Laptop suggestions for Uni Laptop? (£500-£600)

bradwiggo · June 23, 2021

I am going off to Uni in a few months and need a portable laptop to use in classes taking notes and when I am out of my room. So a good keyboard is very important, as well as good battery life and excellent build quality.

I am struggling a bit to find much on Amazon in this price range. It seems like there are loads of £200 shite laptops, and then loads of more expensive ones, but nothing in this middle range. The reason I would prefer to buy from amazon is that from what I've heard, they have a very good returns policy incase the laptop has backlight bleed issues on the screen. I would be open to buying from other places as long as I can return it if this is an issue (for example Argos should be alright)

My budget is about £500-£600 and I would prefer a laptop smaller than 15 inches.

Stuff I've been looking at so far:

Asus VivoBooks and ZenBooks, like this: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/VivoBook-M413IA-Laptop-7-4700U-Windows/dp/B08CRB3Z7N/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=asus%2Bvivobook&qid=1624470055&s=computers&sr=1-5&th=1

No idea if these are any good, I have read some reviews saying they flex a bit when typing on them.

Also I am happy to go below my budget, so if I don't need a £600 laptop and there is a decent one for £400, then that's great.

Does anybody have any good suggestions?

m1lk3y · June 23, 2021

From what I've heard Asus' Vivo Book line is pretty good. Never owned one though, so I'll leave that to others. I am currently a college student and I'm using a 15' HP Envy convertible, has an AMD 3700U or something like that, pretty much same spec as that one you've posted, just a year older hah. I love this one and can vouch for its build quality and also I love typing on the keyboard and the fact that it has a full number pad, it's not a stupid layout. aaaand after sitting here writing this I didn't realize it's price had gone up. I got mine for $600. but I guess now it's 799 for some reason. if you can manage to find one I would definitely recommend it. but maybe that VivoBook is looking a little better now...

Here's one I found that isn't too bad, the processor might be a little slow, but should still get done what you need I believe. Just can't speak for the quality of Huawei. https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUAWEI-MateBook-Multi-screen-Collaboration-Fingerprint/dp/B094JMRQKX/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=laptop&qid=1624474623&refinements=p_36%3A30000-60000&rnid=9708204031&s=computers&sr=1-3&th=1

Edited June 23, 2021 by m1lk3y
adding a link

mt123 · June 25, 2021

On 6/23/2021 at 2:06 PM, bradwiggo said:

I am going off to Uni in a few months and need a portable laptop to use in classes taking notes and when I am out of my room. So a good keyboard is very important, as well as good battery life and excellent build quality.

I am struggling a bit to find much on Amazon in this price range. It seems like there are loads of £200 shite laptops, and then loads of more expensive ones, but nothing in this middle range. The reason I would prefer to buy from amazon is that from what I've heard, they have a very good returns policy incase the laptop has backlight bleed issues on the screen. I would be open to buying from other places as long as I can return it if this is an issue (for example Argos should be alright)

My budget is about £500-£600 and I would prefer a laptop smaller than 15 inches.

...

Does anybody have any good suggestions?

Before we get into actual laptops you may want to consider, I believe its important to consider what general needs and wants you have for the laptop. For example, since this is a laptop for university and taking notes, do you prefer to have a touchscreen and/ or a two-in-one design to take notes directly on your screen? I've heard this could help, though it may not be completely necessary. Then, given your price range, I've noticed @m1lk3y 's suggestion had the option of an Intel i3 or an i5, so its also important to consider how much processing power you'll want. Frankly, the i3 they suggested won't really do you any good, considering it's only a 2-core. 4-thread processor.

See Dell's website for CPU recommendations (note that their recommendations are for intel processors, though I believe the same principals can apply to similar AMD Ryzen CPUs): https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/help-me-choose/cp/hmc-intel-processor-consumer
Also see Dell's website for Memory Recommendations: https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/help-me-choose/cp/hmc-memory-consumer

I recommend going with a laptop equipped with at least a 4-core processor, because 2-cores just doesn't seem to fit the bill in the modern world. As far as memory goes, 8 GB seems to be the baseline, but if can get 12 or 16 GB with this budget, that would be nice - however, be careful with 12 GB memory laptops because sometimes these could be scams/ unofficial, always check with the manufacturer. If you do want to do some gaming, though, and if you're concerned with GPU's, look towards lower-end gaming laptops, likely from Dell G or Acer Nitro, and maybe look towards ones equipped with NVIDIA 1650's or maybe even 1660's. It seems like most of the offerings from Dell's G lineup and Acer's Nitro Lineup can be equipped with 1650's and even the newer 3050 in your price range, however it seems like they're only equipped with 8 GB of memory. You might have to go another 50 pounds or so to get 16 GB memory versions of these.

If you're not doing any video editing, I highly recommend this laptop, this: the Acer Swift 3. I think it's a wonderful all-rounder considering it's internals. The base Ryzen 5 4500U is a 6-core procesor, so it should be very good for your usage, however I think if you want this laptop to last you throughout university, I think the upgraded Ryzen 7-equipped model is the better option given it has 8-cores (sweeet), and this version can be had with up to 16 GB of memory. Though, the 16GB version is only slightly above your price range, but its well worth it, especially since this can handle modern games at dewcent FPS (i.e., this can run Overwatch on 1080p low-ish settings at around 90 FPS - pretty nice considering this laptop only has integrated graphics). Here's the amazon link, and I'm also providing a review from Dave2D (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086KKKT15/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=dav0d2-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B086KKKT15&linkId=5b47cf80b0b5d049dfcd10a541c377ff&th=1)

In my opinion, I think your budget is pretty reasonable, however I believe that since you'll be using this for university, its really important to extend your budget even further, maybe towards the 700 to even 800 pound mark, especially if you're considering that this will be your computer throughout all your years in university, and the fact that you won't want your laptop to crap out on you. Plus, this Acer has a pretty poor screen/ display since its pretty color inaccurate and that it isn't too bright (260 Nits). Though, if you're not using this for editing or other applications where you need a bright, color accurate screen, this should be fine, though I highly recommend looking at laptops with brighter screens.

Hope this helps!