Ed wants a laptop for his eight-year-old son. The real
problem is that he plays Minecraft, and this requires something with better graphics processing capabilities ...
It's been nearly two years since your "best laptop for a child" article so I wondered what your current advice is?
Our son is autistic and struggles to write with a pen but has been quite energised by learning to touch type. We have promised him a laptop as a reward for completing the course but are not sure which is best. He will use it primarily for school work but also to play Minecraft, which is a bit of an obsession. I don't want him complaining of 'lag' as this will cause him anxiety.
We were looking mainly at netbook-size machines as he is eight, but I looked at your recommended Asus 200E and the screen seems too small, so now we're looking at the Samsung Activbook 9, Acer Aspire S7 and Lenovo U330. Or another? We were hoping not to pay over £300 but are flexible if you advise to go for a higher spec.
Ed
It looks as though the "best laptop for a child" market has been overtaken by the "best tablet for a child" market, particularly for younger children. This has been reinforced by the decline of the netbook market, with Microsoft killing off Windows XP and declining to provide an ultra low cost version of Windows 8 to run on them. Indeed, it looks as though Arm-based tablets, laptops and hybrids running Windows RT are Microsoft's preferred solution for this market, though the market has yet to agree.
At the moment, hybrids like the Dell Venue 11 Pro, or the smaller Venue 8 Pro, look ideal for kids, because they work as both tablets and laptops. They are much like the Microsoft Surface Pro but cheaper because Intel Atom-powered. In your case, a tablet/hybrid is probably not the best solution. You're looking for a laptop that will help your son to exploit his new typing skills and play Minecraft, and presumably other games.
Minecraft is a Java program, which enables it to run on different platforms: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. There's also an Xbox 360 version and a Pocket Edition for Apple's iOS and Google Android. Unfortunately, Java programs have a reputation for being slow – deservedly, in my experience – which suggests getting the fastest PC you can afford.
Laptops for Minecraft
I did a few searches to find the best laptop for running Minecraft. It seems to be a hot topic but one where there's no consensus. There's not even much useful information to be gained from Gamepedia's user benchmarks beyond the obvious point that the results are extremely variable. However, the Minecraft Support Center's "recommended system" makes it clear that the processor is less important than the graphics card. For the processor, it recommends an "Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8) 2.6 GHz" – a low bar – while for the graphics it recommends a "GeForce 6xxx or ATI Radeon 9xxx and up with OpenGL 2.1 Support (Excluding Integrated Chipsets)".
The Support Center adds: "If you have a laptop with a built-in (integrated) graphics card, rather than a dedicated card, it is highly suggested that you try the demo before purchase."
The problem is that most cheap laptops have integrated graphics, not dedicated graphics cards. Intel HD3000 integrated graphics are probably enough on a desktop PC, but HD3000 integrated graphics are much less capable on slow, mobile processors. I wouldn't want to recommend this without trying one.
A processor with HD4000 integrated graphics would be a better bet, which means a third-generation Intel Core iX chip, code-named Sandy Bridge. However, as Notebookcheck warns: "Depending on the processor model, the base and turbo clock rate may differ greatly resulting in different graphics performance of ULV parts compared to high end quad-core parts."
In other words, HD4000 in mobile or ultra-low voltage (ULV) chips is not going to perform as well as HD4000 in fast but hot desktop processors. A thin Ultrabook designed for low battery life and minimal fan use will probably not be the best choice.
Some options
The cheapest Core-based laptop I can see with HD4000 graphics is a 15.6-inch Asus X550CA-XO266H with a 1.4GHz Core i3, 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive for £364.39 at Amazon.co.uk, or £585.10 with a Core i5. If you're going to spend that much on a PC with Intel integrated graphics, then the red Asus K55A-SX376H would be a better option. That gets you a much faster 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-3210M with 6GB or memory and a 500GB hard drive for £498.
The Core i5 also has a SpeedStep feature – which increases the clock speed when needed – that the Core i3 lacks.
The Lenovo U330, which you mention, has a fourth-generation Haswell processor, a Core i5-4200U, but it has a slower clock speed (1.6GHz) and the same HD4000 graphics for a higher price: £634.53. It's a nicer laptop and has a touch screen, but I wouldn't expect it to run Minecraft better. The Core i5-4200U provides better battery life, but it's not as fast as a Core i3-3110M or even a Pentium G860.
The Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite, which you also mention, is best avoided for your son's purposes. It's attractive as a cheap Ultrabook with an SSD (solid-state disk) drive. However, the 1GHz-1.4GHz AMD A6-1450 processor is designed for very low power consumption (8W) and it's extremely slow. A modern Celeron or Pentium chip, such as the 987, would be faster. (PC Pro has a review.)
Laptops with graphics cards
Stepping up to laptop with a built-in graphics card, as recommended for Minecraft, usually involves a step up in price, and a dramatic reduction in the number of options available. However, HP, Dell and some other firms have more affordable options.
For example, the 14in HP EliteBook 8460p has a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2520M processor, 4GB of memory and a fast (7200rpm) 320GB hard drive. The second-generation processor is saved by the Radeon HD 6470M graphics with 1GB of memory. The Amazon price is £599.99, which is twice your preferred budget.
The EliteBook 8460p ships with 64-bit Windows 7 Professional, but check if this includes Windows 8. Business laptops are sold with Windows 8 Pro, partly because this includes downgrade rights to Windows 7 Pro, which is the business standard. This means there's a "free" upgrade to Windows 8 if required. (I notice that Acer is shipping business laptops in the UK with both Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8 Pro, so you can choose which you want when you set it up.)
There's also the Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition, which seems to be aimed at the back-to-school market. This has a third-generation 2.6GHz Core i5-3230M with 4GB of memory, plus a Radeon HD 7730M graphics card with its own 2GB of memory, for £499, including a year's in-home service.
The Inspiron 15 is big and a bit clunky – my son has owned two of them, and I bought the first – but they are generally good value workhorses.
The best value I can find today is the Fujitsu Lifebook AH532. This has a 2.4GHz Core i3-3110M processor with 4GB of memory and an Nvidia GeForce GT 620M graphics card with 1GB of memory for £374.94, as sold by Amazon. The normal price seems to be around £470. However, I've never seen this machine, and it would be a good idea to read a few reviews. Get a hands-on if you can.
If you search for laptops with (roughly) 2GHz or faster Intel Core i3 or i5 processors with HD4000 graphics and/or dedicated Nvidia GeForce or AMD/ATI Radeon graphics, then you may be able to find something better.
This spec should be capable of running Minecraft reasonably well, though not with the highest frame rates, and probably not with the Fancy graphics option turned on.
Incidentally, you asked for a laptop, but a desktop is usually a better option for gaming. Desktop processors can be run hot, often from 95W (like my Core i5-2500K) to 130W, whereas laptops are trending down from 35W to 15W or less. This means a cheap desktop processor can often outperform a "higher spec" laptop chip. A desktop tower case also provides room for high-powered but relatively cheap graphics cards, which are very easy to upgrade. Finally, you can fit a much better keyboard and a bigger screen.
Minecraft
Tablet computers
Dell
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Jack Schofield
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