Laptop for university

[Nir]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm starting university in the next year, and I need to pick a new laptop. I'm going to learn Biology and Chemistry so I do not need a particularly powerful one.

Here are the models that I thought of:

LG GRAM 13Z970-A.AAS5U1 (http://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-13Z970-AAAS5U1-ultra-slim-laptop)

DELL XPS 13 (http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-13-9360-laptop/dncwt6002hv2)

DELL XPS 2in1 (http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-13-9365-2-in-1-laptop/dncwxa1425s)

HP Spectre x360 (http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-spectre-x360---13-ac076nr)

Acer Swift 7 (https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.GN2AA.001)

Microsoft Surface Laptop (https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.5102691100/VID.5102691200/config.true/)

Asus  Zenbook 3 (http://store.asus.com/us/item/201609AM230000015/A47082-ASUS+Zenbook+UX390UA-DH51-GR+Intel+i5+8GB+256GB+12.5-Inch+Windows+10+Laptop-Silver+Gray+Aluminum)

Lenovo Yoga 720 (http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/yoga/700-series/Yoga-720-13/p/88YG7000827)

I'd love to hear for any recommendation of specific laptop - they are all around the same price where I'm from.

 

Thanks

[ashypanda]

thinkpad T430/40 X230/40
latitude E6430/E6230
elitebook 2570p/8470p

good enough for most uni work, and also ugly enough to not warrant someone nicking it, and cheap enough not to really worry if someone does nick it, and they are built like brick shit houses so you don't need to worry if you drop it or spill something on it, and if something does break, parts are widely and cheaply available. 

[TacticlTwinkie]

I personally us a HP Envy 13 x360, which is very, very similar to the Spectre you linked above. The build quality is very good, the size is perfect for classroom use, the battery life is plenty to get though a full day without the need to bring the charger, the keyboard is nice with no flex and nice spacing, and a nice track-pad. The Spectre version you linked has an extremely similar body, the same processor, ram, etc, and I love it. I would highly recommend it.

[Nir]

4 minutes ago, ashypanda said:

thinkpad T430/40 X230/40
latitude E6430/E6230
elitebook 2570p/8470p

good enough for most uni work, and also ugly enough to not warrant someone nicking it, and cheap enough not to really worry if someone does nick it, and they are built like brick shit houses so you don't need to worry if you drop it or spill something on it, and if something does break, parts are widely and cheaply available. 

Thanks for the comment, I was not able to find the Lenovo and Dell new here, and the HP is way too heavy for me.

4 minutes ago, TacticlTwinkie said:

I personally us a HP Envy 13 x360, which is very, very similar to the Spectre you linked above. The build quality is very good, the size is perfect for classroom use, the battery life is plenty to get though a full day without the need to bring the charger, the keyboard is nice with no flex and nice spacing, and a nice track-pad. The Spectre version you linked has the same processor, ram, etc, and I love it. I would highly recommend it.

Thank you for the comment, that helps a lot!

[TacticlTwinkie]

8 minutes ago, Nir said:

Thank you for the comment, that helps a lot!

The one thing I forgot to mention is that, at least on my envy, the speakers kind of suck. My phone is louder and sounds just as good. But I did not buy it for the speakers, so I'm fine with it. They work, but you cannot use your laptop as a sound system. I'm not sure if the speakers will be the same as on the Spectre, but I imagine they are pretty similar. It says Bang and Olufsen on it, but I think that is just marketing and having a name on it just for the sake of having a name on it. These speakers are not impressive.

[Nir]

5 minutes ago, TacticlTwinkie said:

The one thing I forgot to mention is that, at least on my envy, the speakers kind of suck. My phone is louder and sounds just as good. But I did not buy it for the speakers, so I'm fine with it. They work, but you cannot use your laptop as a sound system. I'm not sure if the speakers will be the same as on the Spectre, but I imagine they are pretty similar. It says Bang and Olufsen on it, but I think that is just marketing and having a name on it just for the sake of having a name on it. These speakers are not impressive.

I'm not looking for extraordinary speakers as well so that's fine. In case needed, I can always use a Bluetooth speaker.

[Zando_]

XPS, Surface, x360, Yoga, Macbook, all of those are great computers. Thin, light, fast, and cool (at least from movies, that seems to be pretty important at uni). 

[elis]

Most of the laptops you showed are not worth it. Quite a high price and most of them come only with DDR3. I wouldn't go for anything under 8 GB (single card) DDR4. Also very important is that M.2 (SSD or Optane) is supported.

And, if you plan to be using the device for doing homework or research or so, I don't think 13" would be appropriate. Its keyboard is too small for good typing and even the screen may not be good for your eyes. If you only need it to check the mail and watch youtube, why waste money on a laptop at all ?

[Nir]

2 minutes ago, elis said:

Most of the laptops you showed are not worth it. Quite a high price and most of them come only with DDR3. I wouldn't go for anything under 8 GB (single card) DDR4. Also very important is that M.2 (SSD or Optane) is supported.

And, if you plan to be using the device for doing homework or research or so, I don't think 13" would be appropriate. Its keyboard is too small for good typing and even the screen may not be good for your eyes. If you only need it to check the mail and watch youtube, why waste money on a laptop at all ?

I need the laptop for class, so it needs to be small. for long research I can use my desktop at home

What laptop do you recommend (preferably from the list above)?

[elis]

9 minutes ago, Nir said:

I need the laptop for class, so it needs to be small. for long research I can use my desktop at home

What laptop do you recommend (preferably from the list above)?

Out of those, I could go with the Lenovo Yoga, because it has 2 Usb-C with thunderbolt (or at least they advertised it better lol). Anyway, all those PCs have powerful processors, but I doubt you will be needing that. It would be better if you found something that consumes less power instead. There are some pentium or m3 series processors that have been designed for specifically that thing, and come with 4 cores, or at least 4 threads.

[elis]

This is a device you could go for. 

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/6837033

 

There is another one with i7, 256 GB SSD and 1080p display, but it's your choice if it's worth adding 300 GBP for those features, in a device you won't use for gaming or so.

[Nir]

15 minutes ago, elis said:

This is a device you could go for. 

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/6837033

 

There is another one with i7, 256 GB SSD and 1080p display, but it's your choice if it's worth adding 300 GBP for those features, in a device you won't use for gaming or so.

I'll take that one in consideration, It looks kinda bad quality assembly wise.

[elis]

When it comes to (laptop) assembly quality I'm a total noob. Can you explain what makes it look bad quality ?

[Nir]

30 minutes ago, elis said:

When it comes to (laptop) assembly quality I'm a total noob. Can you explain what makes it look bad quality ?

It looks like it is made mostly from plastic, and it has huge bezels. Any way, that's not the point of this thread

[TacticlTwinkie]

5 hours ago, elis said:

Most of the laptops you showed are not worth it. Quite a high price and most of them come only with DDR3. I wouldn't go for anything under 8 GB (single card) DDR4. Also very important is that M.2 (SSD or Optane) is supported.

And, if you plan to be using the device for doing homework or research or so, I don't think 13" would be appropriate. Its keyboard is too small for good typing and even the screen may not be good for your eyes. If you only need it to check the mail and watch youtube, why waste money on a laptop at all ?

You can't really tell a difference between DDR3 and DDR4, especially at standard speeds these use. Capacity is king. And most of those use m.2 pcie drives. The keyboards are also just fine. I would argue better than on a 15 inch-er, as those alot of times have number pads, offsetting the keyboard to the left. A 13 inch-er's keyboard is centered on the device, and there is enough room for good spacing. (I'm typing this on a 13 inch laptop right now ). The screen size isnt an issue, but resolution may be. You don't want it too high, as text will get small, but you don't want it too low either, as you aren't using the screen space in an efficient manor. 1080p is a fine resolution at 13 inches, but I think 3200x1800 is perfect. You get the sharpness, and with 200% display scaling (essentially running at 1600x900) you have the perfect middle point between sharpness and usability.

[elis]

13 hours ago, Nir said:

It looks like it is made mostly from plastic, and it has huge bezels. Any way, that's not the point of this thread

Well, I thought you were talking about the internal assembly.  I don't know if it's made of plastic or aluminium, but yeah, I would go for metal if I had the money. What I tried to show was related to the processor and RAM of the device, and well, it's cheaper than the rest  . Anyway, being that you have some more time to buy it, I advise you wait a little. The next AMD series for laptops is coming soon. Also try to buy one on discount.

 

9 hours ago, TacticlTwinkie said:

You can't really tell a difference between DDR3 and DDR4, especially at standard speeds these use. Capacity is king. And most of those use m.2 pcie drives. The keyboards are also just fine. I would argue better than on a 15 inch-er, as those alot of times have number pads, offsetting the keyboard to the left. A 13 inch-er's keyboard is centered on the device, and there is enough room for good spacing. (I'm typing this on a 13 inch laptop right now ). The screen size isnt an issue, but resolution may be. You don't want it too high, as text will get small, but you don't want it too low either, as you aren't using the screen space in an efficient manor. 1080p is a fine resolution at 13 inches, but I think 3200x1800 is perfect. You get the sharpness, and with 200% display scaling (essentially running at 1600x900) you have the perfect middle point between sharpness and usability.

Well, the main reason I said to go for DDR4 is because many DDR3 laptops only accept maximally 16 GB of RAM. If the reply to this is that he won't need more than 16, or 8, on a 13" device, then it may be possible to find devices with a Pentium or m3 processor, that only support up to 16, and consume way less power compared to an i5 or i7.

I don't recall seeing any 15" device with a numpad, but I haven't had much experience with laptops. Anyway, the guy is going to use it as a secondary device, so no need for a 15".

As for the resolution, I agree, but then it becomes simply an issue of how much you can spend, just like anything else related to design.

[Nir]

So I'm leaning towards the Gram. Does anyone knows if I'll be able to expand the memory in the future? (or is the ram soldered to the board)

[Teddy07]

4 hours ago, Nir said:

So I'm leaning towards the Gram. Does anyone knows if I'll be able to expand the memory in the future? (or is the ram soldered to the board)

check the manual because we would have to do it too. 

[TacticlTwinkie]

10 hours ago, Teddy07 said:

check the manual because we would have to do it too. 

Most ultrabooks have soldered ram. It allows them to hit the thinness target. But you need to check the manuals for each laptop individually or find a teardown. 

[Nir]

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[Pendragon]

i actually really like the surface for some reason. especially the high end i7 with hd640. that'll be a good on the go laptop. wonder if i can get one.