Need a laptop at university?

I personally wouldn't be happy to write a 3000 word essay on a tablet and it's smaller to read/research on. However, it's really your preference, you'd also have the option of using your university computers (although you often can't guarantee getting on one when you want to). I agree with the above advice, set aside a few hundred pounds and see how it goes with your first few essays. If you find you're doing okay you have some extra money for next years deposit/holiday/savings/bailing yourself out etc and if you find it's not as easy as you thought then you can buy something.

If you dont need a laptop then you dont. I would want one for mobiile internet at least. A laptop is much better at prodcutivity tasks rather than browsing and consuming content. If you think you will be ok with just an ipad, then try Uni without one. You can always buy one quickly if you feel you need it (ringfence some money).

I prefer to have one for a full functioning word processor, decent keyboard, storage and reasonable size screen.

Ah ok, thank you. I regularly write up to 5000 word essays on my iPad for schools (I do all essay subjects) and can type much easier on it than on a keyboard (I know I'm weird). So, if that is the main potential problem I should be fine, right?

I don't see why it should be an issue if you're happy to type up long things on it. I mostly did research from books and printed using a memory stick on a uni computer so literally all I did on my laptop was type up and check email which it sounds like will be fine for you. I would still consider putting money aside if you have some, it will never do you any harm.

Thanks you. Out of interest, how much storage do you think I will need?

I didn't use a laptop for a year because my laptop was a wreck, and I am in senior year at high school. I have an iPad, so I had to do everything on my iPad. I managed to watch movies and TV on it thanks to netflix, I read books and PDFs on it, but when it comes to assignments and projects, I had to use my laptop - it has a keyboard, printing documents is easier, the screen is much bigger and has much more features on MS office.

I just bought a new laptop that I'm taking with me to uni.

I don't think that you'll manage to go through uni without a laptop, but that's just my opinion.

Thank you! Do you find that you use mobile internet a lot? I was hoping that I could use the university wifi.

How much storage do you think I will need?

Thank you. What course are you doing? And what specific difficulties came up with the pad? How much storage do you think I will need?

I'm doing Computer Science, definitely gonna need it more than you! About the storage, I'm not sure what you're talking about. How much storage on a laptop or what?

The difficulties that came with the pad were definitely the lack of a keyboard, but you can always buy one for it, also the size of the screen, the limitations that come with the amount of storage. I had to do presentations for school, also essays, abstracts, I had to upload files on a usb flash drive in order to take them to school and much more stuff that just isn't that comfortable being done on an iPad.

If you cope with an ipad then thats fine. You can always use the uni computers of you need a pc. Ringfence the money just in case you change your mind.

You cna also buy a 2nd hand laptop or have a desktop pc iin your room if need be.

For storage you cna use your uni account, a flash drive or the cloud. Please please please make multiple backups.

Storage for essays is very small and you cna get free online storage such as drop box or whatever apple or your uni gives you. Storage tends to be used for large files such as images or films and to a lesser extent music. Documents take up a small amount of space, sostorage is only a problem if you wnat to carry lots of media files round with you. If you think im aboiding ill explain again.

ps mobile internet to clarify I just meant wi fi as opposed to a fixed line internet. People like to surf the net when they are lounging but you cna do that on your ipad.

Thanks again. So would a 128GB iPad have enough storage for essays?

Absolutely. In essay terms doubt you will use over 1gb in documents over 3 years.
Is that what you have 128gb?

Please remember what I said about regular back ups. Every year students lose their work and its needless.

Also if its damaged or stolen think what you would do? insurance might be a good idea.

Btw there are generations of people who managed without laptops.

128 GB should be enough if you're only producing word documents with the odd movie download on the side. Also, I'd definitely suggest either starting to work on Google Docs, or at least uploading your files to Google Drive/Dropbox etc as a backup every so often - laptops and tablets, particularly at uni, may be damaged or displaced..

Do you guys think bringing a PC instead of a laptop is OK?

Posted from TSR Mobile