New Laptop

[Edward Elric]

Hey Everyone,

Lately I've been looking for some good laptops for Uni and was quite undecided by the vast range of laptops currently available on the market. I'm not quite sure what to get, but somewhere between the price range of 1000-1500, good graphics, super portable, descent for playing games and watching movies, and can handle the work requirements and tasks of Uni. Anyone who owns a good one, or know of a good laptop, feel free to leave suggestions below. Thanks for your help!

P.s preferably not Macs, as I'm more of a Windows person.

[grannysmith]

Depends what kind games you play. You can find many decently sized laptops that have enough grunt to play most games on moderate settings.

[Edward Elric]

To be honest, I don't think getting a $1000-$1500 laptop to play games/bring around to uni is a good idea.

Firstly, laptops like that are super heavy (have fun carrying it around with you all day, no lockers in uni) and secondly, they're not that powerful when you compare it to a PC of the same price.

I would personally recommend spending $800 building/buying a prebuilt gaming PC then spend another $400-$700 on a half decent laptop (or even notebook, those are even cheaper + lighter) just for uni work.


I personally quit playing games but if I was in your position, I'd do this.

(I thought I would get back into gaming after year 12... I used to be a mad gamer, literally played 7 hours a day on weekends in year 10 but I realized that you don't get anything out of gaming...)

alright thanks, but what do you do now? just partying and going out?

[Edward Elric]

Depends what kind games you play. You can find many decently sized laptops that have enough grunt to play most games on moderate settings.

like dota 2 and cs go, minecraft as well.

[brenden]

Toshiba P50 B01r has the graphics/ram/processor for everything you need but a bit heavy if you're looking for a light laptop. Think JB had it on sale for $1500 a week ago (super cheap considering specs). You do have contradictory wants though. You won't find something "super portable" that isn't a notebook lol.

[Edward Elric]

Toshiba P50 B01r has the graphics/ram/processor for everything you need but a bit heavy if you're looking for a light laptop. Think JB had it on sale for $1500 a week ago (super cheap considering specs). You do have contradictory wants though. You won't find something "super portable" that isn't a notebook lol.

Wow I was actually at JB looking at that exact model. What a coincidence. Its good but the battery life is too short for my liking 2-3 hours, but its super powerful. Maybe Ill just get an ultrabook. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[brenden]

Wow I was actually at JB looking at that exact model. What a coincidence. Its good but the battery life is too short for my liking 2-3 hours, but its super powerful. Maybe Ill just get an ultrabook. Thanks for the suggestion though!

2-3?! I'm sure it gets 5?? Crazy coincidence though!

[Edward Elric]

2-3?! I'm sure it gets 5?? Crazy coincidence though!

Yeh 2-3 hrs most, is what the salesman told me, so I was like yehhhhh I wanted a laptop with a bit more battery life. May I ask which one you have?

[brenden]

Yeh 2-3 hrs most, is what the salesman told me, so I was like yehhhhh I wanted a laptop with a bit more battery life. May I ask which one you have?

I don't have one, but I've been looking for a month and have decided on a MacBook Pro w/ Retina (not that I give a fuck about the retina - that model has better specs than the standard pro, I think in the way of processor and ram).

[keltingmeith]

Since no one else is going to suggest it: CHROMEBOOK~ (I am the super bias, but let me talk anyway. )

I agree with BasicAcid - if you want something for gaming, your best bet is get a PC. In fact, if you know what you're doing, you can build a PC at the console price that still performs just as well as the consoles, then it's just a matter of improving it as you get the money. However, if you were to get a Chromebook (most sell for ~$200-300 to memory), you'd have plenty of money to still spend lots on that perfect gaming PC.

Now, I know what you're going to say - "but it's useless if you don't have an internet connection..."

EXCEPT, if you're getting it for uni work, you'll rarely find a situation where you won't be with wifi anyway. And if you DO use it whilst travelling, you can still get access to basic writing/presentation/spreadsheet programs for offline use, and so can do assignments on the train. I even found a notepad app that I can use to write up LaTeX assignments on the way to/from uni. The Chromebook is also super light and portable - it's been everything I wanted and more for my time at uni.

FINALLY, you could still use it to play games at home/use windows software. All you need to do is activate remote desktop on both your chromebook and home PC (pretty easy to do), and you can then use your Chromebook to use programs on your PC at home as long as both are connected to a source of wifi. This means that you can still use your Chromebook for gaming.

[Russ]

I don't have one, but I've been looking for a month and have decided on a MacBook Pro w/ Retina (not that I give a fuck about the retina - that model has better specs than the standard pro, I think in the way of processor and ram).

If you don't care about the Retina screen, why are you getting a Pro over the Air? The screen is /really/ nice but the weight/battery life sold me on the Air, which I'll buy when my current ultrabook eventually packs it in.

RE: uni laptops. You have to decide what is more important to you. You won't get a $1300 laptop with an 8 hour battery life that is also only 1.3kgs and also runs the latest video games on ultra. The only two things that matter to me as a uni student are battery life and portability (the Air wins on these two, although is obviously not a windows laptop). If you're set on having something to carry around uni and use for lectures all day, I strongly recommend avoiding something big and powerful.

Chromebooks are a reasonable cheap alternative if you're looking to also build a PC at home and need to save money for that reason.

[mahler004]

I don't have one, but I've been looking for a month and have decided on a MacBook Pro w/ Retina (not that I give a fuck about the retina - that model has better specs than the standard pro, I think in the way of processor and ram).

The standard pro is pretty much a dead model. I'd be surprised if it's still getting sold in six months.

I'd wait for the (rumored) new model of MBPr.

If you don't care about the Retina screen, why are you getting a Pro over the Air? The screen is /really/ nice but the weight/battery life sold me on the Air, which I'll buy when my current ultrabook eventually packs it in.

RE: uni laptops. You have to decide what is more important to you. You won't get a $1300 laptop with an 8 hour battery life that is also only 1.3kgs and also runs the latest video games on ultra. The only two things that matter to me as a uni student are battery life and portability (the Air wins on these two, although is obviously not a windows laptop). If you're set on having something to carry around uni and use for lectures all day, I strongly recommend avoiding something big and powerful.

Chromebooks are a reasonable cheap alternative if you're looking to also build a PC at home and need to save money for that reason.

Pretty much this exactly. You don't want to be carrying around a brick all day if you can avoid it. If you're into PC gaming, buy a Air/chromebook for uni, and build a gaming PC for home. That said...

like dota 2 and cs go, minecraft as well.

Are hardly demanding games, if that's all you play, an Air might cut it.

[brenden]

If you don't care about the Retina screen, why are you getting a Pro over the Air? The screen is /really/ nice but the weight/battery life sold me on the Air, which I'll buy when my current ultrabook eventually packs it in.

RE: uni laptops. You have to decide what is more important to you. You won't get a $1300 laptop with an 8 hour battery life that is also only 1.3kgs and also runs the latest video games on ultra. The only two things that matter to me as a uni student are battery life and portability (the Air wins on these two, although is obviously not a windows laptop). If you're set on having something to carry around uni and use for lectures all day, I strongly recommend avoiding something big and powerful.

Chromebooks are a reasonable cheap alternative if you're looking to also build a PC at home and need to save money for that reason.

I want the extra power so it can cope with demanding software without having a heart attack (e.g., the screen+face capture software vTextbook uses is pretty stressful) and I want to start coding regularly over the next few years.

Honestly though, despite doing a shit tonne of reading, I still don't know that much about computers, and the concept of paying $1200 for something that could be insufficient is much more anxiety provoking than the concept of buying something for $1600 that won't be insufficient. Better RAM and processor leads me to favour the Pro w/ retina, although I looked again just now and see that the 13in Air has double the flash storage so... <crumbles to dust>.

[Edward Elric]

Thanks guys, but I think I have decided on the Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 edition, simply because its super light, has powerful specs, and is relatively portable, good for gaming and movies and looks sleek and sexy. Heres a link to it, I know its a bit expensive, but I've been saving for a while and want one that will last for a very long time. Any comments, about it would be appreciated.

 http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/18/samsung-ativ-book-9-2014-edition-review/

[mahler004]

I want the extra power so it can cope with demanding software without having a heart attack (e.g., the screen+face capture software vTextbook uses is pretty stressful) and I want to start coding regularly over the next few years.

Honestly though, despite doing a shit tonne of reading, I still don't know that much about computers, and the concept of paying $1200 for something that could be insufficient is much more anxiety provoking than the concept of buying something for $1600 that won't be insufficient. Better RAM and processor leads me to favour the Pro w/ retina, although I looked again just now and see that the 13in Air has double the flash storage so... <crumbles to dust>.

It's possible to make do with little storage, as long as you keep all your media on external hard drives. It's what I do. That said, I'd pay a bit more and get the 256gb rMBP. You can easily add more storage using a cheap external drive or even an SD card.

You're probably also eligible for an education discount too.