Laptop For College?

[Chak Mlaxpin]

Heyo!

 

I'm starting college (UK college, not the American type college) next week and I need a laptop. Currently I've got 2 contenders: the lenovo IP500 and a custom configured one on PC Specialist. The specs are below.

 

Lenovo IP500:

15.6" 1080p glossy screen

Intel i5-6200U

12GB DDR3L

1TB HDD

AMD R7 M360

Price: £449.97

 

(That's all the info the store had on the laptop I'm afraid)

 

PC Specialist configuration:

14" 1080p matt screen

Intel i3-6100U

8GB Kingston 1600MHz DDR3

500GB HDD 7,200rpm

128GB M.2 2280 6GB/s SSD

Intel integrated graphics

Price: £499

 

I was thinking of upgrading to having the same i5 processor in the configured laptop, however I'm not sure whether the price jump would be worth it (which is part of the reason I'm here).

 

The workload shouldn't be too intense. I'm studying computer science so I'll mainly be using visual basic, some Microsoft office stuff and maybe a few other things here and there. No gaming though. I've got a separate rig at home for that and more demanding tasks.

 

If you need any more info please feel free to ask.

 

Cheers!

-Chak

[AlTech]

Go for the above Lenovo laptop but try to upgrade to an SSD. Having a HDD in a school laptop is really awful. I've had this first hand in my older Lenovo laptop.

[Sauron]

My suggestion would be to buy used. You can find a lenovo x220 for under 300GBP and depending on the configuration those bad boys pack:

 

an m-class (not undervolted) sandy bridge core i5

8gb of ram (expandable if necessary)

an ssd

a very nice ips panel (not fhd unfortunately, but it's better than the cheap TNs you'd get in the ones you mentioned)

top class build quality and keyboard

long lasting battery life

1.5kg of weight

 

It will do office and coding wonderfully. It's also fully compatible with Linux, so if you decide you want to switch (given your career choice it's a good idea to familiarize with Unix-like operating systems) it's pretty much a painless experience. I've been using one for almost a year for software engineering classes and it has been nigh on perfect.

 

You also don't really risk too much by getting it used/refurbished, usually these are used by businesses that every few years change their machines in bulk even if they work just fine.