As the “new normal” requires us all to be connected via the internet for work and education, we’re seeing an increase in laptops that are made especially for kids. This is the new JOI Classmate 30, a laptop that is also catered towards the school kids and comes with relatively high performance.
Okay, so this laptop is a fairly simple one. The price of this laptop is RM1,999 – and here is what you’re getting.
This laptop has a pretty rough matte finish that you can definitely hear the coarseness when I run my fingers across. Like other kid-friendly laptops that we’re tried previously, the JOI Classmate 30 is also made entirely out of plastic.
Opening up the laptop reveals a 14-inch screen with 1366×768 resolution, but it’s a TN panel. Yeah… I’m not the biggest fan of the TN panel. The color shifting is too distracting and it doesn’t feel like there’s a proper way to look at the laptop screen optimally without color shifts.
And the bezels are thick but that is to protect the screen from getting damaged when it drops. And there’s also a webcam at the top of the display. It’s a fairly decent webcam too.
The keyboard is fairly decent. It works pretty well but does need some getting used to because the keyboard is using the ISO keyboard layout but with some key positions at different places. It’s a very personal thing, but I personally got used to the ANSI keyboard layout.
Typing on the JOI Classmate 30 might feel rattly and the keyboard flexes, but that is because those tabs holding the keyboard in place are exposed. You can pop them off easily and change another keyboard if it broke.
Interestingly, the JOI Classmate 30 comes with dust and water protection. The keyboard can hold up to 100 cubic centimeters of water inside – and I can assure you that kids will definitely spill drinks on their laptops.
As for the trackpad, it’s quite good. The tracking is actually on par with many of the higher-end, more expensive laptops in the market and also uses Windows Precision Touchpad drivers so all the multitouch gestures work perfectly.
The trackpad is also pretty coarse and it gave me a tingly sensation after using it for some time.
Now, the ports on this laptop are pretty funky. On the left side, we have a barrel jack for power, an Ethernet port, a VGA port, HDMI port, a USB 3 port, and an audio jack.
Then on the right side, we have a microSD card reader, a USB 2, and another USB 3 port.
It did feel weird to see a VGA port on this kind of laptop – but I presume it’s for kids who need to do a presentation on the school’s supremely old projector or something like that. I mean, having legacy support makes sense in this case.
Okay, the performance of this laptop. I just wanna say that this laptop is definitely a rather powerful one. It comes with an Intel Core i3-1005G1 with 4GB RAM and 256GB of storage.
That Intel Core i3-1005G1 made sure that all of my typical usage is handled properly, without any lags. My typical usage consists of heavy Chrome browsing, some Spotify, and some YouTube in the mix.
I mean, the Intel Core i3-1005G1 is definitely powerful enough for kids to make some beautiful PowerPoint presentations with 3D models and animations.
Even maximizing and minimizing YouTube videos is fast and snappy – and I’m pretty jealous of the hardware that these students are going to experience with the JOI Classmate 30.
With this list of specs and my heavy usage, the JOI Classmate 30 still manages to last about 5-6 hours with its 37Wh battery. Pretty decent.
Should you consider getting the JOI Classmate 30?
And all in all, the JOI Classmate 30 is available right now for the price of RM1,999. If you’re looking for a laptop for your child who is attending primary school or kindergarten, then the JOI Classmate 30 should be in your consideration.
It’s a good laptop for kids to get a taste of relatively high-performing laptops without breaking the bank and still have some kid-friendly features like dust and water resistance.
Where to buy?
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