Laptop for college CS major?

[DaMacGuy]

A friends son is going to be starting a computer science program at SNHU. The specs they're recommending are...

8th or 9th gen intel i7 (I bet he could get along with an AMD mobile CPU)
8-16 GB RAM
250 - 500+ GB storage (SSD recommended)
802.11 WC dual band wifi

I'm a Mac user, but I know that he's not going to be satisfied with my recommendations. And I'm almost clueless about the state of Windows laptops (Dell, HP, Acer, etc are the big guys still, right? LOL).

He's on a budget too, which throws a wrench into the specs if he wants it to last a couple of years - argh!

Any recommendations?

[aisle9]

Depending on budget, a ThinkPad P-series laptop is tailor-made for that sort of thing. IMO, Lenovo is the king of Windows laptops, especially professional grade. HP is still solid, Acer is budget friendly, ASUS is an iffy value prop, you'd have to be an idiot or a shill to buy a Razer, and Dell is that guy who tries to put out a dumpster fire with gasoline.

[SupaKomputa]

If you don't need GPU rendering / AI computing, a measly Ryzen 4300u will do.

You don't need high specs just to code.

Get Lenovo Ideapad 5 14/15, Acer Swift 3 or HP envy x360.

[marmour]

12 minutes ago, DaMacGuy said:

A friends son is going to be starting a computer science program at SNHU. The specs they're recommending are...

8th or 9th gen intel i7 (I bet he could get along with an AMD mobile CPU)
8-16 GB RAM
250 - 500+ GB storage (SSD recommended)
802.11 WC dual band wifi

I'm a Mac user, but I know that he's not going to be satisfied with my recommendations. And I'm almost clueless about the state of Windows laptops (Dell, HP, Acer, etc are the big guys still, right? LOL).

He's on a budget too, which throws a wrench into the specs if he wants it to last a couple of years - argh!

Any recommendations?

HP Envy x360

Lenovo Ideapad 5 14 or 15 inch.

 

Both can be equipped with Ryzen 4500U or 4700U which will outperform intel ultrabooks twice the price.

 

If you want a decent windows laptops, your looking at spending anywhere from $500-4000. IMO $800-1200 is the sweet spot. The HP Envy fits into this nicely with great performance, build quality, good screen (400nit option is good, don't know about 300nit) with touchscreen support.

If you want something slightly cheaper, the Lenovo ideapad 5 offers the same performance but with a slightly worse screen and chassis.

[Lord Vile]

30 minutes ago, DaMacGuy said:

A friends son is going to be starting a computer science program at SNHU. The specs they're recommending are...

8th or 9th gen intel i7 (I bet he could get along with an AMD mobile CPU)
8-16 GB RAM
250 - 500+ GB storage (SSD recommended)
802.11 WC dual band wifi

I'm a Mac user, but I know that he's not going to be satisfied with my recommendations. And I'm almost clueless about the state of Windows laptops (Dell, HP, Acer, etc are the big guys still, right? LOL).

He's on a budget too, which throws a wrench into the specs if he wants it to last a couple of years - argh!

Any recommendations?

For coding a MacBook would be the better option surely? 

[DailyProcrastinator]

33 minutes ago, DaMacGuy said:

He's on a budget too, which throws a wrench into the specs if he wants it to last a couple of years - argh!

Really depends what the budget is. This could mean under $1k, or under $500, this information would help. The new 4th gen AMD Ryzen mobile CPU's are pretty amazing, embarrasses the Intel comparable, and costs significantly less. So some good 'budget' options can be found, however,  as these laptops are only just coming to market they will be hard to find for the next few months. Also he should find out if his program has a preferred OS for the students. 

This is worth a watch though:

If something like the HP shown can fit the budget it would be a great laptop. That AMD CPU would absolutely thrash my 7th gen Intel i7 in my Dell XPS13, I love it, but when I bought it I paid over $2k cad lol and it was on sale.

[daveholland86]

To me the good intersection on price, performance, quality, and ease is an Acer Aspire of Swift Ryzen.  They support NVMe and have a 2.5" bay for cheaper SSD or multi TB HDD.  I am not so quick to give up the 2.5" yet.