Laptop for College

[AdvocateOfNyx]

Hey guys, I'm headed off to college soon and looking for a laptop for daily use.  I am going to try to bring my desktop PC as well, but I'd like something powerful enough that if I chose to leave it at home I can.  Sometimes it might be nice to not always have the option to play games.  I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about desktop computers, but not as great when it comes to things like cooling and upgradable memory slots in laptops.

 

I'm going to school for biochemistry, and my college has not specified laptop requirements for this major as far as I know.  The school website generally requires:

1. Have a minimum of 16GB of RAM
2. Have a Core i5/i7 or greater/equivalent CPU
3. Have a minimum of 500GB of storage (an SSD is highly recommended)
4. Have Windows 10 or greater (students may optionally choose to run MacOS)
5. Have an Ethernet port or adapter and Wi-Fi

 

As for my personal requirements, battery life is at the top of my priority list.  Other than that, I've never owned a nice laptop, so I really don't know what else to ask for.  I would like to be able to do photo and video editing as well, it's just a personal hobby of mine.  I also would like a nice keyboard.  I will be connecting my own keyboard, mouse, and monitor in the dorm but I plan on trying to go to the library to get a lot of work done.  Given that, a MacBook seems really appealing to me.  Only problem is price.  Speaking of price...

 

Budget wise I technically don't have a real cap, but it's my own money and I'd like to spend no more than a grand of it.  Cheaper is better if it can get the job done.  Price is pretty much my number one concern, looking for the best bang for the buck right now.

 

If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.  Thank you!

[DrMacintosh]

Since you're attending college, you qualify for a Student Discount on Apple.com. Also look at their refurbished options which update frequently:

https://www.apple.com/us-edu/store

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished

 

I recommend the M1 MacBook Air, that machine will last significantly longer than any other laptop on battery and has plenty of performance, though I would only consider this option if you are able to bring your Desktop so you can still have access to your library of games. Otherwise on a Mac, you would have to rely on game streaming which is not ideal. 

https://www.apple.com/us-edu/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/with-m1-chip

 

There is no real need to increase the storage if your school provides complementary Office 365 which includes 1TB of OneDrive Storage. If it does not, consider the 512GB option. 

 

[JoHeJo06]

 I recommend something with a ryzen 6000 processor.  They have the best integrated graphics on the market, you could play some games on it if you want and they amazing battery life.  And they are of course pretty powerful. 

[AdvocateOfNyx]

2 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Since you're attending college, you qualify for a Student Discount on Apple.com. Also look at their refurbished options which update frequently:

https://www.apple.com/us-edu/store

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished

 

I recommend the M1 MacBook Air, that machine will last significantly longer than any other laptop on battery and has plenty of performance, though I would only consider this option if you are able to bring your Desktop so you can still have access to your library of games. Otherwise on a Mac, you would have to rely on game streaming which is not ideal. 

https://www.apple.com/us-edu/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/with-m1-chip

 

There is no real need to increase the storage if your school provides complementary Office 365 which includes 1TB of OneDrive Storage. If it does not, consider the 512GB option. 

 

I am able to bring my desktop for sure, I just am not sure if I want to yet full time or not.  I am a game pass subscriber so I do have access to some game streaming services if I really just want to hang out with my online friends and play some sea of thieves or something.  I'll definitely consider that discount, thank you!  I do have OneDrive, the website says "Students have 1TB of OneDrive space allocated to them, along with access to all of the Microsoft Office web applications."

[AdvocateOfNyx]

2 hours ago, JoHeJo06 said:

 I recommend something with a ryzen 6000 processor.  They have the best integrated graphics on the market, you could play some games on it if you want and they amazing battery life.  And they are of course pretty powerful. 

Really?  I am surprised to hear this recommendation about graphics.  I thought Iris XE graphics were actually pretty good based on what I have seen.  Definitely would love to get something Ryzen 6000 though.  I'd love to hear about specific models if anyone has knowledge.  There are a ton of models out there, so if there's one laptop that's for example known for having great battery life in particular, I'd like to check out that specific model.

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, AdvocateOfNyx said:

I thought Iris XE graphics were actually pretty good based on what I have seen.

They are very capable, but Ryzen APUs still outperform all of Intels integrated graphics solutions. 

[Zodiark1593]

5 hours ago, AdvocateOfNyx said:

Really?  I am surprised to hear this recommendation about graphics.  I thought Iris XE graphics were actually pretty good based on what I have seen.  Definitely would love to get something Ryzen 6000 though.  I'd love to hear about specific models if anyone has knowledge.  There are a ton of models out there, so if there's one laptop that's for example known for having great battery life in particular, I'd like to check out that specific model.

The newer AMD APU's do manage to edge out the Iris XE, though a lot also depends on the games, and drivers. Intel drivers are not perfect. Also, with integrated graphics, your RAM needs to be fast to take full advantage. Though, for what it's worth, I'm running Doom (2016) with Medium settings, TSSAA x8 and 1600 x 900 resolution, and stick around 50-60 FPS in most places. And Witcher 3 at 1360 x 768 with a combination of Medium and High settings (the Shadows settings really hurts on iGPUs, as does AO), and it locks to 30 FPS. This is with my RAM locked down (thanks Dell -_-) to 2666 MTs.

 

Really, it's difficult to go wrong with either CPU vendor nowadays. Both Intel and AMD are putting out excellent products that often trade blows in some aspect or another. Just watch out for shenanigans like vendors using slow memory.

[Imbadatnames]

14” Base MBP with student discount if it’s available