Best Overall Laptop?

<p>Hi guys, I've been looking through some of these topics (and I've been a College Confidential lurker for a while, just never really made an account) because I'm planning to get a new laptop freshman year of college. Woohoo!</p>

<p>My budget is $2000, so I'm kind of looking for a good overall laptop. I've used a few different brands in my life, but I've never handled a Mac (besides learning how to scroll up and down).
However, a lot of people have been raving to me about Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. Between the two, I hear Pro is better, but I'm still iffy on spending the money on a Mac.</p>

<p>**I'm going to be a biology major if that helps anything?</p>

<p>So, what I'm looking for in a laptop:
-Long battery life (8+ hours preferred)
-Good amount of storage (265 GB if possible)
-Comes with some note taking components (Microsoft Office or just some type of note taking program besides Notepad).
-Not too heavy/bulky
-Moderate to fast speed
-Screen doesn't have to be huge, but I would appreciate having a decent size as well as good screen quality
I'm not too picky about the design though.</p>

<p>I've heard Lenovo ThinkPad's are pretty good about battery life? However, I wanted to get some feedback from some of you guys so I can open up my search.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Just some general advice for what it is worth.</p>

<p>I would consider waiting until you know where you are going. Many schools will offer computers for sale that include onsite repairs and insurance. They usually will have both MS and Apples. Sometimes a good deal, sometimes not. Some schools give a laptop (included in tuition) to all students. Some give laptop grants to those who need it.</p>

<p>Most schools will have a site license for MS Office at a volume discount. At my daughter’s school it’s free or $10 if you want the disks.</p>

<p>Battery life of 8 hours could be tough. Read reviews to find a general idea of real life instead of the fantasy life the manufacturers claim. Having said that, with your budget you might get close.</p>

<p>You should consider build quality as a priority. I assume you plan on carrying your computer all over the place. I would look at business class laptops since you have a large budget. I doubt a cheap $500-800 laptop would survive four years without careful handling.</p>

<p>Do you want a touch screen, a IPS screen, a digitizer? Consider ports, accessories, memory, expandability, etc</p>

<p>The Lenovo Thinkpads are a good option to look at. They are business class machines that should hold up to student use. They cost more because of build quality. The X1 Carbon got good reviews and has a fast charging system that is worth considering. The Helix is interesting and has great battery life, IPS touch screen, active digitizer and can double as a tablet. The Twist is a nice design with IPS touch screen but has lousy battery life. The T43x series is a conventional laptop with a hot swappable battery. This is just a few of their options. </p>

<p>I will let others speak for Macs. </p>

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<p>Your description pretty much describes a 13’’ Retina Macbook Pro (if you upgrade to 256GB SSD). It easily gets 8-9 hours. The reason most Windows laptops don’t get as much as advertised is that Windows is not optimized for the system. OS X is made for Mac hardware and has the ability to use it efficiently. A little tip: Using Safari instead of Chrome adds an hour to battery life as Chrome forces the use of the GPU. I just purchased one with also 8GB of RAM and it came to $1400, so you could definitely make it more powerful. The screen is really nice as well.</p>

<p>I also agree with @noname87 in that you have to specify what else you want, because then it will be easier for us to help you. The Thinkpad line is fine, the X1 Carbon is great if you want a Windows version of a Macbook. And while you can use Apple Notes you can easily get MS Office for Mac or whatever. I personally prefer Pages and Keynote ('09 versions).</p>

<p>Also, just curious, what is your major?</p>

<p>I agree with Matachines, but if you value battery life more, I would go with the 13" Macbook Air, with the budget of $2000, you could even consider maxing out the specs. It comes with the new Haswell processors so the battery life is up to 12 hours. I own the same model and I can go about two days without charging it. There has been many tests that prove OS X (Mac operating system) gets better battery life then a Windows computer with the same specifications.</p>

<p>If you decide to go Mac, you can’t go wrong with either the Retina or Air, but I wouldn’t go with the original Pros. Apple is purposely diminishing the line and they have not done a good job updating it. Drivers are all online nowadays and if you really need a disc drive, you can buy a cheap one for around $30, it doesn’t have to come from Apple. Also, if you decide to get a Mac, I would recommend waiting until no tax weekend, and using your .edu email to retrieve a $100 coupon BestBuy offers, so basicly you would save $200.</p>

<p>As for Microsoft Office, it can easily be replaced with Apple iLife, you can even use the free version on icloud.com</p>

<p>If you go with a PC, I would go with an ultrabook (Laptops that are under an inch with an SSD(10x faster, more secure, quiet hard drive)). Your back will thank you later on. Some good ultrabooks are the Samsung ATIV Books, The Acer S7, Lenovo IdeaPads, or the Vaio Pro or Z Series.</p>

<p>I was going to mention the Air, which can get like 13 hours of battery life, but it seemed to be @EXOTICS‌ wanted an overall good laptop he can “future proof” (future proofing isn’t real, but you know what I mean). While I love the Air and I loved mine until I upgrade to a Pro, the screen and resolution are not worth the extra hours of battery to me. If you are fine with it, that’s good (I was fine with it for a long time). But I think “overall” the Pro gives a good battery life and one of the best screens out there.</p>

<p>And yeah, I don’t know why the old Pros are still on sale. They’re pretty terrible… I got a blu ray drive for my Mac, which was $100, but you can definitely find a normal DVD/CD drive for half of that or less, so no disc drive is a non-issue.</p>