guess not much but you can lose access to some iOS only apps that your daughter might want. So before making a decision I'd discuss with her what she wants to do on the laptop and check that those apps are available in the Chromebook ecosystem before going that route.
posted by srboisvert at 11:04 AM on November 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also Chromebooks are cheap but are also kind of locked down and a bit awkward (at least for this PC user). So you get stability and cheapness but at the expense of flexibility. So how much flexibility do you want/need? For an eight year old I'd guess not much but you can lose access to some iOS only apps that your daughter might want. So before making a decision I'd discuss with her what she wants to do on the laptop and check that those apps are available in the Chromebook ecosystem before going that route.
posted by srboisvert at 11:04 AM on November 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
We got our 10-year-old a Chromebook about a year ago and have been happy with it. He already had (and still has) an iPad, which he uses just for games. The Chromebook is more for "serious" stuff - school exercises, creating D&D characters, and Prodigy. Having separate devices helps to limit the amount of time gaming. It's quite durable, and not too expensive.
One thing to think about is what technology she'll be using at school. My son's school has Chromebooks and uses Google Docs and Google Classroom, so the Chromebook made a lot of sense for home - he was familiar with the interface and could work on school-related things easily. If your school has a different environment, the chromebook might not be a good fit.
posted by chbrooks at 5:23 PM on November 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
One thing to think about is what technology she'll be using at school. My son's school has Chromebooks and uses Google Docs and Google Classroom, so the Chromebook made a lot of sense for home - he was familiar with the interface and could work on school-related things easily. If your school has a different environment, the chromebook might not be a good fit.
posted by chbrooks at 5:23 PM on November 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
If she's interested in coding and engineering, I think she'll soon feel too hemmed in by the proscribed environment of a Chromebook. My nephew started tinkering with an iPhone and a PC when he was 10, and by the time he graduated a year early from high school he was already an accomplished software developer and was soon making more money than his mother. So I would give your daughter something that she can dig into, customize, expand, connect, tear down, re-assemble, re-engineer, etc. if you really think there's a future engineer residing inside her. A Windows laptop shouldn't cost all too much nowadays.
posted by Dansaman at 11:29 PM on November 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Dansaman at 11:29 PM on November 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
> Also Chromebooks are cheap but are also kind of locked down and a bit awkward (at least for this PC user). So you get stability and cheapness but at the expense of flexibility.
> If she's interested in coding and engineering, I think she'll soon feel too hemmed in by the proscribed environment of a Chromebook.There's GalliumOS (and some others) as alternative OS for chromebooks.
posted by farlukar at 3:47 AM on November 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by belladonna at 8:57 AM on November 2, 2019 [5 favorites]