Need Budget-ish Laptop for School

[CaptainMoose]

I'm in need of an upgrade finally. I have a Surface Pro 4 (i5-6300U, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD) right now and it's killing me. One of my classes this semester more or less requires a laptop and I don't want to suffer through the course with what I have.

I'm really leaning towards this right now, but I wanted a second (or third) opinion. I'm mainly looking for something that won't suffer from constant slowdowns and will ideally last 2 years until I graduate. To me this means 12GB RAM, a 256GB SSD (I have plenty of cloud storage and would get an external hard drive anyway), and not the cheapest processor. The screen isn't as important, but obviously I want something at least 1080p and IPS, and 15" is probably my max since I don't want to have some monster in class. Aesthetics are always a plus, but not necessarily a deal-breaker. Good battery life is a bonus but I'll be able to charge it about as often as I want to. Weight is no issue.

Oh yeah, and I'd like to stay under 700-750 USD

 

Hope this is enough detail. Thanks in advance.

[genexis_x]

Location? Preferred max weight in kg/lbs and min battery life in hours? Can accept 13-14 inch display size? Mind non-upgradable RAM and low sRGB display?

[CaptainMoose]

1 hour ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Location? Preferred max weight in kg/lbs and min battery life in hours? Can accept 13-14 inch display size? Mind non-upgradable RAM and low sRGB display?

USA. Again, weight doesn't matter, and battery life isn't that important. 5ish hours of moderate use is probably what I want to shoot for, but it's not totally required. 13-15 inches is my preferred range. Non-upgradable RAM is fine as long as it's at least 12gb. Higher color accuracy would be nice, but isn't a deal breaker.

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, CaptainMoose said:

USA. Again, weight doesn't matter, and battery life isn't that important. 5ish hours of moderate use is probably what I want to shoot for, but it's not totally required. 13-15 inches is my preferred range. Non-upgradable RAM is fine as long as it's at least 12gb. Higher color accuracy would be nice, but isn't a deal breaker.

Do you mind gaming laptops?

[CaptainMoose]

33 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Do you mind gaming laptops?

I don't care one way or the other. If there's a laptop with a decent GPU for my budget then that's great, but the money may better be spent elsewhere. My home rig is where I'll be gaming. Do you have an opinion on the laptop I linked in the OP?

[genexis_x]

Acer Nitro 5 (8300H+1050TI) with undervolt+repaste (buy from Amazon)

 

Or Eluktronics NB50TK1 with self CPU+RAM+storage

[markr54632]

I'll second the Acer nitro 5 recommendation. Mine has been absolutely awesome for school. The IPS screen is very tolerable for a budget IPS, the keyboard is very tolerable (I've honestly come to love typing on it). They do have a more budget offering with a 1050 2gb or 1050 4gb. I would honestly reccomend staying with the lowest spec model on this as the thermal solution is not fantastic, definitely good enough to keep an i5 and 1050 cool though.

 

The Acer Aspire A515-51 is almost identical in most aspects, but is only available with igpu. The A515-51-86AQ is on special through Microcenter right now for 649. Should meet most of your requirements, but only has 8gb of ram.

 

the Acer aspire A515-51g has a mx150 (not worth the battery drain in my opinion).

 

The lenovo flex 5 is available in that budget as well with 16gb of ram an i7-8550u 940mx and 512 gb ssd. This is a pretty solid budget 2 in 1 if you think you would use the touchscreen for anything. Construction is very plasticky, keyboard feels nice, but has a weird layout that takes forever to get used to, if you can.

 

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, markr54632 said:

but is only available with igpu

There is A515-51G, now refreshed with A515-52/52G

[updlester]

you could try the xps series, they look really good 

[markr54632]

7 hours ago, updlester said:

you could try the xps series, they look really good 

There aren't any models in his price range. Even if there were the 2018 models in this line have qc and thermal issues.

[updlester]

4 hours ago, markr54632 said:

There aren't any models in his price range. Even if there were the 2018 models in this line have qc and thermal issues.

he could buy pre owned, if he doesnt matter.

 

i bought an aspire e14 with i3 7100u + mx150 for less than 300 usd 

[markr54632]

9 minutes ago, updlester said:

he could buy pre owned, if he doesnt matter.

 

i bought an aspire e14 with i3 7100u + mx150 for less than 300 usd 

I would advise against buying a model with poor quality control used. If you are going to buy an xps make sure to buy with warrantee, you are going to need it.