Laptop for a CS degree and finishing high school.

[lavablade02]

I'm not really too sure about what classes I'm going to be taking - but I do not think I'll be doing anything too intensive - my brother is doing fine with a 13' 2013 MBA.

 

My budget is flexible, but ~1700 is the VERY most I'm willing to spend.

 

 

Right now my top choice is the SL2, but I might wait for the SL3.

I am also looking at a macbook - don't know which, don't like their keyboards, but making ios apps would be cool, I have an iPhone and Apple watch.

Lenovo x390

LG gram

kinda the matebook X - don't want to deal with their customer service

 

 

My requirements

Good battery life - enough

Decent keyboard - this is where the mac loses points, but I'm willing to tolerate it.

Good screen - where the Lenovo loses points

Decent price - I don't particularly want to spend a ton of money, but can if I need to.

Reliability - I want to use this laptop for at least 4 years, the first two will be lighter usage, I am using it for my last 2 years of high school, will probably get a new laptop for my last two years of college.

[Origami Cactus]

If you are already deep in the apple ecosystem (applewatch and phone) then a macbook would be really cool, just because of how well it is integrated with these 2.

But im not sure if the recents macbooks would last 4 years, probably not, especially in normal use.

 

I would get the Thinkpad, that should last you long.

[genexis_x]

Where are you from? 1700 in USD?

14 minutes ago, lavablade02 said:

SL2

Why Surface. Anticonsumer product

14 minutes ago, lavablade02 said:

Good battery life - enough

Decent keyboard - this is where the mac loses points, but I'm willing to tolerate it.

Good screen - where the Lenovo loses points

Decent price - I don't particularly want to spend a ton of money, but can if I need to.

Reliability

Min how many hours of battery life?

Define good screen?

 

Any preference on weight and display size? Mind non-upgradable RAM? If you want best reliability, premium business laptop / workstation is the option

[lavablade02]

11 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Where are you from? 1700 in USD?

Why Surface. Anticonsumer product

Min how many hours of battery life?

Define good screen?

 

Any preference on weight and display size? Mind non-upgradable RAM? If you want best reliability, premium business laptop / workstation is the option

I really like the keyboards and screen on the surface - Alex agrees with me on the keyboard.

1700 USD

Whatever would be the minimum recommended for college - probably 6 or 7 hours.

I like lighter laptops, but as long as it is under 4 pounds it should be fine. 13 inch is preferable, but I don't really mind. I do not care if the RAM is soldered. I also plan on using this laptop for watching netflix and youtube a bunch, so I would like something with good colors, and just makes you want to look at it. That is my main issue with business laptops, they typically do not have great screens.

[lavablade02]

23 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

If you are already deep in the apple ecosystem (applewatch and phone) then a macbook would be really cool, just because of how well it is integrated with these 2.

But im not sure if the recents macbooks would last 4 years, probably not, especially in normal use.

 

I would get the Thinkpad, that should last you long.

So would you recommend waiting a year or two to buy a laptop, and just put up with a chromebook for school and not having a laptop for home use?

[Origami Cactus]

1 minute ago, lavablade02 said:

So would you recommend waiting a year or two to buy a laptop

If you can, definitely. 

Because then you could get the 7nm ryzen laptops next year, those should have really good battery life and performance (pure speculation).

 

I had to use chromebooks in my previous school, and those were fine.

[genexis_x]

7 minutes ago, lavablade02 said:

That is my main issue with business laptops, they typically do not have great screens.

Many of them do have high sRGB display now