The Big Book

Notebooks come in all sizes these days, but when you need a large screen there’s often no substitute for a full-size system, like Toshiba’s Satellite L775D. In fact, having a system with a 17-inch screen is the perfect alternative to a desktop computer for those who teach small groups or take care of administrative duties.

At 10.6- by 16.2-inches, the Satellite L775D is a wide-body notebook through and through. Still, it’ll easily fit on most school desks with room for some books, paper and pencils. On the downside, its thickness varies from 1.4-inches in the front to 1.7-inches at the rear. A benefit of this is that the system naturally sits at a comfortable 4-degree typing angle.

There’s no mistaking it for a trim netbook or sleek tablet but the Satellite L775D is muscular and surprisingly light at 6.2 pounds. That’s only about half a pound heavier than the typical system with a 15.6-inch screen yet it provides one-third more screen-space to learn and teach with. Along with its AC adapter, the L775D has a travel weight of 6.8 pounds.

Its black and dark blue design is demure, not flashy and should fit into any classroom or school office. The color scheme works well with the system’s chrome accents on the touchpad buttons and speaker grilles, but the keyboard looks dark. This may turn out to be a problem when the lights go out for an assembly or projector-based lesson.

The S7206 model that I looked at is one of the best equipped notebooks in its price range, but rather than using Intel hardware, the system has an AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M processor. The chip has four processing cores, runs at a base speed of 1.4GHz and can raise its speed to 2.3GHz when needed. Toshiba also sells several models that have Intel processors.

Its other components are top shelf, as well. It comes with 6GB of 1.3GHz memory, a 640GB hard drive and a DVD drive that can play Blu-ray discs and burn labels into the surface if you use the special – and often expensive – LabelFlash media.

Along with its 17.3-inch display, the L755D has an AMD HD 6520G graphic accelerator with 512MB of its own video memory. Because it can grab up to 2.5GB of memory from the system’s RAM, the 6GB of system memory really comes in handy. This hardware combines for a resolution of 1,600 by 900 and generally excellent graphics and smooth video, regardless of whether it’s a Flash interactive element or a YouTube clip.

It has a reasonable assortment of ports, but lacks connections for high-speed USB 3.0 accessories. It does have three USB 2.0 connections, one of which is shared with an e-SATA port for linking the system with an external hard drive. In addition to audio jacks, the L775D has VGA and HDMI ports for driving a projector.

The system did well at driving a Mitsubishi WD380U-EST projector, but the L775D has a hidden secret. Its 17-inch display on its own is large enough to support a small group lesson or group student collaboration session.

 The system can connect with a school LAN either through its 802.11b, g, n WiFi networking or its wired Ethernet port. It comes with Bluetooth 3.0 and an SD card slot.

 Performance may not be its goal, but the L775D is no slouch either. It scored a respectable 911.6 on Passmark’s Performance 7.0 suite of tests that stress all its internal components. Its score is on a par with the latest Ultrabooks that cost a lot more. On the downside, when the work gets intense, the system’s case heats up fast. There is an annoying hotspot exactly where your left hand rests, which hit a peak temperature of 127 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the downside, the L775D’s 4,000 miliamp-hour battery pack ran for only 2 hours and 34 minutes. In other words, to get through the school day, you’ll need to have a second power-pack charged and ready, never stray too far from an AC outlet or get Toshiba’s high capacity battery pack. It should run for roughly twice as long, but adds half pound to the L775D’s weight and costs $150.

In addition to a 1-year warranty, Windows 7 Home Premium and Office Starter, the notebook comes with Norton Internet Security software along with 30-days of updates. All told, the $700 Satellite L775D is a good all-around system at a tough-to-beat price that won’t disappoint in the classroom.

A-

 Toshiba Satellite L775-S7026

Price: $700

+ Good price

+ Excellent configuration

+ Sophisticated design

+ Bluetooth 3.0

+ Blu-ray drive

 

- Annoying hot spot

- No USB 3.0 port

 

 

 

 

Thin is In

The latest Android tablet is Toshiba’s Excite 10LE, a 10-inch slate that puts an emphasis on being thin and light. At just 0.3-inches thick, the Excite weighs just 1.2 pounds, making it thinner and lighter than an iPad yet with a larger screen. It is a full-powered slate with Android 3.2; an upgrade to version 4.0 is on the way. At $530 and $600 for the 16- and 32GB models, the system boasts 1,280 by 800 resolution screens, a pair of cameras and an assortment of USB and HDMI ports.

 

 

Kid-Friendly Android

The latest Android tablet for schools is the Kuno 3, from CurriculumLoft. Based on Android 4.0 software, the tablet has a 9.7-inch screen, a 1.2GHz processor and 16GB of flash storage space. The 1.4-pound slate has a pair of cameras as well as USB and HDMI connectivity. A big step forward for school use is that the slate filters out bad Web sites, making them off limits for students.  

 

 

TechLAB Shootout: 6 Classroom Android Tablets

Apple’s latest iPad tablet seems to get all the attention these days with a new model that sold 3-million copies in the first week it was available and a deal with publishers to create digital textbooks. But, there’s another kind of tablet that is giving the iPad a run for the money in the classroom: Android tablets.

That’s not to say that the new iPad is a slouch. Far from it, the latest iPad is the slate computer that teachers and students should have gotten in the first place with a sharp screen and a quad-core processor. But, what the iPad really has going for it is over 200,000 apps that run on it – many of which are aimed at education, outstripping what’s available for Android systems. The library of downloadable software for both is growing daily.

Apple continues to be the sales leader in tablets with about 60 percent of the market last year, but the data from IDC shows that its lead has dropped from 75 percent in 2010. Based on the market analysis firm’s forecasts, Android systems have a shot at being the tablet of choice in the coming years with 55 percent of sales in 2016 versus 44 percent for the iPad. The other 1 percent is a variety of specialty tablets.

This increased popularity is because Android tablets pick up where iPads leave off. Sure, they are light and have finger-friendly screens, but rather than having essentially two models to choose from, Android has fostered freedom of choice for classroom slates. There are dozens of tablet designs that use several generations of Android software, which have been whimsically named Gingerbread (version 2.3), Honeycomb (version 3) and Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4).

Instead of a single iPad format, Android offers tablets that are big, small and even a slate that converts to a notebook. With rare exception, these systems offer better connections to the outside world with flash card readers, USB ports and an HDMI connector to directly feed a classroom projector with video and audio.

The big deal for districts is that Android tablets are generally available for at least a hundred dollars less than a similarly equipped iPad. And, for cash-strapped districts, every tech dollar counts.

What’s Android’s plan of attack? The makers of these tablets have one thing in mind: offer more for less. To see how much, I gathered together six of the latest Android classroom-ready slates. They had to have screens that were 8.9-inches or larger, used Android 2.3 (aka, Gingerbread) or newer software and have a price tag that could not exceed $350. District accountants take notice, that’s $150 less than the cheapest iPad.

Reflecting the diverse market, I got a cornucopia of Android tablets. I got ones that were tiny and thin, big and wide as well as ones that are just as appropriate on a desk as on a student’s hands or a teacher’s lap.

Because these devices have to work well in a variety of environments, I asked the manufacturers to supply the tablet’s matching docking station and keyboard. I had mixed results, though, with half not offering a dock or not sending one. Still, it was an eye-opening experience, because the best slates often have the best docks.

The bottom line is that any of these slates has the ability to be the centerpiece of a digital classroom and are equally good for teaching and learning. This trend towards slates is so strong that in a few years, school notebooks may start resembling dinosaurs in the classroom.

One slate, however, stands head and shoulders above the rest. Good for everything from interactive lessons and working with online lessons to email and Web research, the Asus Eee Transformer TF101 slate is not only thin, light and powerful but can, with its add-on mobile dock, be turned into a small notebook in a flash.

More than marketing hyperbole, it genuinely is like getting two systems for the price of one. In fact, it’s called the transformer not only for its ability to have two distinct technological personalities but the effect it can have on learning.

Kiddie Slate

Android tablets are expensive and meant for middle- and high school kids, right? Not anymore. Archos’s upcoming Child Pad features the latest Android 4.0 software, a 7-inch touch screen, a1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM.  It comes with a slew of kid-friendly software and will sell for $129 at the end of the month.

 

 

Third Coming of the iPad

After an interminable wait, no shortage of hype and more rumors than Elvis and Big Foot combined, Apple finally spilled the beans as to what its next iPad will look like and act in the classroom. Think of the way you always wanted the first two generations of pads to be and you’ll get an idea as to what the iPad 3 can do. Despite it being remarkably similar in size, shape and weight, this is a much more capable slate.

To start, the first thing you notice is that it can show HD and then some with a 2,048 by 1,536 resolution display. This gives it the ability to show roughly four-times the detail of the current screen as well as full 1080p content with pixels to spare. To give it something to show, the third-generation pad has a camera that can capture 5-megapixel images and HD video.

On top of WiFi models, there will be ones that connect directly to either a 3G EVDO or 4G LTE cellular data network. Like the current models, there will be iPads with 16-, 32- and 64GB of solid state storage space that sell for $500, $600 and $700 with WiFi only. Look for the new pad to be available atApple stores and online in two weeks.

 

 

Early Learner Tablet

Most school slates are designed for big kids and grownups, but Oregon Scientific’s Meep is all about being a little student. Meep can show video, play educational games and display eBooks on its 7-inch screen, but is just about indestructible and has WiFi built in.

 

 

TechLAB Shootout: 5 Classroom Notebooks

Easily the most productive and prolific part of the digital school, the classroom notebook continues to deliver more for less. Paradoxically, as their price tags have dropped, these systems have gained new powers, increased performance and the ability in many cases to last for a full day of schoolwork.

Call it the trickle-down theory of technology, but these basic notebooks do a lot for a little and are now cheap enough to be in every digital classroom. Many are priced lower than an iPad or Android tablet is, yet can work with a school’s existing software, have larger screens and built-in keyboards.

Whether it’s to set up every student, teacher and administrator with their own computer in a one-to-one program, use them in dedicated rooms or put them on go-anywhere carts, the notebook is here to stay in schools. But, the idea is to spend as little as possible on notebooks without skimping on the essentials.

What does the typical classroom notebook look like? They may not be the thinnest, lightest or top performing systems around, but classroom notebooks have enough system memory for the most demanding digital lesson plan, hard drive space to store homework, video and images, sufficient graphics power to make an impact in the classroom as well as the ability to smoothly feed images and sound to a projector.

They offer one more thing: a seductive price tag that schools find it hard to say no to. With the budgets of most schools and districts stretched to the breaking point – and many beyond it – the cost of supplying a school with computers is no easy task.

Needless to say, for a piece of delicate electronics, classroom notebooks need to be well-made and rugged enough to last for several years of hard service. Remember, these are computers that have to be used for 6 or 7 hours a day while standing up to punishment by students, teachers and others. 

To see what’s available for the classroom, we at Scholastic Administr@tor’s TechLab have set a rather high bar. We asked the top dozen notebook-makers to supply a classroom laptop computer with a 15.0- or 15.6-inch screen that will satisfy a school’s curriculum needs and survive daily use and abuse. Simple enough, but it has to cost no more than $450, less than the price of the least expensive iPad 2.

In other words, these notebooks are one of the best classroom bargains available today, but the idea was not to get blue light specials that are on clearance sale, but current notebooks that will be around for months to come. The systems we received run the gamut from notebooks with up-to-date Core i3 processors to ones that use older, though still potent, technology.

We got systems from Asus, Dell, Gateway, HP and Samsung. Eight other notebook makers either couldn’t or wouldn’t meet our criteria.

The systems we got show both the cookie-cutter nature of the notebook business and how systems can be tuned for school use. To start, they all look like peas in a digital pod with rectangular shapes and clunky, squared off profiles. They all came with the basics, like enough RAM, spacious hard drives and rich graphics.

We were happily surprised with the performance potential of these systems, though. The best were three-times more powerful than the typical netbook and could run for more than three hours of continuous operation on a charge. With judicious power conservation settings, this can translate into a six-hour school day of on-and-off use without having to fight over the AC outlet during study hall.

To get to this enviable price tag, corners have obviously been cut. What you won’t get are things like WiDi and Bluetooth wireless systems for cable-free connections to a projector, keyboard or mouse. None of them came with a Trusted Platform Protection Module (TPM) for secure network access and in one case the notebook came with a single mono speaker.  

More to the point, none come with the once-expected three year warranty, although Asus provides two years of coverage. This can add roughly $100 to the price tags of the others.

If your school can’t afford the upfront costs, you can still equip a class with computers. Most are available for leasing, either through the manufacturer or through a third party. Expect that any of the five reviewed here will cost under $20 a month over three years. While it turns a large capital expenditure into an easy-to-swallow monthly expense, it’s not such a good deal in the long run because you end up spending at least a hundred dollars more per system over the lease’s life.

To see how they would stack up in the classroom, we gave them all a thorough examination that starts with weighing and measuring each and extends to trying out every major feature they offer. By mimicking what goes on in today’s schools, Scholastic Administr@tor TechLab is a unique facility that is set up to examine and evaluate the latest in educational technology. From notebooks and projectors to interactive white boards, document cameras and tablets, TechLab uses a mix of benchmark tests and comparative measures to objectively and subjectively examine everything that today’s classroom needs. Look for follow-on stories in the coming months that focus on other key classroom categories (see "Testing Classroom Notebooks").

After the digital dust had settled, the bottom line is that any of these systems can find a place in the modern classroom, but one system stood out from the crowd. While it didn’t wow us in any particular category, Dell’s Inspiron 15 was a consistent performer across all the categories. Despite only having 3GB of RAM, it performed with the best of them and is our choice as the most appropriate notebook for the classroom.

These five classroom notebooks make one thing clear: performance no longer comes at a price.

 

Paths to Power : 2 High-Performance PCs

Notebooks and tablets seem to be everywhere these days in and around schools, but there are times when you’re willing to trade mobility for the power, performance and ability of a desktop computer to connect several peripherals. You may not be able to carry it around between classes and meetings, but when it comes to tasks that require heavy data lifting, like video editing, database manipulation and digital artwork, desktops excel and laptops lag.

Two recent desktop computers show diverse thinking as paths to power for schools. While Acer’s Veriton VM4618G4618G-Ui7260 should be more than enough for most uses, has loads of room for peripherals and is a bargain, HP’s Pavilion HPE H8-1050 is a custom condifuration of the H8xt line and is bigger, more stylish and has one of the best configurations I’ve seen. It, however, is priced out of the reach of most districts.

Both are housed in basic black cases that will easily fit under a desk with room to spare, but after that they show differing ways to deliver computing power in a school setting. At 14.8- by 7.0 by 17.2-inches, the Veriton VM4618G is about 10 percent smaller than the Pavilion H8 at 16.2 by 6.9 by 17.3-inches.

The Pavilion H8 is the more stylish of the two with chrome accents and a red bar that shows it’s on. Both have a place on top to put a phone or iPod while it charges.

Both are easy to open and get inside to change a hard drive, add memory or just blow out the inevitable dust bunnies and cobwebs. Of the two, I like the more open feel of the Veriton VM4618G.

Both systems use the same processor: Intel’s Core i7 2600. It has four processing cores and normally runs at 3.4GHz, twice the speed of the typical classroom notebook. It can sprint if needed to as fast as 3.8GHz when needed, giving it more than enough power for a school’s toughest tasks.

They can each hold up to 16GB of high-speed system memory – twice that of the typical notebook – although the Veriton VM4618G came with the bare minimum of 4GB. The Pavilion H8 is equipped with 10GB, although there are less expensive models that have less system memory. By contrast, adding 4GB to the Acer will cost all of about $35.

As far as storage potential goes, the Pavilion H8’s 1.5TB of storage space is contrasted by the Veriton VM4618G’s 1TB hard drive. Again, this difference is easily, and inexpensively, remedied.

There’s an optical drive on each system, with the Veriton VM4618G desktop using a standard Super Multi DVD burner. By contrast, the Pavilion H8’s optical drive can play Bluray discs. 

In addition, the way each puts images on the screen couldn’t be more different. The Veriton VM4618G uses Intel’s integrated 2000HD graphics accelerator with 64MB of dedicated video memory; it draws most of its memory from the system’s RAM. The Pavilion H8 has AMD’s Radeon 6850 video engine and 1GB of its own memory.

Each of them provide access to ports with four USB plugs up front along with jacks for audio, but two of the Pavilion H8’s USB connectors use the newer and faster USB 3.0 spec. This is a big step forward because it can move data ten times faster than the traditional USB 2.0 spec, although there still aren’t that many devices available that use the newer format.

The rest of the ports available on each are excellent, with the Veriton VM4618G having a slight advantage. On top of 6 more USB 2.0 ports (for a total of 10), it has both VGA and DVI for connecting a monitor or projector as well as audio jacks, an RS232 serial connector and a pair of PS/2 jacks. The Pavilion H8 has 4 other USB 2.0 connectors (for total of 8) along with HDMI, DVI, S video and Composite video.

Both have wired Ethernet connections for getting onto the school’s network, but the H8 goes a step farther with built-in WiFi that can handle 802.11b,g and n wireless networks. It also has a built-in TV tuner that can grab analog or digital programs from broadcast or cable TV stations; the system includes a remote control.

Inside, both of these overachievers have a good deal of room for connecting secondary drives, expansion cards and the like. Despite being physically smaller, the Veriton VM4618G leads with more storage bays and a less cluttered interior. Both of these tower cases can accommodate four expansion cards.

They each came equipped with 300 watt power supplies, although if you’re going to load up the PC with extra devices, HP provides the option of beefing up the system with a 400- or 600-watt power supply. This costs an extra $30 or $100.

When it comes to performance, both of these systems are more than powerful enough to satisfy even the most power hungry at your school. I easily used each to edit video, go through math problems, digital art projects and other computing-intensive tasks. That said, the Pavilion H8 with 10GB of RAM rules the roost with a Passmark Performance 7.0 score of 2,378.5. That’s five-times the typical notebook and nearly 40 percent faster than the Veriton VM4618G’s 1,703.3, which came with 4GB of RAM.

However, when I took the extra 6GB of RAM out of the Pavilion H8 so they both had 4GB of RAM , the scores were much closer. In this scenario, the Pavilion H8 still led but with a score of 1,923.5, only by 13 percent over the Veriton VM4618G.

Even though it was the performance king, the Pavilion H8 uses only 89 watts of power compared to the Veriton M’s 105 watts. The Veriton M makes up for this by not using any power when it goes to sleep, while the Pavilion H8 uses 3 watts when asleep.

Based on using each system for 6 hours a day during the school year and electricity at 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, both PCs will cost about $15 a year to use – a small price to pay for such power.

Both come with a nice mix of third-party software and utilities for stopping viruses, backing up data and recovering from a digital disaster. Acer goes a step farther by using Windows 7 Professional, versus HP’s use of Home Premium; the company charges an extra $100 for Windows 7 Pro.

For most schools, I suspect the big difference between them will be the 3-year warranty that Acer provides with the Veriton M, compared to HP’s 2 years of coverage. This difference alone is worth an extra $120.

In the final analysis, either of these performance PCs will satisfy the need for speed at a school. HP’s $1,110 Pavilion HPE H8-1050 is the one to get if all-out performance is all you care about, but at schools today, the top three criteria are generally price, price and price. That said, at $750, Acer’s Veriton VM4618G provides just enough performance at a price that’s hard to beat.

Acer Veriton VM4618G4618G-Ui7260

A

Price: base, $419; as tested, $750

+ Inexpensive

+ 3-year warranty

+ Small size

+ Room for expansion

+ Good variety of ports

 

- No WiFi

- Lacks USB 3.0

 

HP Pavilion HPE H8-1050

A-

Price: base, $900; as tested, $1,110

+ Performance

+ WiFi

+ USB 3.0

+ TV tuner

 

- High price

- 2-year warranty

 

 

Big Screen, Small Notebook

The newest Ultrabook, Dell’s XPS 13, squeezes a lot of thin notebook into a small package. It’s got a 13.3-inch screen, but is shaped more like a computer with an 11-inch screen and weighs 3 pounds. Equipped with either a Core i5 or i7 processor, the XPS 13 has either 128- or 256GB of solid state storage and  comes with100GB of online storage. It costs $1,000 and should be available by Spring time.