<p>I'm a high school senior going into college next year as a computer science, computer engineering, or electrical engineering major. What's a good laptop for those majors? My budget is around 1200 dollars. I'm not interested in a MacBook. Thanks!</p>
<p>You’ll probably want something that’s durable and portable. You can get a lot specs-wise for $1200, but keep an eye out for what’s beyond the specs. Most consumer-level laptops will have fairly high specs for that price, but you will be sacrificing build quality. You could also go with a more gaming laptop variety, but there you are sacrificing portability and battery life. I wouldn’t recommend that unless you’re actually a gamer.</p>
<p>I recently got a Lenovo Thinkpad, and I’m quite pleased with my purchase. Thinkpads are well-respected for being durable workhorses. They tend to be popular with the CS crowd, as well, for those who don’t go for Macs. They also usually have good linux support/compatibility (which, if you don’t use it now, you very well might once you go for a CS degree). I’m also a fan of the keyboard, which is nice when you spend a lot of time in a day writing code. Among this business-class level of laptops, the Thinkpads usually come out to a better deal than similar types from dell, hp, etc. Also check for student discounts and see if you can find the Barnes and Noble Gold discount page for Lenovo.</p>