Recommend a laptop for a Uni Student?

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Sat, 20. Aug 16, 14:25

My niece is off to uni soon, doing a language degree. I offered to get her a laptop for uni. Any recommendations?

Games etc are not an issue, but would like something with a good screen and lightweight.

Thought about this one?

Maybe too big with a 15.6 inch screen, but I thought it would be nice if she could watch netflix etc on it.

Any thoughts much apreciated. Thanks!

Post by **X2-Illuminatus** » Sat, 20. Aug 16, 17:55

Personally, I wouldn't choose anything with a screen smaller than 15.6 inches. My current laptop, I bought almost two years ago, has even a 17 inch screen, whereby I bought it more or less as a desktop replacement and movability wasn't that important for me. I am quite happy with the decision, as it allows me to even sit a bit away from the laptop and still see everything properly. Also as my research back then showed, there is often an increase in the screen quality with bigger screen sizes and, not that surprising, with increasing prices.
Additionally, what you shouldn't forget to consider is a proper keyboard. Especially if you write a lot, you want one which meets your requirements regarding keyboard layout, key sizes and pressure point. Unfortunately, this is often a characterictic which is not tested in detail in reviews. Therefore, you should check out / test the laptop you decide for (or a similar one from the same series) in a retail store if possible.
I cannot really help you with specific recommendations for laptop configurations, but I can suggest http://www.notebookcheck.net/ for reviews. They have quite detailed tests and some top ten lists for diffferent price categories they keep up to date.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Sat, 20. Aug 16, 21:59

Don't forget screen resolution. The linked laptop is only 1366x768, which is fine for watching movies but not so great if you actually want to do work on the thing. I'd be looking for one with a 1920x1080 panel if your budget will stretch that far.

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Sat, 20. Aug 16, 22:36

Macbook.
The students at my uni are buying macbooks so often that in the open area they outnumber all other types of laptop.

I've used macbooks for the last three years, and like mine so much I have a top of the range Alienware laptop my department head got me that barely gets used.

I hope you don't go with the Apple are evil crowd, because the macbook, in pretty much all its incarnations is a great peice of kit, near perfect for a student.

Plus I would strongly recommend getting anything over 15 inches for a laptop. Until recently I had a 13inch Macbook air (till coffee killed it). That was perfect, lightweight, great screen resolution, great keyboard and mousepad (best I have ever used on a laptop).
The hard drive is small, but these days only a fool uses a laptop to store data, get an external drive and used that.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sat, 20. Aug 16, 23:35

Just my thoughts:

Don't worry overmuch about screen size. Yes, it needs to be big enough to easily read/use while in class/library. However, you can always buy a cheap 20+ inch monitor to supplement it while she's working on homework in her dormroom. (Supplemental keyboard/mouse and even a good quality camera can fill in where the laptop falls short for "long use" sessions.)

Focus on weight and battery life. Don't skimp on RAM/Hard-drive space, though she may be using online storage for many projects. Consider the lifetime of the laptop, as well - Don't buy something that has already been passed up by two successive chipsets if she's supposed to use it for another four years.

Security is an issue, as well. Most laptops come with things like LoJack chips and other remote services that can locate a laptop or even lock it down. Check to see what sorts of security systems are used by the laptop and, of course, activate them and pay the membership fee. Electronics are prime targets for theft and college/university is a target and opportunity-rich environment.

What sort of mobile device does she have? If it's an iPhone, a Mac might be a good choice. Android/Microsoft, then maybe a PC based laptop would be more to her liking? (Though, both have cross-compatible software to some extent.)

Lastly - Ask her what she wants to be able to do with it. You want her to be happy with it and willing to use it for quite awhile. After all, she's the one who has to make it work.

You don't want the main subject of your weekly telephone calls to be how much the computer you bought her sucks!

Post by **Santi** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 00:06

That Asus looks good if gaming is not an issue as you stated, 1TB of hard drive is a godsend when in Uni, good compromise between screen and portability, and with a price of over £320 it is more than I will be willing to spend as a present for a niece.

For other options worth checking X2 Illuminatus link.

jack775544 · Post by **jack775544** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 01:06

From my experience the 3 things that are the most important for uni in a laptop are screen resolution (pixels are more important than size), RAM (at least 8GB) and a solid state drive (since you want opening files to be fast).

I have a Dell XPS 13, and love using it. It has a nice screen and the keyboard is nice to type on.

Personally I wouldn't go too large as it can be very unwieldy, and if you can get a high DPI display, it will more than make up for the lack of physical size that you have.
As for the topic of hard drives, I only have a 256GB hard drive and usually have 100GB free, but I do have a desktop computer that I store most of my junk on, but even then you can supplement that with an external hard drive.

clakclak · Post by **clakclak** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 01:25

First of all I think it highly depends if the person only has the laptop or also has another computer. I for my part have a pretty good (by normal people standard not gamer standard) desktop at home. Whenever I am home I will use that. So the following is assuming your niece has something else, or at least a keyboard and bigger screen at home.

X2-Illuminatus wrote:Personally, I wouldn't choose anything with a screen smaller than 15.6 inches. [...]

I would disagree, at least if like I said above it is a addition and not a replacer for a desktop (I know that one of your points was that you bought yours as a desktop replacement, so let me elaboratewhy I think that if you have a desktop or monitor+keyboard at home a smaller laptop will be better). Having choosen a really small laptop, that doubles as a tablet was one of the best choices I made for Uni. Tables in lecturing halls are small, big laptops often do not fit completely onto the table making it annoying to work with them during lecture or in confined spaces, for example on trains or your lap. Antoher advantage is space and weight, books are big and heavy if you on top of that also have a big desktop it can get annoying. Nobody wants to carry around to mutch stuff the entire day. (Not saying what you say is completely wrong though, there are always advantages and disadvantages)

From my personal expirence in Uni after (only) 2 years so far and from the position of a student rather than a teacher some things are to be considered:

- stability, reason should be obvious Uni can be hectic at times

- long runtime is always a plus

- storage depends a lot on your field of study I would assume, if you like me only have to work with PDF and Word/open office it really doesn't matter (my study folder is maybe 3 gigs by now)

- should not be to expansive, stuff gets stolen constantly, dropped or simply breaks when used every day

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 02:38

It might not be a super fast computer but it will probably work. An i5 might be better than an i3 and a faster hard drive might speed it up (the current hard drive would be a 1tb 5400 rpm one).

I am guessing this is nearly the North American equivalent
https://www.amazon.com/Asus-X540LA-SI30 ... sus+X540LA

Stars_InTheirEyes · Post by **Stars_InTheirEyes** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 04:05

I'm at Uni right now, and I don't use a laptop, or paper for note taking (unless I need to sketch a graph).

I use this: http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/products/t ... z4-tablet/

It's small, lightweight, high resolution screen (2560x1600), has a keyboard attachment (though I just use the touchscreen keyboard with drawing-typing (I dunno how to describe it, instead of tapping keys you drag from one to the next)), good battery life and comes with Word, Powerpoint and Excel.
It's waterproof too so you don't need to worry about rain or drinks spillage. Screen is scratch resistant also.

Also, because it's Android it has Google Cast features built in. If she has a TV with a Chromecast, she can mirror the tablet screen to the TV. Has all the standard apps (Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, etc) which you'd find on a mobile device.

My handwriting is atrocious, and I can make notes quicker and neater with this. Then I go home and print the notes off (have a HP wifi printer) and it makes for very easy to organise notes. Took a bit of getting used to but I don't go to uni without it now.

Chips · Post by **Chips** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 10:45

I'm sure if you bought a MacBook you'd be considered awesome, and definitely "cool" for a student.

Apple are not bad at all, well built, intermediate spec at best, but likely to last a long time if looked after, remain updated, and not likely to slow down, break (unless mistreated or careless) or otherwise be problematic. But they're very expensive, if it goes wrong it's very expensive, if you need extra's its very expensive. I personally find Apple products a pain in the ass.

I'd simply ask - is it supposed to be carried around? Keep in mind how students behave and/or do things; they don't necessarily go home after lessons... to the pub, go out, leave bags around, things get bashed on transport etc. High value devices... get insured.

Whatever you decide, if portability is important, then a versatile padded carrying solution is an absolute necessity. Weight and size is also a huge factor for a laptop at that point. If it is to be taken into uni, anything over 15" is out due to weight. If it will just sit on a tiny desk in a room at home, you can afford to "go big". Carrying I'd get them a nice, but designed for purpose, rucksack type bag. Doesn't scream out "laptop here", and often has a padded insleeve that can be removed for days you don't take a laptop, or provides the extra protection when you do. Mine is now 8 years old and still looks like new despite being used all the time (also water resistant).

Worth keeping in mind that MS has lots of deals for students; used to be full office suite for £37 (the Ultimate deal or something it was called).

Would I buy a Mac? No, but I dislike them - find them annoying as hell and vastly overpriced. Vastly.

Requirements wise, can probably go for near anything if gaming isn't an issue. My Asus is now 5+ years old and performing very well still; then again, I did buy a "gaming-lite" one, and don't use it for gaming. On the flip side I had an HP laptop before that, lasted 18 months and died with known nVidia issues which HP didn't do a recall on (and I oven cooked the Mobo twice to fix this but in the end gave up). So... at least with Apple you'd get consistent lifetime/usability.

If you do go Microsoft based laptop, get rid of the bundled crap-ware and install some AV and other related stuff (free versions) in advance perhaps?

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 12:54

oh yes, good point there Chips.

When I was an undergrad in 2000 there was a huge problem of students with cool branded laptop bags being robbed. I don't know how this is now.

Further on macs. After three years my macbook air still had a battery life of ten hours with just document editing, web browsing and doing more or less the same things students do. I was a student myself till not too long ago.

The insurance company replaced it with a macbook pro (battery life is alledgedly at nine hours, but I've not had time to test that). Nominally this was a serious upgrade, and yes it is a much more powerful machine, but I really miss the lightweight macbook air and its amazing battery life (initially 12 hours).

Previous windows based laptops have never had the same shallow degradation curve. Two years will see a windows laptop seriously deteriorate. Had it not been for the unfortunate coffee incident may macbook air probably would have lasted another three years. I may even buy another one, the old macbook air is cheaper now.

Note that this windows laptop degradation is not because of Windows itself, it's because laptop makers having been driving down costs to reduce that consumer price point. That impacts quality a lot. Even my Alienware 17 is less good than even my old macbook air. More capable in the power department, but as a working laptop it sucks hard. I use it only when I have to.

But you get what you pay for. Yes Apple are more expensive, but that's just because they are better.

Chips · Post by **Chips** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 13:40

Apple will last and will perform well for years; few Apple owners complain. We all know how windows gets bogged down over time (though how better it is under windows 10 ... quite a lot i think?).

There are similar build quality laptops available (work has ones with 9 hours battery) but you'll likewise get a high price.

It really does depend on expected usage. If you think it's going to be used a lot, carried around, then... premium with decent case/carry. If it's a desk sitter for the odd essay writing and watching Netflix, then just get a cheap windows machine.

You don't need high powered devices to watch Netflix or edit Word docs; all those adverts about "suitable for email" when its an i3 processor with 4Gb of memory and so on... just pushing you up the price points unnecessarily.

saibot · Post by **saibot** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 22:39

Search for special offers for students and think about refurbished used laptops.

Business series/brands often can interface with docking stations for stationary work, one click attaches the entire periphery. Especially with refurbished hardware you can potentially find a real bargain here: lacks the latest bells and whistles but gets you enough performance (except maybe for serious gaming) in a sturdy package. Emphasis on find though, you should know roughly what you want and take a good look at what you actually buy.

Durability often comes with a price in weight.

Watch out if you want an optical drive, those are (becoming) not really standard any more!

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 22:58

I'd say for a student laptop an optical drive is pointless, just extra weight for a device you will likely never use.

Better to get a cheap external one for very rare occasions when you might want one.

Gaming too should not be a consideration for a student laptop, it'll mean a heavier machine that will just get to be a pain to cart around campus all day. If you want to game, getting a desktop would be wiser, or a console.

Dantrithor · Post by **Dantrithor** » Mon, 22. Aug 16, 17:10

As an additional note to what was already stated, don't worry so much about screen size. Don't forget you can plug the laptop to an external monitor or TV and use that at home.

A 15.6" should be more than enough for Office work (I worked for 3 years doing administrative work in a smaller resolution screen, and it wasn't uncomfortable) while still big enough to comfortably browse webpages which are not suited for smaller resolutions or screen sizes or clutter the space. I currently use my laptop for GIS, software development and gaming, with a 15.6" plus the external screen when I need to open 6 things at the same time.

Battery life is more important than raw power, but you can still somewhat manage the power usage using the windows power controls adequately.

And about durability... most laptops which are advertised as durable, "impact-resistant" and the like seem to be marketed towards the professional sector: military, industrial... which raise the price tag. A lot. Considering this is going to be a "cheap" laptop, likely to be replaced in less than 5 years, I wouldn't spend extra cash on that.

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Mon, 22. Aug 16, 20:33

Thanks all for the comments. Much appreciated.

Interesting comments about the resolution being more important than screen size.

Had already considered giving her an old 19" monitor I have so a smaller laptop might be the way to go, more portable etc.

Can't go macbook, could never forgive myself

Cheers

Rapier · Post by **Rapier** » Mon, 22. Aug 16, 22:24

With the range of laptops and crossover devices* available these days, there isn't a simple answer to this question anymore - the answer will be as individual as the person.

Morkonan wrote:Lastly - Ask her what she wants to be able to do with it.

I'd say that's a start, but sometimes that direct question can be too large - what about the things they haven't thought of? Think about the type of person they are, how they behave and how that may affect their needs. Will they want to use it alone for writing essays, or will it be a focal point for movie watching and a sound system for flat parties? Also ask indirect questions, like 'what do you think you'll do in your spare time'? What does the course involve (might not just be writing essays, but presentations, watching films in other languages etc.). Are they going to want to keep in touch with a long-distance partner (or friends and family) by video calls? and so on...

I might even go as far as saying to buy it as a Christmas gift - give them the chance to get an understanding of what University entails academically and socially and how they adapt to that. It's a time of big personal change so what they want/need now might not be the same as in three months. If they can make to with what they have for now, or just pen and paper, for a little while, they might have a better idea of what they need after a month or two. You (both) might also be able to get more for your money around Black Friday or the January Sales.

*I'd say at least consider a Surface.

jack775544 · Post by **jack775544** » Tue, 23. Aug 16, 11:41

pixel wrote:Interesting comments about the resolution being more important than screen size.

It is very often overlooked. I could never go back to a 1366x768 resolution screen again after using a higher resolution laptop for a while.

As mrbadger has said, there is a very big deal for build quality. Apple are known for having well built devices* however a lot of the newer high end windows laptops are matching that quality now.

* I couldn't bare to use an Apple either, I find the operating system irritating at the best of times, but that is probably since I am so used to using windows at this point.

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Tue, 23. Aug 16, 12:37

I've seen lots of students go from 'I'll never use Apple' to buying one. It's all about the difference between feeling you shouldn't like something vs seeing how they perform in the field.

It's little things, like not having to find a spare plug socket because your machine has no risk of running out of power, that do it.

That and more, but that right there is an oft cited reason.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Recommend a laptop for a Uni Student?

Recommend a laptop for a Uni Student?