Tech FAQ’s
Welcome! Listed below are some commonly asked questions regarding the laptop program at EPS. Do you have additional questions? Please email Jonathan Briggs at jbriggs@eastsideprep.org Click to open and close the individual topics below.
For 2023-24 we are offering the following configuration (price includes tax, warranty, accidental damage coverage, software and shipping):
$2,275: Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga X13 Gen 2: i7
Specs:
- 4 year warranty
- 4 year accidental damage
- Battery warranty (single replacement if battery fails in first 3 years)
- OS Windows 11 Education 64
- Processor Intel Core i7-1255U Processor (2.80GHz, up to 4.70GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 12MB Cache)
- Security Chip Setting Enabled Discrete TPM2.0
- Color Black
- Display 13.3″ FHD (2560×1600), IPS, Glare, 300nits, Multi-touch
- Graphics Integrated Iris Xe Graphics
- Camera IR and 1080P HD Camera with Microphone
- Fingerprint Reader
- Onboard Memory 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
- 1TB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, OPAL2.0, TLC
- Wireless LAN Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 2×2 AX, Bluetooth Version 5.0 or above, vPro
- System Expansion Slots Smart Card Reader
- Battery 4 Cell Li-Ion Polymer Internal Battery, 46Wh
- Power Adapter 65W AC Adapter PCC (2pin)-US (USB Type C)
- Keyboard Backlit Keyboard Black English
- Lenovo Pen ThinkPad Pen Pro
Eastside Prep will provide:
- Office 365 license
- Adobe Creative Cloud license
- Upgrades to Windows 11 Education (Essentially Enterprise)
- Access to the loaner pool of computers
Eastside Prep teachers make heavy use of OneNote in their classes and students often are asked to complete assignments with pen input. Students also make heavy use of the touch interface to navigate windows. Students are also asked to place their laptops into tablet mode (folded flat on the table) in most class discussions. Students considering non-EPS laptops should ensure that their pen input is digital rather than capacitive so the machine can distinguish between touch inputs and pen inputs.
The machines are expensive because they have four years of warranty and accidental damage coverage in addition to being designed to last four years. The school environment is about as harsh as it gets for a laptop. In a typical day, the machine is opened and closed a dozen times, stuffed into a backpack seven or eight times and transported home and back, compare that to a typical office scenario and you can see that our machines need to be built with durability in mind. Our warranty and accidental damage protection also ensure that no matter what, that machine continues to be maintained during the projected life of the product. Additionally, Eastside Prep maintains a pool of loaner computers for student use while machines are being repaired and wraps four years of tech fees into the purchase price. Students choosing to bring a non-EPS machine will be billed separately for software ($150/year).
While there has been a lot of talk about BYOD (bring your own device) there is a huge benefit from having all faculty and students on the same computer. This is analogous to having all of the students in an English class having the same edition of Romeo and Juliette. The capabilities or content may be the same but there is no upside to going through the process of connecting each computing variant to the projector or tracking different page numbers across editions. As additional benefits we are able to offer better support by having the student computers on an enterprise level support contract vs. a consumer one and with faculty and students have the same type of machine, many of our student tech problems get solved in the classroom.
All families must submit the Tablet PC Form on our online forms system, School Forms Online, found here: https://sfo.inresonance.com/eastsideprep. Most families will purchase laptops through our school as these are fully supported by our tech office. If you plan to use your own, that needs to be indicated on the Tablet PC Laptop form. A conversation with our tech office (tech@eastsideprep.org), is required if you plan to go this route to ensure compatibility with our tech systems and use.
Computers are ordered in bulk and delivered to Eastside Prep in mid-July. Once they arrive on site they are configured optimally for Eastside Prep with many of the programs we use preinstalled. They are also labeled with your student’s name (as is their charger). Tablets are picked up in late August after attending an hour info session on getting connected @ EPS.
Info session times and how to sign-up will go out via email as these dates draw closer, they are clustered around our opening advisor conferences.
Info session times and how to sign-up will go out via email as these dates draw closer, they are clustered around our opening advisor conferences.