Laptop for student (college)

[Jonatlas]

Hi.

I'm looking for a laptop. I begin school at college (science) soon and I wonder which one would be the best.

I want something for word processing, web search and multimedia (movies).

I also want something fast, durable, not expensive and ergonomic and good battery life.

I prefer something small and light, a laptop for nomads :P. Macbook air is a good example.

I prefer quality over something cheap.

My budget is under 1000$ but i can go over that if it really worth.

[Jonatlas]

It will be hard as a student with a mac, so I'm looking for a macbook air alternative with around the same budget (800-1000$)

Must be light, not overheat and fast.

[zombie cat]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231457

consider this its below 500$, 17.3" screen so you wont get eyestrain when typing so many documents, and comes with a full sized keyboard. Obvioiusly not fast, but if you just need basics this should be plenty.

[Pomelo]

So you essentially are looking for an ultrabook?

They're light, portable, and most have rather good battery life. Performance is too little for games since the Ultrabook specifications demand for a thin chassis and low power consumption. But for your needs it should be plenty. And most if not all Ultrabooks use SSDs, so you'd have fast in the sense of reaction time and data rates. CPU/GPU performance should be plenty fast for movies, word, web as well. My brother owns a Thinkpad X1 Carbon with I think an i5 4200U and he's not experiencing any high load while using it for similar purposes as you are planning to.

@Zombie Cat: 17.3" is not really portable, OP said he has a desktop, so I guess that laptop is really for on the go / away from home work.

ED:
Some ultrabooks just for reference:
549$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313943
i5 4200U, 8GB RAM 128GB SSD, 14" screen res is a bit low, but then again it's affordable.
that's on sale though, most other models on newegg are around 1k$. But that shows you you can get something decent but affordable if you look around some.

Look for something with an i5 4xxx or i7 4xxx, those are the latest Intel Haswell series, most efficient architecture right now, so those would last longest on battery.

[Jonatlas]

Yeah, an ultrabook should be perfect. It's not for gaming. I could say, I want a nomad computer, but quick enough to not rage when opening something. i3 should be ok.

Do you have any suggestion of a brand? I looked about acer, but I heard they overheat a little and their screen isnt good for outdoor.

[Pomelo]

I'd suggest Samsung, Lenovo and ASUS off the top of my head right now, I remember seeing some of their current models at a store recently and they seemed to have good build quality, and Samsung screens are usually very good.

ED: seems though Newegg mostly has models >1k$, guess you should try to look for some special promotions or deals in shops/stores you could buy from.

[zombie cat]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Quintet:

Yeah, an ultrabook should be perfect. It's not for gaming. I could say, I want a nomad computer, but quick enough to not rage when opening something. i3 should be ok.

Do you have any suggestion of a brand? I looked about acer, but I heard they overheat a little and their screen isnt good for outdoor.

i honestly dont see why you don't get the pc i suggested.. its less than 500$, why bother spend more if its just for basic word processing? If you must, then get an ssd and upgrade it, then you should be more than happy and can save yourself a couple hundred $ and use it toward steam xmas sale :D

add something like this and it will be super fast when doing word

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226237.

total is 550$ and you can reuse that hdd it came with as an external!

[Jonatlas]

Because it overheat, screen is cheap and it's too big/heavy.

For now my choice stop on ASUS Transformer Book probably the T300 one. And I'm still tempting on Macbook air.

If you guys know another computer good for nomads, good battery, good screen (for outdoor) and light weight, dont hesitate to suggest !

[zombie cat]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Quintet:

Because it overheat and screen is cheap.

it won't overheat if you only do basic functions on it. What are you doing on it? Editing or gaming? If not then you should never overheat this machine. How exactly is the screen cheap??

You never mentioned if you wanted to spend the whole 1000$ or more though.

Maybe a refurbished asus ROG gaming laptop would be good, only 899$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231333

that should have adequate cooling and the screen is certainly not cheap.

[Jonatlas]

Well, when you read reviews about this one, it seams to hae a lot of possible problems. Plus I don't really need a i7. A i5 is good enough. Also, I don't need a GTX, I won't play any games. I just want something fast, well built, light weight and with a good battery (at least 6-8h)

But thanks for that sugestion, it looks like a good laptop after all.

[Pomelo]

I'd advise against any of those large bulky models. I owned an Acer 7740G for 3 years, that thing was 17.3", like 3-4cm thick or so and weighed a good 3kg. And the PSU was a brick too. If you want to take it with you a lot, which you plan to do seeing how you got a desktop thus this wont really be for extended home use, then get something light and <17", that's what I can tell you.
A larger laptop can hold beefier hardware if you shell out the money, but they're often called desktop replacement for good reason.

I since switched two times, first to a 15.6" models which was a good 3cm and 2.8kg, then recently to a 14" one with 21mm and 1.8kg. Each step was better for portability and the 14" feels best so far for working on the go. I use it several times per week in university, which was kind of a pain with the previous ones and I avoided doing so. But this one is light compared, battery life is okayish (most others of that size have better battery life), and working on it in my courses and exercises is no problem at all.

[Jonatlas]

Ah, Powl you understand what I mean when I say I'm looking for somthing light and small :).

It's also for school, so to avoid to bring my recharge plug everywhere I go, I also want a good battery that will last at least for a whole day. (about 6-8 hours)

[Yoshi2020]

Maybe you should consider a Surface Pro 3 I've been using it for the past few weeks and it is awesome for taking notes, checking email, and browsing the web.I would suggest going to a store and try one out for yourself.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Yoshi2020:

Maybe you should consider a Surface Pro 3 I've been using it for the past few weeks and it is awesome for taking notes, checking email, and browsing the web.I would suggest going to a store and try one out for yourself.

No different than Dell Venue 8 or 11 Pro
Except the MS ones are ridiculously priced!

[Jonatlas]

@Yoshi I agree, it's really tempting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t7rSZT_77E

Thanks for the suggestion

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Quintet:

My budget is under 1000$ but i can go over that if it really worth.

something from sager priced at 1099$:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP7378

17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4710MQ Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.50GHz)
Genuine MS Windows® 8.1 64-Bit Edition
8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 1 X 8GB
750GB 7200rpm SATA2 Hard Drive
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
Microsoft Office 2013 Trial - Included in Price
Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty