Lenovo E550 worth 600 euro for college/programming/web design?

Tombi!

That's pretty much all I need it for. checked with the college and they said dual core + 8GB of RAM and I'm golden.
As for the sticky topic:
Budget is 600 Euro ideally but I can stretch it to about a grand if the laptop is amazingly good value.
Windows 7 and Ubuntu (will install both myself)
Intended use is: programming/web design and college work in general (word, powerpoint, etc)
Mobility is a bit important, nothing over the usual 15.6 inches but I need a numpad.
Warranty needs to be at least one year.
I'll possibly run an emulator for Android on it but I've done that on a much weaker laptop from about 4 years ago with the Intel 3000 and dual core i5 I already have a beefy-ish Pc at home if I ever need more power. The laptop is mostly for the portability (as in battery life, weight is fine to me). I've had fairly good comments about battery life and it gives me the 8GB of RAM and the HDD is fine too.

I'm struggling to actually think of a reason to get a better processor beyond the default i3-5005u since any heavy duty stuff I could do on a home PC and any games I'll play are old ones, from over a decade or more. And all I've seen so far is that it'll draw more power and is a slight benefit in some cases but it's also 160 euro more and I can't think of a reason to get it,

Does anyone else have a different idea of what would be better or if that laptop is fine?
http://shop.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/thinkpad/edge-series/e550/
That's the link for it, I'll be getting 8GB of RAM and the 1080p screen.

Alanstrainor

I reckon that's a good enough buy. While I was reading your post I was just thinking that you'd need a high res screen, and it looks like you have that covered!

ED E

I'm slightly unclear here, which skew are you buying? The 1080p/8GB revision is almost double the base price?

Decent unit all the same. Though IMO even 15" is too big for lugging in and out of college.

Tombi!

Sorry about that. Link just goes to the selection page. Thought it'd save the configuration.
It'll be the base model for 499 (default price) and I'll get the 8GB of RAM and the 1080p screen bringing it to a total of €583.

I don't mind a 15.6 inch one. It fits in a bag and isn't very heavy; I definitely want a numpad since it makes playing certain games far easier.

I thought most small laptops have touchscreens or are hybrids which to me is a slight waste since I have a tablet already with a keyboard and I'd rather not have a touchscreen since it just eats up battery life and I'd get no use from it.

Alanstrainor

If that's the price with 8GB and a 1080p screen I don't really think you can go to wrong to be honest with you.

ED E

Alanstrainor wrote: »

If that's the price with 8GB and a 1080p screen I don't really think you can go to wrong to be honest with you.

Agreed, good price there. Last time I ordered a lenovo for a relative(circa 1 yr) they had a student discount of a further 10-15%, think it was through one of the student websites. Have a look, make it even better value.

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

I don't mind a 15.6 inch one. It fits in a bag and isn't very heavy; I definitely want a numpad since it makes playing certain games far easier.

I thought most small laptops have touchscreens or are hybrids which to me is a slight waste since I have a tablet already with a keyboard and I'd rather not have a touchscreen since it just eats up battery life and I'd get no use from it.

The screen eats battery, not the digitizer. Theres some CPU overhead in palm detection and stuff but its not major.

If you want a numpad then you're stuck, but after doing several years with a 15.6 then moving to a 12" I found the change to be a godsend. Being a cyclist that may be more of a deal breaker for me though.