Students Laptop buying guide
July 28, 2007 by Author
One of the best investment you will do while being here to buying a laptop. Some of the schools will have 24 hours lab facility, but nothing comes like having a laptop for you. When it comes to buy a laptop, for sure you will have to depend on your seniors and other friends who already have laptop.
There are variety of laptop brands like Dell, Lenovo( Thinkpad), HP, Toshiba, Gateway, Fujitsu and few other brands.
Things to consider when buying laptop
- How much you are willing to spend for a laptop
- Size ( weight ) vs Cost
- Laptop brand vs Quality
- New laptop vs used ( refurbished)
- Laptop’s life
- Basic Configuration
Laptop’s Life
Above everything, depending on how you handle them, laptopns maximum life is 3 years. After that is junk machine. If someone happen to have a laptop after 3 years without any problems, they must be real lucky.
How much you are willing to spend for a laptop:
I’m shopping for my 5th laptop in 5 yrs now ( self, to brother, gifts..) and have used Fujitsu, HP, Thinkpad in last few years. From student perspective, considering application you will install and executing programs, graphics application and ofcourse games, lowest I would suggest to spend will be $700 and above.
Size ( weight ) vs Cost
Size vs cost is the most important of all the points, I would say. Being student, you will carry your laptop around a lot. From my personal experience, carring laptop more than 6lbs is very hard. You will get good deal on Laptop for $500, but it would weight 7-8lbs. Its will be difficult to carry 4kgs laptop with books.
Cost of laptop raises sharply as size decreases.
- 13″ to 15″ screen size laptops will weight between 3lbs to 6 lbs.
- 12″ will weigh less than 2lbs ( it will be too small for college use, its designed for people on the go, to check emails, and schedules, .
- >15″ screen is for gaming, it will weight more than 7lbs ( forget it, not for school use)
New laptop vs used ( refurbished)
Go for new one. It will be much better. They will come with 1 year standard warranty. If your HDD crashes, display problem, fan making noise, all you need to do is call the support and they will take care it. You are going to use it for years to come. You might never know what kind of problem used laptop will have unless you start working with it.
Laptop brand vs Quality
Few laptops brands are expensive, but ti comes with its quality. Considering my experience with laptops, my suggestions will in the following order.
- Thinkpad (Lenovo’s)
- Dell
- HP
- Sony
- Toshiba
- Fujitsu
- Acer
- Don’t think of buying other brands.
Thinkpad R series and T series laptops are best ones. If you know someone who works for IBM, they can get it with additional 15% discount than the listed price on Lenovo’s website.
Dell will have good deals all the times. Their support is good. But quality doesn’t stand close to Thinkpad. Cheaper options you look in Dell, heavier the laptop would be.
Fujitsu ( Lifebook ). I love this machine, until it gave up on me after 3 years. I had S6120 and its was 2.75 lbs with 13″ screen. It was costly buy ( $1600) 3 yrs back, but it was worth every penny, considering, I watches around 800 moves on its DVD drive and its screen is stunning. They are nice machines, but its expensive. You will get real nice configuration for $1000 and above from Thinkpad.
HP, It will also be good student laptop. I’m hearing some good things about HP laptops. HP have overtaken Dell in PC industry. I will post any HOT deals in HP when I come across.
Minimum Configuration
Screen : 13 to 15″ screen
Processor : Intel Dual Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64 bit ( dual core )
RAM : 2 GB RAM ( get basic from laptop, buy one your own and upgrade to 2 GB)
OS : Get VISTA Home basic or premium and from school you will get other version for
discounted student price
Wireless : Integrated
Size : 3 lbs to 6lbs
Battery : 4 to 7 cells would do
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thanks a ton…life strikes (or whatever your name is) !!
You are welcome. I will post few links for laptops when I find good deal. Good Luck.
Thnxs dude..I got clear idea after reading such an elaborated post
Hello Everybody,
I agree with the suggestion given by the author. Invest in a good quality laptop and mk sure its light! I have bought an Acer .. their top of the line model costed me $620!! but that was Christmas
I recommend buying the laptop from Circuit City.. they have lot of options at best prices.
Cheerss.. Isha
wht abt a MAC ?? i mean we can use windows and mac both now…
Hi there,
That’s really well compiled article, apt for first timers like me.
I don’t know much about the extent of its usage in US schools, but would you advice some first timer like me to go for a tablet PC.
Of course the price would be a touch higher. Do you really see any pluses in going for a tablet PC Vs a notebook ?
cheers
@run
@Arun: Tablet PC is not required for students.
which do you think is better? T61 or R61? Please suggest.
@kunjaan: R61 will be heavy. for students I would suggest T61, since you will have to carry laptop with you to school.