Parents Share Concerns with Buying Laptops and Smartphones for Kids This Year

FatWallet.com releases additional survey results that reveal 10 Back to School Tech Trends.

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Aug 01, 2016, 07:00 ET

BELOIT, Wis., Aug. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FatWallet.com, the savings resource for millions of online deal hunters, announced results of its Back to School Tech Survey (*Survata), which revealed 28% of parents plan to purchase student laptops and/or smartphones during back to school sales this year for their children in grades K-12 (up from 20% in 2015). More than one-third of those parents rank back-to-school sales as the best time to find student laptop deals, out-ranking Black Friday for the third year in a row. Parents also said the most stressful part of buying a laptop for their children was finding the best value for their money, while 54% indicated some level of concern with their children having their own laptops.

10 Back to School Tech Trends

Of the 28% of parents who plan to purchase student laptops and/or smartphones this year for their kids in grades K-12:
57% indicated they think laptops are better learning tools for their kids over smartphones, while 37% thought students need both
46% agree it's practical for children ages 13-15 to have their own smartphones, and one-third said ages 10-12 is practical
54% are concerned with the expense of replacing a broken smartphone
65% will spend $500 or less on student laptops, 27% will spend less than $300, 23% between $501-$700 and 12% will spend more than $700
37% said the best time to buy a student laptop is during back-to-school sales, but 32% said during Black Friday
26% said MacBooks are the best laptops for their children's school needs, 20% Dell, 19% HP and 8% each for Microsoft Surface Book, Chromebook or ASUS
80% said laptops (or tablets) are offered in school for some grades, while 32% said they're available for all grades
51% are concerned with getting the best value (for the money) when buying student laptops, but one-third are concerned there are too many choices
54% are concerned with their children having their own laptops

Review FULL RESULTS and infographics.

To help parents with their back-to-school shopping concerns, FatWallet has launched a new Student Laptop Buying Guide featuring easy-to-follow steps on how to choose the right laptop model and features and the best value in their purchases. The guide also includes hand-picked laptop deals and access to a comprehensive list of the most current laptop deals, backpacks, software, accessories and additional savings opportunities from hundreds of online coupons from top electronics-focused retailers.

Other back-to-school shopping resources include:

About: FatWallet is a smart resource for millions of online and mobile shoppers to find and share thousands of current coupons and deals from more than 2,000 retailers, like Kohl's, Amazon, Walmart and Ebay. The much-celebrated FatWallet forums represent the pulse of an evolving online and mobile marketplace where the savviest deal hunters in the world gather to share and learn about ways to save money on everyday needs, wants and personal finance decisions. *This survey was commissioned by FatWallet and conducted online by Survata. Survata interviewed 1001 American adults with children in school (K-12) in July 2016. Additional methodology can be found at survata.com/methodology.

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SOURCE FatWallet