The Student Room Group

First timer student laptop..?

Right, I'm in the market for my first ever laptop.. (used familys etc, never had my own.)

I'm starting Uni in September and need something quick, lightweight, MS Word etc, good browsing speed. (Won't be gaming).

The numbers of RAM, core processer etc confuse me as I don't know what they are..

I can get a mac discounted by up to £175 direct from Apple, but that's still a good £700-900, which is almost 1/5 of my student loan!

Please point me in the right direction..

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How much would you like to spend? What will you be using it for, i.e. any video editing or high level software (CAD, Model Simulation, etc.)? Would you like a hybrid tablet-laptop?
Reply 3
I'd spend out on a mac if I have to. I'd be happy with £500 though. General use, essays, music, watching tv.. Nothing high tech!
Get a MacBook Air 13" if you are willing to shell out.

Else go for an Asus, HP or Lenovo with i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 500GB of HD space.
Do you actually need a laptop? Do you really need it to be portable? If your uni has good computer clusters and you are planning to take notes by hand you might be able to get more for your money or get what you need for cheaper if you go for a desktop/all-in-one rather than a laptop. :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by Davyy
I'd spend out on a mac if I have to. I'd be happy with £500 though. General use, essays, music, watching tv.. Nothing high tech!


Ultrabooks are pretty good, you also need to consider how long you'll keep it before you upgrade. There's not much point in buying a laptop with a celeron processor as it will start to suffer and become slow.

You want ideally at minimum an i3 or (dual core AMD). Maybe dedicated graphics but this isn't a must. Roughly 4gb of RAM.
Reply 7
Thanks for the above.. In layman's terms what does that mean?

I want a laptop as Id much rather study in my halls in 1st year, and i'll need one for 2nd and 3rd yr when I'm living at home as we don't have anything special!
Original post by Davyy
Thanks for the above.. In layman's terms what does that mean?

I want a laptop as Id much rather study in my halls in 1st year, and i'll need one for 2nd and 3rd yr when I'm living at home as we don't have anything special!


Personally I would just go with a MacBook Air if you aren't planning to use it for heavy duty stuff - you can get MS for Mac, for £80 (or just crack it), but there are also free alternatives like Pages, Numbers and Keynote (Apple apps) which are just as good for essays and stuff.
Reply 9
Original post by mobbsy91
Personally I would just go with a MacBook Air if you aren't planning to use it for heavy duty stuff - you can get MS for Mac, for £80 (or just crack it), but there are also free alternatives like Pages, Numbers and Keynote (Apple apps) which are just as good for essays and stuff.



Lovely, cheers for the info. We'll see!
MacBooks are awesome, but they are also pretty expensive.

The biggest thing you'll get going up to a MBA is the battery life, but you'll have to decide if that's worth it for you (most £500 laptops last about 4 hours, MBA lasts >10 hours). You probably won't notice most of the other differences.
Reply 11
So if I wasn't go for a macbook, other than battery life can people show me examples of laptops on par performance wise?
Reply 12
Original post by Davyy
So if I wasn't go for a macbook, other than battery life can people show me examples of laptops on par performance wise?


Just on dabs...http://www.dabs.com/category/computing,laptops-and-tablets,laptops/11105-54590000

However an i3 is fine for most things, although most windows PCs are 15" which is less portable
Original post by Davyy
So if I wasn't go for a macbook, other than battery life can people show me examples of laptops on par performance wise?


If you don't care about battery life and weight, there are many cheaper laptops with similar or better performance.

Just look for an i3, i5 or i7, 4xxx, and clock speed that's 2-3GHz. 8GB RAM or more. If you won't be gaming, don't worry about graphics.
Original post by Davyy
Right, I'm in the market for my first ever laptop.. (used familys etc, never had my own.)

I'm starting Uni in September and need something quick, lightweight, MS Word etc, good browsing speed. (Won't be gaming).

The numbers of RAM, core processer etc confuse me as I don't know what they are..

I can get a mac discounted by up to £175 direct from Apple, but that's still a good £700-900, which is almost 1/5 of my student loan!

Please point me in the right direction..


Your best bet would be the 13" MacBook Air. Battery life is very long, it's powerful, really light and portable, and very easy to use. Comes with a backlit keyboard too, which may not sound that good now, but once you start using it you'll realise what a life saver it is!!!

I'd recommend buying it from amazon, as it is a lot cheaper! (we're talking £200-£300 cheaper, which is more than you'd get off with your student discount if bought direct from Apple)

All other laptops that fit the criteria of long battery, portable, easy to use are just as expensive, if not more expensive, and so for what it's worth, you're better off getting a MacBook Air.
Reply 15
Original post by TheTechN1304
Your best bet would be the 13" MacBook Air. Battery life is very long, it's powerful, really light and portable, and very easy to use. Comes with a backlit keyboard too, which may not sound that good now, but once you start using it you'll realise what a life saver it is!!!

I'd recommend buying it from amazon, as it is a lot cheaper! (we're talking £200-£300 cheaper, which is more than you'd get off with your student discount if bought direct from Apple)

All other laptops that fit the criteria of long battery, portable, easy to use are just as expensive, if not more expensive, and so for what it's worth, you're better off getting a MacBook Air.




Thanks! Would you still get the warranty from apple, although you didnt buy it direct?
Original post by Davyy
Thanks! Would you still get the warranty from apple, although you didnt buy it direct?


Yes. You get the same warranty no matter where you buy it from (well, legal places only of course).
I dropped £850 on a reasonably high end custom built gaming laptop.

It's currently 2 years and 2 months old and still going strong.

Macs are overpriced. If I'd gotten an equivilent spec Mac it'd have cost me cost to double the price. ~£1400 or so at the time.

Most people should never need to spend more than £400-500 on a laptop for general needs. Unless you're rendering videos and doing a lot of media photoshopping where processing power is necessary.

Get an i5 with minimum 4GB RAM that is expandable to 8 and be done with it.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptop-computers/

Choose a base build and customise from there. I'd definitely recommend PC Speicalist
(edited 9 years ago)
Go for the Asus Transformer Book Flip. It has an i5 4200U processor, 6GB RAM, and can be used in laptop mode and tablet mode. It is on sale now at PC World for £499.99.
I have a Sony Vaio E14. It's fab. You don't need a Mac. Overpriced.

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