whats the best laptop for IT or business courses

need a laptop for university for sm technology course - for a friend

budget isnt the issue, i just need recs for whats good and has been practical in terms of size, options and battery life

Reply 1

TNGFR

Original post by psychstudent2625

need a laptop for university for sm technology course - for a friend
budget isnt the issue, i just need recs for whats good and has been practical in terms of size, options and battery life

14" MacBook Pro with M3 Max or Asus ROG G14 with RTX 4080, depending on their preference of Windows or OS X.

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/14-inch-space-black-apple-m3-max-with-14-core-cpu-and-30-core-gpu-36gb-memory-1tb

https://www.ebuyer.com/1615323-asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-14-inch-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-9-ga402xz-n2002w

Reply 2

Dunnig Kruger

Best laptop will depend.

1st decision is size. This will depend on your friend's mobility profile. His or her size and build - where they are on the scale from dainty ballerina build to Olympic Gold Medal Weightlifting champion. Also on whether the laptop will be carried on foot around campus a lot, or taken on buses, trains, planes. Or whether it will sit at home most of the time and be transported in their car boot, with short walks from their parking slot.
Anything from a 13.3" to a 17" could be best for your friend.

They should install and run Linux.

They should aim for a used premium business laptop from ebay for under £200. Unless they are a multi-millionaire, in which case splurging on a new premium laptop would make sense as it wouldn't be worth their time looking into fantastic deals on used laptops - in the same way it's not worth Bill Gates' time bending down to pick up a $10 note. For the rest of us it is. And it therefore almost certainly makes a huge amount of sense for your friend to have the cheapest laptop on their course that's also the (joint?) best.

Their application usage profile would determine what CPU, RAM, SSD, cooling spec would allow everything to run lightning fast. EG any 4k video editing? Any games like Cyberpunk 2077? Or would it just be standard office and studying and IT development apps?