School laptop for under $1000

[ConiferousJelly]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm currently in the market for a new laptop to help make my life easier this school year. My school gives us all iPads, but using those exclusively will be a pain in the a**. I am planning on doing a good amount of word processing (on either word or docs), doing some light coding, and doing some video editing using premiere. The video editing would be basic or slightly moderate at the most as I could use my desktops if I really need, but I want to be able to work on projects while actually at school. As for the coding, I will just be starting as a beginner and so probably don't need to factor this in too much. Finally, I will be writing a good amount of papers and conducting a research project this year, so something with a decent keyboard and hopefully is portable would be nice. 

 

I don't mind Windows or Mac (I'd actually prefer a MacBook but its way out of my price range). The only thing that has caught my eye so far is the Microsoft Surface Laptop, which if I waited until Microcenter brings the student discount back, I could get for roughly $730

 

Can I just get everyone's thoughts and suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance!

-ConiferousJelly

[happyhungarian]

Please note: i wrote a description UNDER each link, sorry if that is confusing.

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-5000-5577-GamingLaptop/dp/B06XFG7157/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533182535&sr=1-4&keywords=gtx+1050+laptop

this one is pretty good for gaming and editing..... it has a for the price of $666 dollars (lol) its a steal.

MSI version 

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GL62M-7RD-1407-Performance-SteelSeries/dp/B072QT88DG/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533182535&sr=1-3&keywords=gtx+1050+laptop

this one is slightly cheaper, and has a pretty good ssd which should help with boot times and editing

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Blizzard-i7-7700-GeForce-Graphic/dp/B07BPD913X/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533182535&sr=1-12&keywords=gtx+1050+laptop

this one is the most expesive so far, but has the best CPU (I7-7700 HQ) ans best RAM (12GB)

fit has the same GTX 1050TI so graphics performance will be about the same as the others....

https://www.amazon.com/FX503VM-Powerful-i5-7300HQ-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B07CK1Q71Z/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533182951&sr=1-3&keywords=gtx+1060+laptop

this one is the best performing, at $889, its at the top of the budget. But it is money well spent. With a GTX 1060 3GB, a 256GB SSD, and a 1TB hardrive, things should feel quite speedy, but the CPU, is only a i5, so that may impact video editing performance

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-7577-Laptop/dp/B077H3889J/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183112&sr=1-7&keywords=gtx+1060+laptop

This one steps things up Graphically, with a GTX 1060 6GB, but for a price: $918 to be exact... it will be miles ahead of the others Graphics performance wise....

Ok now on to the THIN laptops.

https://www.amazon.com/VivoBook-Lightweight-WideView-i5-8250U-Fingerprint/dp/B0795W86N3/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183438&sr=1-3&keywords=thin+laptops

this one is a pretty good deal, but it lacks a dedicated GPU, so Performance may be much slower on certain tasks.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-A12-9720P-Quad-Core-Bluetooth-802-11ac/dp/B075RTR8W5/ref=sr_1_13?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183438&sr=1-13&keywords=thin+laptops

this one is a cheaper option, that is very portable, if a little dated, but it still has a Quad core CPU, and pretty decent AMD graphics.

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-TouchScreen-Performance-Business-Keyboard/dp/B07DF9KKRD/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183576&sr=1-3&keywords=amd+vega+laptop

this combines the best of both worlds, with reliable performance, and Graphics that are neither horrible, or good... for the price it should get you through everything at fast pace.

https://www.amazon.com/HP-TOUCH-SCREEN-SILVER-15M-BQ121DX/dp/B0784VZZZM/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183576&sr=1-9&keywords=amd+vega+laptop

slightly worse Graphics, but a more premium look.

https://www.amazon.com/F505ZA-DB31-VivoBook-Processor-Graphics-802-11ac/dp/B07CY2LWPT/ref=sr_1_19?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183576&sr=1-19&keywords=amd+vega+laptop

im not sure i can recommend this one, but its cheap, and light, and OK performing, so here it is.

Now onto the CHEEAAAAPPP laptops.

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Latitude-469-3884-Ultrabook-Professional/dp/B00B0ROLH0/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183866&sr=1-4&keywords=dell+latitude+6430u

although used, this old beast, still chews through coding, and is OK at video editing, get this if you are tight on money.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Performance-A12-9720P-processor-Bluetooth/dp/B0748YG81P/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183939&sr=1-4&keywords=laptop

another older, but still very much functional laptop

https://www.amazon.com/HP-15-6-inch-Touchscreen-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B079TGKLNR/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183939&sr=1-12&keywords=laptop

Built specially for school, this laptop come with a backpack and a mouse, performance is mid-tier at best though. 

Anyway, hope that helps,

-Happy.

(honestly if you dont mind used, old business laptops like the Latitude 6430U i included above are great for school, i use one every day, and have not had any problems yet!) 

 

[genexis_x]

Wow so many bad options and misinformation

 

Dell Inspiron Gaming 5577 has poor keyboard, poor battery life, poor TN panel and OKish build quality

 

MSI GL has questionable QC+build quality and OK-good cooling. Most variants with poor TN panel

 

HP generic line is mediocre overall

 

Asus FX series has mediocre cooling, OKish build quality. Some with poor TN panel

 

Dell 7577 is outdated, get G5/G7 instead

 

Vivobooks and Ideapad 320 are mediocre overall

 

Dell Inspiron 7000 (non gaming) is fine but has a few minor issues and poor battery life (except for 17 inch model)

 

AMD last gen mobile APU is shit

 

To some ppl: Pls don't comment if you don't know anything about laptops

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, CUDAcores89 said:

w650kk1

W650KK1 has a newer model: NB50

[GamerGirl17]

You want to look into Lenovo Legion Y520 or ASUS K501UW-AB78 

Both are excellent for school usage as well as decent gaming. Because obviously when you want to pay $1000, you don;t want a laptop that doesn't allow you to game.
Avoid Dell and HP tbh, as if they are good with one thing then usually lacking in another.
But if you really want to go, Dell, then this might be a finer option Dell Inspiron i7559-5012GRY

You can check more comparison and details for these here in this comparison review which I keep referring to myself.

 

P.S: Just don't think fo going for Mac, its way too overpriced and doesn't really get you the right specs which you can get in that price range these days.

 

 

 

 

[genexis_x]

Legion Y520 has a newer model: Legion Y530

 

Asus generic line is mediocre

 

Dell 7559 is seriously outdated

[Tarun10]

9 hours ago, ConiferousJelly said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm currently in the market for a new laptop to help make my life easier this school year. My school gives us all iPads, but using those exclusively will be a pain in the a**. I am planning on doing a good amount of word processing (on either word or docs), doing some light coding, and doing some video editing using premiere. The video editing would be basic or slightly moderate at the most as I could use my desktops if I really need, but I want to be able to work on projects while actually at school. As for the coding, I will just be starting as a beginner and so probably don't need to factor this in too much. Finally, I will be writing a good amount of papers and conducting a research project this year, so something with a decent keyboard and hopefully is portable would be nice. 

 

I don't mind Windows or Mac (I'd actually prefer a MacBook but its way out of my price range). The only thing that has caught my eye so far is the Microsoft Surface Laptop, which if I waited until Microcenter brings the student discount back, I could get for roughly $730

 

Can I just get everyone's thoughts and suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance!

-ConiferousJelly

How about battery life and size??? If you can sacrifice portability then a Dell G5 is pretty good value.

[happyhungarian]

9 hours ago, ZM Fong said:

Wow so many bad options and misinformation

 

Dell Inspiron Gaming 5577 has poor keyboard, poor battery life, poor TN panel and OKish build quality

 

MSI GL has questionable QC+build quality and OK-good cooling. Most variants with poor TN panel

 

HP generic line is mediocre overall

 

Asus FX series has mediocre cooling, OKish build quality. Some with poor TN panel

 

Dell 7577 is outdated, get G5/G7 instead

 

Vivobooks and Ideapad 320 are mediocre overall

 

Dell Inspiron 7000 (non gaming) is fine but has a few minor issues and poor battery life (except for 17 inch model)

 

AMD last gen mobile APU is shit

 

To some ppl: Pls don't comment if you don't know anything about laptops

Sorry for trying to help, and for his uses, most of those will work fine.... I was trying to find one he wouldn't have to spend buckets of money on.

[genexis_x]

5 minutes ago, happyhungarian said:

I was trying to find one he wouldn't have to spend buckets of money on.

There's no need to say sorry. There are many better options out there

[Faranox]

22 hours ago, happyhungarian said:

 

https://www.amazon.com/FX503VM-Powerful-i5-7300HQ-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B07CK1Q71Z/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533182951&sr=1-3&keywords=gtx+1060+laptop

this one is the best performing, at $889, its at the top of the budget. But it is money well spent. With a GTX 1060 3GB, a 256GB SSD, and a 1TB hardrive, things should feel quite speedy, but the CPU, is only a i5, so that may impact video editing performance

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-7577-Laptop/dp/B077H3889J/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1533183112&sr=1-7&keywords=gtx+1060+laptop

This one steps things up Graphically, with a GTX 1060 6GB, but for a price: $918 to be exact... it will be miles ahead of the others Graphics performance wise....

 

Better than either of those two, for the price of $900 https://www.amazon.com/Dell-i7577-5241BLK-PUS-Inspiron-Display-Gaming/dp/B07CD3MRZD/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1519266576&sr=8-2&keywords=i7577&linkCode=sl1&tag=dannyheavy-20&linkId=e272ff4939cb61c0d09979ef7b88c399&th=1

 

Has a new, better, ips panel (even though ZM Fog forgot to mention dell stop shipping the poor TN panels on the newest 5577 due to backlash)

8300h (slightly better than i7 7700hq and basically equal to the 8550u (for rough performance #'s)

1060 6gb, same as the 7577, better than the Asus

8gb of ddr4 (sadly a 2x4 config so more expensive to upgrade down the line, but faster as it is purchased)

128gb ssd (smaller than the 7577 Asus actually comes with a 128)

1TB harddrive (better than 7577 and equal to Asus)

 

Also optional downgrade to a 1050ti for a 8750hq with an additional cost of $50, not worth it for me, but for some...

 

Also price update, the VM is now $900, and the 7577 is around $940, the g5 (what it is without the product number) seems to be holding strong at $900

 

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, Faranox said:

Has a new, better, ips panel

It's still an entry level IPS

1 hour ago, Faranox said:

8300h (slightly better than i7 7700hq and basically equal to the 8550u

8550U needs exceptional cooling solution to perform like 8300H (which is almost impossible)

[Faranox]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 9:40 PM, ZM Fong said:

It's still an entry level IPS

8550U needs exceptional cooling solution to perform like 8300H (which is almost impossible)

Both are low/mid end gaming laptops, that 'poor tn" panel is much much much better for gaming in comparison to same price lcds, and ips panels, and even some of the mid tier ones. Also it is one of the better "entry level ips panels" and if you want a better one you can go on ebay and get a much better one for about $100 if you are willing to open the screen up (and lose warranty) yourself. Or you can just buy the 4k option, both are 60hz, and the 4k has a nice color range, even for low end pro use.

 

8550U requires less cooling for better performance, it is a 15 watt chip (it does use more to turbo)  where the 8300h is a 45 watt chip. 8550u appears to turbo close to 3.2-3.5 across most "decent" ultra books/thin laptops, and the 8300h is really common used in gaming/workstation laptops that have a better cooling, so their turbo is closer to 3.5-3.7 on average. It performs about 5-10% better (the average is close to 8) in real world performance. This includes gaming, rendering, and file encode/decode (this last one the 8300h does a fair bit better (closer to 10-12%) due to its higher memory bandwidth. You were right, sorry, the 8300h does perform slightly better. The 8550u Is about right in between the 7700hq and the 8300h

 

Also seeing how the 8300h  beats the 7700hq by about 10% real world performance all around (0-12% on everything, most around 10% better (including single and multi core perf) if you go with a last get 75xx that has a 7700hq and a 1060/1050ti, but is under $800 (1060) and $700 (1050ti) it could be worth picking up, especially because the new g5 laptop only has a 58.3 Watthour battery vs the 65 in the 756x/757x. The new 8300h chip is more power efficient, but still loses in battery benchmarks by up to 15% (extreme cases) but is usually about 5-10% less on time. If you are actually worried about getting a good battery life, the 1060 is pretty much not an option, as I don't believe that any laptop with a 1060 has gone past the 6-7 hours mark out of the box, most good ones seem closer to 4 hours. The dell Gx and 756x/757x line seems to have relatively large batteries, and have some of the best battery life out of the under or around $1000 price range with a 1050-1050 gpu.

 

If you want a battery life over 6-7 hours, you need to drop down in performance to the mx 150, as a 1040 isn't a thing and the mx 150 is essentially a 1030, except it can (and you should get) 4gb or ddr5 vs the gt 1030's 2gb max spec.

 

 

[Faranox]

Also I have a friend who got a maxed out 7559 with a 6700hq and a 4k panel, 16 gb ram ect for $600, that was pretty good, if you see something like that you might want to go for it. The 1050/1050ti is about 20/35% faster, but if you don't need the extra 30% in frames, this might be a good option for you. It seems like most were sold out in april of this year, but they occasionally popup outside of amazon

[genexis_x]

8 hours ago, Faranox said:

, that 'poor tn" panel is much much much better for gaming in comparison to same price lcds, and ips panels

How much better is it? Which part is better?

8 hours ago, Faranox said:

8550U requires less cooling for better performance, it is a 15 watt chip (it does use more to turbo)  where the 8300h is a 45 watt chip. 8550u appears to turbo close to 3.2-3.5 across most "decent" ultra books/thin laptops, and the 8300h is really common used in gaming/workstation laptops that have a better cooling, so their turbo is closer to 3.5-3.7 on average. It performs about 5-10% better (the average is close to 8) in real world performance. This includes gaming, rendering, and file encode/decode (this last one the 8300h does a fair bit better (closer to 10-12%) due to its higher memory bandwidth. You were right, sorry, the 8300h does perform slightly better. The 8550u Is about right in between the 7700hq and the 8300h

8550U is essentially a 8300H. 15W TDP doesn't mean anything, it still needs an excellent cooling to have maximum performance. 3.2-3.5GHz all core is VERY hard to achieve in Ultrabooks/regular notebooks. 8300H can easily hit 3.9GHz in most power laptops. 8550U cannot exceed the performance of 8300H as the ULV CPU is mostly found in Ultrabooks/regular laptops which is designed to cool up to 25W CPU (not sufficient for high turbo boost). 8550U is under 7700HQ in terms of performance. Do more research before reply

 

Dell G5 and 7577 has 56Wh battery while 7567 has 74Wh battery. There are 1060 laptops with good battery life like Gigabyte Aero 15.

[Faranox]

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 9:08 PM, ZM Fong said:

How much better is it? Which part is better?

The response times are much better than IPS and LCD panels.

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 9:08 PM, ZM Fong said:

There are 1060 laptops with good battery life like Gigabyte Aero 15.

That has 5 hours in battery life while web surfing. Enough for someone like me, but for many it falls short of that magic 6 hour mark.

[genexis_x]

47 minutes ago, Faranox said:

The response times are much better than IPS and LCD panels.

Misconception in laptop panels. Some TN panels have slow response times while some IPS panels have fast response times.

48 minutes ago, Faranox said:

That has 5 hours in battery life while web surfing

5 hours? Proof?