college laptop recommendation

OffalyMedic

Looking for a laptop which I can use for college.
Most of course will be done through laptop eg moodle, power points, assignments etc so I will have a lot of personal files.

Will also use it to story photos and videos off my phone as a back up

And general Web work eg netflix, facebook, boards online shopping ECT.

With the above in mind can you give me a recommendation
Budget 300-400max
8gb ram
Ssd rather than harddrive
Will buy genuine refurb if good enough deal

Thanks

listermint

shaunac93 wrote: »

Looking for a laptop which I can use for college.
Most of course will be done through laptop eg moodle, power points, assignments etc so I will have a lot of personal files.

Will also use it to story photos and videos off my phone as a back up

And general Web work eg netflix, facebook, boards online shopping ECT.

With the above in mind can you give me a recommendation
Budget 300-400max
8gb ram
Ssd rather than harddrive
Will buy genuine refurb if good enough deal

Thanks

Isn't all of that webbased?

Have you seriously considered the new Chromebooks I have a Dell 13 at home and it does all of that with ease battery is exceptional and it boots up in seconds.

OffalyMedic

listermint wrote:

Have you seriously considered the new Chromebooks I have a Dell 13 at home and it does all of that with ease battery is exceptional and it boots up in seconds.

Have a Toshiba chrome book and although I do love it if find not having Microsoft office a real pain...office online just isn't the same...sick of not being able to find my files either cause they are stored on different clouds depending on what program I use eg one drive, goole drive, desktop etc etc

if you can stretch to 50 euro more for an investment this is a great deal for 450 euro. will be good for years to come.

http://www.currys.ie/Product/lenovo-yoga-510-14-full-hd-2-in-1-with-faster-ssd-storage-black/341931/409.4?awc=5297_1484823781_2683ad5727e6cb5b3acfea353d5bc586&utm_source=Skimlinks&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Affiliate

up-to-date core i3 cpu, great IPS full hd screen (important these days and great to look at especially for netflix etc- most other laptops in this price range will have sh1t non-ips screens at 720p resolution which would annoy you over time), ssd. touchscreen, convertible.
doesn't have 8gb but 4gb is fine for windows 10. you could upgrade later with a 8gb card for about 40 euro if you really wanted to.
1.8kg and 14 inch make it a great balance of portability (won't be bulky in size or weight in your bag/backpack) and usability (e.g. big enough to work comfortably in excel, ppt etc).

Alanstrainor

glasso wrote: »

if you can stretch to 50 euro more for an investment this is a great deal for 450 euro. will be good for years to come.

http://www.currys.ie/Product/lenovo-yoga-510-14-full-hd-2-in-1-with-faster-ssd-storage-black/341931/409.4?awc=5297_1484823781_2683ad5727e6cb5b3acfea353d5bc586&utm_source=Skimlinks&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Affiliate

core i5 cpu, great IPS full hd screen (important these days and great to look at especially for netflix etc- most other laptops in this price range will have sh1t non-ips screens at 720p resolution which would annoy you over time), ssd. touchscreen, convertible.
doesn't have 8gb but 4gb is fine for windows 10. you could upgrade later with a 8gb card for about 40 euro if you really wanted to.
1.8kg and 13.3 inch make it a great balance of portability (won't be bulky in size or weight in your bag/backpack) and usability (e.g. big enough to work comfortably in excel, ppt etc).

I think this is a good option also. But just to correct a couple of things:

This is a core i3, not i5.
It is also a 14" machine, not 13.3. But this shouldn't be a huge concern.

As for spec, I'd say it's decent, I know I would want 8GB of RAM asap. This machine appears to only have one RAM slot, so it would make it slightly more expensive to upgrade.

Worth keeping in mind that storage is quite limited on this at 128GB. Not a huge concern, especially considering most laptops in this price point do not have SSD's at all.

Alanstrainor

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I think this is a good option also. But just to correct a couple of things:

This is a core i3, not i5.
It is also a 14" machine, not 13.3. But this shouldn't be a huge concern.

As for spec, I'd say it's decent, I know I would want 8GB of RAM asap. This machine appears to only have one RAM slot, so it would make it slightly more expensive to upgrade.

Worth keeping in mind that storage is quite limited on this at 128GB. Not a huge concern, especially considering most laptops in this price point do not have SSD's at all.

I had realised my mistake on the i3 vs i5 and the screen size and corrected it.
despite what people say windows 10 will work fine on 4gb unless you have a lot of intensive applications (like excel, chrome with 20 tabs! etc) open simultaneously. obviously 8gb is better and a 1 x 8gb stick is approaching the 40 to 45 euro mark now so not too much.
e.g.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Timetec%C2%AE-76TT16NUSL2R8-8G-PC3-12800-Unbuffered-Computer/dp/B0145WDNI4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484826275&sr=8-1&keywords=crucial+ram+8gb+ddr3+1x8gb

haven't seen such a deal tbh for a laptop like this in Ireland.

Digitalirish

Just get something portable with a long battery life. Your requirements aren't that demanding. I'm in the same boat...but I need a durable laptop too. Anyone know which brands are the most durable?

Digitalirish

Digitalirish wrote: »

Just get something portable with a long battery life. Your requirements aren't that demanding. I'm in the same boat...but I need a durable laptop too. Anyone know which brands are the most durable?

every brand makes lots of different laptops. you can't say which one exactly will be durable.

That said,
I would avoid Acer in general.

Asus
Dell
Lenovo

are brands that I've had good experiences with.

Digitalirish

Digitalirish wrote: »

Just get something portable with a long battery life. Your requirements aren't that demanding. I'm in the same boat...but I need a durable laptop too. Anyone know which brands are the most durable?

I find that if you don't stretch to an i processor that after 2 years or so with all the cumulative windows updates and whatever else you've installed that it will start to slow down and become annoying to use.

OffalyMedic

Thanks for your suggestions. this seems to match all my requirements at a good price



Just wondering how difficult is it to upgrade the Ram to 8gb after purchase?

Edit: only available for collection from Navan or Tralee...neither very accessible from me in the Midlands so back to the drawing board I go!