Laptop for college | GTAMotorcycle.com

Laptop for college

hdsomeday

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My budget is hopefully under $500 all in. First year college student, the usual extracurricular activities, youtube, Netflix etc, one or two online classes (Justice Services), MS Word or equivalent, backpackable.

A source for a decent backpack would be great too. No, its not for me. I need to get this in the next week hopefully.

Your recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hit up Canada Computers, they usually have good back to school stuff.

You could pick up something like a T430 Lenovo for that price. It's not sexy but it'll take a beating and get everything done.

Sent from my LG-H831 using Tapatalk
 
I second the Lenovo's. We have them at work and they do take a beating.

You can get good backpacks at Staples, that's where my son just got his for Uni.
 
I'm not seeing T430s that aren't refurbished, in my price range. I'm guessing I should stay away from refurbished?
 
Refurbished isn't a problem. They generally don't die until somebody breaks them, and even then I would trust a refurb enterprise laptop to last longer than a brand new consumer laptop. Maybe the battery might not be great but if that happens you can get replacements very cheap online these days. TBH it's been so long since I've even looked at a consumer laptop I don't even know what they're built like anymore, I am a big fan of enterprise laptops like Thinkpads (e.g. T430), Latitudes, etc.

HP and formerly Compaq (who else is even left) have been building garbage with the durability of Christmas ornaments for so long I got permanently turned off of them
 
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+1 for refurb lenovo over hp/acer/consumer crap.

Given the choice I like 14" laptops as they are much more portable and have much longer battery life than the typical 15.6" laptops. Doing any major work on a laptop screen is always painful, if you want more real estate you can plug in a properly large monitor at home.
 
+1 for refurb lenovo over hp/acer/consumer crap.

Given the choice I like 14" laptops as they are much more portable and have much longer battery life than the typical 15.6" laptops. Doing any major work on a laptop screen is always painful, if you want more real estate you can plug in a properly large monitor at home.

Good point. If it were my kid, I'd look for a combo of a monitor, laptop, and SSD*, I bet I could still slide that in under $500. I got a Dell E6420 over a year ago for less than $300 for my dad.

*SSD contingent on them not doing anything that needs lots of storage since it will of course be a cheap SSD
 
500 range you're going to be looking at a chromebook which is useless, cannot run MS Office
or a very bottom of the line PC that will be in the trash in a year

so refurb is agreed as the best route, and also like lenovo, specifically thinkpads

I've bought 2 refurb units from newegg in the past with great results

here's a backpack sized thinkpad for under 300 that will blow away a cheap new PC
and will last for a few years, they are not the sexiest looking PC in the world,
but there's a reason why thinkpads are the #1 PC for traveling business people

I've bought one of these exact puters from newegg and carried it around the world for 2 years
then sold it for same $ I paid for it

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ...br=1&cm_re=thinkpad-_-34-331-347CVF-_-Product
 
Residence supplies a 36" tv with hdmi input. Are there any issues with a mini displayport to hdmi converter?
 
If you can ship to an American address and pick it up over the border here's a refurb surface pro 3 for about $500 CDN https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._pro_3_refurbished-_-9SIAD265A57032-_-Product

These are great laptops. I use mine for teaching and the digitizer pen comes in very handy. You can convert this into a powerful tablet and take notes digitally on it. Reasonably packable and still a premium product. Get the type cover for the surface pro 4 (it fits and is a better keyboard) and you have a great laptop.
 
If you can ship to an American address and pick it up over the border here's a refurb surface pro 3 for about $500 CDN https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._pro_3_refurbished-_-9SIAD265A57032-_-Product

These are great laptops. I use mine for teaching and the digitizer pen comes in very handy. You can convert this into a powerful tablet and take notes digitally on it. Reasonably packable and still a premium product. Get the type cover for the surface pro 4 (it fits and is a better keyboard) and you have a great laptop.


I pondered a Surface as my next purchase, Consumer Reports says its a problem.. Any Surface users out there?

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/10/tec...dex.html?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool
 
It's not sexy but it'll take a beating and get everything done.

Sent from my LG-H831 using Tapatalk

No one going to run with that one? No one at all? :hiding:
 
If you can ship to an American address and pick it up over the border here's a refurb surface pro 3 for about $500 CDN https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._pro_3_refurbished-_-9SIAD265A57032-_-Product

These are great laptops. I use mine for teaching and the digitizer pen comes in very handy. You can convert this into a powerful tablet and take notes digitally on it. Reasonably packable and still a premium product. Get the type cover for the surface pro 4 (it fits and is a better keyboard) and you have a great laptop.

Rated as the least repairable computers in existence and known to have tons of problems so not recommended by Consumer Reports.

For that price range I'd go used. But I also think almost any computer built in the last 10 years will do what you're asking.
 
No one going to run with that one? No one at all? :hiding:
...and another reason to miss @inreb


sent from my Purple LGG4 on the GTAM app
 
I pondered a Surface as my next purchase, Consumer Reports says its a problem.. Any Surface users out there?

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/10/tec...dex.html?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool

This is just one of the more glaring examples of CR reporting methodology troubles. They are voluntary surveys completed only by CR subscribers. A self-selection of a self-selection makes for horrendously skewed data. Microsoft has had many problems with some models of the surface with horrendous return rates (most recently SP4), I think most have been fixed in firmware, but sometimes it takes months and many attempts.

I have a surface and at lenovo laptop. They both have some advantages, but if I only had one, the laptop is the clear winner (cheaper, faster, easier to use, longer battery life, probably more durable, larger batteries available, battery replaceable, more than 1 usb port, etc.). A friend uses the surface as his primary computer and is quite happy, so opinions vary.

The surface is nice in meetings as a laptop standing up is isolating and typing is distracting. The surface basically cannot be used on your lap with the keyboard, it requires a decent sized flat desk to set it up as all of the weight is high and balanced on the leg. The pen and keyboard aren't included with many surface models and cost as much as a cheap laptop if you buy them new.

Battery life on the surface is abysmal compared to a laptop (or conventional tablet). It has to stay on the charger as it self-discharges at an alarming rate (completely dead in less than a week). I've never tried using it for a long time in a stretch as I use it as a supplemental device (primarily meetings and pdf markup) so I don't know how long it lasts under use.

Avoid any Windows RT surface (or any other device) like the plague.

EDIT:
So many internal server error 500 messages. I had to cut and paste this in one sentence at a time.
 
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In the $500 range most of the stuff is soon to be junk anything under that is junk.
Check out http://forum.notebookreview.com/forums/what-notebook-should-i-buy.16/ as there are lots of people there that know every notebook out there. See if you can't find something on sale. Also be aware that many manufacturers will put in a couple nice components and string it together with crap.
 
Found this on redflagdeals.com - figure you would find this handy.

[IBM] ThinkPad & IdeaPad - EPP (Employee Purchase Program) Discounted

More offers from IBM - http://lnv.gy/1SJkJoE

Passcode: FNDEPP
Click on link above to see the newest deals.

Prices are always changing, so be sure to check the link for the latest deal.
 
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