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to be portable? If portable, is the student likely to treat it very carefully or does it need to be somewhat rugged? If portable, will the student keep an iron grip on it on public places or is the student likely to set it down in the library and wander off down the stacks?
Does the curriculum involve only watching videos, reading and writing, or will the student be writing programs or doing other computational intensive things, like graphics work?
What are the student's needs for hard drive size? If the machine is dedicated to school work, and won't be loaded with junk programs, maybe it's worth getting a laptop with an ssd: there's much less chance of a crash and data loss due to drive damage
I have both a white macbook, which set me back a grand, and an acer aspire one, that only set me back 250. The macbook is a better faster machine, with a handier screen and keyboard, but it's also rather heavier and somewhat more attractive to thieves. The AAO is a much cheaper machine, but it's still got a faster processor and more memory than the first computer I bought in the mid-90s
Whatever you get, invest in a keyboard jimmie: a spilled coke can ruin a laptop in a second, and the manufacturers aren't very friendly about it
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