third year, I have warranty issues with about 30% of them, plus battery
replacements for about 75% of them. I do keep laptops into the 4th
year, but they are used for backups, replacements for laptops in the
shop, and parts for other laptops out of warranty. I do not put any
money into non-warrantied laptops, but I will cannibalize other laptops
and often get some working for an extra year.
Most of the netbooks I looked at (Lenovo, Dell, and Asus) have two year
warranties available rather than 3-4. I figure an extended warranty
should not cost more than 20% of the cost of the computer, which is what
most of the 2-year extended warranties are coming in at. So, I would do
a 2-year rotation with netbooks. Since 6-cell batteries cost close to
$100, I am not sure it is worth the cost to keep netbooks beyond the two
years. I would most likely use them into the 3rd year as long as they
worked and held a charge. =20
If all you are doing is word processing, I would look at the low-end
netbooks running Linux. I have seen them for as little as $300. You
can throw Open Office on them, and they would be perfect for 3rd - 4th
graders.
Renee Ramig
Seven Hills School
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Debbie Anderson
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 10:49 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Another netbook question
I have been following the netbook emails with interest as we are
thinking of replacing alphasmarts. Our alphasmarts have been around for
years and are used by 3rd and 4th graders for writing. What is your
proposed replacement cycle for the netbooks?=20
=20
Debbie Anderson
Webmaster/Upper School Technology Coordinator
McLean School of Maryland
=20
=20
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