ADVICE: Light Laptop for Uni with Long Battery Life & Biggish Screen ($500 MARK)

Lcharligirl on 10/12/2017 - 23:45
Last edited 11/12/2017 - 08:52 by 1 other user

Hello fellow OzBargainers,

I'd love some recommendations/advice for a new laptop I'd like to get for uni. It will only be used for internet browsing and word processing (no gaming or video watching).

FEATURES I NEED:

  • $500 mark (happy to spend a bit less or more)
  • Long battery life (6 hours +)
  • 14" inch screen (minimum)
  • Light and durable

BACKGROUND:

  • I've been using my dad's old Surface Pro (original, 64gb) but the screen is too small to do big assignments on. I'm doing Honours this year and need to write 10,000 words, so I'm after something with a bigger screen but won't break the bank.
  • I don't know technical stuff about computers, which is the main reason I am reaching out to my OzBargain community. I love how fast the processing is on the Surface Pro, so I'm keen to get something with that similar speed (maybe that is wishful thinking?)
  • This is my first OzBargain forum post (be nice please!)

TLDR: Need a cheap uni laptop with long battery life & biggish screen

Computing

Comments

    • charligirl on 11/12/2017 - 10:12

      These both look great and super affordable!! Do you reckon the battery will last 4 hours of typing and browsing?

  • Thrawn on 11/12/2017 - 01:26
    +3

    Something like this:

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0762S8PYM

    Much more powerful than a Surface Pro. Very big screen for the 1.7 kg weight. Battery life around 4 to 5 hours which is fairly typical for most laptops nowadays

    Be a good idea to add an SSD as well

    • saurabhgoyal93 on 11/12/2017 - 04:23
      +1

      +1
      Seems perfect!

    • pennypincher98 on 11/12/2017 - 07:37

      Battery life around 4 to 5 hours which is fairly typical

      Is that was is considered average these days? Ouch. I can easily squeeze 10 hours of usage out of mine with wifi on, screen at 80% brightness etc
      I wouldn't ever go with a laptop with only 4 hours of usage. A years time, you'll probably be getting 2-3. A few years time, you'll be lucky to get an hour as the battery slowly dies.

      For $680 (presumably USD, so $812 AUD) new in 2017, its a good laptop with horrible battery life.

      • Thrawn on 11/12/2017 - 08:25

        Should've linked the original OzBargain post. For $500 USD that was a great price. Not so much now

        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/346290

        A lot of laptops are advertised with around 7 hours life.. in real life you get about 4-5 hours with moderate usage. Lose maybe an hour of life after 3 years (not recharging every day).

        Laptops mostly aren't designed to be all day devices away from power.

        • pennypincher98 on 11/12/2017 - 09:03
          +1

          In real life you get about 4-5 hours with moderate usage.

          I'm not sure what laptops you are buying, but you can be getting good battery life (at the same cost) these days so you should opt for a better battery life.
          If a battery life is only being marketed as 5 hours, in reality it will be more like 3.

          Lose maybe an hour of life after 3 years (not recharging every day).

          That's funny, I've had a Dell for three years and it has gone from 4-4.5 hours to about 1.5-2 hours. As a laptop, that's woefully inadequate for anything else then sitting on my desk. Its battery life after nine months of usage was less than 4 hours, more like 3.5 hour range.

        • Thrawn on 11/12/2017 - 10:25

          @pennypincher98:

          At the premium $1500 range market or the super-low power chromebook style market you can get longer battery life. But for value oriented performance laptops at around $700 range, the battery life tends to be more average. Battery cells aren't cheap and adds to weight considerably.

          It depends on how many cycles you're throwing at it. If you're always off the power point and fully draining and charging it twice a day.. you'll kill it very fast. Lithiums are rated for only 300 cycles before you seriously impact life. Personally I do about 100 cycles a year with my laptops. I use it on battery on average about an hour a day.

        • pennypincher98 on 11/12/2017 - 16:40

          @Thrawn: > At the premium $1500 range market.
          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/327285 - Really?? It has 10 hours of battery life, and costs $20 USD more than your one did in its deal.

          If you're always off the power point and fully draining and charging it twice a day.. you'll kill it very fast.

          May I add that it was on my desk most of the time, but I did have to take it sometimes (once a week? Maybe less often?) - for maybe 2-3 hours at a time - I would charge it every second, or maybe even third day.

          Still it's battery has conked out on me. Can't take it anywhere really. Its not worth bringing it for the 1.5 hours battery life I'll get.

    • charligirl on 11/12/2017 - 10:15

      Wow, this looks impressive. I am leaning towards this one. Is this still a good price?
      Also I don't know what a SSD is or how to add one but my bro or friend could try.

      • pennypincher98 on 11/12/2017 - 16:42
        +1

        An SSD is a Solid State Drive - better (arguably much better) than the standard HDD included. This does come at an added cost and obviously increase in price as the storage increases. A 120/128gb SSD might be ~$80? Up to 1TB of SSD (that I've seen) which will set you back a lot. Maybe $400? I'd be guessing here though.

      • poboy on 11/12/2017 - 18:51

        My partner is in the market for a laptop for uni and I insist she chooses one with an SSD. It's the single best thing you can do to speed up your PC.

      • Magus on 13/12/2017 - 16:57

        An SSD is lighter, uses less power, and much faster than a normal HDD

        Down side is that they are smaller and more expensive. (but worth it)

  • Quantumcat on 11/12/2017 - 08:18
    +2

    Have you considered getting a mini DisplayPort/HDMI adapter and plugging your Surface into a monitor with a HDMI cord? That would be the most cost-effective way to do things. Or you could buy a Surface Dock (more expensive but more convenient).

    That would have to be a better use of $, since you already have a computer you are happy with. Seems silly to spend money on something you already have just to get a bigger screen. Wait to buy a new computer until you really need to (maybe the lack of hard drive space starts getting to you or it slows down considerably or it just dies). This way also you'll end up with something with better specs for the same $ (specs per $ ratio increasing all the time). And, if you get a Bluetooth keyboard & mouse you'll also be a LOT more comfortable typing 10,000 words than trying to do it on a laptop keyboard & touchpad (saving on eventual medical bills for your wrists and back [looking at a correctly set up monitor instead of a laptop screen]).

    • charligirl on 11/12/2017 - 10:22

      Thanks for the awesome tip! I actually already have this dock thing I got off gumtree pretty cheap. So when I get sick of the small screen, I plug my surface pro into that and use a monitor, keyboard and mouse at my study desk (sorry I didn't put that in the OP).
      But lately I've enjoyed studying sitting on my lounge room floor, back up against the couch and using my surface pro on my coffee table (maybe that's weird). Unfortunately, I found staring at the small surface pro screen straining (it's the original, so like 10" or something) and I don't think it was great for my neck staring down. Plus the laptop battery dies after 2 hours of constant use in a uni tutorial (I rarely get it to last until the end).
      So I wanted to get a bigger laptop screen to use at coffee table and then better battery to use at uni. I'll probably then keep the surface pro permanently plugged in to dock at my desk for when I get sick of the floor setup.
      :)

      • Quantumcat on 11/12/2017 - 13:01

        Think about it carefully, because if you get into Photoshop or gaming or programming, you may find your new $500 computer doesn't cut it and you'll have to spend yet more money. Since you're only after word processing capability the surface pro is totally adequate. Not lasting a whole lecture is a problem though. Have you tried turning the brightness down? Also, maybe investigate replacing the battery. As for coffee tables, see if you can borrow a friend's larger laptop for a while because you may find it doesn't make a huge difference. As someone below mentioned, a second hand chromebook could be a good idea (it is incredibly basic and only really good for internet browsing and word processing, but that's what you want and could be the cheapest thing to get the job done). I was under the impression it needed an internet connection to do anything at all, which you might not have in a uni lecture. Would be a shame to type up loads of great notes only to have them not be able to be saved cause you didn't have an internet connection. I could be wrong though. Make sure to research before buying one (if you do).

  • Savas on 11/12/2017 - 08:50

    I'm getting a Surface as well

  • ESEMCE on 11/12/2017 - 09:09
    +2

    External monitor for the surface pro. And maybe a nice keyboard

    • charligirl on 11/12/2017 - 10:25

      Thanks for the reply. I just replied in more detail above, but I already have a USB dock thing for the surface pro. I'm after a laptop with a bigger screen to use at coffee table and better battery life to use at uni. The surface pro barely makes it the end of a 2-hour tutorial :/ It is pretty old now though.

  • TimApple on 11/12/2017 - 10:31
    +2

    With your requirements, I would actually try to see Chromebooks. They are cheap and last much longer than Windows laptops.

  • Lurker on 11/12/2017 - 12:49

    Make sure you get the discount that comes with
    https://www.myunidays.com/AU/en-AU/partners/dell/view/online…

    I got a $999 HP laptop at $539 .

    Unfortunately it is now out of stock as it was clearance

    One of the most important things about buying a laptop is to get next business day extended warranty from the manufacturer, unless you want to fix it yourself or pay somebody expensive to fix it for you.

  • newxr on 03/01/2018 - 10:50

    If you do not need photo/video editing and can get reliable online access consider a chromebook. These units work well but only for browsing, email and ONLINE MS Office/Google Docs. These will not allow offline editing of documents offline. They are OK for looking at videos and photos but not editing them.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/353009

    13.3 inch unit for less than $250 delivered.

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