HP ENVY 13-ab016nr: Decent Laptop?

[thatlovablerascal]

Looking at above, need a good student laptop that will be able to run more intense lab programs and cad software, and from what I can tell in my limited experience and not having used it this looks like a good fit. Is this a good laptop for the price? Has anyone used it before and how did you like it? Any other suggestions? My price cap is 1000 but id like it around 600-800

[Shiv78]

For CAD software get a quadcore like the Dell Inspiron Gaming

[Septimus]

Take a look at Dell's Inspiron lineup, they offer great value and still have good quality. 

[edit1754]

Hard to know the performance requirements of your particular CAD use case, however if you do look at the Inspiron Gaming, I would make sure to get one with the IPS display, not the poor TN panel. These have IPS

 

- http://http:/www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop/fncwf514s

- http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-256gb-solid-state-drive-black/5872507.p

- http://outlet.us.dell.com/ArbOnlineSales/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2FPR7UddCiNL1N%2Bu7v%2BeaE08L120HpplKqn52ekb49CnK932VAGzsYwFw6KmfOpaME2J7k7JC4UC8%2BlY7jHTNeMZ48ifr1tqjb%2F2H0vu4WNV2rZPpBxejtoyJH%2BMsoKFhYrqzpvdIi9m7%2BbXPwfKCu1R45SVu%2FwJjeOuXAm0hahvI1TsBANNODY5c3y4b6P8UL7%2FclHYmjWv98c2Qo

 

The base model with the 1050 + 7300HQ + 1TB HDD, as well as all Inspiron 5000 Gaming 5577 models, have the poor TN display. I would go for one of the ones linked above if you're choosing this laptop. It's this kind of difference: http://imgur.com/Sajajqc.jpg

 

Battery life is great on this model (10 hours basic WiFi surfing).