Laptop for University

BYTEr · 23 Aug 2012 at 22:54

Hi all,

I'm of to university on the 15th of September and will require a laptop as I've decided to leave my desktop at home, and I'm hoping people can help me find one or give me a few suggestions on a few to look at.

Budget is £500, but if it's worth it, I can stretch to £600. Laptop will primarily be used for word processing and general web browsing so nothing to demanding, an i3 with 4GB RAM will be plenty fast enough.

I'm basically looking for one with as high a resolution as possible and a high build quality.

Any suggestions would be fantastic, thanks in advance.

D3Mamba · 24 Aug 2012 at 19:38

Go onto dell outlet and get your self an i5 with intergrated graphics for about 495 ex VAT.
Hope that helps.

deusexlumina · 24 Aug 2012 at 20:30

As above, a nice dell may suit you here. Toshiba have some good models out atm too. I know this is going to sound really boring, but from experience i seriously recommend springing for one with at least 2 years warranty.

Last thing you want is it conking out after 1 or 2 years and then forking out again when money is a bit tight. I work at a repair shop and we see it fairly often unfortunately (they are usually acers and hps, so IMO steer clear of those makes...)

Judgeneo · 24 Aug 2012 at 20:33

Bring your desktop!!!

I ended up selling my laptop at the end of my first year and going back to desktop. I just didn't need one for my studies at all.

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Aug 2012 at 21:22

Macbook Air, you are a student you can afford the world.

BYTEr · 25 Aug 2012 at 13:50

Thanks for the responses so far people.

Judgeneo said:
Bring your desktop!!!

I ended up selling my laptop at the end of my first year and going back to desktop. I just didn't need one for my studies at all.

I wish I could, it's just the logistics of doing so more than anything, but I have gotten use to using a high resolution with a nice mouse and keyboard.

I've decided to look at 17.3" laptops with a res of 1600x900 as it seems the majority of 15.6" laptops are 1366x768 in my budget range, gonna pop out in a bit to see if I can have a play on a few to try and gauge how much bigger they are.

Orcvader · 25 Aug 2012 at 14:18

If you're going to take the laptop with you for lectures and stuff, I would highly recommend a nice light compact laptop, carrying a normal 15.6" laptop with textbooks and notepads kills my shoulders...

BYTEr · 25 Aug 2012 at 14:25

Orcvader said:
If you're going to take the laptop with you for lectures and stuff, I would highly recommend a nice light compact laptop, carrying a normal 15.6" laptop with textbooks and notepads kills my shoulders...

That's a concern as well, I just don't like the idea of using a much lower res to what I'm use to and I've got no idea how often I will actually be carrying my laptop, if it stays in my room 99% of the time I'd be wishing for a bigger one, where if I lug it around everywhere with me I'm gonna wish I had bought a smaller one, just wish there was a bigger selection of 15.6" laptops with a higher resolution with an i3/4GB in my budget.

Orcvader · 25 Aug 2012 at 14:57

What sort of course are you doing? Have you maybe considered a gaming laptop for use in your room, and maybe a cheap tablet like the Nexus 7 for use in uni?

I'm actually planning to do that, but will wait to see what other tablets will be out later in the year.

Meaker · 25 Aug 2012 at 15:03

£600 wont cover a tablet and gaming laptop.

Or just a gaming laptop for that matter.

BYTEr · 25 Aug 2012 at 15:23

Orcvader said:
What sort of course are you doing?

BSc Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. Although I still don't really know how often I'll be taking my laptop out of my halls room, and even then my halls in less than a 5 min walk to my lectures, at least in the first year anyway.

Orcvader said:
Have you maybe considered a gaming laptop for use in your room, and maybe a cheap tablet like the Nexus 7 for use in uni?

No, I had considered maybe getting a small desktop and then a cheap notebook for taking notes, but again, it just seems easier to transport a laptop than a desktop and monitor. I have a good gaming PC but I never seem to utilize it, eg; playing football manager and older games, nothing to demanding and I don' really plan on gaming at all at uni.

Orcvader · 25 Aug 2012 at 15:29

You're pretty close to me then

, Queens was my first choice but my grades didn't make it...

If it's geography then I'm not even sure if you'll be using the laptop that much then. Maybe an AMD Llano laptop then? Just so you can play the odd game if you feel like it. You can get decent 15.6" ones for around £400 so that saves you more money, and trust me, as a student, you want to save as much as you can.

scwba06 · 26 Aug 2012 at 10:34

Judgeneo said:
Bring your desktop!!!

I ended up selling my laptop at the end of my first year and going back to desktop. I just didn't need one for my studies at all.

Couldn't disagree more, in the first year of uni the last thing you want to do is isolate yourself from everybody by sitting in your room at your pc all the time. You can chill with your mates and a bit of footy man with a laptop, take it round to the library/ mates houses to work on group projects. A laptop is also a perfect excuse to get a girl to watch a film in bed with you (because the screen is too small to see on your desk).

DELETED_108974 · 26 Aug 2012 at 11:45

scwba06 said:
Couldn't disagree more, in the first year of uni the last thing you want to do is isolate yourself from everybody by sitting in your room at your pc all the time. You can chill with your mates and a bit of footy man with a laptop, take it round to the library/ mates houses to work on group projects. A laptop is also a perfect excuse to get a girl to watch a film in bed with you (because the screen is too small to see on your desk).

Laptop. The 21st Century Wingman

reflux · 26 Aug 2012 at 11:53

I went to Uni with a 17'' Dell XPS Gen 2 laptop. It was awesome for the first year, but I started to get itchy feet for more power, so I started saving to build a desktop and sold the XPS to fund a smaller laptop. That was the best balance for me - decent desktop at home, reasonable laptop for LAN parties and such.

If you only need one machine, grab a Dell off the Outlet for £400 or so. A friend managed to get one with an i5, 6GB of RAM and a GT525m for about that and it runs stuff very well.

BYTEr · 26 Aug 2012 at 18:36

Went to a few places today to check out a few as the build quality and how it feels to type on are big things for me. I also managed to size up a 17.3" laptop and the resolution and now I'm dead set on wanting one, I didn't find it to big or heavy tbh, I just obviously have fewer options if I want to stay under £500.

I've find two I like the look of, the HP G7-2051SA and SONY VPCEJ2A9E/B.AE1, practically same specs, barely find any reviews or user comments on either so I think I'll just go into store, type on both and just go for the one I like the look of the most.

BYTEr · 27 Aug 2012 at 15:27

Well after umming and aahing for a few days and not finding the 2 I posted above all that great I've just bought a Dell Inspiron 17R 5720 with a i5-3210M for £451 after finding a 10% coupon, fairly happy with that tbh.

Just about to buy a Logitech G400 off here and will need to find a cheap laptop sleeve and I'm sorted.

Thanks for all the responses.