Laptop for UNI? Is cpu that important?

[ExquisiteH]

Hi all, as the title says I am looking for a laptop to bring for UNI. I wanna have 16gb ram just for that multiple google tabs and a good battery life also the screen size to be 15 inch atleast or maybe 14 also with a good/premium build quality. I really like the microsoft surface laptop 3 15inch  , the build quality is amazing but for me to get 16gb ram it right out of my budget. I could get the 13.5 inch but I just feel its too small for me. Are there any alternatives? My budget is 2200 singapore dollars or about almost 1600usd.

[The Sloth]

Which subject? Thinkpad t490 or x290 ( 95 for AMD)with 10th gen, they are built like a tank. 

[Fasauceome]

CPU choice does not matter for a note taking laptop, I use a chromebook with an Intel Celeron for my engineering studies.

[5x5]

Look at a proper business laptop. ThinkPad T15 or EliteBook 855 G7

[Lord Vile]

14 minutes ago, ExquisiteH said:

Hi all, as the title says I am looking for a laptop to bring for UNI. I wanna have 16gb ram just for that multiple google tabs and a good battery life also the screen size to be 15 inch atleast or maybe 14 also with a good/premium build quality. I really like the microsoft surface laptop 3 15inch  , the build quality is amazing but for me to get 16gb ram it right out of my budget. I could get the 13.5 inch but I just feel its too small for me. Are there any alternatives? My budget is 2200 singapore dollars or about almost 1600usd.

Just for typing stuff up not really. Also look at 13". They're a lot more manageable and some Unis have lecture theatres with super thin desks that a 15" laptop will struggle fitting on properly. 

 

Have the obligatory you should look at macbooks for uni.

[svmlegacy]

9 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

CPU choice does not matter for a note taking laptop, I use a chromebook with an Intel Celeron for my engineering studies.

Can also confirm this. Now if only Google could streamline the math editor for docs....

 

Also, I've done A LOT on a Pentium P6200, including CAD for an FSAE car. Comes down to how much patience you have. Even that, was limited mostly by the iGPU, not the CPU.

[kelvinhall05]

Chromebook or Thinkpad.

[ExquisiteH]

Thx for the reply all, I have looked at the laptops but a thinkpad is more of my liking. Which thinkpad model, I have not settle down on that. I am still looking at other laptops from dell and what not. But is there any laptop with a good screen too? @Lord Vile I did not take into consideration of how smalls the tables would be. Good point though, I will take a look into 13 inch. I might take another look at the microsoft surface laptop 3 13 inch again however.

[Lord Vile]

59 minutes ago, ExquisiteH said:

Thx for the reply all, I have looked at the laptops but a thinkpad is more of my liking. Which thinkpad model, I have not settle down on that. I am still looking at other laptops from dell and what not. But is there any laptop with a good screen too? @Lord Vile I did not take into consideration of how smalls the tables would be. Good point though, I will take a look into 13 inch. I might take another look at the microsoft surface laptop 3 13 inch again however.

Be careful with thinkpads, they're business orientated so the screen is meh and so's the keyboard and trackpad.  

[The Sloth]

On 7/21/2020 at 11:38 AM, Fasauceome said:

CPU choice does not matter for a note taking laptop, I use a chromebook with an Intel Celeron for my engineering studies.

For reference, don't get a chromebook for engineering, if it's going to be your only computer. Even as a whole, you need programs like Excel and group study sessions will be hell. 

[ExquisiteH]

@nerdslayer1 @Lord Vile You guys are right. The thinkpad has good specs but the mirror is not where  near dell xps 13/15 or surface laptop 3. The chromebook isn't like a 'real' laptop. If I were just taking notes I would not mind with a chromebook but now I am looking at other laptops. More premium ones ish? Dell gram laptop, acer swift line up,  Dell XPS 13/15 inch, surface laptop 3 13/15 inch

[The Sloth]

18 minutes ago, ExquisiteH said:

Dell gram laptop, acer swift line up,  Dell XPS 13/15 inch, surface laptop 3 13/15 inch

Avoid the swift line, not the best build quality. Overall, XPS 13 and surface are awesome, go for it. Lg gram is good but not sure how well it will hold up long term. 

 

18 minutes ago, ExquisiteH said:

The thinkpad has good specs but the mirror is not where  near dell xps 13/15 or surface laptop 3.

 Thinkpads are tanks, i will have my x230 working perfectly despite being over 8 years old. 

 

 

[Lord Vile]

43 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

Avoid the swift line, not the best build quality. Overall, XPS 13 and surface are awesome, go for it. Lg gram is good but not sure how well it will hold up long term. 

 

 Thinkpads are tanks, i will have my x230 working perfectly despite being over 8 years old. 

 

 

I'd go with the surface out of that lot tbh. Will always say a macbook is better for uni though. 

[The Sloth]

1 hour ago, Lord Vile said:

Will always say a macbook is better for uni though. 

No, macs are not it 

 

Not this again. It's not, no touch, comparability has issues since apps stops working after a OS update, touchbar is bad, keyboards are trash, multiple engineering issues. Macs are far behind Pcs now, Ipad pro is better then the newest 13 inch macbook pro/ air at this point. A surface laptop will be a much better device overall with pen support. IMO the XPS 13 looks much nicer with thinner bezels( making it tiny relatively to its size) but overall reliability wise, surface will be better. 

 

 

 

 

[Lord Vile]

11 hours ago, nerdslayer1 said:

No, macs are not it 

 

Not this again. It's not, no touch, comparability has issues since apps stops working after a OS update, touchbar is bad, keyboards are trash, multiple engineering issues. Macs are far behind Pcs now, Ipad pro is better then the newest 13 inch macbook pro/ air at this point. A surface laptop will be a much better device overall with pen support. IMO the XPS 13 looks much nicer with thinner bezels( making it tiny relatively to its size) but overall reliability wise, surface will be better. 

 

 

 

 

Um dude touch on a laptop is bad, the OS isn't built for it.

 

The 32 bit ones did after support dropped but otherwise they're usually fine. The touch bar is literally just an adaptive version on the buttons that were already there but allows you to use sliders and do stuff like scrub through video like you would on your phone or have predictive text  on for emails and messages. The keyboards aren't trash they're up there with the better laptop keyboards and no there aren't engineering issues, tolerances are what they are and when you ship millions of units a year a few will have issues.

 

The iPad Pro is better in what way exactly? The limited OS? The lack of a proper keyboard or trackpad without the expensive case which still isn't great to do actual work on? The worse battery, screen, one port? 

 

Yay pen support on a screen on a hinge... sounds great. Not like you'd never use it and every time you tried you're just pushing the screen away. 

 

If you have to go windows you should get a surface but there's a reason Macs dominate university campus'. It's because they're reliable, can do everything you need them to, are a joy to actually use, come with an office suite preinstalled you don't have to pay for office and they will work with things like uni printers without needing drivers installed in the majority of cases. 

[panzersharkcat]

13 hours ago, ExquisiteH said:

@nerdslayer1 @Lord Vile You guys are right. The thinkpad has good specs but the mirror is not where  near dell xps 13/15 or surface laptop 3. The chromebook isn't like a 'real' laptop. If I were just taking notes I would not mind with a chromebook but now I am looking at other laptops. More premium ones ish? Dell gram laptop, acer swift line up,  Dell XPS 13/15 inch, surface laptop 3 13/15 inch

If it's available in Singapore, maybe look at the AMD variant of the T14 or T14s. Those are very strong performers, from initial reviews, and they'll take a beating and keep on going. The T14 even has drain holes so if you spill water on your keyboard, it protects the motherboard. The T14s is made of a bit nicer material, is a fair bit light, and has better display options but has a keyboard that's just spill-resistant. If you don't mind that, I'd recommend it over an X1 Carbon since the weight difference isn't huge and you get much better performance out of it.

 

I strongly disagree with Lord Vile when it comes to ThinkPad keyboards. They're the only ones I consider tolerable to use on a laptop. MacBook ones feel like I'm typing on a flat surface. He is right about displays. There are good display options but the lowest display configuration is for businesses that are too cheap to not pay a little more to not give their employees eye cancer.

[Lord Vile]

2 hours ago, panzersharkcat said:

If it's available in Singapore, maybe look at the AMD variant of the T14 or T14s. Those are very strong performers, from initial reviews, and they'll take a beating and keep on going. The T14 even has drain holes so if you spill water on your keyboard, it protects the motherboard. The T14s is made of a bit nicer material, is a fair bit light, and has better display options but has a keyboard that's just spill-resistant. If you don't mind that, I'd recommend it over an X1 Carbon since the weight difference isn't huge and you get much better performance out of it.

 

I strongly disagree with Lord Vile when it comes to ThinkPad keyboards. They're the only ones I consider tolerable to use on a laptop. MacBook ones feel like I'm typing on a flat surface. He is right about displays. There are good display options but the lowest display configuration is for businesses that are too cheap to not pay a little more to not give their employees eye cancer.

Might be down to personal preference regarding the keyboards. I find them a tad mushy but I am used to MX blue clones and the MacBook which feels like a sharper press. Overall the ThinkPad keyboard feels around the same as my 2013 HP pavilion. 

[ExquisiteH]

Guys I have narrowed down my options to the 15inch surface laptop 3 with a core i7 10th gen 16gb ram and 256gb ssd or the XPS 13 i7 10th gen 16gb ram 512gb ssd.

They are both great computers but I am just having a hard time  trying to figure out if I want a 15 or 13 inch. I'm mostly gonna use it for University. Some excel spreadsheets, mainly notes . How else should I choose? The XPS has a better display, battery lifetime, fingerprint. For the surface laptop I prefer the bigger display, the looks and it has atleast one USB A. See what im trying to figure out is which laptop would last me the longest, the most bang for my buck. The XPS 13 has almost no complains and it considered the best windows laptop whereas the intel version of the surface laptop has only like upto 7.5 hours of battery life and people complain the USB C is not thunderbolt but honestly I have no idea what thunderbolt is (except it can transfer upto 40gbps of data). I am not sure what I will use thunderbolt for.