Best Laptop For college?

[Perche25]

I'm going to be heading off to college soon and realize that my giant PC will not be accommodated by the prison cells that they call dorm rooms. What laptop will give me maximum performance and great features (for both work and play) while also being light and easily carry-able from class to class. I have a budget of under about $2,000.

[MkaiL]

Depends on your budget ofc but the best portable work/gaming laptop is probably the new razer blade.

[79wjd]

FWIW you can probably find room in your dorm to fit your desktop, so I would really recommend waiting and seeing, and then not wasting your time with a gaming laptop. 

 

1 minute ago, MkaiL said:

Depends on your budget ofc but the best portable work/gaming laptop is probably the new razer blade.

It thermal throttles terribly. 

[Catsrules]

I really recommend not having a gaming laptop for school. Mostly because you will be running around trying to find a plug to charge it all of the time.

Better off getting maybe two laptops. Gaming laptop and a Chrome book or something for school work. Or a better option in my opinion is a small footprint desktop with a cheep laptop.

[Perche25]

5 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

FWIW you can probably find room in your dorm to fit your desktop, so I would really recommend waiting and seeing, and then not wasting your time with a gaming laptop. 

 

It thermal throttles terribly. 

i might just move my pc into a smaller case too, but i still need a laptop for school work

[MkaiL]

If you already have a pc, I would just get an i3 with an ssd. To me the most important thing for college was battery life. 

[Hulkbert]

6 minutes ago, Perche25 said:

i might just move my pc into a smaller case too, but i still need a laptop for school work

Build sff (silverstone makes interesting cases for sff) or mITX and get a laptop with decent specs(i7 or i5 with iGPU) and great battery life.

[Catsrules]

10 minutes ago, Perche25 said:

i might just move my pc into a smaller case too, but i still need a laptop for school work

What is the school work?

Honestly I hate saying this but if you just doing papers and note taking, a Chrome book is really all you need for school work.

 

If your planing other things like programing or 3D animation or IT related field you want a real laptop. 
 

[Trav_X]

12 minutes ago, Perche25 said:

i might just move my pc into a smaller case too, but i still need a laptop for school work

I would suggest moving your PC to a compact case, even maybe HTPC, something small, and then just get an ultrabook that is fast enough with like an i3 or i5 so you can multitask, but get one that has very good battery life and a decent resolution screen. Also, lightweight. You don't want  a gaming laptop for college, trust me.

[Perche25]

6 minutes ago, Catsrules said:

What is the school work?

Honestly I hate saying this but if you just doing papers and note taking, a Chrome book is really all you need for school work.

 

If your planing other things like programing or 3D animation or IT related field you want a real laptop. 
 

I'm going in undecided but programming and animation have always intrigued me and are viable options.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Perche25 said:

I'm going in undecided but programming and animation have always intrigued me and are viable options.

A mac? Macs are popular for programming so I've heard. 

[Perche25]

Just now, fpo said:

A mac? Macs are popular for programming so I've heard. 

I've considered macs but i'm not impressed by the new ones and i feel like moving from PC to Mac after so many years may be difficult.

[Guest]

It wasn't too difficult for me to learn. They're fairly similar. If you get the chance, go to a store to try one out, and ask a rep to tell you how it works maybe. 
 

I agree with what one mentioned above. While I'm in college, yeah... Battery life over everything. It sucks to be in class, and have no battery. You can't do the work, and you can't follow along. A notebook isn't the same when in programming 101 and the teacher is showing you how to program something. 

 

As for animation it depends on 2d or 3d animation. I personally haven't ran Maya, 3ds, nor blender on a macbook of any kind. I believe Maya may be Windows 64 only as well. 

This laptop has a decent mobile GPU that I know can run Maya and whatnot. 
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7559-laptop/fncwpw5715h?s=dhs&oc=fncwpw5715h&ST=pla&dgc=ST&cid=298726&lid=5704714&acd=1230980731501410&ven1=FNCWPW5715H:51916301508:901pdb6671:c&ven2=:&ven3=472503530836015748

 

The GTX 960+ gpu are fine. Idk how the mobile AMD chips run but mine is an r9 m275. It can run Maya smoothly. And I am positive you can fit your desktop at school. I'd get a battery longevity laptop, and do your real work on your desktop. 

[Jackttsmg]

The XPS 15 from Dell is a really good productivity device like its smaller sibling. It has a 6th gen i7 6700HQ, GTX960M with 2GB of GDDR5, Up to 32GB of DDR4 2133MHz, either a 56Whr or 84Whr battery and even more. If the infinity edge is on par to the one on the XPS 13, it looks amazing. Hope this helps.

 

Link: http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC

[bolding_peace]

I would go for a Mac. You can do a lot with a MBA and it is light and easy to carry on. Besides due to the recently launched Macbook Pro, you might be able to find 1-2 old macbooks with a reduced price. It could be worth to check around, either via Amazon or other big websites but also I would go fo the physical stores nearby. On the performance part - it depends on what kind of games you play today? If you are one of the guys who is going to rock Battlefield 1 you will need a heavy ass MSI or GIGABYTE.

 

Other than that, keep looking and check out the review sites. Example: http://technemag.com/best-laptop-for-college-2016/ http://www.laptopmag.com/gaming-laptops

Good luck with your buy

 

[ultimatemythbuster]

I personally brought my full desktop and never had a problem.  I also would carry a Thinkpad to classes with me.

[Hulkbert]

23 hours ago, Perche25 said:

I've considered macs but i'm not impressed by the new ones and i feel like moving from PC to Mac after so many years may be difficult.

I wouldn't go for a mac. Pick up something with an i7 or i5 with decent battery life. With the money that you have now saved, build a computer. For college, you might want to try a mITX build. I don't know what people like about macs (idk maybe the aesthetics), personally, I don't see any appeal. But, whatever works for you. And, if you don't like windows, you can always install linux. 

[Pendragon]

Decide if what kind of laptop you want first before asking us to help choose. At that price point building a desktop and getting a decent laptop is viable. So the real question is how often are you going to be at your desktop, and whether you actually need the horsepower away from the desktop. 

[Hulkbert]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

Decide if what kind of laptop you want first before asking us to help choose. At that price point building a desktop and getting a decent laptop is viable. So the real question is how often are you going to be at your desktop, and whether you actually need the horsepower away from the desktop. 

I bet you could build quite a mITX rig if you went with a $600 budget for a laptop. Right?

[Pendragon]

Just now, Hulkbert said:

I bet you could build quite a mITX rig if you went with a $600 budget for a laptop. Right?

Idk desktops at all. Haven't used one in way too many years. 600 dollars is good enough to start finding decent second hand thinkpads that will last you half a decade. 

[79wjd]

9 minutes ago, Hulkbert said:

I don't know what people like about macs (idk maybe the aesthetics), personally, I don't see any appeal. But, whatever works for you. And, if you don't like windows, you can always install linux. 

Why I prefer Macs: 

OSX, battery life, amazing trackpad/keyboard, great display/SSD, and the build quality. Plus I find that they last longer. My old Mac lasted 6 years and still works just fine (it's now almost 10 years old and it still works just fine for lighter tasks), whereas I've had windows (dell) laptops that last about 3 years (4 years if I'm lucky) and then start to have problems. Plus Macs also hold their value very well. The other laptops I was considering when I got my current Mac (Dell XPS 15, and some Lenovo ___, I can't remember which) were all priced at a similar price point, but now, 3 years later, they're worth about 40% less than my Mac. 

[Hulkbert]

10 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Why I prefer Macs: 

OSX, battery life, amazing trackpad/keyboard, great display/SSD, and the build quality. Plus I find that they last longer. My old Mac lasted 6 years and still works just fine (it's now almost 10 years old and it still works just fine for lighter tasks), whereas I've had windows (dell) laptops that last about 3 years (4 years if I'm lucky) and then start to have problems. Plus Macs also hold their value very well. The other laptops I was considering when I got my current Mac (Dell XPS 15, and some Lenovo ___, I can't remember which) were all priced at a similar price point, but now, 3 years later, they're worth about 40% less than my Mac. 

But, aren't macs like really expensive? Idk if this is a good idea, but, you can buy 2 xps 13 s. If you say that one will last 4 years, then you could buy 2 of them(not at the same time) and have it last you  8 years. Also, the benefit that if you buy a new xps 13 (of that year [2020 I think]) if your 1st one dies you now have a newer processor. Or you can build a pc. Depends how much you game on pc I guess. The HP spectre looks pretty cool too.

[79wjd]

40 minutes ago, Hulkbert said:

But, aren't macs like really expensive? Idk if this is a good idea, but, you can buy 2 xps 13 s. If you say that one will last 4 years, then you could buy 2 of them(not at the same time) and have it last you  8 years. Also, the benefit that if you buy a new xps 13 (of that year [2020 I think]) if your 1st one dies you now have a newer processor. Or you can build a pc. Depends how much you game on pc I guess. The HP spectre looks pretty cool too.

Not really. They're priced relatively competitive with the rest of the market (get rid of the OLED bar newness tax -- $200~) and it's pretty similar to the likes of Dell's XPS line. 

 

An 8gb/256gb/3200x1800/HD530 XPS 13 costs $1400, an 8gb/256gb/2560x1600/Iris HD540 costs $1500. So for an extra $100 you get a better GPU, better screen (albeit at a lower resolution, which doesn't really matter, and without a touch screen, which won't matter for a lot of people), better SSD, better battery life, and a better trackpad).

[Hulkbert]

1 hour ago, djdwosk97 said:

Not really. They're priced relatively competitive with the rest of the market (get rid of the OLED bar newness tax -- $200~) and it's pretty similar to the likes of Dell's XPS line. 

 

An 8gb/256gb/3200x1800/HD530 XPS 13 costs $1400, an 8gb/256gb/2560x1600/Iris HD540 costs $1500. So for an extra $100 you get a better GPU, better screen (albeit at a lower resolution, which doesn't really matter, and without a touch screen, which won't matter for a lot of people), better SSD, better battery life, and a better trackpad).

But, aren't you missing a USB type A port on the mac? Besides that, I think it depends on how the OP wants to distributive his budget. He could go with a $500 windows laptop and then spend the rest on a PC. Or the other way around. And, if you don't need to do graphically intensive tasks (just notes and stuff), you could do with an i5 and good battery life. Then, if you needed to, do video editing and other graphically intensive tasks on a desktop. Or you could split the budget ~50/50 go with the spectre and a $1000 budget on a build.(That is what I would probably do given the money)

[79wjd]

14 minutes ago, Hulkbert said:

But, aren't you missing a USB type A port on the mac? Besides that, I think it depends on how the OP wants to distributive his budget. He could go with a $500 windows laptop and then spend the rest on a PC. Or the other way around. And, if you don't need to do graphically intensive tasks (just notes and stuff), you could do with an i5 and good battery life. Then, if you needed to, do video editing and other graphically intensive tasks on a desktop. Or you could split the budget ~50/50 go with the spectre and a $1000 budget on a build.(That is what I would probably do given the money)

I can count on one hand the number of times I've plugged anything into my laptop. And even if I did plug stuff in more frequently, an adapter for a mouse, a new wire for an external HDD and a new flash drive isn't that expensive (not to mention I'd need to buy all of that at some point anyway). 

 

I'm not saying he should or shouldn't get a mac. I'm just saying that they're priced similarly to other high end ultrabooks -- but there are 100% cheaper laptops (they're just not in the same class as the likes of the Mac/XPS/T460). 

 

Also, he already has a desktop -- he just needs to move it into a smaller form factor (which doesn't cost that much), and to be honest, he probably doesn't even need to do that.