Hello! I’ll soon be starting college and I am looking to purchase a new laptop, however I am not sure which is best for me. I currently have a Toshiba, which I’ve had for years now, but I’m looking to change to another brand. Here are some specifics:
Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully responding to my question!
Honestly, I just bought a MacBook Pro this summer and I feel like it’s the best technology decision I’ve ever made. I had a midrange Asus before that lasted me about 4 1/2 years but it was on death’s door. It was excruciatingly slow, it froze up, the USB ports would sometimes not work, etc. I’m starting grad school this year and I knew that I needed something more reliable, so I decided to go with a Mac and I’ve so far been very pleased.
Macs tend to last a long time (and operate well during this time! Sure, my Asus “worked,” but barely so. One of my professors in undergrad used a 6 year old Mac laptop and it worked like a charm for her.). Since you want something lightweight, the MacBook Air might be ideal for you. The starting price is right under $1000, but it’ll probably be more with tax and such.
A word about price: if you can spare it, you might want to invest the extra money in a nicer computer. Yes, you could buy one for $700 or so, but if it dies after 3 years, you’re left needing to replace it, whereas higher-end computers should last longer and are probably a better investment in the longrun. I’m a cheap SoB and I spent $1600 on my Mac. It killed me inside, but I know that, most likely, it’ll last me a lot longer than the Asus and i won’t have to worry about if it saved my paper and about what I’m going to do if it dies and I lose everything.
Just my $0.02! Good luck.
Keep an eye on the Surface Pro 5 which should be out by Christmas. It and the latest Macs look to be very competitive, so pick your operating system of choice.
Lenovo Flex 4 15.6 inch. At $879 with i7 core and very capable tablet ability, this might be the most underrated computer right now.
If you decide on a Mac, you should probably hold out for a bit longer because the current models are woefully outdated (and since the price hasn’t come down much since release, overpriced). I think new models are coming out soon though.
If you game at all, I would go with the Acer Aspire E 15. It has an i5 Core paired with a discrete GPU (Nvidia 940M). This would let you attend pretty much any LAN party. Weighs 5.3 pounds, 12 hours of battery life, 8GB of RAM, and it has a 1080p screen. And to top it off, it has a 256GB SSD (SSD’s are fast, reliable, and last very long.). For $545.99, this is such a great deal.
The Macbook air sounds like the best fit. I would highly second what @harvestmoon said.
Keep in mind, with a Macbook, you can always get tech support at the Apple store
I’m using the HP Spectre 13. I love it.