2019 Best Back to School Laptop

[Anyth1nbutCommon]

1 minute ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Chrome is such a light OS it doesn't really matter in most cases.

Okay! That was my main concern. Any suggestions? 

[Wh0_Am_1]

Just now, Anyth1nbutCommon said:

Okay! That was my main concern. Any suggestions? 

Well right off the bat I would take a look at the Samsung Chromebook 3, this series of laptops are fairly rugged and are well built, albeit the linked model has been on the market for a bit, it is time tested and reliable. (please give me a few to hunt down other potential laptops with newer processors)

[Anyth1nbutCommon]

Just now, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Well right off the bat I would take a look at the Samsung Chromebook 3, this series of laptops are fairly rugged and are well built, albeit the linked model has been on the market for a bit, it is time tested and reliable. (please give me a few to hunt down other potential laptops with newer processors)

Take your time. I'm grateful you're even giving advice. I'll take a look at it.

[Wh0_Am_1]

6 minutes ago, Anyth1nbutCommon said:

Take your time. I'm grateful you're even giving advice. I'll take a look at it.

Thanks! 

Here are a few other laptops to look at, they have significantly faster CPUs, but half the storage, although that can be augmented by micro SD cards. (which are slow, but plenty fast for text documents)

Let's start with the cheapest option, this ASUS 11.6" Chromebook with the much newer and faster N3350, while I have heard little about this series of laptops, but they have an undeniable appeal for their value, also unlike the Chromebook 3 this laptop is charged via USB C. 

Next let's take a look at the option with the most screen real estate, the HP Chromebook 14, under the hood this laptop is much the same as the ASUS laptop with a 14" screen, now I have  not had experience this specific model, but older version of this laptop like my late 2014 model have had issues with the 8, I, K, and <, keys not working due to an insufficiently sturdy frame, while I do not know if the issues remain, the laptop chassis appears to have gone through at least one revision since then. 

Next let's take a look at the 2 in 1 offering, the HP Chromebook X360 under the hood, this 11.6" laptop appears to be basically the same as the previous laptops, but it is a 2 in 1 with a touchscreen.

And finally, this one falls outside of Chrome but love it or hate it I decided to include this anyway, the Lenovo 300e 2 in 1, it comes with Windows 10s and a N3450 which has twice the cores of the N3350m and twice the storage, but believe you me, this being Windows you are going to need that and more, if you choose to go this route, I highly recommend grabbing a micro SD card to serve as your mass storage drive.

[poochyena]

They should have mentioned refurbished laptops and tablets with keyboards for budgets under $400. I got a "Samsung Electronics SM-T590NZKAXAR Galaxy Tab A, 10.5", Black (Renewed)" with keyboard for only $260. Its great if all you need to do is casual stuff like watch videos and reply to emails.

[Jesbro]

24 minutes ago, poochyena said:

They should have mentioned refurbished laptops and tablets with keyboards for budgets under $400. I got a "Samsung Electronics SM-T590NZKAXAR Galaxy Tab A, 10.5", Black (Renewed)" with keyboard for only $260. Its great if all you need to do is casual stuff like watch videos and reply to emails.

Whoa for only $260? Isn't that the one with or without the S-Pen and with or without cellular? Where did you find that?

[Anyth1nbutCommon]

46 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Thanks! 

Here are a few other laptops to look at, they have significantly faster CPUs, but half the storage, although that can be augmented by micro SD cards. (which are slow, but plenty fast for text documents)

Let's start with the cheapest option, this ASUS 11.6" Chromebook with the much newer and faster N3350, while I have heard little about this series of laptops, but they have an undeniable appeal for their value, also unlike the Chromebook 3 this laptop is charged via USB C. 

Next let's take a look at the option with the most screen real estate, the HP Chromebook 14, under the hood this laptop is much the same as the ASUS laptop with a 14" screen, now I have  not had experience this specific model, but older version of this laptop like my late 2014 model have had issues with the 8, I, K, and <, keys not working due to an insufficiently sturdy frame, while I do not know if the issues remain, the laptop chassis appears to have gone through at least one revision since then. 

Next let's take a look at the 2 in 1 offering, the HP Chromebook X360 under the hood, this 11.6" laptop appears to be basically the same as the previous laptops, but it is a 2 in 1 with a touchscreen.

And finally, this one falls outside of Chrome but love it or hate it I decided to include this anyway, the Lenovo 300e 2 in 1, it comes with Windows 10s and a N3450 which has twice the cores of the N3350m and twice the storage, but believe you me, this being Windows you are going to need that and more, if you choose to go this route, I highly recommend grabbing a micro SD card to serve as your mass storage drive.

Thanks for all of your advice. These chromebooks are better than the ones I was initially considering. I decided to go with HP Chromebook 14. I don't have any use for the 2 in 1 and wanted the bigger screen. Even though you had trouble with the older model I'm only going to use it for a short time. I appreciate all your help. 

[kirashi]

7 hours ago, Miracle Nachos said:

Maybe check the case isn't busted open before filming B-Roll.

Check what? This is just normal standard Acer build quality. Nothing to see here...

5 hours ago, emilhen said:

Why does LTT not review/even mention the Huawei series? Is it because of the mess with US government?

Their Matebook X Pro and the Matebook 13 are some of the laptops you really need to look into!

Huawei devices other than their phones are difficult to acquire even in Canada, let alone the USA. The only common place you'll find a Matebook in Canada is on Amazon.ca, which rules out purchasing said notebook for a lot of people (myself included) because I have to be able to physically feel / pick it up before buying.

5 hours ago, Results45 said:

Yeah............at the same price range ($220-$350) you can get much better and lighter options with equal performance:

• Samsung Notebook Flash

--SNIP--

Um.... specs aside, I'd rather use a tiny iPad mini Bluetooth keyboard than try to type on Samsung's pathetic excuse for a keyboard. Don't get me wrong; I used to own and love my Samsung Series 9 2012 (the 15" MacBook Air Apple never made but should have) to bits, but it had a normal, square keyed, chiclet keyboard that felt decent enough. This though? Nope.jpg.exe.killme.typingsucks.onthis.exe.cmd.malware.pdf Besides, Lenovo is still king for laptop keyboards where typing is paramount.

 

2 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Is this guide for Canada or the US?

--SNIP--

If you watch the video, you'll notice that they're talking about the prices of the laptops in USD... ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

[Wh0_Am_1]

18 minutes ago, Anyth1nbutCommon said:

Thanks for all of your advice. These chromebooks are better than the ones I was initially considering. I decided to go with HP Chromebook 14. I don't have any use for the 2 in 1 and wanted the bigger screen. Even though you had trouble with the older model I'm only going to use it for a short time. I appreciate all your help. 

Your welcome! I honestly would probably pick the Chromebook 14 as well, even though there have been some keyboard issues in the past, otherwise I have still had a relatively good experience their laptops provided that I was not cooking them by overworking them for extended periods of time. 

[Wh0_Am_1]

5 minutes ago, kirashi said:

If you watch the video, you'll notice that they're talking about the prices of the laptops in USD... ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

That's what I noticed as well, which is why I compiled my list of what I would have recommended instead for the $600 to $1100 pricepoints.... Honestly they could have gotten an 8300H and a GTX1060 for cheaper than the 1650 that they have in the Nitro 5.

[Wh0_Am_1]

31 minutes ago, Anyth1nbutCommon said:

Thanks for all of your advice. These chromebooks are better than the ones I was initially considering. I decided to go with HP Chromebook 14. I don't have any use for the 2 in 1 and wanted the bigger screen. Even though you had trouble with the older model I'm only going to use it for a short time. I appreciate all your help. 

Also I just remembered to mention all of these Chromebooks support most android apps, and have access to the play store, so you may actually find that in the case that you want to play android games or other apps on the play store, the touchscreen on the 2 in 1 may prove convenient, otherwise yes, I agree that the Chromebook 14 would likely be the most ideal for your use case.

[rixons24]

9 hours ago, JonoT said:

 

i came across a laptop from a chinese manufacturer called Shenzhou (HASEE) fine shield U47T1 14 inch aluminium body

and it had an i7 8565U, Nvidia mx250, 1080p display 8gb ram, and a 1TB PcIE SSD all for the price of 5499 rmb / 775$.

 

can you guys take a look at it and give your review. plus it seems to have windows hello.

[abinkonoor]

why don't you guys review ASUS TUF series..???

 

[Stormseeker9]

5 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Is this guide for Canada or the US? Because as far as the US goes you can get a 1050 in a laptop for as little as $600 USD  (the Asus Vivobook K570ZD) now while I would not recommend that laptop it is a far cry from an MX250 or MX150, you can also get a fairly well balanced 1650 laptop (the MSI GF63) for as little as $670 USD, at $700 you may as well grab this ASUS FX504 with a 1060. Also I would recommend the TUF FX505DU over the Zephyrus GA502GU, as the FX505DU is significantly more rugged and by extension backpack friendly, it has the Max P (80 Watts) version of the GTX 1660 ti rather than the Max Q (60 watts), it comes with twice the RAM, and is notably cheaper.

We are talking about back to school laptops, not gaming laptops.

 

long batter life

light 

compact.

 

fuck carrying a 2-4kg monster with me all day on uni needing to find PowerPoints all the time to charge

[tomharris]

As a (in my opinion slightly better) alternative to the Dell XPS 15, you could also go for the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2.

 

[poochyena]

12 hours ago, Jesbro said:

Whoa for only $260? Isn't that the one with or without the S-Pen and with or without cellular? Where did you find that?

no pen or cellular. got it on amazon. The price has increased since I bought it a few months ago https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P125RL2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1

[Wh0_Am_1]

11 hours ago, Stormseeker9 said:

We are talking about back to school laptops, not gaming laptops.

 

long batter life

light 

compact.

 

fuck carrying a 2-4kg monster with me all day on uni needing to find PowerPoints all the time to charge

Sure, but by that metric the Acer Nitro 5 does not count as a back to school laptop, as that thing is relatively heavy with poor battery life, also I am pretty sure that the Zephyrus would not take well to getting hit by books day in and day out, while on the other hand the TUF FX505 would, while it is heavier and bulkier it actually shares the same battery, and as most of the time you would be using the IGPU, a similar battery life. Honestly if I were prepping for uni I would take the FX505 despite the increased heft, as it may actually survive the ordeal.

[soldier_ph]

Why do you guys never cover HP Laptops ?????!!!!!!!!!

 

@JonoT @AlexTheGreatish 

[Results45]

23 hours ago, Anyth1nbutCommon said:

Thanks for all of your advice. These chromebooks are better than the ones I was initially considering. I decided to go with HP Chromebook 14. I don't have any use for the 2 in 1 and wanted the bigger screen. Even though you had trouble with the older model I'm only going to use it for a short time. I appreciate all your help. 

22 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Your welcome! I honestly would probably pick the Chromebook 14 as well, even though there have been some keyboard issues in the past, otherwise I have still had a relatively good experience their laptops provided that I was not cooking them by overworking them for extended periods of time. 

 

If you haven't bought your Chromebook yet, I recommend the one I just bought for myself ~ the Acer R13. It guarantees you a 1080p screen, a 15% larger battery, and is on-sale on Ebay right now for $230 (usually over $300).

 

Other solid options include the Asus C423NA ($213), Acer Chromebook 14 ($224) and a couple others.

 

Also if getting "the most solid Chromebook possible" is not a priority due to your haste for a makeshift computing platform I would recommend getting your HP open-box for $140 (also HERE on Ebay).

 

 

Hope this helps! 

[Justin Daniels]

I am considering buying a custom HP Envy x360 15t (for about $1400) with these specs:

-Intel® Core™ i7 8565U (1.8 GHz, up to 4.6 GHz, 8 MB cache, 4 cores)

-NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250 (4 GB GDDR5)

-16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2x8GB)

-15.6" FHD IPS micro-edge WLED-backlit multitouch-enabled edge-to-edge glass (1920 x 1080)(TS)

-1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD

-Intel® 802.11b/g/n/ac (2x2) Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® 5 Combo(MU-MIMO supported)

-Bang & Olufsen, dual speakers, HP Audio Boost

-1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 (HP Sleep and Charge); 1 USB 3.1 Type-C™ Gen 1 (Data Transfer Only); 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A (Data Transfer Only)

-65 W AC power adapter

For this price, am I getting a good deal? (I really like the laptop's style.)

Also, would this be suitable for video editing and possibly light gaming?

 

I have literally no experience with laptops like that (my current one is a Dell Latitude D610).

[Results45]

On 8/23/2019 at 7:53 PM, Justin Daniels said:

I am considering.........basically a laptop in Linus' price range :

Spoiler

 

buying a custom HP Envy x360 15t (for about $1400) with these specs:

-Intel® Core™ i7 8565U (1.8 GHz, up to 4.6 GHz, 8 MB cache, 4 cores)

-NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250 (4 GB GDDR5)

-16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2x8GB)

-15.6" FHD IPS micro-edge WLED-backlit multitouch-enabled edge-to-edge glass (1920 x 1080)(TS)

-1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD

-Intel® 802.11b/g/n/ac (2x2) Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® 5 Combo(MU-MIMO supported)

-Bang & Olufsen, dual speakers, HP Audio Boost

-1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 (HP Sleep and Charge); 1 USB 3.1 Type-C™ Gen 1 (Data Transfer Only); 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A (Data Transfer Only)

-65 W AC power adapter

For this price, am I getting a good deal? (I really like the laptop's style.)

Also, would this be suitable for video editing and possibly light gaming?

 

 

I have literally no experience with laptops like that (my current one is a Dell Latitude D610).

 

Well here's the perfect video:

 

A few things to note:

• If having a dGPU is a must (no "world's lightest laptop" crap ~ Macbook Air, LG Gram, XPS 13, HP Spectre, etc.), I would go easy on the back and get something 4lbs/1.81kg or lighter like a Razer Blade Stealth (3lbs/~1.35kg), Huawei Matebook X Pro (2.92lbs/1.32kg), Asus Zenbook UX533FN / UX550GE (MX150 / GTX 1050TI in the latter), or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (3.75lbs/1.7kg)
• The last three above both have a 15.6-inch screen and a GTX 1050TI, which is twice as powerful as the MX150/250 (and FYI the 250 is pretty much an overclocked 150).
• Intel is releasing their Ice Lake line of laptop CPU products at the end of this year with MX150-equivalent iGPUs built-in (once you find one you want, look-up the GPU model on TechPowerUp to make sure it has 1,100+ GFLOPS of performance) so if you can wait a few months, you might get an even lighter 15.6-inch ultrabook at your price point ($1000-$1500) with a dGPU-class graphics 

.

[AlexTheGreatish]

On 8/22/2019 at 12:57 PM, Connunist said:

Was looking at the surface 2 for some coding and word processing at uni but was stuck between the i5 or the i7 model. Any recommendations?

I'd just save the money and get the i5

On 8/22/2019 at 1:02 PM, MikevanHam22 said:

help i need a good laptop for cad adobe etc and want to game a litle bit. i dont know what laptop i should get my budget is 1200€

XPS 15 or Nitro 5 are both good options.  Nitro 5 is better for gaming and will save some money, XPS 15 has a better screen for CAD and Adobe.

On 8/22/2019 at 3:55 PM, FezBoy said:

The i5 would likely be fine, but don't the keyboards on surfaces suck?  I'd go for a thinkpad for coding and note taking, unless of course you need the touch and tablet stuff.

I'd consider the Surface Laptop to have the best keyboard on the market.

On 8/23/2019 at 4:30 PM, Pascal... said:

Why do you guys never cover HP Laptops ?????!!!!!!!!!

 

@JonoT @AlexTheGreatish 

We have, and hated every single one of them: 

 

[Results45]

1 hour ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

  On 8/23/2019 at 4:30 PM, Pascal... said:

Why do you guys never cover HP Laptops ?????!!!!!!!!!

 

@JonoT @AlexTheGreatish 

 

We have, and hated every single one of them: 

.

 Or really?

 

Sure there are some pain points like the trackpad size, chinbar/speakergrill, and dual-core CPU, but it's overall a really great 2-in-1 design and IMO would be perfect for lawyers, politicians, business executives who could use the extra air of importance in meetings or traveling on the go. Plus those kinds of people probably have decked-out PCs in their offices and homes as well.

[h0y0ku]

Guys.

Nitro 5 Intel or AMD version? 15 inch.
 

AMD has RX560X and Ryzen 5 3550H. But it is $200 cheaper. I am all for bang for a buck approach and will not be gaming on it. I just like the upgradability and overclockable screen.

What would you do?

[Star099]

On 8/22/2019 at 3:39 PM, Results45 said:

Yeah............at the same price range ($220-$350) you can get much better and lighter options with equal performance:

Those options are powered by the Pentium N5000 and Core m3 6y30/7y30, which shows how far budget laptop CPU performance has improved since 2014/2015 

• Core m3 6Y30 vs. Core i5-4300M
• Pentium Silver N5000 vs. Core i5-4300U
• Core m3 7y30 vs. Core i5-5200U / 5300U

Would you mind explaining how 2200 vs 3500 is "equal performance" when it's in fact 60% less? The N5000 is no match for the i5's. 

 

Another issue, Geekbench rates the 7y30 as comparable to the i5's, but cpubenchmark.net disagrees. I'm gonna try and find one of these in a store to run some speed tests on to see who is more accurate.