Am I overthinking the kind of laptop I need for college?

[DripplessNewt]

I will be a Mech E student this fall and I have been trying to figure out what laptop to bring to college. Currently I am looking at 16 inch laptops with high performance CPUs and GPUs (think Ultra 7 and 4060). I am not really finding a lot of stuff that meets the right boxes and now I am wondering if I am looking to high. I have a very competent desktop and the school labs will have the same, which should cover most if not all of the computing power I need. I dont think I should lower down to chromebook levels but should I look lower, in the land of iGPUs and i5/R5 chips? What do you guys think? 

[TylerD321]

I did the same thing when I got to college. Is your desktop going to be at home or at college? This will drive your choice. Every classroom should have a computer capable of doing the work for the class. If you have a desktop in your dorm/apartment/wherever, I would focus on getting a laptop with good battery life for your gen eds.

 

I went the opposite route and got a massive 17 inch laptop with a gpu and all of the bells and whistles and regretted it. It sucks having to lug a sack of bricks around on campus. It would legitimately hurt my back to walk to class with my laptops and textbooks in my bag.

[DripplessNewt]

12 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

I did the same thing when I got to college. Is your desktop going to be at home or at college? This will drive your choice. Every classroom should have a computer capable of doing the work for the class. If you have a desktop in your dorm/apartment/wherever, I would focus on getting a laptop with good battery life for your gen eds.

 

I went the opposite route and got a massive 17 inch laptop with a gpu and all of the bells and whistles and regretted it. It sucks having to lug a sack of bricks around on campus. It would legitimately hurt my back to walk to class with my laptops and textbooks in my bag.

I will be in dorms with my desktop for the first year and for the rest I should be living fairly close to the campus, so I figure i will always have access. 

I hadn't thought about the weight but that is a great point. Went the gaming laptop route once before and didnt bring it to school much for a reason. 

[TylerD321]

4 minutes ago, DripplessNewt said:

I will be in dorms with my desktop for the first year and for the rest I should be living fairly close to the campus, so I figure i will always have access. 

I hadn't thought about the weight but that is a great point. Went the gaming laptop route once before and didnt bring it to school much for a reason. 

I can't decide how heavy I think this one is but seems to be a pretty good deal. I am a big fan of lenovo.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-500/ideapad-pro-5i-gen-8-16-inch-intel/83aq000qus

Granted this is a relatively cheap laptop. What is your budget?

[DripplessNewt]

I hadnt thought about the ideapad line so thanks for putting that on my radar. 

 

9 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

Granted this is a relatively cheap laptop. What is your budget?

$2300 is the absolute max. Of course lower is better but I am not opposed to spending for something that will last (and has some great features, notably in the touch pad). I am also not opposed to a smaller laptop, I just need to be able to have two windows open side by side that are actually usable. 

[ARandomPerson]

I highly recommend a laptop with at least biometric verification(fingerprint of face ID), especially if you plan on using it in class.

 

If that is not an option, buy a security key instead for sign-in so that even if the laptop is stolen, it won't be accessible.

 

 

[DripplessNewt]

3 minutes ago, ARandomPerson said:

I highly recommend a laptop with at least biometric verification(fingerprint of face ID), especially if you plan on using it in class.

 

If that is not an option, buy a security key instead for sign-in so that even if the laptop is stolen, it won't be accessible.

 

 

Curious for what reasons your recommend this 

[ARandomPerson]

7 minutes ago, DripplessNewt said:

Curious for what reasons your recommend this 

         It is almost effortless on a college campus to look over someone's sign-in, especially considering that you are most likely focusing on your studies. Compound that because many apps default to your Windows sign-in as a form of 2fA (Like Google Password Manager and Microsoft), all you can get from someone using a security key (some keys have a fingerprint reader built-in) or biometrics is that you use your finger or face or a USB key to unlock your laptop, keeping access to your laptop locked by something that they can't replicate. The last thing you would want to happen when your laptop is stolen is that you are locked out of your accounts. 

 

TLDR

Biometric sign-in protects you from prying eyes and prevents thieves from accessing your data in such a way that a passcode or a complicated password could ever achieve.

[DripplessNewt]

5 minutes ago, ARandomPerson said:

         It is almost effortless on a college campus to look over someone's sign-in, especially considering that you are most likely focusing on your studies. Compound that because many apps default to your Windows sign-in as a form of 2fA (Like Google Password Manager and Microsoft), all you can get from someone using a security key (some keys have a fingerprint reader built-in) or biometrics is that you use your finger or face or a USB key to unlock your laptop, keeping access to your laptop locked by something that they can't replicate. The last thing you would want to happen when your laptop is stolen is that you are locked out of your accounts. 

 

TLDR

Biometric sign-in protects you from prying eyes and prevents thieves from accessing your data in such a way that a passcode or a complicated password could ever achieve.

Good points, I hadn't thought about that