Laptop Reccomendations for University

DriedSponge · May 7, 2023

Hi there,

I will be starting my first year of University next fall and I need to get a laptop because I'm not bringing my PC with me. I have not decided on a major yet but it will be in the STEM field. I'm not looking for a heavy gaming laptop, I would be happy with anything that could at least run Minecraft. I do a lot of programming in my free time so something that is powerful enough to run any Jet Brains IDE would be nice. I need something with at least 500GB of SSD storage. I've used windows my whole life, I'm not against switching to a mac for a laptop but I am a bit skeptical about Apple's marketing. I am aware they like to over charge for their products. For my budget I would like to stay below $1500. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

manikyath · May 7, 2023

the (obvious) first mention is looking out for a second hand HP EliteBook nearby, and account for a huge SSD, a RAM upgrade, and potentially a fresh battery.

past that.. any "not shyte" laptop will fit your needs, about 8 years ago (god i'm old...) i went into college with about the same requirements, and i used a samsung rc530 with some 500GB SSD, i didnt even have an extended battery for the thing back then.

there's sort of a balance to be had for college laptops between "more power" and "the battery lasts all day". i had my laptop's power profiles neutered the heck down so that even with a few years of use into the battery, it could still make about 6 hours of "totally paying attention" with just a dab of charging over lunchtime.

as for what to get new these days.. i'd look towards something "x360" (flip around touchscreen) with a numeric keypad, and ideally upgradeable RAM.. but most stuff comes out the box with 16 these days, which is enough IMO.

my current do-it-all laptop is a zenbook flip, if picking one for college work i'd stick to a fairly midrange model mostly for battery life considerations (also - if possible at all - 60Hz 1080p display, because battery life)