Experienced Users - Recommendations for Best Laptop for College Student?

<p>Blueslipper, you are on exactly the right track with your thoughts. You have obviously done a good job researching. Hopefully, you also know to ignore anything having to do with speed, as basic computers are plenty fast enough for normal college stuff, web surfing, and e-mailing.</p>

<p>If you end up buying used, keep in mind you will probably need to buy a new battery which can be expensive. You might also want/need to update the operating system.</p>

<p>Try to judge build quality. It will be worth it to pay extra for a better built machine that would need fewer repairs over its life. I got a mid range Dell for my daughter and had mixed luck with it. Although she is careful and it never leaves the house, I have had to replace the back cover (due to hinge failure) three times and the hard drive just failed. This is a three year old machine. It is a 17" which could be part of the problem.</p>

<p>Most colleges tell you exactly what to get (what they support) and will give you a deal through the school.</p>

<p>forget windows. Get the new [url=&lt;a href=“Google Chromebooks - Laptops, Detachables and Tablets”&gt;Google Chromebooks - Laptops, Detachables and Tablets]chromebook[/url</a>] use googledocs and share on the cloud and never look back.</p>

<p>What would you use to replace One-Note on the Chrome-Book?</p>

<p>I just bought my kid a Dell Inspiron as an early Christmas present and it can more than handle his school stuff. Best part was that it’s cheap. I found it in an article on this exact topic that has some great information.</p>

<p>[Best</a> Student Laptops for School 2012](<a href=“http://www.squidoo.com/student-laptop]Best”>http://www.squidoo.com/student-laptop)</p>

<p>It does depend somewhat on major. Especially in arts, journalism, communications, things tend to be very Mac oriented. Otherwise, it doesn’t much matter except in fields that use technical or statistical software packages, which are more likely to work with PC’s than Mac’s (but things are evolving rapidly; for example, “R” functions with both operating systems these days).</p>

<p>The Mac OS beats the pants off of Windows. That’s not changing with the latest Windows OS upgrade.</p>

<p>I do not like the idea of getting a used or rebuilt machine, if only because the effective life expectancy of a new laptop is 3 to 4 years, not simply because of wear and tear but because memory, processors, cameras, I/O devices, and screens are all constantly being upgraded and increasing in capacity and speed each year. Why start out with a machine that’s already 1 or 2 years “out of date”?</p>

<p>Personally, I have found the added cost of a Mac over a PC to be worth it, both because of the quality of the service (if you need it), the reliability of the hardware, and the security from malware. If you assume a 4 year useful life of the machine, the average added cost of a Mac over a “comparably equipped” PC is on the order of $150 per year: trivial, when you consider reliability.</p>

<p>For all but the “artist,” who might have reason for a larger and also hi-res screen (e.g., 15" or even 17", and the ability to do side-by-side work with images or graphic designs), a 13" computer is perfectly adequate. There is no advantage to having a larger one. There is the major disadvantage of weight for the computer and accessories.</p>

<p>Just bought my daughter an Asus i5 with backlit keyboard and windows 8. She likes the Windows 8.</p>

<p>I am looking for Core i3 or i5 processor - at least 4MB Ram - preferrably 6MB Ram. Storage is not a big issues because you can always get an external drive cheaply, but I will probably get S at least 256G if not 500G. Invest in a good anti-virus/anti-spyware/version control tool rather than buy a MAC if you are concerned about price. An excellent application is far cheaper than the price difference between a PC and Apple product. (I would have a different answer if the student were going into a artistic major). Backlit keyboard is on our must list too.</p>

<p>While Apple still makes a better product, the gap is lessening. But the price difference between the two is not worth it. I have owned both, but I will stick with PC’s for price. I will respectfully disagree with mackinaw about the added cost of a PC. I have yet had to invest additional money into repair of a PC that was not my own fault. (You drop a PC or MAC and they both will require repair.)</p>

<p>I am still on the fence about Windows 8 - If you get Windows 8 you must get a touchscreen or it is a total pain. So if no touch screen - look for a late model computer with Windows 7. There are still a few out there for sale.</p>

<p>I would not buy used unless you plan to completely strip and scour the disk and reinstall. You will be accepting any consequences from the prior owners bad habits - aka drops on the floor, water in the keyboard, viruses and worms. (Some of these problems may not have surface yet) In addition, the hardware life of most PCs is only a couple of years, you will be extremely lucky if the system makes it through her college years. I want to buy S one and only one computer while he is in college. </p>

<p>I like the Lenovo - There is a decent one that converts to a faux-tablet that S has his eye on called the Lenovo Yoga. It runs about $999 at our local electronic chain store.</p>

<p>Someone else mentioned getting a monitor for the dorm room. That is what we plan to do for S. This way his laptop can be thinner and lighter for carrying to class.</p>

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<p>Windows 8 works fine without a touchscreen.</p>

<p>You just have to spend some time setting it up so that it’s optimized for desktop mode.</p>

<p>I’m using Windows 8 right now on an old Nehalem machine.</p>

<p>Both my boys had Lenovo laptops that lasted through four years of college with no problems.</p>

<p>Panasonic Toughbooks for the Construction Management major in all of us :)</p>

<p>Seriously, with all due respect to the manufacturers of low priced laptops, consider what would be the implications of a computer failure right before a project or three are due. Then, spend accordingly. If your student can fetch her paper on Medieval History 300 from the ‘cloud’ or a USB hard drive, plop it on a school computer, and not miss a beat, you’re golden. If your student depends on the laptop for sophisticated CAD or math or graphics work, then losing the machine at a bad moment could be very difficult to recover unless the college has lots of machines available 24/7 with the right specs and right software loaded on them…</p>

<p>I’ve been in the computer business since the late 70’s and only Panasonic Toughbooks and Lenovo Thinkpads will do it from my experience. Apples, too, if your software runs on them. </p>

<p>Depending on the student’s computer needs, a super-desktop and a ‘good enough’ laptop may be a better answer also… If you’re drawing a CAD version of the Chicago Spire or Dubai Burj Khalifa, there ain’t a laptop in the world that can render the thing fast enough :). But not many students have that requirement.</p>

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<p>Laptops can be stolen or lost too. Files can be accidentally lost. A comprehensive plan includes what you’d do if the device was unavailable. This could be a backup system, an agreement with others so that you could borrow a device in an emergency and scouting out what the university provides students with for computing capability and when these systems are available and their relative load factors at peak times.</p>

<p>We have a spare MacBook Pro and plenty of older, spare laptops that could be used in a pinch. I would give these away to my relatives but they are all similar - at least one computer expert in the home with lots of older equipment.</p>

<p>First thing, you find out if the college’s network has any special requirements. (This includes for the Operating System level and any school anti-virus.) It will either be on their IT web page or call. It’s usually a nobrainer as most new laptops will meet that. You may have to purchase Windows separately and there is usually some deal through a supplier the college mentions that’s much cheaper than outside. </p>

<p>Second, those school deals on laptops are not always good pricing, not at all, in our cases.</p>

<p>Agreeing with those who say not to make this rocket science. She isn’t going to be doing anything complex that compares with art majors or STEM kids. The likihood that she’ll load it up with the hoggy games or modeling programs is almost nil. She’ll need the same word processing, internet capability and movie watching we all do.</p>

<p>Don’t assume you need to put big bucks into this. Frankly the MAC had a graphics issue within 3 months and a cracked screen shortly after. The cheap on-sale Dell lasted until that kid spilled some water and she’s now on a fine cheap HP.</p>

<p>And- gals like to be able to fit the laptop into either their backback or a tote.</p>

<p>A thumb drive can save files. We got one kid a $30 b/w printer and the cartridge lasted over a year, was not expensive to replace. When she needs a higher quality print, she uses the school’s printers (which are free, in our case.)</p>

<p>Get insurance or see what your homeowners covers. The service contract costs can run up your price steeply- we stick with the basics. You can have the same success on a $300 laptop as on a $600 - and the same risks of problems. Remember, it’s word processing, internet, movies.</p>

<p>If cost is no object, I’d recommend the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display ($1699). This gives you a very compact, lightweight machine with 2560 X 1600 resolution (more pixels than competing 15" and 17" laptops). </p>

<p>Less expensive Macs start at $999.
Apple has retail stores all over the country plus a presence at Best Buys. An Apple MBP should easily carry your kid through 4 years of college at least. They run MS Office but the Unix-like operating system also is good for science and technical work (including software development).</p>

<p>Save a little money by foregoing a printer. My kid hardly used the one I bought him.</p>

<p>We got an hp folio 13 for about $800. Similar in size and weight to Macbook Air, which makes it very portable, at much lower cost. The battery life is also far superior to a normal laptop. Tradeoffs for this size computer include a small solid state hard drive (128GB - we doubled this for $150 with a 128GB SDHC card on the advice of an Amazon reviewer) and no DVD drive. D had a language DVD that she had to load onto a USB and copy to her HDD. If it was a big deal, external DVD drives are cheap. She’s using cloud backup with Dropbox for her school work - I would not recommend an external HDD or flash drive for backup unless your kid is very conscientious about external backups – even then, the best backup is one that happens as soon as you save a document, without effort on your part. </p>

<p>The only computer company I would advise you to stay away from is Acer - on the strength of my single experience. My sister gave me an Acer Aspire laptop that she could not get to work on the intenet with Vista. I put XP on it, which did work, but in its 4-year lifespan, the on-board wireless went after 18 months; also the power cord, then the video, and finally I think the drive controller went, judging by the fact that neither the HDD nor the DVD drives worked. I never saw so much hardware fail on any computer. (I had replaced the HDD a couple of years ago, but that can fail on any computer.)</p>

<p>Check if there is on-campus repair center for a certain brand(s)… that could make you lean that way. </p>

<p>Note to Engineering parents - Wait until you know the college, the tech requirements, and possible discounts on campus.</p>

<p>If she is going to take it to class to take notes on it, then opt for a 12 to 14" screen. Some of the 15.6" have gotten really big and heavy.</p>

<p>H is into reliability so we usually get Lenovo, Dell, or Macbook but they cost more. Lenovo and Dell usually have good deals on-line at their own websites or at Costco. Additionally, Lenovos and Dells definitely do not look cute nor cool.</p>

<p>However, if D is only doing Word docs and surfing the internet, then it would seem that most laptops might do fine; then again, have never tried it.</p>

<p>Also found that it’s valuable for me to have more than 2 USB ports. Backlit keyboard is important. Yes, ethernet port is good in case the wifi goes out. We get i7 or i5 processors which make it run faster. If she wants to watch movies, you can consider screen in 1080p which is high definition.</p>

<p>Or consider buying an iPad and buying a separate little keyboard ($100) for when she wants to type out longer papers.</p>

<p>I was wondering the same thing and then I came across this article and comparison chart and it all seemed so clear to me!</p>

<p>[What</a> is the best laptop for college? | Geek. Too Geek.](<a href=“http://www.geektoogeek.com/what-is-the-best-laptop-for-college/]What”>http://www.geektoogeek.com/what-is-the-best-laptop-for-college/)</p>

<p>Good luck! :)</p>