Laptop for Science Student

[SovietToast]

Looking to get a laptop for school and work (as a research assistant).

Main uses will be spreadsheets, and software/programming for research (MatLab, Gaussian, some Python...)

Main things that I am looking for:

• Reasonably fast quad core processor
• 8 gb ram or more
• 250gb SSD
• Long Battery life
• Fairly durable (I have a tendency to drop things)
• Not extremely heavy (less than 4.5 pounds?)
• Costs less than $1000

So far I have been looking at the Thinkpads (10% discount for students) the Acer Aspire series, and the Zenbook UX33, but I am not quite sure what the best option is.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

[AlexTheGreatish]

I'm a big fan of the LG Gram, the 13" model with an 8th gen processor is quite powerful, has the best battery life of every laptop we've tested and is extremely light (about 2lbs).  It does max out your budget, but I think it could be worth it.  Personally I'd pay the extra $100 for the touch screen model (for some reason I can't find the i5 touch model on Amazon but I guess the i7 is on sale) but not everyone likes touch screens a whole lot.

[genexis_x]

7 hours ago, SovietToast said:

Fairly durable

Thinkpad T480/T580/T480s with MX150