Best laptop for college student?

smiley

I am going to college and need a new computer (laptop). What are some good choices to get? I don't really care the brand, as long as it works well, is light, and relatively not expensive.
Thanks!

Answer
ASUS laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230987
Core i5 3230M(2.60GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1600 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce Dedicated 2GB GT 610M 1 Year Accidental Damage/30-Day Zero Bright Dot

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230416
Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 14.1" 8GB Memory 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce Dedicated 1GB GT 620M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230597
Core i7 3630QM(2.40GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce Dedicated 2GB GT 635M 1 Year Accidental Damage/30-Day Zero Bright Dot

Two HP that can be customized to what you need, Bump the APU up to A8 or A10

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/B5Y73AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ000046kL18cI;sid=9zDf3cQuLykz6ZWxCIeGSR0hwywaiPAyMmXy0Rex_etSdk9VLxt6fHwh?HP-ENVY-dv6z-7200-Notebook-PC Starting at $530

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/B6C46AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-Pavilion-g6z-2200-Notebook-PC Starting at $460 Your choice of 5 colors

These are not customizable

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2K91UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-Sleekbook-6-1110us
HP SleekBook AMD Quad-Core A8-4555M APU AMD Radeon HD 7600G 4 GB DDR3 500 GB SATA (5400 rpm) $700

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2N66UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-dv7-7230us-Notebook-PC
17" DV7-7230US laptop AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M APU AMD Radeon HD 7640G 6 GB DDR3 750 GB SATA (5400 rpm) $750

Brand buying advice

Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.

Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them.

Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install, you can cripple the system.

Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. Low end system that are driving the race to the bottom.

Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.

Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name then product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.

Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap, causing units to fail early. For that reason I would avoid them.

ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They have excellent build quality. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it.

Ultrabooks are the higher end of Wintel laptops but they have some of the same concerns as Apple. They make it next to impossible to change any hardware in them. Service of them will have to be done by the manufacturers. With most of them, you can not change your own battery or hard drive. They are designed to catch your eye but they are not any more special then other laptops except for the fact that they are slim or thin. Your paying for it being thin and slim. For the money your going to spend on it you can buy a much better laptop with more power.

Hybrids are the worse of the worse. The flip or detachable touch screens are just a disaster waiting to happen.

Never buy an All In One. They are far worst then laptops of any kind to service and they have a higher failure rate. My experience with them are limited because the few I worked on made me think they were designed in such a way as it would take a blow torch and a jack hammer just to disassemble them.

You get what you pay for. Systems with high end parts with low prices are to be viewed with suspicion. They have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down.

Choose wisely.

Would a Lenovo laptop work for a high school/ college student?

mcm

IF SO, which one, I would like one that isn't crappy and cheap, but I don't want to spend a lot either. I answered some questions to help. I'm going to be a Junior in high school this year and I would appreciate a laptop that could last through a good chunk of college.


1) What is your budget?
$600 or less

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
anything between 14-16 would be fine.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
HP and Dell are reported to be terrible. I was thinking LENOVO because they seem like a trusted brand.

5) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?
Microsoft Word/ Powerpoint/ Excel. I watch a lot of Netflix and Hulu.

6) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?
I plan on being able to bring it places, I would appreciate a webcam.

7) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?
I was think World of Warcraft, but it it's not possible, then I'm okay with not playing any.

8) How many hours of battery life do you need?
2-4

9) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?
Online buying would be fine as I don't live anywhere near a store.

10) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP, 7, or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.
Windows 7

Screen Specifics
I seriously want one with a matte/non-reflective screen.


12) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?
I want good screen resolution, but I just don't know what is good.


13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
I must have a matte screen - I can't stand the shiny ones.

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
No.

15) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?
Over the summer, 4-6 years.

Notebook Components

16) How much hard drive space do you want; 40GB to 200GB?
enough I guess. I don't have a million songs or videos. I have a lot of word documents and powerpoints though.

17) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD-ROM, DVD-CD/RW or DVD-RW drive?
Yes, DVD-CD/RW

Answer
I have a Lenovo thinkpad sl500. It is really nice and has held up quite well for over a year now without problems. It has a lot of power, you can watch video and play games. As for all the options you want, Lenovo's direct website lets you customize.
Right now there are a bunch of Lenovo laptops with your specifications starting below $600. The matte screen might cost a little more, and you can easily add a webcam.
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:find-config?category-id=653343E0DE54435882FABC3CE1BC569A&tabname=&filter=Starting at Price_1
There are a few under $500:
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:find-config?category-id=653343E0DE54435882FABC3CE1BC569A&tabname=&filter=Starting at Price_0

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Would a Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 work as a main laptop for a full college student?

Angel

Hello! I am a freshman in college and I am buying myself a new laptop to last the rest of college. With the introduction of Windows 8, I'm thinking of getting a touch screen laptop to "keep up with technology" and to work well with the Windows 8 which I heard is mainly meant for touch screens.

The laptop I have heard is the best for Windows 8 in general is the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13. This laptop looks really nice, but do you think it would be suitable as a 4-year "main computer" kind of laptop? Especially since I am thinking of majoring in computer science, do you think this laptop would work or would I need a more "hardy" laptop? If so, which would you recommend? Thank you!

Answer
I highly recommend it. You get both the functionality of a laptop AND tablet. For just sitting around and browsing, etc, tablet mode works for that. But for serious college work, then you convert to laptop. Touchscreen is where everything is going now. You don't want Windows 7 for that reason.

As one who has hardly touched my laptop since I got a tablet, you will enjoy having the functionality of both

When Windows 7 comes out should I upgrade my Lenovo T60 thinkpad or get a new laptop? I'm a college student.?

ben b

I've heard that Lenovo's have gone down in quality since they were bought by IBM but I love mine right now and would want similar laptop.

Answer
Actually Lenovos are one of the best business class laptops. Lenovo bought an IBM PC division, not the other way around. From Wikipedia "IBM became the owner of 18.9% of Lenovo in 2005 as part of Lenovo's acquisition of the IBM personal computing division. [7] Since then IBM has steadily lowered its shareholding in Lenovo. In July 2008 the IBM shareholding went below the 5% reporting disclosure threshold."

Anyhow, with Windows 7, not everything is compatible. I've been running Windows 7 (final release) and it's not fantastic. One or two programs had trouble installing (7zip). Check with the school, but I'd say get a Vista laptop now, get your free upgrade of Windows 7 but don't install it until you're sure it's compatible with what you need.

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What is the smallest inch laptop you can get other than a netbook?

best lenovo laptops for college students image

Tara

ts for a college student just needing a laptop for internet and papers.
is a 14" sony vaio small?
we want a small one that is still considered a laptop.

what other laptops would you recommend other than Toshiba and HP??
sony vaio VS. dell?
opinions!

Answer
The products you are looking for are called subnotebooks due to their size.
They start with screens around 11.6" - 12.1" and go up to about 14.5"

Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, HP, DELL, Samsung, ASUS are all good brands.
The brand should not be your main concern. It's your budget that decides
what you can get in the end... What is your budget ($1000 or $2500)?

Powerful subnotebooks are not as cheap as netbooks. So your budget needs
to be higher to cover the costs, but you'll be able to do (much) more ...
Smaller devices are more expensive as small high quality parts are used.

Some products have an impresssive battery life of 6-8 hours
the ones mentioned below are comparable to desktop in terms of speed.


All brands have products for different needs in different price ranges!
(basic / mainstream, enthusiasts / business, gamer)

I focused on the less expensive products in my examples... (exept the last one)

What is the best laptop for student use?

da-big-bam

I am looking for the best laptop possible for high-school and college students.

Answer
WELL, it all depenmds on what tey're using it for, but the mans right. Macbook pro is the best. it got everything you need and more. but if you hate macs (i ahve no idea why so many people do) you should use an HP, (try to get one without vista, or install something liek linux on it, becasue vista is till so incredibally buggy) or if you are really willing to spend the mony on it (and if wont get trashed at some phrat party) get a lenovo think pad, however much worse they are then when IBM made them, they still are great, fast wonderful machines. It all depends on who you are and what you like.


Advantages to each?
The mac, is a mac, and macs do and will always kick butt.
The hp is jsut a general machine and its fast ish and has nice ish geraphics and is a (kinda) dependable machine.
The Thinkpad is fast, has great utilitites, and is a really good all around computer for anyone to use, along with their recent update with media accomodation.

Good luck!

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