Budget Rs 25,000: Should you buy a laptop or Android tablet for taking online classes – Times of India

With online classes here to stay, families are struggling with shared laptops and mobiles. Due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, not many are willing to spend a lot of money on buying high-end laptops for kids to take online classes. And even if they are looking at buying a new laptop, the average budget is mostly around Rs 25,000. Now, if you wish to shell out Rs 25,000 for a new device so that kids can continue to take online classes independently, should you buy a Windows laptop or an Android tablet?
What you should know before buying Windows laptops under Rs 30,000?
There are no Windows laptops from known brands under Rs 20,000. So, you will automatically have to stretch your budget to Rs 25,000. Looking at the under Rs 25,000 segment, there are very limited choices from Acer, Asus and Lenovo, mostly running low-end Intel Celeron dual-core or quad-core Pentium Silver N5000 series processors. You may also find models with AMD Athlon Silver 3050U processors.
Now, these low-end processors from Intel and AMD may not be an ideal purchase keeping long term prospects in mind. Laptops under Rs 25,000 can only cater to basic operations like browsing the web, working on MS Word and doing other basic tasks. If you are relying on Google Chrome, which is known to be RAM intense, you may even struggle while opening the sixth tab on Google Chrome browser. While running video-conferencing apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and others expect the device to lag especially if you try to share screen or multitask while on a video call.
It is understandable that you can’t stretch the budget but considering the overall experience you may soon feel that the Rs 25,000 could have been spent better. Cutting through the marketing hype, there is very little you can expect from Windows laptops under Rs 25,000. Also, as your kid grows up you will soon need to buy a better laptop.
What about Chromebooks?
HP recently launched its Chromebook 11a under Rs 21,999. Now, for those unaware, a Chromebook runs Google’s Chrome operating system and has nothing to do with Windows. The experience may be similar, but in reality it is more like using an Android phone. Chromebooks are not that popular in India but the HP Chromebook 11a may change your mind. It is based on Google’s ecosystem.
Using a Chromebook is similar to using apps on Android. The experience is smooth and for online classes, getting a Chromebook makes more sense than getting a Windows laptop under Rs 25,000 as long as you are totally on Google’s ecosystem.
Can Android tablets replace low-end Windows laptops?
The reason why laptops are preferred for work and education is simply because it offers a larger screen and the familiar keyboard and mouse experience. The good thing is that you may attach a keyboard-mouse combo on most Android tablets out there. Talking about the screen size, the maximum you will get is a 10-inch tablet. This is good enough for educational purposes. Another aspect is that these tablets will offer better battery life, camera quality and better performance too. Android being a popular OS, there are no dearth of apps out there which can’t perform a task that a school kid may need.
Samsung, Lenovo and others have tablets starting from Rs 10,000 going all the way to around Rs 20,000. These devices will any day offer better performance than Windows laptops under Rs 25,000. Also, as your kid grows up, you can always buy a high-end laptop so that his or her tech needs are well-catered. Until then, opting for Android tablets or a Chromebook may make more sense if activities are mostly limited to online classes and education related.