Solve : Laptop for Uni/College?

1.	Solve : Laptop for Uni/College?
Answer» Hi all, I have been looking for a suitable laptop for university and college within a budget limit of (around) £300. I want a laptop that is fairly small, lightweight and has thin screen. I looked at HP laptops considering they were mostly used in the summer school I am currently attending and found HP Pavillion 15 15"6 and HP Pavillion x2 10"1. Now, I am wondering which laptop is better? More suitable for university/college? Please suggests some laptops as well! £300 isn't really much, you'll get something but it won't be great. What do you need to use it for, are you going to be carrying it about to classes/lectures.etc? I just graduated (Computer Science so laptop got used very heavily!) and found that I needed something with GOOD battery life and that is relatively small and most importantly, robust enough to survive being carried around all day. With a budget like that I'd STRONGLY suggest looking at a used/refurbished business grade laptop from the last couple of years. These machines were very expensive new (around the £1000 mark) so you get the build quality and reliability of a very expensive machine but since large companies tend to replace machines regularly, they are widely available on eBay for under £300! Something like the Dell Latitude e7440/Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (what I used during most of my time at University) which are both 14" machines or if you want something smaller you could take a look at the Dell Latitude E7240 or Lenovo ThinkPad x240 which are 12.5" machines. All of these can be easily picked up on eBay for less than £300. They are a couple of years old but still very powerful (more powerful than anything you would get new for £300). These machines are generally used by large companies who replace their machines on a regular basis so there's loads of them available for very cheap currently. I'd also strongly recommend getting one with an SSD rather than a traditional hard drive as it will be so much faster and more rugged. Nowadays the difference in build quality between business and consumer and business oriented machines is massive - I'd never buy a consumer-oriented PC like an HP PAVILION, Dell Inspiron.etc these days! The quality of consumer hardware is generally getting worse and worse as prices drop, the business hardware has largely remained untouched.I respectfully disagree. Consumer products comma especially electronic products comma or I know of much better quality then they were many years ago. Granted, there have been many problems in the industry .Comma... Quote from: Geek-9pm on June 30, 2016, 03:55:18 PM I respectfully disagree. Consumer products, especially electronic products, are of much better quality then they were many years ago. Granted, there have been many problems in the industry . In that case, I'm curious what are your recommendations for a laptop under £300 That will suite the purposes of going to University? Bearing in mind of course that as far as I can tell the person who just graduated this year is likely to provide better contextual advice, so you have to lay some cards on the table.Alright here is my answer to the topic question. A freshman going into a college or university has little need for a gaming computer or a powerful desktop computer or a computer designed for business use. Most individuals probably already have a smartphone and are familiar to some extent with the use of the internet. I see no reason for a freshman to have a very powerful computer either laptop or desktop. I believe the most important consideration that a freshman has is to have a balanced view of his economic possibilities. There may come up situations where cash is needed for an emergency. Over investing in inexpensive computer would be a poor choice. In fact I believe that for most freshman courses a computer is not even required. But in the case that a computer is required it would be best to ask somebody at the University what is the most popular and most recommended computer configuration. Princesses I am doing this on an Android tablet and I don't have access to a full keyboard so I am not able to put in the right punctuation sorry period and princesses. My recommendation for a freshman going into the university would be a 10 to 12 inch Android tablet with a detachable keyboard. Some professors will have a very negative attitude about people typing while he is speaking. So having a keyboard visible might be a distraction. In fact during a classroom lecture use of the computer probably would not be appropriate unless the professor actually wants to use a computer. At this point I want to make a But the Android doesn't seem to know how I want to do that. I need to have more practice with this thing. Let's see we can do a Okay that works not a repeat I recommend using a low-cost Android tablet with a detachable keyboard. That is based on my observations of other people as well as my own personal experiences and my personal experiences that goes both ways I have had very expensive desktop computers and I have purchased very cheap tablets. After all that and would experience I've had in class room training I think that's a little cost Android tablet meets the requirements of most educational needs in modern-day classrooms. I am not a college instructor at the present time but I do teach in private classes occasionally and I have taught in a class where many of the students have a tablet and the tablet is used to help with a question-and-answer serious we have these question answer series are very short but the students have the answers available to them on the Android they go to the website where the material has already been published and there are hyperlinks to the answers to the questions so I'll I'm talking to the audience I'll ask a question and they can see the question on their Android and also see the reference to the hyper link you can click on the hyperlink and get a document that was the basis for the answer. I don't know how many college classrooms nowadays are doing that and I suspect not too many what we're doing in our private classes this very Innovative and a couple of years ago we would have never thought of doing such a thing So here is the basis for my recommendation. Few colleges or universities nowadays are making full use of tablet computers and it laptop or desktop computer inside a classroom is just too much it takes up too much space the tablet is the way to go. And if a student doesn't have a tablet they can always work from printed material in times past when I went to college courses there was always printed material available and printed material still is an effective way to teach Andrew LaurenProbably worth considering doing a bit of proof-reading after your dictation. Comma...ain't gonna happen...Brand new, a HP 250 G4 would be my pick for under £300. Various models often go on sale with an i3, 4GB RAM and a 128GB SSD, you'll struggle to do much better than that. The 250 isn't the best quality machine ever, but it's probably the best of a sorry lot in that sort of price range. As camerongray says though, a refurbished business unit in the Dell Latitude, Lenovo Thinkpad or HP Elitebook ranges would probably be a better bet overall due to the much better build quality. Quote from: patio on July 01, 2016, 01:12:06 PM Comma...ain't gonna happen... my apologies for lack of editing. I'm using an Android and I am dictating to the Android by using speech recognition. And I have not had enough experience with Android dictation to figure out how to get it to go back and correct something so I will try to do my best at making better replies comma I thought the original poster would like to have a quick and comprehensive answer instead of a short Reef well written response. One of the advantages of having an interactive Forum such as this is the ability to get a quick response and then I reply and then you have a dialogue. A dialogue is usually the best way to learn something and to correct misunderstandings. To produce a well-written and well-researched document then take hours days or weeks of research. I'm on vacation and the only thing I brought with me was this Android tablet I don't even know where the microphone is I just talk to it and it starts writing things down and I have not seen a set of rules about how you tell it to do punctuation and how you tell it to Mark the end of a sentence. Well, apparently you can say the word and it will put a little stop there to mean that you have the end of the sentence. However I cannot figure out how to do the parenthetical Expressions other than just the. I guess I could try semicolon oh I don't know what happened there. So you have to post no I mean you have to. This is annoying it's so annoying I'm about ready to offer some cuss words. Anyway the point I wanted to make was that a low-cost tablet computer is the best choice for a freshman going to college unless there is absolutely no question about money since he SAID there was a limit of a certain amount of money it makes me think he only has a certain amount of money if you had an industry source of money it wouldn't make any difference but have his resources are marginal then he should consider buying the computer that is appropriate to his needs even if it is less than his budget to me the ideal choice for the classroom is as I said earlier that 10 - 12 inch Android with a detachable keyboard. And I would not recommend a Microsoft Surface Pro to anybody for any reason. Although I don't mind looking at 1 and touching one but I would never buy one or recommend somebody by 1. As for the other famous maker laptops and Portables they often fall into the same thinking if you got it get something up around 4 or $500 in order to make some profit. But the purpose of computers is a serve people not the other way around the people serving the computers the computer is a tool it is not something to be idolized and worshipped. Only by as much computer as what you really need. That's what I wanted to say end of rant. Quote from: CALUM on July 01, 2016, 01:19:00 PM As camerongray says though, a refurbished business unit in the Dell Latitude, Lenovo Thinkpad or HP Elitebook ranges would probably be a better bet overall due to the much better build quality. Speaking of, I saw a factory refurb Thinkpad T420 i5 2520, 8GB 128GB SSD on eBay going for $330 Canadian shipped, which is less than £200. It's gone now but that is the sort of thing I think might be a good bet. I was tempted myself but managed to talk myself out of it.A tablet is not suitable as a primary computing device for university. Even with a keyboard it does not have the software availability for doing huge amounts of work. Not to mention that you have no idea what course the OP is doing, many courses require specialised software which will require a regular PC. I did use a tablet (albeit a Windows one) for taking notes in lectures but there is no way that I could have completed my dissertation/thesis on anything other than a proper computer. You also have to bear in mind that the person may be moving away from home to study. They will likely want a regular PC even just for use in their leisure time. Quote it would be best to ask somebody at the University what is the most popular and most recommended computer configuration. I obviously can't speak for the OP's specific institution but during my time at university, everyone used a proper PC as their primary device, most people using either Lenovo ThinkPads or MacBooks then the rest using various consumer laptops. Nobody used an Android tablet for anything more than as a secondary device. Quote And I would not recommend a Microsoft Surface Pro to anybody for any reason. Although I don't mind looking at 1 and touching one but I would never buy one or recommend somebody by 1. Why? Because the surface pro is one of the only tablets that van actually be used as a primary device? Several people at university got them instead of laptops and they did the job brilliantly. Quote I believe the most important consideration that a freshman has is to have a balanced view of his economic possibilities. There may come up situations where cash is needed for an emergency. Over investing in inexpensive computer would be a poor choice. Hence why I suggested buying something used/refurbished. Quote In fact I believe that for most freshman courses a computer is not even required. Maybe this was the case 20 years ago but nowadays a computer is essential. Most work is submitted electronically, most reading material is online, communication is handled almost entirely by email. Try writing a thesis without a computer these days. During my 4 year degree I think I bought maybe 4 physical books (only because they were required for open book exams where computers obviously aren't allowed) all other material was online. I also submitted almost everything online including compulsory maths tests in first year which are performed entirely online with no offline option.Thank you for all the replies! A tablet with a detachable keyboard had never been my choice because I would always need to use hard surface to put it on and therefore, inconvenient. The first and only computer I have ever used is an Acer Aspire Laptop. This might help all when suggesting laptops: I am going to be studying Law.

Answer»

Hi all, I have been looking for a suitable laptop for university and college within a budget limit of (around) £300. I want a laptop that is fairly small, lightweight and has thin screen. I looked at HP laptops considering they were mostly used in the summer school I am currently attending and found HP Pavillion 15 15"6 and HP Pavillion x2 10"1. Now, I am wondering which laptop is better? More suitable for university/college? Please suggests some laptops as well! £300 isn't really much, you'll get something but it won't be great. What do you need to use it for, are you going to be carrying it about to classes/lectures.etc? I just graduated (Computer Science so laptop got used very heavily!) and found that I needed something with GOOD battery life and that is relatively small and most importantly, robust enough to survive being carried around all day.

With a budget like that I'd STRONGLY suggest looking at a used/refurbished business grade laptop from the last couple of years. These machines were very expensive new (around the £1000 mark) so you get the build quality and reliability of a very expensive machine but since large companies tend to replace machines regularly, they are widely available on eBay for under £300! Something like the Dell Latitude e7440/Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (what I used during most of my time at University) which are both 14" machines or if you want something smaller you could take a look at the Dell Latitude E7240 or Lenovo ThinkPad x240 which are 12.5" machines. All of these can be easily picked up on eBay for less than £300. They are a couple of years old but still very powerful (more powerful than anything you would get new for £300). These machines are generally used by large companies who replace their machines on a regular basis so there's loads of them available for very cheap currently. I'd also strongly recommend getting one with an SSD rather than a traditional hard drive as it will be so much faster and more rugged.

Nowadays the difference in build quality between business and consumer and business oriented machines is massive - I'd never buy a consumer-oriented PC like an HP PAVILION, Dell Inspiron.etc these days! The quality of consumer hardware is generally getting worse and worse as prices drop, the business hardware has largely remained untouched.I respectfully disagree. Consumer products comma especially electronic products comma or I know of much better quality then they were many years ago. Granted, there have been many problems in the industry .Comma... Quote from: Geek-9pm on June 30, 2016, 03:55:18 PM

I respectfully disagree. Consumer products, especially electronic products, are of much better quality then they were many years ago. Granted, there have been many problems in the industry .

In that case, I'm curious what are your recommendations for a laptop under £300 That will suite the purposes of going to University?

Bearing in mind of course that as far as I can tell the person who just graduated this year is likely to provide better contextual advice, so you have to lay some cards on the table.Alright here is my answer to the topic question. A freshman going into a college or university has little need for a gaming computer or a powerful desktop computer or a computer designed for business use.
Most individuals probably already have a smartphone and are familiar to some extent with the use of the internet. I see no reason for a freshman to have a very powerful computer either laptop or desktop.
I believe the most important consideration that a freshman has is to have a balanced view of his economic possibilities. There may come up situations where cash is needed for an emergency. Over investing in inexpensive computer would be a poor choice. In fact I believe that for most freshman courses a computer is not even required. But in the case that a computer is required it would be best to ask somebody at the University what is the most popular and most recommended computer configuration. Princesses I am doing this on an Android tablet and I don't have access to a full keyboard so I am not able to put in the right punctuation sorry period and princesses. My recommendation for a freshman going into the university would be a 10 to 12 inch Android tablet with a detachable keyboard. Some professors will have a very negative attitude about people typing while he is speaking. So having a keyboard visible might be a distraction. In fact during a classroom lecture use of the computer probably would not be appropriate unless the professor actually wants to use a computer. At this point I want to make a

But the Android doesn't seem to know how I want to do that. I need to have more practice with this thing. Let's see we can do a

Okay that works not a repeat I recommend using a low-cost Android tablet with a detachable keyboard. That is based on my observations of other people as well as my own personal experiences and my personal experiences that goes both ways I have had very expensive desktop computers and I have purchased very cheap tablets. After all that and would experience I've had in class room training I think that's a little cost Android tablet meets the requirements of most educational needs in modern-day classrooms. I am not a college instructor at the present time but I do teach in private classes occasionally and I have taught in a class where many of the students have a tablet and the tablet is used to help with a question-and-answer serious we have these question answer series are very short but the students have the answers available to them on the Android they go to the website where the material has already been published and there are hyperlinks to the answers to the questions so I'll I'm talking to the audience I'll ask a question and they can see the question on their Android and also see the reference to the hyper link you can click on the hyperlink and get a document that was the basis for the answer. I don't know how many college classrooms nowadays are doing that and I suspect not too many what we're doing in our private classes this very Innovative and a couple of years ago we would have never thought of doing such a thing

So here is the basis for my recommendation. Few colleges or universities nowadays are making full use of tablet computers and it laptop or desktop computer inside a classroom is just too much it takes up too much space the tablet is the way to go. And if a student doesn't have a tablet they can always work from printed material in times past when I went to college courses there was always printed material available and printed material still is an effective way to teach Andrew LaurenProbably worth considering doing a bit of proof-reading after your dictation.

Comma...ain't gonna happen...Brand new, a HP 250 G4 would be my pick for under £300. Various models often go on sale with an i3, 4GB RAM and a 128GB SSD, you'll struggle to do much better than that. The 250 isn't the best quality machine ever, but it's probably the best of a sorry lot in that sort of price range.

As camerongray says though, a refurbished business unit in the Dell Latitude, Lenovo Thinkpad or HP Elitebook ranges would probably be a better bet overall due to the much better build quality. Quote from: patio on July 01, 2016, 01:12:06 PM

Comma...ain't gonna happen...

my apologies for lack of editing. I'm using an Android and I am dictating to the Android by using speech recognition. And I have not had enough experience with Android dictation to figure out how to get it to go back and correct something so I will try to do my best at making better replies comma I thought the original poster would like to have a quick and comprehensive answer instead of a short Reef well written response. One of the advantages of having an interactive Forum such as this is the ability to get a quick response and then I reply and then you have a dialogue. A dialogue is usually the best way to learn something and to correct misunderstandings. To produce a well-written and well-researched document then take hours days or weeks of research. I'm on vacation and the only thing I brought with me was this Android tablet I don't even know where the microphone is I just talk to it and it starts writing things down and I have not seen a set of rules about how you tell it to do punctuation and how you tell it to Mark the end of a sentence. Well, apparently you can say the word and it will put a little stop there to mean that you have the end of the sentence. However I cannot figure out how to do the parenthetical Expressions other than just the. I guess I could try semicolon oh I don't know what happened there. So you have to post no I mean you have to. This is annoying it's so annoying I'm about ready to offer some cuss words.

Anyway the point I wanted to make was that a low-cost tablet computer is the best choice for a freshman going to college unless there is absolutely no question about money since he SAID there was a limit of a certain amount of money it makes me think he only has a certain amount of money if you had an industry source of money it wouldn't make any difference but have his resources are marginal then he should consider buying the computer that is appropriate to his needs even if it is less than his budget to me the ideal choice for the classroom is as I said earlier that 10 - 12 inch Android with a detachable keyboard. And I would not recommend a Microsoft Surface Pro to anybody for any reason. Although I don't mind looking at 1 and touching one but I would never buy one or recommend somebody by 1. As for the other famous maker laptops and Portables they often fall into the same thinking if you got it get something up around 4 or $500 in order to make some profit. But the purpose of computers is a serve people not the other way around the people serving the computers the computer is a tool it is not something to be idolized and worshipped. Only by as much computer as what you really need. That's what I wanted to say end of rant. Quote from: CALUM on July 01, 2016, 01:19:00 PM

As camerongray says though, a refurbished business unit in the Dell Latitude, Lenovo Thinkpad or HP Elitebook ranges would probably be a better bet overall due to the much better build quality.

Speaking of, I saw a factory refurb Thinkpad T420 i5 2520, 8GB 128GB SSD on eBay going for $330 Canadian shipped, which is less than £200. It's gone now but that is the sort of thing I think might be a good bet. I was tempted myself but managed to talk myself out of it.A tablet is not suitable as a primary computing device for university. Even with a keyboard it does not have the software availability for doing huge amounts of work. Not to mention that you have no idea what course the OP is doing, many courses require specialised software which will require a regular PC. I did use a tablet (albeit a Windows one) for taking notes in lectures but there is no way that I could have completed my dissertation/thesis on anything other than a proper computer.

You also have to bear in mind that the person may be moving away from home to study. They will likely want a regular PC even just for use in their leisure time.

Quote

it would be best to ask somebody at the University what is the most popular and most recommended computer configuration.

I obviously can't speak for the OP's specific institution but during my time at university, everyone used a proper PC as their primary device, most people using either Lenovo ThinkPads or MacBooks then the rest using various consumer laptops. Nobody used an Android tablet for anything more than as a secondary device.

Quote

And I would not recommend a Microsoft Surface Pro to anybody for any reason. Although I don't mind looking at 1 and touching one but I would never buy one or recommend somebody by 1.

Why? Because the surface pro is one of the only tablets that van actually be used as a primary device? Several people at university got them instead of laptops and they did the job brilliantly.

Quote

I believe the most important consideration that a freshman has is to have a balanced view of his economic possibilities. There may come up situations where cash is needed for an emergency. Over investing in inexpensive computer would be a poor choice.

Hence why I suggested buying something used/refurbished.

Quote

In fact I believe that for most freshman courses a computer is not even required.

Maybe this was the case 20 years ago but nowadays a computer is essential. Most work is submitted electronically, most reading material is online, communication is handled almost entirely by email. Try writing a thesis without a computer these days. During my 4 year degree I think I bought maybe 4 physical books (only because they were required for open book exams where computers obviously aren't allowed) all other material was online. I also submitted almost everything online including compulsory maths tests in first year which are performed entirely online with no offline option.Thank you for all the replies! A tablet with a detachable keyboard had never been my choice because I would always need to use hard surface to put it on and therefore, inconvenient. The first and only computer I have ever used is an Acer Aspire Laptop. This might help all when suggesting laptops: I am going to be studying Law.

Solve : Laptop for Uni/College?

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