Question Quality Laptop - what to look for?

[nick]

A Level results were good and youngest is off to University in 3 weeks. They need a laptop to replace the old 2nd hand Thinkpad (Refurb X1 Carbon [1st Gen] i7-3667U 2.00GHz 8GB 240GB) they have been using for the past 7 years.

Am looking for something that is portable enough for carting round lectures and has a decent battery life.

So - what are decent quality brands / model lines (robustness etc) and what are minimum spec I should consider to survive 4 years of student life?

• I'm thinking 16GB and 512Gb (SSD) but have no idea on processors to look for.
• They deserve new so I am discounting the refurbed thinkpads which are my normal goto
• I thought about a MacBook Air with 16GB, 512GB SSD- but they are familiar with windows, not OSX.
• Could spend up to say 1500, as that is what the eldest's surface pro cost (engineering, so he needed tablet mode)
• Course is Theology ( facepalm: ) so I don't think there are any supercomputer performance demands
• Thinking of around a 14" screen.
• Decent keyboard experience (subjective I know)

Thoughts welcomed

(ETA 16GB and not the 6GB typo originally)

 

[Winot]

A Level results were good and youngest is off to University in 3 weeks. They need a laptop to replace the old 2nd hand Thinkpad (Refurb X1 Carbon [1st Gen] i7-3667U 2.00GHz 8GB 240GB) they have been using for the past 7 years.

Am looking for something that is portable enough for carting round lectures and has a decent battery life.

So - what are decent quality brands / model lines (robustness etc) and what are minimum spec I should consider to survive 4 years of student life?

• I'm thinking 6GB and 512Gb (SSD) but have no idea on processors to look for.
• They deserve new so I am discounting the refurbed thinkpads which are my normal goto
• I thought about a MacBook Air with 16GB, 512GB SSD- but they are familiar with windows, not OSX.
• Could spend up to say 1500, as that is what the eldest's surface pro cost (engineering, so he needed tablet mode)
• Course is Theology ( facepalm: ) so I don't think there are any supercomputer performance demands
• Thinking of around a 14" screen.
• Decent keyboard experience (subjective I know)

Thoughts welcomed

I bought the eldest the cheapest new Macbook I could find - about £1000 iirc. But we are all firmly in the walled garden so a Mac made sense.

 

[a_chap]

A Level results were good and youngest is off to University in 3 weeks. They need a laptop to replace the old 2nd hand Thinkpad (Refurb X1 Carbon [1st Gen] i7-3667U 2.00GHz 8GB 240GB) they have been using for the past 7 years.

Am looking for something that is portable enough for carting round lectures and has a decent battery life.

So - what are decent quality brands / model lines (robustness etc) and what are minimum spec I should consider to survive 4 years of student life?

• I'm thinking 6GB and 512Gb (SSD) but have no idea on processors to look for.
• They deserve new so I am discounting the refurbed thinkpads which are my normal goto
• I thought about a MacBook Air with 16GB, 512GB SSD- but they are familiar with windows, not OSX.
• Could spend up to say 1500, as that is what the eldest's surface pro cost (engineering, so he needed tablet mode)
• Course is Theology ( facepalm: ) so I don't think there are any supercomputer performance demands
• Thinking of around a 14" screen.
• Decent keyboard experience (subjective I know)

Thoughts welcomed

Talk to as many friends/colleagues/acquaintances as you can about their laptops.

And when you find one that you like, steal it.

 

[Saul Goodman]

A Level results were good and youngest is off to University in 3 weeks. They need a laptop to replace the old 2nd hand Thinkpad (Refurb X1 Carbon [1st Gen] i7-3667U 2.00GHz 8GB 240GB) they have been using for the past 7 years.

Am looking for something that is portable enough for carting round lectures and has a decent battery life.

So - what are decent quality brands / model lines (robustness etc) and what are minimum spec I should consider to survive 4 years of student life?

• I'm thinking 6GB and 512Gb (SSD) but have no idea on processors to look for.

The spec totally depends on what they'll be using it for. But (IMHO) 6 gig of RAM is nowhere near enough these days. 16 would be my minimum, and a 1TB SSD, minimum.

 

[Chz]

16GB is nice to have, but quite honestly for the average person not needing any special performance out of their PC eight will do.
I think ideally you need to set a target size/weight that they're comfortable with and then see what's in there, budget-wise. The default, mass market 15.6" units are still the cheapest, but they chonky.

There is no way you need to spend $1500 on a laptop for a Theology major. I wouldn't spend £1500 on a laptop for myself and I'm a techie.
I think all the big brands (Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Apple even) are fairly on par in a price-for-quality level. (meaning comparing £800 laptop to £800 laptop)
If you're willing to splurge out the £5/mo (or whatever it is) for Dell Premium support, it's quite measurably better than any of the other support options, Apple+ included. I've had very happy results with Dell Premium - no dicking about on the phone, service agent out on site the next day.

I don't see a great deal out there right this second, but I'd say this is perfectly acceptable:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/acer-swift-go-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-512-gb-ssd-silver-10250436.html

If they fancy a foldable 2-in-1, this is decent:

Dell Inspiron 14 2 in 1 Laptop 7445 with AMD processor | Dell UK

Shop the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 7445 with AMD Hawk processors, DDR5 memory, & optional active pen. View on Dell.com.

www.dell.com

and a year of on-site support is only £40. £20 more for accident cover.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I like Dells as well. Much prefer my old work Dell to my current work HP. If I had the budget and it's going to be carried around a lot, I might look at one of the business grade Lattitudes, rather than the cheaper Inspiron. The keyboards are nice, in fact they're just nicely made laptops. The come in 3 different series, with the 5 series being in the middle.

Dell Latitude 5440 Laptop with 13th Gen IntelÂ®ï¸ Coreâ¢ï¸ Processor | Dell UK

Shop the Dell Latitude 5440 Laptop with 13th Gen IntelÂ®ï¸ Coreâ¢ï¸ i3/i5/i7 processors in either U/P-series and available with Intel vPro®. View on Dell.com

www.dell.com

 

[nick]

Thanks all - in the end, the research I could do was limited. Went to PC world to get hands on with a few at PC world (urgh)..

There really are a lot of low grade plastic casing materials available aren't there?

In the end went for safety over economy and ordered a 15" Surface Laptop with 512GB, 16GB ram (John Lewis for the guarantee) - in the expectation that it will outlive a 4 year degree course

 

[Fez909]

I know you've already bought it, but I would have gone for a Macbook Air. You can get an educational discount with Apple, which is about 10% off. I just checked their site and you can get the Air with the latest chip for £999, saving £120.

The Surface Laptops are around £1500, I think, and I would imagine the Macbook is better. I'm no Apple fanboy (never had an iPod, or iPhone, etc), but their laptops really are better than anyone else's, if you can afford them.

I have an old Intel iMac, so have no direct experience, but the M-series of chips from Apple are widely recognised as being a big leap forward in performance.

Probably not too late to change your mind if you wanted, but you would need a UNIDAYS login to get the discount (which I think your kid will only get after they start uni).

 

[nick]

I know you've already bought it, but I would have gone for a Macbook Air. You can get an educational discount with Apple, which is about 10% off. I just checked their site and you can get the Air with the latest chip for £999, saving £120.

The Surface Laptops are around £1500, I think, and I would imagine the Macbook is better. I'm no Apple fanboy (never had an iPod, or iPhone, etc), but their laptops really are better than anyone else's, if you can afford them.

I have an old Intel iMac, so have no direct experience, but the M-series of chips from Apple are widely recognised as being a big leap forward in performance.

Probably not too late to change your mind if you wanted, but you would need a UNIDAYS login to get the discount (which I think your kid will only get after they start uni).

Yep I was stepping towards the Air, but it came down to familiarity with Windows trumping tighter integration with the iPhone and iPad. (I would have gone Mac, but it isn't me going to be using it)

 

[Fez909]

Yep I was stepping towards the Air, but it came down to familiarity with Windows trumping tighter integration with the iPhone and iPad. (I would have gone Mac, but it isn't me going to be using it)

I found it very frustrating moving from Windows/Linux to Mac, tbf, but fair enough!

 

[xenon]

I know you've already bought it, but I would have gone for a Macbook Air. You can get an educational discount with Apple, which is about 10% off. I just checked their site and you can get the Air with the latest chip for £999, saving £120.

The Surface Laptops are around £1500, I think, and I would imagine the Macbook is better. I'm no Apple fanboy (never had an iPod, or iPhone, etc), but their laptops really are better than anyone else's, if you can afford them.

I have an old Intel iMac, so have no direct experience, but the M-series of chips from Apple are widely recognised as being a big leap forward in performance.

Probably not too late to change your mind if you wanted, but you would need a UNIDAYS login to get the discount (which I think your kid will only get after they start uni).

Baseline Macbook only has 256GB storage and 8gb Ram though. Never used one except for a bit of web browsing whilst waiting for my iPhone to be repaired. 8gb probably sufficient for day to day stuff but I think it's a bit stingey, especially the 256 storage for that price.

I got an Acer with 16gb and 1TB SSD for circa 600 quid. 200 quid off in Prime sale. Not as asthetically nice as a Macbook and running an Intell Core chip but no worries about storage for a mid range laptop.