Hi, I am planning on attending Washington and Lee University this coming fall and have absolutely no idea what kind of laptop would be a smart buy for me.
My Needs/ Expected Plans
1.) Business Major, but will be taking broad-based classes because I am W&L is a LAC
2.) I have a Chrome Book, but not powerful enough for my overall use
3.) Hope to be transportable, but I am ok with bringing the chrome book to class if needed
4.) Good Battery Life Valued, but I doubt I will ever be away from a power source more than 6-8 hours
5.) able to spend about $1000, but would really prefer less (price is a very important aspect for me, but would rather buy something to last than something cheap)
6.) I can and will be careful with it, but would prefer as durable as possible
6.) don’t need anything new or fancy (older models that are slightly worse, but similar are good with me)
7.) Whatever else you think I might need with my major
I mainly would otherwise use the laptop for stuff like Netflix or google (would rather spend less and get worse screen quality// not a ‘gamer’)
Thank you in advance smart people!!
My older S just graduated from W&L last week in Econ/Math. For our computer needs, I am a fan of the Best Buy website. I added basic filters that were important to us. From there, you can compare several models and it will list every single feature side by side. A lot of it is personal preference.
For us, I looked at models between $500-1000. I looked at less expensive, but still good quality brands, such as Asus and Lenovo. My kids wanted touch screen. I got it too. It’s nice, but not a deal breaker for me. But I (an engineer) could not live without the number pad on the side. That usually means a larger (15") laptop. My kids also got the larger size and are happy with it. It’s probably a tad heavier, but they had to carry 30-35 pounds backpacks in elementary school when they weighed 50 pounds. A 1/2 pound heavier laptop isn’t anything to them.
Any item you aren’t familiar with, you can google. The SSD is usually a better option. I googled the differences in processors, and I believe that I found the newest generation of an older processor was much cheaper and performed roughly the same to the newest processor. But, I would google to see if that’s still true.
Once we compared models, we chose the best option for us with the features that mattered the most. I usually pick one that is on sale, but not clearance. I worry that clearance is too old and will become outdated. In the end, we spent $750-800 on our laptops (I had 2 kids and also one for me/H) and we’ve all been quite pleased with them. Older S’ lasted 3 years before the charger died and needed to be replaced. But (knock on wood), that’s the only issue we’ve had. And my kids are on them constantly! They take quite a beating.
@ClassicMom98 Thank you so much! This was such a big help!