Best Laptops for Students.. and anyone on a budget

[Hunter259]

18 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

His review is pure garbage to be honest. My GO is almost lag free 99% of the time as well as others.

 

I just enjoy Linus's reviews more because unlike most reviewers who render videos @4k60 try this on a dual core and complain while Linus knows the limitations of the devices and reviews accordingly. 

His review seems fairly OK to me. I own a Surface Pro 3 which is a bit quicker than the Go but my pro 3 still stutters from time to time mattering on how much you have going on at once. Although I have found Edge to have horrible typing lag on some websites.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

15 hours ago, FITorion said:

It isn't budget unless it's below 500. No laptop is worth more 2000... just get a desktop that will last you 10 years or more at that price point.

 

Have 2000 to spend? Get an upgradeable desktop for 1500 and a 500 laptop that's not for gaming.

What of those (like me) who already have a gaming PC or four and need something portable for when we travel?

 

also goddamnit linus I had my heart set on the Dell G5 but that Predator is looking at me

[FITorion]

1 hour ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

What of those (like me) who already have a gaming PC or four and need something portable for when we travel?

 

also goddamnit linus I had my heart set on the Dell G5 but that Predator is looking at me

then spend 2000 on a gaming laptop.  if you want...  Laptops grow obsolete faster and break sooner than desktops... they should be considered expendable and as little money spent on them as possible since they will not last you a long time and will have to be replaced more often.

[poochyena]

"""budget"""

These laptops cost $1,000+ What does he think the word budget means?

[AlexTheGreatish]

16 minutes ago, CUDAcores89 said:

To me a budget laptop needs to cost under $600.

 

You guys didn't even look at the Eluktronics W650KK1 barebones gaming laptop for $400 shipped on their webiste.

 

 http://www.eluktronics.com/W650KK1-BYO

 

The rest of the parts can be bought used like the CPU, RAM, and SSD and popped in.

 

You could end up having yorself a gaming laptop that trades blows with machines 2-3 times the price for $500.

 

They also have a version with a GTX 1060 for $600:

 

http://www.eluktronics.com/N950KP6-BYO

 

 

 

When the 1050Ti version is configured to be comparable to the Acer Nitro 5 it comes in at basically the same price (i5 processor, 8gb of RAM, 256Gb SSD, and Windows install ends up at $798, Nitro 5 is $800).  If you scavenge parts you could bring that price down, but it's not exactly a walk in the park for most users.

 

1 hour ago, poochyena said:

"""budget"""

These laptops cost $1,000+ What does he think the word budget means?

The price range is sub $300 to over $2000, different people have different budgets.

[poochyena]

26 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The price range is sub $300 to over $2000, different people have different budgets.

It was VERY heavily implied in the very beginning and in the title that "on a budget" meant "on a low budget". No one would call a laptop over ~$700 a "budget laptop".

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

The Vivobook 15, I maintain, is the best budget laptop for any student. I've been using one personally for the past 6 months and the configurations you can get at checkout or upgrade path wise in the future are so flexible, there is no competition. A 8th gen hyper-threaded quad core Core i5 at the heart is enough to tackle even engineering workloads. Then you have the option of upgrading to 32GB of DDR4 thanks to 2 SODIMM slots, as well as the ability to populate a M.2 SATA SSD for boot and a 2.5" HDD for mass storage, all in a laptop that's slightly thicker than a MacBook Air. Sure, it's only SATA based rather than NVMe, but I bet you'll rarely notice any performance delta. 1080P display, and finger print sensor, what more do you really want? The only issue is that the camera... is shit. No other way to put it. It looks like they stole the camera off some old Motorola Razrs.

 

And if you want to go for a model with a GTX 1050, 4k display, and a Hexacore Core i7... well there's the Vivobook Pro 15. Not sure what kind of student would need that...but hey. At least it exists? 

 

If you live in Canada, the SSD model is on sale right now for 649.99 CAD. Lucky you cause when I got mine for the price, it came with a 1TB SSHD ...which was crap. 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-vivobook-15-6-laptop-grey-intel-core-i5-8250u-256gb-ssd-8gb-ram-windows-10/12600851.aspx?

 

 

[Egg-Roll]

2 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The price range is sub $300 to over $2000, different people have different budgets.

Sub? After add a SSD it is no longer sub...

 

Want sub Linus should start suggesting refurbish/off-lease items. Because there are plenty in the sub $300 category (even under $500 has a awesome selection).

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_374&item_id=102364 Here is one under $300 CAD the SSD will likely be brand new, how do I know? I bought one about 6 months ago (maybe not this model) and the SSD showed 0 use in the SMART test.

Smaller screen equal performance no extra work required. It's out of stock at CC but they and others do exist (I can't be bothered to do a job that should have been done by Linus)

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-3320M-vs-Intel-Core-i3-7130U/m402vsm376899

 

Buying new for college is just a waste of money, esp when someones 2-3 year old item that comes with a new drive will work just as good for a lower price. Maybe compare performance and specs on used laptops available on sites like NE and Ebay compare them to new but ensure they are cheaper. Which btw you can pick up the ThinkPad T430 I listed on ebay with variable specs (some with 8GB) for less then listed on CC...

[AlexTheGreatish]

13 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-3320M-vs-Intel-Core-i3-7130U/m402vsm376899

The part you're missing here is that the i3-7130U consumes 57% less power than the i5-3320M.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The part you're missing here is that the i3-7130U consumes 57% less power than the i5-3320M.

College/coffee shops other public locations all have plenty of outlets, and they are free  If someone is looking for a cheap $300 laptop they'll use all the free resources they can. When I was in college I never once plugged my laptop in at home, because that costs a funny thing called money  Colleges over charge as it is, so use the resources available.

[davo1111]

8 hours ago, CUDAcores89 said:

You guys didn't even look at the Eluktronics W650KK1 barebones gaming laptop for $400 shipped on their webiste.

The intro to the video says that it's days before school starts, so really these products can be picked up from retailers, or next day delivery online. Eluktronics website says 2-3 business days dispatch

 

Plus, adding extras like ram, SSD etc is not the easiest task for the most basic consumer.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Being LinusTechTips, of course most of the laptops on their list have dedicated GPUs and are branded as "Gaming laptops". Those aren't the type of laptops the majority of students will buy. There are two types of laptops students will buy, MacBook Pros, and your run of the mill Acer Aspires, Dell Inspirons, Lenovo IdeaPads, and ASUS Vivobooks. Those are types of laptops they should've focused on for a "best laptops for students" list. You guys are local, just walk around UBC, SFU, BCIT, Langara, .etc. and you'll only see a handful of Gaming laptops. The majority is a sea of either expensive MacBooks or sub 600 dollar laptops. 

 

The percentage of students who want a laptop they can game on is still a small amount. It's pretty rare students have time to game while on campus anyways so it's not much of a concern. Through my 4 years of using that IdeaPad with a GT630, not once did I open up a session of L4D2 while on break. It was installed on my machine the entire time yet I never bothered to launch it even if I had time.

 

Most students just want a cheap laptop that has a long battery life and enough power to tackle nothing more than maybe MATLAB. And MATLAB can run on a MacBook Air easily (calculations will be a bit slower, but it can do it) so the requirements aren't to demanding. For practically anyone outside of Engineering and Computing Science, a Core i5 (heck even a Core i3), 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD is more than plenty. There is no need for GTX 1050s or even MX150s. Pentium based laptops are also rather popular, more so than Gaming laptops. 

 

You guys have already made enough videos on value Gaming laptops, maybe it's time to consider going over some options that are actually sensible, and what people actually tend to buy. As it is, this video is just a broken record of you guys recommending laptops you've talked about before in detail. 

[GoldenLag]

still kinda surprised LMG hasnt had a look at the Huawei  Matebook X Pro. im guessing it is due to sponsor sourcing and logistics or other. like the title can be clickbait as hell. 

 

im not expecting them to review every device out there. they do plenty allready, though this one surprised me a bit. 

[mynameisjuan]

5 hours ago, CUDAcores89 said:

Mine bitcoin using the free electricity bundled into the cost of your dorm room. 

 

Yes, people do this:

 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/college-students-are-secretly-mining-bitcoin-in-their-dorms-on-room-check-days-i-have-to-put-a-blanket-over-it-2018-03-29

 

I consider it a way for my to take back some of my tuition by gaming a free service available to me.

The town I live in is strict and has made mining illegal due to the amount of people literally moving here because electric cost. The colleges now monitor all power per dorm and there are hefty fines for mining to the students

[Results45]

I very much beg to differ that a "recommended" student-friendly 12-15 inch laptop has to cost $500 or more (based on Linus' recommendations HERE and HERE).

 

Hell, I even built a Google spreadsheet with 7 of 8 laptops & convertibles having a "good" rating of 4/5:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l6p6PtLrPKnS0c3KVnzmNQ-tGVaRdU6jzxuu2ATcjN0/edit#gid=0