<p>What's in a laptop? That which by any other brand would run as well.</p>
<p>Okay, I don't know much about computers (except how to use them) and choosing a laptop for college is daunting. What should I look for in a laptop, and what should I avoid?</p>
<p>I'm an elementary education major, have a budget of around (maybe give a hundred) $700. So I'm looking at PCs, not Macbooks (the price hurts just to look at!) I don't want a 17" clunker to carry around, and I'm hoping that the computer will last me all 4 years without becoming a complete dinosaur.</p>
<p>Help! :)</p>
<p>For $700, you can get a very solid laptop that should last awhile. I wouldn’t go larger than 15". I currently have a 14" laptop that I’m very pleased with.</p>
<p>I would also recommend at least 4 GB of RAM, 6-8 if it’s affordable. Also, in many laptops that is easily upgradable (though in some it is soldered onto the motherboard).
I’d also suggest at least a 500 GB hard drive. (Solid state are nice, but still expensive.) Also be sure you have some sort of backup set up, whether that be an online service like Carbonite or having an external hard drive that you back up to with the built-in Windows utility.
For graphics, if you’re not planning on doing any gaming/graphics work, most integrated graphics cards will suit you just fine.
For a CPU, I’d go with an i5 on the Intel side. There are also solid processors from AMD, but I’m not as familiar with them.
Having had laptops with bad batteries, I’d also definitely say it’s worth investing in something with decent battery life (probably listed at 6+ hours, though you’ll probably not get that long out of it).</p>
<p>I’d recommend looking at reviews to get a sense of the machines. Lenovos (the Thinkpad line in particular), have high build quality so they will last longer, but they are also more expensive. I’ve recently had some bad experiences with Acer (overheating, massive drop in battery life, screen failure, faulty motherboard connections) that all cropped up after warranty expired, so I might steer clear of that.</p>
<p>NewEgg has a really good search feature for laptops that I’d check out (<a href=“Are you a human?”>Are you a human?). If you have any in particular that you are considering, I’d definitely take a look at them for you.</p>
<p>If you want you can get a MacBook Air 11’ for around $700 with the best buy discount and a mover’s discount. If you still don’t want one then like @nanotechnology said Lenovo has some good ones. I don’t know how much the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13’s are but I’ve heard good things about them, plus they’re built with 8 hours of battery and they’re only like 3 pounds so they’re not heavy. Look into those, and you never know; since you’re a student you may be able to find some sort of discount with those.</p>
<p>Apple also has refurbs which are cheaper than the regular prices of apple computers. If you want you can look them up here: <a href=“Refurbished Mac Deals - Apple”>http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac</a>. The prices fluctuate so look daily if you want.</p>