Recommendations for medical student

[Abdallah Dalis]

Hello everyone I hope everyone is doing well. I am a senior in high school and I need a guide for buying a laptop. I will go to the University of Chicago and major in neuroscience and I will become a medical student. Due to this, I need a guideline helping me on what I should look out for in a laptop. I need to know the following:

Ram

proccessor

battery life

storage

Brand

and lastly, your recommendations.

If everyone can help me that would be great thank you all and have a great day!

 

[WickedStarfish]

9 minutes ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

Hello everyone I hope everyone is doing well. I am a senior in high school and I need a guide for buying a laptop. I will go to the University of Chicago and major in neuroscience and I will become a medical student.

A bit more information will be needed if thats ok, do you know what sort of programs or files you will be opening up?

[roarkitect]

My girlfriend is a medical student in her final semester and she has loved her MacBook Pro. Most of her med school friends also have them. I think the ability to use iMessage in groups for study / scheduling purposes. Calendars. Photos. FaceTime. All that ecosystem stuff has proven very valuable because literally all of her friends that I can think of at the moment have Apple devices.

 

Convenience of shared chargers is also something I’ve picked up on. Though they’re all on last gen notebooks with MagSafe. She also LOVES her iPad for what it’s worth. She uses it to study in situations where carrying a laptop is tough. Pretty much everything she does (read medical journals, notes, watch videos, powerpoints from her classes etc) is on a digital device and she almost always has one with her and it doesn’t hurt that they all play well together.

 

So in my humble opinion, get something with the best battery, the best keyboard, and the best screen. And it won’t hurt if it makes your life easier via ecosystem. I think that’s a MacBook Pro. But you may have valid reasons otherwise.

[genexis_x]

Location? Budget? Preferred min battery life in hours? Any preference on weight, display size and display quality?

[Abdallah Dalis]

23 hours ago, WickedStarfish said:

A bit more information will be needed if thats ok, do you know what sort of programs or files you will be opening up?

 

23 hours ago, WickedStarfish said:

A bit more information will be needed if thats ok, do you know what sort of programs or files you will be opening up?

Hello so the only stuff I’m going to be doing is a lot from google like slides and docs, taking notes and, reading.

[Abdallah Dalis]

19 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Location? Budget? Preferred min battery life in hours? Any preference on weight, display size and display quality?

My budget is less than 3000 I want at least 6-7hrs of battery life less than 5lbs, and I don’t care about screen .

[Abdallah Dalis]

22 hours ago, roarkitect said:

My girlfriend is a medical student in her final semester and she has loved her MacBook Pro. Most of her med school friends also have them. I think the ability to use iMessage in groups for study / scheduling purposes. Calendars. Photos. FaceTime. All that ecosystem stuff has proven very valuable because literally all of her friends that I can think of at the moment have Apple devices.

 

Convenience of shared chargers is also something I’ve picked up on. Though they’re all on last gen notebooks with MagSafe. She also LOVES her iPad for what it’s worth. She uses it to study in situations where carrying a laptop is tough. Pretty much everything she does (read medical journals, notes, watch videos, powerpoints from her classes etc) is on a digital device and she almost always has one with her and it doesn’t hurt that they all play well together.

 

So in my humble opinion, get something with the best battery, the best keyboard, and the best screen. And it won’t hurt if it makes your life easier via ecosystem. I think that’s a MacBook Pro. But you may have valid reasons otherwise.

Wow man I really appreciate your thoughts you know I always thought about how mackbooks aren’t worth it but hearing your opinions make me think otherwise. 

[genexis_x]

3 hours ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

My budget is less than 3000

3000 what currency? Where are you from?

[WickedStarfish]

6 hours ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

 

Hello so the only stuff I’m going to be doing is a lot from google like slides and docs, taking notes and, reading.

I dont really think that spending lots of money on a laptop would be a great idea, in all honesty if it was me with that much to spend I would buy a cheap portable laptop and either save the rest of the money or spend it towards a powerful Desktop for more strainy programs if you ever need to use them

 

Some of the Lenovo ThinkPads and IdeaPads have quite a large battery life and can be gotten for under $1000

 

6 hours ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

Wow man I really appreciate your thoughts you know I always thought about how mackbooks aren’t worth it but hearing your opinions make me think otherwise. 

 

Also this is my problem with the macbook side of things and probably simular to most other people

The cheapest macbook I could see on officeworks in australia - $1499

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/apple-macbook-air-13-3-inch-128gb.html

A lenovo IdeaPad that isnt the cheapest Lenovo but still like half the price of the macbook - $797

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/lenovo-ideapad-130-6w-15-6-inch-laptop.html

That is why I would never really recommend a macbook as the OS is faster yes but not really $700 faster 

cause as on paper the lenovo delivers somewhat better specs (bigger screen, the model number of the i5, 1TB storage, also the fact that i think it is still the case that it uses app versions of programs rather than the full program [like word and such])

 

Also my sister is starting a Tafe course and I just went out with her to choose a laptop [2hr's ago] and settled on an Ollee laptop which will do everything that she needs to do (basic office things and also browsing the internet) for just $298

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/ollee-l14htcpw-14-1-inch-laptop.html

[Abdallah Dalis]

7 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

3000 what currency? Where are you from?

Us dollarsUS dollars

[Abdallah Dalis]

4 hours ago, WickedStarfish said:

I dont really think that spending lots of money on a laptop would be a great idea, in all honesty if it was me with that much to spend I would buy a cheap portable laptop and either save the rest of the money or spend it towards a powerful Desktop for more strainy programs if you ever need to use them

 

Some of the Lenovo ThinkPads and IdeaPads have quite a large battery life and can be gotten for under $1000

 

 

Also this is my problem with the macbook side of things and probably simular to most other people

The cheapest macbook I could see on officeworks in australia - $1499

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/apple-macbook-air-13-3-inch-128gb.html

A lenovo IdeaPad that isnt the cheapest Lenovo but still like half the price of the macbook - $797

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/lenovo-ideapad-130-6w-15-6-inch-laptop.html

That is why I would never really recommend a macbook as the OS is faster yes but not really $700 faster 

cause as on paper the lenovo delivers somewhat better specs (bigger screen, the model number of the i5, 1TB storage, also the fact that i think it is still the case that it uses app versions of programs rather than the full program [like word and such])

 

Also my sister is starting a Tafe course and I just went out with her to choose a laptop [2hr's ago] and settled on an Ollee laptop which will do everything that she needs to do (basic office things and also browsing the internet) for just $298

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/ollee-l14htcpw-14-1-inch-laptop.html

I have a question do I really need an ssd then or is 1tb had good enough

[markr54632]

A hdd will still "work" however you are going to be dealing with 1 minute + boot times. An ssd will be 10 seconds ish. Also with a slower laptop hard drive, 5400 rpm small cache drives, doing anything that is taxing on the drive can saturate the available speed and bring your system to a halt.

 

With modern OS's I would consider an ssd a necessity.

[Abdallah Dalis]

1 minute ago, markr54632 said:

A hdd will still "work" however you are going to be dealing with 1 minute + boot times. An ssd will be 10 seconds ish. Also with a slower laptop hard drive, 5400 rpm small cache drives, doing anything that is taxing on the drive can saturate the available speed and bring your system to a halt.

 

With modern OS's I would consider an ssd a necessity.

Thank you so I should maybe try to get both drives because I’m going to need a lot of space is what I heard from older students 

[Abdallah Dalis]

1 minute ago, PacketMan said:

And do the people on this forum need i9 9900K, GTX Titan and 64GB of RAM considering they would do the same with half the hardware and half the cost? If OP has the money he can use it, it's his and it's not like somebody that wants a Razer for gaming

It's a Macbook, you wouldn't understand why it's so good, I had my Macbook Pro 2014 15" and it was the best laptop I've ever used and I've tried a lot of the MSI GT and the new i9 laptops, it's just a different world

The MacOS brings the user the best experience while Windows 10 doesn't really feel that user friendly

I recommend OP @Abdallah Dalis a MacBook Pro 15, a brand new it's expensive but you can get the Macbook Pro 15 from 2015 for around $1300 and it's a nice performance, nice screen and nice battery, and the speakers are wonderful

Recommended

Thank you man much appreciated 

[Abdallah Dalis]

Just now, PacketMan said:

If you are going to buy a Macbook make sure the CPU is an HQ or an H, never an U because those aren't that great but will do the job anyway and 8GB RAM+retina screen, best combo

Got u again thanks a bunch

[genexis_x]

12 hours ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

My budget is less than 3000 I want at least 6-7hrs of battery life less than 5lbs, and I don’t care about screen .

Prefer regular laptop/Ultrabook or performance/gaming laptop?

[Abdallah Dalis]

2 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Prefer regular laptop/Ultrabook or performance/gaming laptop?

I prefer a regular or ultra book 

[genexis_x]

1 minute ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

I prefer a regular or ultra book 

Honestly you have tons of options with your budget

 

I would go for premium business laptop (Thinkpad T, Elitebook 800/1000, Latitude 7000) or mobile workstation (Thinkpad P non-s, Zbook non-u, Precision 7000)

[Abdallah Dalis]

Just now, GeneXiS_X said:

Honestly you have tons of options with your budget

 

I would go for premium business laptop (Thinkpad T, Elitebook 800/1000, Latitude 7000) or mobile workstation (Thinkpad P non-s, Zbook non-u, Precision 7000)

Ok thank you for ur suggestions

[WickedStarfish]

12 hours ago, PacketMan said:

And do the people on this forum need i9 9900K, GTX Titan and 64GB of RAM considering they would do the same with half the hardware and half the cost? If OP has the money he can use it, it's his and it's not like somebody that wants a Razer for gaming

It's a Macbook, you wouldn't understand why it's so good, I had my Macbook Pro 2014 15" and it was the best laptop I've ever used and I've tried a lot of the MSI GT and the new i9 laptops, it's just a different world

The MacOS brings the user the best experience while Windows 10 doesn't really feel that user friendly

I recommend OP @Abdallah Dalis a MacBook Pro 15, a brand new it's expensive but you can get the Macbook Pro 15 from 2015 for around $1300 and it's a nice performance, nice screen and nice battery, and the speakers are wonderful

Recommended

He asked for suggestions and I wanted to give him my suggestion and what suggestions were going through my head.

And I have used plenty of macbooks and iMacs, and i don't really think that they are worth what Apple is charging for them

also i was offering him my suggestion on the what i would do if i was in a simular situation.

and i'm sorry but im not telling him how to spend his money (I was offering a suggestion) and i'm sorry again that i dont agree with your idea to throw money at a problem and hope it goes away, cause where I live money is hard to come buy and If I need to buy something and can save buy buying something very very simular for $700 less then i'm going to jump at the chance, cause he is a senior high school student and if his mom and dad don't make heaps of money he is probably the one who earned the money and thats a lot of hours when you take into consideration minimum wage and other expenses that he may have (Rent, car payments, etc.)

There was also not really a reason for you to jump on the defensive like you seemed to have. 

as i said im just offering my opinion and i'm sorry that its different to yours and that you took it so harshly, 

 

also - this is in australian prices so it won't match exactly to your pricing situation but it still lets you see my perspective on the situation

And thats second hand

i could easily afford any one of these with a tiny bit of haggling and it would cost less and its New new not second hand new and all of these options have dedicated graphics

 

But i wouldn't recomend the Asus or the OMEN due to the battery life of the computers but i know the HP Pavilion's you can purchase a bigger battery that will last for a day easily especially when all thats being done is using office and watching demonstrational videos

[WickedStarfish]

13 hours ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

I have a question do I really need an ssd then or is 1tb had good enough

I don't think you do especially when you will be doing basic computer functions, my current desktop has a SSD but thats just for windows and programs, then i have some HDD's that all my games are installed on and there isn't that much difference in performance between installing games on the SSD and the HDD's

[Abdallah Dalis]

32 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

He asked for suggestions and I wanted to give him my suggestion and what suggestions were going through my head.

And I have used plenty of macbooks and iMacs, and i don't really think that they are worth what Apple is charging for them

also i was offering him my suggestion on the what i would do if i was in a simular situation.

and i'm sorry but im not telling him how to spend his money (I was offering a suggestion) and i'm sorry again that i dont agree with your idea to throw money at a problem and hope it goes away, cause where I live money is hard to come buy and If I need to buy something and can save buy buying something very very simular for $700 less then i'm going to jump at the chance, cause he is a senior high school student and if his mom and dad don't make heaps of money he is probably the one who earned the money and thats a lot of hours when you take into consideration minimum wage and other expenses that he may have (Rent, car payments, etc.)

There was also not really a reason for you to jump on the defensive like you seemed to have. 

as i said im just offering my opinion and i'm sorry that its different to yours and that you took it so harshly, 

 

also - this is in australian prices so it won't match exactly to your pricing situation but it still lets you see my perspective on the situation

And thats second hand

i could easily afford any one of these with a tiny bit of haggling and it would cost less and its New new not second hand new and all of these options have dedicated graphics

 

But i wouldn't recomend the Asus or the OMEN due to the battery life of the computers but i know the HP Pavilion's you can purchase a bigger battery that will last for a day easily especially when all thats being done is using office and watching demonstrational videos

Wow man thank you a lot everything u said is what exactly I was thinking and also I did work for a whole year just to get at least 3000 so thank you soo much man your suggestions were probably the most effective one 

[Abdallah Dalis]

28 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

I don't think you do especially when you will be doing basic computer functions, my current desktop has a SSD but thats just for windows and programs, then i have some HDD's that all my games are installed on and there isn't that much difference in performance between installing games on the SSD and the HDD's

Ok thank you 

 

[WickedStarfish]

5 minutes ago, Abdallah Dalis said:

Wow man thank you a lot everything u said is what exactly I was thinking and also I did work for a whole year just to get at least 3000 so thank you soo much man your suggestions were probably the most effective one 

Glad i could help