I'm heading into my first year of uni soon in February, and wondering what laptop should I get, I am going to be using it while studying commerce and would like to have it as a media consumption device too. I currently have thoughts on a surface 4 or a macbook pro. What would you all suggest? And when should I be buying them? I have a fair bit of time, so should I make a purchase during boxing day or wait until back to school deals? Thank you all. Sorry for the long post.
What Laptop Computer Should I Buy?
Sneakerhead17 on 23/12/2015 - 16:22
Last edited 23/12/2015 - 18:21 by 1 other user
Last edited 23/12/2015 - 18:21 by 1 other user
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Boxing day hype is overrated. Don't buy into Boxing day crap, only buy if it's on Ozbargain and has at least 20 upvotes :)
Here's something that will interest you.
MB Air Core i5
http://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/buy/apple-macbook-air-13-c…$1316
What do you mean "media consumption device"? Even a $200 chrome book can play netflix these days. Do you want a large harddisk to store AVIs or a dvd/bluray player? If not any machine will work just fine for playing movies.
Pretty much any hardware is good "enough". A chrome book may not be able to run all the software you want. Macs are nice but pricey, and I'd check if the uni wants you to run any software that is supported better on Windows.
If it supports the software you need, then you'll probably want 4GB of ram and an i3/i5/i7 processor. You could probably do without.
Then consider: does it have a nice keyboard? Is it so expensive I'd cry if I lost/broke it? Is it light enough to easily carry everywhere? Does it have an SSD, and if so ss the SSD large enough to store all my files? Does it have an 1080p screen. Does the audio sound nice?
Not sure when the best time to buy is, but if you find a laptop that meets your needs and is broadly similar in price to similar deals on ozbargain (maybe $500-$700 for a windows machine) then may as well get it.
I was meant to say, something that could handle some light gaming such as minecraft, watching some movies or shows at 1080p,storage isn't much of a worry as I usually stream content. And the speakers also don't matter. Would there be any windows devices you could recommend?
Not really. The Zenbook mentioned below seems fine. It should be able to play Minecraft fine on low or medium settings. A better GPU would let you get max settings but would add both weight and cost.
Thank you! I'll definitely keep this in mind, when do you estimate the next model to release? I'm fine with paying extra for a performance upgrade.
Ok, Cheap Charlie…
Would you recommend Zenbook F302LA with i5-5200 but spinning disk, or UX305LA with Core M-5Y10 but SSD (128 Gb) as both are available for $699?
Minecraft is the only required cpu-intensive task.
There's also the F302la-FN066H which has the i5 AND the 128Gb SSD.
But still only HD and also overpriced at $998 at the moment.
Surface Pro 4s are not ordinary laptops, they are hybrids. I personally don't recommend it if you are not planning on using it as a tablet and a laptop. To be honest, the fact that I can draw and write on PDFs was the biggest factor that sold me on Surface Pro series, I've stayed on Surface Pro series mainly for that. If you are doing a degree that uses lots of symbols (be it chemical, mathematical or whatever symbols there are), requires drawing graphs or labelling things on graphs, you use a lot of tables etc, having a stylus is better than typing in my opinion. That said, the trade off is, Surface Pro series are worse than many conventional laptops as a laptop (this is from me using SP3, which has same form factor as SP4). Keyboard can be better (I don't mind it, but there are many many better ones out there), to type comfortably, you need a proper desk, one USB port sucks ass etc.
From what I can read from your list of requirements, you can easily use a laptop that's below the price range that you are thinking of, less than $1,000 can get you laptop that can do minecrafts (though better ones be better with larger worlds), 1080p is doable within that budget, etc.
Surface Pro 4. Don't be one of these creatures:
http://i2.wp.com/www.dailycal.org/assets/uploads/2013/11/loo…
Dell XPS 13 or HP X360 spectre are very good
I have a Lenovo X220 (released in 2011) which I plan to keep for at least a couple more years.
The thing has solid build quality, decent performance, mine is more than enough for work (coding) and occasional movies, fantastic keyboard, good battery life (I get about 7 hours mix usage on a 9-cell battery). The screen is nothing to talk about, but I tend to cast content to the big screen anyway. And finally the price, about 500 bucks for a second-hand one with i5-2540M, 8GB and 240GB SSD. It has 2 RAM slots so 16GB RAM is possible (8GBx2), there is also a slot for M2-SATA drive.
There's a thorough review here https://senk9.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/lenovox220/
I would suggest Dell XPS13 if you are not on a budget. Downside is only 12 month warranty. I had a small issue right after 12 months but wasn't a big deal. Over all good laptop.
My personal experience is very bad with any HP.Wait for back to school sales in January if you don't find a bargain on boxing day.
I am an old bugger in my 50's, relatively new to IT, but I have had no problems using my Acer aspire5750. It has got me thru 3 different certificates in It and is currently being used for my diploma course. I have run partitions, virtual comps, stream, download, encoded and uploaded pages all with this simple Acer laptop. It gets my choice.
Base 13.5" Surfacebook if you are a student at ~$2000 is the the way to go. Beats a Pro Retina in every respect and converts into a tablet (although not a huge battery life. The Surface Pen is amazing for taking quick uni notes and graphs/idea charts plus keyboard and design is at least as good as the Mac.
I will forgive you just this once.
Boxing day is usually disappointing, don't rush into a decision, something will come up between now and the start of uni.