Lap tops.

My younger DGC love my iPad, and there are various other types on offer, onto which you can load apps for playtime. (There's a thread somewhere on that..) I am not very well up on non Apple tablets, but there will be someone on GN who can help. Kindle Fire, perhaps?

For a young grandson, I would buy a cheap tablet, like the Tesco Hudl.
He is unlikely to actually break your laptop, but just alter settings or something which you don't know how to rectify without the help of an expert (or another child!)

A tablet or have a look in computer repair shops. They often have second hand ones that they have renovated.

We bought our DS a desktop computer from ebay for £50. Laptops weren't much more. People often sell when they upgrade.

Get a tablet, whatever kind suits best. You'll probably find you prefer it for yourself though.

My two DGC use my tablet they can't do any damage to it and have loaded up all their favourite game's,I use it myself if by any chance I need to take to take it anywhere as it's much smaller than my laptop.

My two younger GSs (9 & 7) both have i-Pad minis which their other GM gave them for Christmas. They have to be surgically detached from them for mealtimes! I have a Hudl which is perfectly adequate and about a quarter of the price. You don't say how old your GS is but there are games available for all ages - BBC has lots for younger children which are both fun and educational.

Is it possible to set up the above devices myself. I don't want to ask my sons if poss., cos I like to be as independent as I can. I heard that PC world will set up a computer?

Its very simple Falconbird even I did it

Android tablets like Hudl or Samsung are pretty much plug and play. If you need advice, ask them in the store.

My laptop is oldish now and quite heavy, too. I was thinking of buying a tablet but am also wondering if a notebook (netbook?) would be better? I'm looking at an Asus 11.5 notebook. Any thoughts/advice anyone?

Although I use a desktop most of the time I also have a Google chrome book (Acer 720) which I keep downstairs for quick reference. It is so quick compared to the desktop and has built in security. I would definitely recommend it. Read the reviews on Amazon.

I am using an Acer chrome book at the moment and am very pleased with it. There are slight limitations but I am happy with it.

By the way, my gs accidentally messed up our laptop by pressing a couple of buttons. Everything went sideways!

The shop wanted a lot of money to repair it but one of my daughter's friends is a very clever 'geek' so she emailed him in Spain and he told us how to put it right. This just involved pressing a few buttons - easy if you know how.

Thanks for the advice, granjo39 and Liz46 (are those your ages?). I did look into chrome books but was put off by the fact that any documents are stored on a cloud and not on the computer. A techie friend saw this as a problem but I was unclear as to why as you could always save to a stick. The quickness of operation with a chrome book would be a big advantage, I'm sure.

I solve most computer problems with a quick google, I accidently put everything sideways on my laptop but a quick google soon had me in the know and it was corrected in a few minutes.. likewise something went wrong with the Smart TV and we found the answer online..

NotTooOld..I must admit that I haven't used the Chrome book for documents just use it for googling,facebook etc.
Regards your comments regards age- if only...