Briana
What is the most important factor when looking into a buying a laptop for school?
My name is Briana, and I am currently a freshman in college. Throughout the summer, I had received a check for a local scholarship and am very thankful. With this money, I had planned to spend more than I currently had on textbooks. As I had spent most of y middle and high school career with a shared computer with my family, it proved to be more complicated to even get the time and silence necessary to do work. Now that i am able, my parents have set me loose onlooking for a computer that would best suit my needs. Except that I know practically nothing about them, aside for memory space and a new need for WiFi. I would thank anyone who takes the time to respond. #teacher #computer #higher-education #college-student #college-advice #computers #educational-technology
6 answers
Joel Goering
Joel’s Answer
Charles gave some awesome guidelines above, I'll try not to repeat much of what he said but I make no promises!
Based on the description, I'm going to guess that you're shopping for a laptop on a budget so I'll rule out more high end/expensive options such as a MacBook.
I'm not sure what your main tasks on the laptop will be but from my experience in college, the majority of it was used to do homework, write essays, check email and general usage (surfing the web, watching netflix). I'll form my answer by finding something that is affordable and will easily meet those needs listed above. One thing to note is that if you can, it's usually worth spending the extra $100-200 to get a bit of a higher end machine so it could potentially last throughout your college career.
I just recently found myself in the market for a new laptop and I set myself a limit of $600 - I relied heavily on this article for most of my research, I think you'll find it helpful as well: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/how-to-buy-a-budget-laptop/ - This related article will probably be some help as well, http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/what-laptop-should-i-buy-the-best-laptops-for-every-need/
As Charles said, you're a student so you don't need or want the latest and greatest. I would say you want at least 4GB of memory and probably 256GB+ of hard drive space (You'll probably have a hard time filling it up unless you plan on storing a bunch of music and video on the laptop. Your average essay isn't going to take up any space at all). I would recommend going for ani5 processor, or similar. There's really no reason you need to go up to an i7 for what the average college student is using the laptop for. Beyond that, most everything will be preference (backlit keyboard, screen size, weight etc). I would also agree with Charles that you'll want to get a reputable brand (Dell, Acer, HP etc) that will be able to provide you with good customer support should something break.
I found myself going with wirecutter's suggest of the $550 Acer laptop from the first link above, I've had no complaints with it so far. Feel free to leave any comments if you need clarification on anything.
Happy shopping and congratulations on the scholarship!
Thank you for responding! I did look at the two links you posted above, and It makes it so much easier to rule out what I need vs. extra fluff. Throughout the recommendation process, I never heard about keeping a local help center close in mind, and will definitely consider it. I looked at some of the models and will talk to my parents later. However, if i may ask, is it better to buy online or in store? I also want to consider this as my mom wants me to buy in store to begin building credit through payments. Thank you again.
Briana
Charles M Hurd
Charles M’s Answer
in my experience, you want to get a laptop you don't mind losing. Yours may just get stolen, or it may take a tumble down stairs and get smashed up.
This means, spend less than half your money on the laptop, save about the same amount for getting a replacement, and then spend a reasonable amount on accessories to improve your experience (backpack that holds a laptop, perhaps with wheels, flash drives to create your system restore disks on (32 gigabytes last I checked), and external hard drive for extra storage that is more portable than your laptop and more reliable than a flash drives), two pair of good comfortable headphones/headsets, a cloud backup service, so that when you lose your laptop, you don't lose the data.) Use your flash drives for data transfer, not data storage. Be careful that your personal data is encrypted on your external drive and is not unencrypted on your machine's hard drive,
Get a more expensive printer that does not use expensive ink (chose a brand and model that has ink for a low price per page). Find a reliable online place to buy generic ink from, that also sells other things and offers free shipping sometimes.
Consider saving enough money to get a new battery and a new power cord/battery charger. Batteries wear out. Will you need a car charger (from the 12 volt battery? )
Make sure you have the software you will be using. Microsoft Office Home and Student (or similar cloud based) is practically required. Don't use the generic Open Office or Libre Office unless you know there will not be issues. I tried that. When I transferred from Libre office back to Microsoft office, there was formatting issues.
Make sure you have virus protection software.
Shop around and get the laptop that does what you are going to need in the next two years. You are a student, so there is no need to buy the latest, fastest, hardware with the most hard drive space and most RAM. But maintenance is very important. As a student, you will be rough on your laptop. Get a reliable brand and learn to take care of it so as to not break it. Then if you have outgrown your laptop in two years, get another one that is newer and better. In my mind, there is no reason to spend over $400 for a laptop. You can get one that works fine for less than $300 (probably refurbished). Get one that can be maintained locally (a major national brand), so you can take it into the shop and have it fixed while you wait or leave it for a few days. don't let them ship it out.
Do i sound a bit paranoid about losing the computer? I broke my power cord connector in the computer - it had to be re-soldered on the main board. It was an off-brand laptop that was only serviced in one city, that I didn't live in. It was dead and I sent it to them. They lost it between the store I sent it to and their warehouse where they repaired it. and I had not backed up my data, so I lost it all. Yes, they gave me a replacement machine, but it was an old used one, same age or older than the one I lost and all my data was gone.
hope this helps.
Again, thank you for responding. This will definitely help me refine my search for a laptop. I will use this as a guideline to discuss what I'll need with my parents as they want to help me look. I'll try and keep an open mind, and see where I can find the best deal and features. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy your day.
Briana
Linh T. Nguyen
Linh T.’s Answer
Hello!
In addition to some other responses that I agree with, I would factor in durability/warrenty, student discount packages (if your instituiton offers it), and any personal preference. Some institutions require certain software or a particular type of computer for students to have. For example, at Lesley University College of Art and Design often have their computers equiped with design software. At Wentworth Insitute of Technlogy, they require students to have a laptop and will cycle out the laptops every two years. This is part of their tuititon and students are told about this upfront before they apply. I would check with your school's Information Technology department to see if there are any requirments or discounts that your school may offer. Sometimes, this is worth purchasing through your school becasue they may offer tech supportf if you need it in the future. This could save you time and money by not having to go through the computer manufactor company if something happens to your computer.
Thank you for the information! Unfortunately, I have already bought my laptop in January with no problems so far. However, I am currently at a community college and may need to buy another in a couple of years when I transfer. So, I will keep this mind when I transfer for any specifications I may need. Thank you again and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!
Briana
Nicole Baillie
Nicole’s Answer
I didn't see where you clarified what you plan to study in college but I did see the education-technology....if your field of study will be engineering and/or classes where there is an anticipation of multiple math and/or statistics classes...oftentimes, those classes come with software that you may have to install...and many times those pieces of software, when you use them/run them, can be pretty CPU intensive. If you are working on a task that requires you to save your file, sometimes those files can get pretty big...soooo, in your shopping, maybe you can get a sense of what your classes will be like? If not, I suggest getting a laptop that has an acceptable CPU (how strong it is for computing cycles, without crashing the laptop) and that the laptop you get has an acceptable disk size. The good news is that there is "a bottom", meaning most places that sell laptops will have sales staff that can guide on what you don't want :).
I also recommend, as others have, that you do some online research on best bang for your buck, new vs old and DEFINITELY a good internal AND external battery.
Best of luck to you!
Troy Golba
Troy’s Answer
Depending on your lifestyle I would say durability, and battery life is always important.
What you use it for will really help you figure out the programs that you'll use more, maybe you want a little mix of fun with it? Maybe PC or Mac is a big issue for you?
I would recommend one that is portable easily for you and kind of has that right "feel" to it.
Also using programs that make sense for you and have storage for you and a backup plan for important papers and projects. Office, Google Drive, Office 365, Docs, Classroom, blackboard are all programs you may encounter and find useful.
My best to you!
Troy :)
