Advice for buying a new mid tier laptop for university

[Niekao]

Hey there,

 

Yesterday unfortunately my laptop broke. I need to get one quite quickly because I am a computer science major. I do have a desktop, however it is quite practical to have a laptop.

My main use will be programming on it and doing some other productivity work like emails and excel.

Sometimes I will be running quite heavy programs, I have noticed with my old laptop that it really needed an upgrade. I do not need a graphics card, because I already have one in my desktop.

My budget is around €1200, but feel free to suggest things with good motivation over my budget.

The laptop I am currently looking into is the Lenovo Yoga Slim Pro 7.

This laptop is a 14 inch laptop with a Ryzen 7 5800H, 16 GB ram and 512 gb ssd storage. Next to that it has a very nice screen, this is what is says: 

"14.0" 2.8K (2880x1800) OLED 400nits Glossy, 90Hz, DCI-P3 100%, HDR 500 True Black, Glass, Dolby Vision"

It has one USB-A, a headphone jack, and two USB 3.2 Gen2 ports.

this is the link, I tried finding it on the american website, however I couldn't find it.

 

If you made it this far with reading through all the nonsense information. I would really like some comments on my current laptop pick and if there are better deals out there.

16 GB ram is absolute must, I would really like the same cpu, but I am not sure if I would need it. The storage doesn't really matter to me, so far I haven't used much more than 90 gb.

Let me know if you know more than I do.

 

Thanks for your time!

 

[Bombastinator]

The thing that seems to be occasionally forgotten with college computers is build quality. The things go into backpacks and get dragged places.  Strong frames and hinges can matter. I’ve heard good things about the amd8/16 laptop CPUs power wise. One has to be careful with AMD though because their APU stuff frequently has older processors in it so what is IN the cpu needs to be observed. 

[Niekao]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

The thing that seems to be occasionally forgotten with college computers is build quality. The things go into backpacks and get dragged places.  Strong frames and hinges can matter. I’ve heard good things about the amd8/16 laptop CPUs power wise. One has to be careful with AMD though because their APU stuff frequently has older processors in it so what is IN the cpu needs to be observed. 

I totally hear you about the build quality, that is actually how my last one died. So I totally plan putting it in a sleeve all the time. I just don't know with a bunch of laptops what the build quality will be, especially now that all the stores are closed (atleast they are for me), I can't really check it.

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Niekao said:

I totally hear you about the build quality, that is actually how my last one died. So I totally plan putting it in a sleeve all the time. I just don't know with a bunch of laptops what the build quality will be, especially now that all the stores are closed (atleast they are for me), I can't really check it.

They often look at that with reviews. Looking at reviews of anything you think might be a contender may be a good idea.  You’re not looking for a gpu though, so there should be enough money to make things go.  One thing that is a differentiator is do you take notes with a stylus. If you do it quickly drops down to two possibilities it’s Microsoft vs apple.  They’re the only two companies that do styli well.  If not though it opens up more.  

[Niekao]

9 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

They often look at that with reviews. Looking at reviews of anything you think might be a contender may be a good idea.  You’re not looking for a gpu though, so there should be enough money to make things go.  One thing that is a differentiator is do you take notes with a stylus. If you do it quickly drops down to two possibilities it’s Microsoft vs apple.  They’re the only two companies that do styli well.  If not though it opens up more.  

I don't really take notes and when I do I prefer to just write it on paper.

[rikitikitavi]

M1 Air 8GB… maybe with student discount you might get the 16GB upgrade that will still be within your range.

 

I mean if your specific app will run on macOS/M1, also given the specifics of macOS and the M1 - 8GB might be enough (as it not the same experience as on 8GB Win10 device)

[Niekao]

3 minutes ago, rikitikitavi said:

M1 Air 8GB… maybe with student discount you might get the 16GB upgrade that will still be within your range.

 

I mean if your specific app will run on macOS/M1, also given the specifics of macOS and the M1 - 8GB might be enough (as it not the same experience as on 8GB Win10 device)

The problem I have with the M1 Air, is that it is a great laptop, however the problem is that when I am following a course for my university and there is an installation guide. There is a 3 page essay for windows, a few instructions for linux and it basicly says screw you when you have MacOS. I am just afraid that it will be a problem for my university.

[rikitikitavi]

46 minutes ago, Niekao said:

The problem I have with the M1 Air, is that it is a great laptop, however the problem is that when I am following a course for my university and there is an installation guide. There is a 3 page essay for windows, a few instructions for linux and it basicly says screw you when you have MacOS. I am just afraid that it will be a problem for my university.

My suggestion is to check the curriculum (maybe email profs), to know ahead of time if there is going to be a mac-no-no. 

 

I understand the frustration, had to do a couple+ courses where I had to use lab pc or install win, since there were no alternative for the workload afaik - but that again it depends if you are comfortable with such possibility and/or ready to do extra legwork to find how to do things. Otherwise you better find a nice Windows machine. My suggestion small/lightweight/good battery - those are a must for Uni.

 

Fyi, it might last you way past your studies. I haven’t dealt with Windows laptops for a long time, but my experience with quality/reliability is that macs tend to serve longer.

All but one of my macbooks are in great condition. Here are couple of oldest:

Today my 2012 macbook Air had a security update (even though the installed macOS is old/‘not supported’)

My 2009 macbook Pro has a linux distro on it (the supported macOS is too old)

[Imbadatnames]

1 hour ago, Niekao said:

The problem I have with the M1 Air, is that it is a great laptop, however the problem is that when I am following a course for my university and there is an installation guide. There is a 3 page essay for windows, a few instructions for linux and it basicly says screw you when you have MacOS. I am just afraid that it will be a problem for my university.

Ask, you can also use parallels to run a windows VM on MacOS. Also what programs are there? 

[Darkseth]

17 hours ago, Niekao said:

The problem I have with the M1 Air, is that it is a great laptop, however the problem is that when I am following a course for my university and there is an installation guide. There is a 3 page essay for windows, a few instructions for linux and it basicly says screw you when you have MacOS. I am just afraid that it will be a problem for my university.

Depends, what Application? You can google and check if this specific Application is available on MacOS. Sometimes, installation on Linux/MacOS can be VERY easy compared to Windows.
Example, i can literaly just log into my University Wifi with any Apple device.

Android, (and maybe Windows) do require me to download a certificate, or it won't work at all.

 

For smaller Applications that you need for 6 Months only, you can always use Windows 11 ARM with Parallels.

I have SAP S/4 Hana as a GUI Application. Idk how old it is, but it was completely made for just this 1 Lecture (components, Design etc). So it's 100% an x86 Application, probably 32 Bit.

I had zero issues installing it under Windows 11 ARM on my M1 Macbook Pro. I downloaded it, installed, and it ran without any flaws.

I mean, it's SAP. 

Same with a Finance-Game, where different Groups could compete with each other with finance decisions. I had to chance compatibility to Windows 7 i think, but then it ran.

 

I mean.. It's a bit surprising how much actually runs. Windows 11 ARM comes with not just a 32 bit Emulator, but also a 64 Bit emulator. Most things should run.

 

However, if you'll need to run Windows applications for 3 years straight, and rarely work withint MacOS, then you might want a Windows Notebook.

 

 

On the note, Yoga Slim 7 Pro is one of my Favourites, if it's not a M1 macbook.

[Niekao]

4 hours ago, Darkseth said:

Depends, what Application? You can google and check if this specific Application is available on MacOS. Sometimes, installation on Linux/MacOS can be VERY easy compared to Windows.

 

21 hours ago, rikitikitavi said:

My suggestion is to check the curriculum (maybe email profs), to know ahead of time if there is going to be a mac-no-no.

It is very hard to check. I am not even sure which courses to take yet, so it really depends. Although I am leaning more towards Data Science courses and as far as I know that will be mostly python. 
 

The other thing I was thinking about is, that on paper the specs of the M1 are just a downgrade. I have less storage (which might be tough if I do plan on using it for a longer period of time), I have less ram which can be complicated & according to this website the Ryzen 5800H outperforms the M1 8 core. So I don’t know. This is obviously just a number, but it does play some role. 

The standard model comes with 8 GB ram and 256 ssd, if I want to upgrade both to match the Lenovo, its +€230 for each of the upgrades. 

[rikitikitavi]

2 hours ago, Niekao said:

It is very hard to check. I am not even sure which courses to take yet, so it really depends. Although I am leaning more towards Data Science courses and as far as I know that will be mostly python.

Well, if you want to make sure, you’ll have to do the legwork and find out (you can also email CS department, they should have some general understanding of their general requirements)

 

2 hours ago, Niekao said:

The other thing I was thinking about is, that on paper the specs of the M1 are just a downgrade. I have less storage (which might be tough if I do plan on using it for a longer period of time), I have less ram which can be complicated & according to this website the Ryzen 5800H outperforms the M1 8 core. So I don’t know. This is obviously just a number, but it does play some role. 

Downgrade is a big word. You should not base your choice solely on some benchmark. Unless you benefit from specific performance difference directly.

For example it does not mean that your code will compile 2x as fast (most probably).

 

RAM-wise it might be a bottleneck in certain situation, so if you can go for upgrade (or you might never encounter these situations at all).

 

Storage - you should not care. Keep your drive clean of garbage and get extra storage as needed. You need one for backups anyway.

 

2 hours ago, Niekao said:

The standard model comes with 8 GB ram and 256 ssd, if I want to upgrade both to match the Lenovo, its +€230 for each of the upgrades. 

Check how much student discount gives you. Upgrade to 16GB if you can (again you might not need it).

 

As far as I understand you have workload ready pc at home, therefore go for portable-first machine.

 

[igormp]

On 12/25/2021 at 4:22 AM, Niekao said:

It is very hard to check. I am not even sure which courses to take yet, so it really depends. Although I am leaning more towards Data Science courses and as far as I know that will be mostly python. 

Python and most of the libraries should work OOB on the M1, even stuff like tensorflow and pytorch. You also will get better hardware acceleration than that AMD laptop.

 

On 12/25/2021 at 4:22 AM, Niekao said:

The other thing I was thinking about is, that on paper the specs of the M1 are just a downgrade. I have less storage (which might be tough if I do plan on using it for a longer period of time), I have less ram which can be complicated & according to this website the Ryzen 5800H outperforms the M1 8 core. So I don’t know. This is obviously just a number, but it does play some role. 

The standard model comes with 8 GB ram and 256 ssd, if I want to upgrade both to match the Lenovo, its +€230 for each of the upgrades. 

Go for more RAM, you should be able to get the 16gb model for ~1277 eur with the student discount. Less than 200 eur for an upgrade (in my opinion) that would last much longer than that yoga. Remember that the macbook is a competitor to the likes of the XPS, which are pricier than that yoga with lesser hardware.

 

As for storage, you said yourself that it isn't that important, so you should be able to live with it (specially since you already have another desktop, can't you easily remote into it?).