a laptop for a student

[albinoperro]

Hi, i've been getting into tech and knowing what is useful for what and wanted to know what to look for if all i need is a laptop that's snappy and won't slow down over time that will be used primarily for web browsing, email and typing. I wanted to know how this different components will affect how fast and reliable it'll be: cpu, ram and the internal storage and what would be adequate for that kind of pc that i described.  

[TheBean]

ram will affect how many things you can have open at the same time (8gb minimum for 2019, 16gb for power users/gamers)

storage is well... storage.... more is better. (minimum 128gb ssd, recommended 256gb ssd + 1tb hdd or 512gb ssd)

cpu is how hard your computer will work to accomplish a task. the cpu is the brain. the power powerfull the brain the more work it can do and more quickly. 

minimum recommended cpu: intel i5 or ryzen 5, recommended i7 or ryzen 7)

 

 

[Tsuki]

get a chromebook.

[ProfBrown]

My main question is what kind of student? College, high school, lower primary? Reason I ask this question is it can kind of dictate what kind of laptop you look into. Be it a 2-1, or an ultrabook, or a full size laptop. This kind of changes what you need. Also, do you have a general budget? Also, another question is, do you have a desktop, or will this be your only computer? This could impact your needs as well as what you require from a laptop.

 

Minimum for a laptop that I would recommend is an Intel 8th gen processor, i5 or i7, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 mobiles aren't bad either. Avoid a dual core, minimum would be a quad core. To me 8gb is enough for what you are looking to do (16gb would be better of course), and storage depends on your workload really. Are you talking about typing essays or needing to hold large documents in local storage? For me as a college student 256gb is the minimum I would say you need. With so much being able to be stored on the cloud, going to a 1TB in many cases is useless and a waste of money for college students.

 

Personally I just picked up an HP Spectre X360 13t (the gem-cut one) and I love it. The keyboard is amazing, screen clarity is great, design is nice, weight is amazing (barely feel it in my backpack) and with its size it can fit in most any place without being a burden (very important for a mobile commuting college student like me). Linus complained about the track pad being the Achilles heel of this computer and I agree, thats why I installed the Precision drivers and it has made this computer amazing. Best of all, got the i7 (8565u) for $400 USD off because it was an open box with nothing missing. Also, this laptop is a 2-1, comes with a leather sleeve, pen, USB C charging, with a legacy USB A port, and a 65Watt charger so it will charge faster than some of its competition with can be better for on the go style usage. 

 

I'm sure others will rip my comment apart but I believe I made the right choice for my needs.

[Nine Tailed Fox]

Surfacebook

[TheTacoSniper]

For what you've described as your primary use cases, basically any Chrome Book will be more reliable and future proof. It will be able to handle any of those mentioned tasks as well or better than a cheap windows computer.

[gunduzilla]

I can vouch for the Asus VivoBook F510UA. It has an amazing keyboard and a 1080p screen with processing power that rivals the mainstream/flagship offerings. I'm a magnet high school student who takes a lot of CS courses (alongside the normal boring stuff) and this laptop excels at every task I throw at it. With huge datasets or similar you'd use your desktop or a cloud computing service like AWS anyway, so this laptop is perfect in that it is quite powerful yet still sleek.

[Ryan Paradis]

2 hours ago, Tsuki said:

get a chromebook.

I don't know if that is the best choice, chrome os is very limited if he wants to expand and try more stuff.

[Chronified]

Any 4th gen or later thinkpad, the T540p would be the perfect option for a student. 

[Tsuki]

10 minutes ago, Ryan Paradis said:

I don't know if that is the best choice, chrome os is very limited if he wants to expand and try more stuff.

i think theyre perfect for students.(until you get into college anyways)

you have all your word processing, email, web browsing functionality.

 

its chrome os, so you arent going to get viruses, and its not going to get bogged down with shitty updates.

 

he wont be able to play games on it, which means less distractions. and until you NEED more, for video editing or stuff like that, its perfect. not to mention fairly cheap and pretty reliable.

 

it fits all the requirements hes currently looking for.

[ProfBrown]

I agree to a certain extent with the post above, a Chrome book is good in a situational basis. To me the line is middle high school. Any higher than mid high school, a normal laptop based in Windows or Mac (depending on preference) would be a better bet. The OP didn't specify what schooling level he is at.

 

Chrome book while being able to limit you to Chrome OS is great for a younger student, but in middle to upper high school level, and into college, you will be learning where you want to put yourself in the world and what hobbies you have and a chrome book just won't get you there. While yes, they are cheap, you're spending money to have to re-spend it in a couple years to get a real laptop.

[genexis_x]

at least 8GB RAM and SSD, decent CPU

 

Where are you from? Budget? Any preferences on weight and battery life?

[jaxe]

How much are you willing to spend?

[lawliot]

At least 8GB RAM and an SSD. Do not go for an HDD.

[Mike21]

256 SSD with 8GB DDR4 and you are good to go