Need Lap Top suggestions for college kid.

[JOE.G]

My Step Daughter will be going off to college next year and I would like to get her a Lap Top.
We would like to stay around $500.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0762S8PYM/?tag=snbforums-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HT19S53/?tag=snbforums-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FC1229N/?tag=snbforums-20

Any of these decent?

I found this but it is a chrome OS and I am not sure how that will work or affect anything.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptop...Q0&irgwc=1&PID=10915&acid=ww:affiliate:bv0as6

ANy help would be great, She needs it for basic college work and also for normal net surfing and music. Thanks

 

[RMerlin]

The Vivobook is nice. Personally I would avoid anything based on older AMD processors, they were always poor performers. Best to spend a bit more, but keep the laptop longer.

 

[thiggins]

Don't buy a Chromebook unless you know the school specifically supports or recommends them. They are limited to Google apps.

 

[JOE.G]

My Son's Lap Top has SSD in it, do I know the difference Not really but I do want to get the best I can, I am not looking to spend the money I did on my Sons lap top at this time. Shes going away to college she isn't known for being easy on stuff either. I just want a solid performing lap top that she can get her work done on and not hold up the class.

 

[JOE.G]

That is what I was worried about with the chrome books, I know the High school my kids go to does but unsure of the colleges. I want to stay windows based.

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

Depends on the degree track she's on. If it's a tech based track spend more money buy a good computer with a lot of memory and processor power some of the programs can be quite demanding. I would shy away from anything with emmc memory.

Multi tasking and having multiple windows open now and days is the norm. Some days I have 6 word documents, 2 PDFs, and 10 - 12 open tabs on the web browser just to write one paper or take a test. I have a lot of coworkers that make the mistake of buying $500 computers from Walmart and they always regret it. Spend a few more hundred dollars and get something that will last for the long haul, won't bog down while being used and it'll make things better for her.

Oh and the ability to hook into a dual screen setup is love when papers are due or tests are pressing, especially when books are electronic, which BTW are usually cheaper

 

[thiggins]

And no matter what you choose, get at least 8 GB of RAM. Windows 10 w/ 4 GB is too slow, especially if you have a lot of apps / windows open.

 

[sfx2000]

Check with the college - they'll have recommendations, and most schools will have arrangements with multiple vendors that can offer big discounts...

Keep in mind that they have 1000's of students, so they know what works, and what doesn't - and most of the major schools have on-site repair, so in the event of a broken screen, fried motherboard, or crashed disc, they can turn the repair around in short time.

the big thing is don't cheap out on the choice, it needs to last for at least two years - low cost is sometimes false economy.

Back when I sent my son to UCSD, the primary choice was MacBook Pro with his intended major - we ended up with a dual-boot config (BootCamp) with Win7 for one of his courses, the rest was ok with MacOS and an MS Office License.

At the 1000-1500 dollar range - lot of good choices for a robust machine - Dell, Lenovo (Thinkpad), HP - think business class mid-range...

 

[sfx2000]

Don't buy a Chromebook unless you know the school specifically supports or recommends them. They are limited to Google apps.

I agree - that being said, some schools are going that direction as an offering - in large deployments, ChromeBooks can be centrally managed, and Android app support in current ChromeOS extends things quite a bit.

It really depends on the school and curriculum.

Like I said in my other post on this thread - check with the school first before doing a buy - they know what works, what they support..

 

[JOE.G]

I didn't even think to ask teh school, I will contact them and see if they have a suggestion

 

[JOE.G]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0795W86N3/?tag=snbforums-20

This is the one I went with, SSD already installed. Hopefully I made the right choice.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Very nice. Now you need to get it insured against accidental damage and theft.

 

[RMerlin]

Nice product. Having a separate HDD will ensure he doesn't run out of space by filling it with photos/video/music. This laptop should be able to last quite a few years.

 

[JOE.G]

It gives you a choice as to what hard drive to use? What would I use the 128 for? I am confused lol

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

It gives you a choice as to what hard drive to use? What would I use the 128 for? I am confused lol

My guess is that the OS will come pre-installed on the 128 G SSD, leaving the 1TB drive for storage.

I would wait on any MS Office software, at my school we get it free while were a student through our school email account.

 

[sfx2000]

I would wait on any MS Office software, at my school we get it free while were a student through our school email account.

Yep... and perhaps even a discount on Office365 for a number of seats... Microsoft has gotten a bit odd on pricing there.

 

[sfx2000]

This is the one I went with, SSD already installed. Hopefully I made the right choice.

As long as it works and meets the needs of the course curriculum...

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

Yep... and perhaps even a discount on Office365 for a number of seats... Microsoft has gotten a bit odd on pricing there.

Yes they have, and I get discount offers through my school email a few times a month. I will say however that while I used the free version from school these last 3 years I finally bought a subscription and left the schools version behind. Those versions are open to configuration changes and/or restrictions by the school or institution that provides it. I was having an issue with my papers not syncing with my cloud account when I found this out, didn't like the sound of it, so I just bought a subscription. I do school work on my laptop when I'm at work during the day and then go home at night and finish it up on my desktop a lot so the not syncing consistently was a BIG problem for me.

I use 365 on both of my computers for 1 cost, and I don't have the issue I was having with the school version so to me it was worth the cost. If you use the schools version then go to a paid version like I did you have to remove the schools completely and reinstall it, took me a while to figure that one out and included a call to MS support too...

 

[RMerlin]

It took them years to catch on, but Microsoft FINALLY reached a point where their Office 365 Home and Personal offerings are actually worth paying for (following the policy changes from last month).

 

[ColinTaylor]

It took them years to catch on, but Microsoft FINALLY reached a point where their Office 365 Home and Personal offerings are actually worth paying for (following the policy changes from last month).

What was the policy change if you don't mind me asking?