Tech choosing assistance

Title really, need some help with tech for university.

I recently got back all my responses from the unis I applied too, so I’ve begun thinking of the sort of things I’ll need when I eventually move and begin studying. One of the main things I remembered is that laptops are pretty much mandatory when doing uni study, but I’m not exactly sure what to be looking for

I don’t know whether I should be looking for something like an Apple MacBook or Microsoft Surface or a Lenovo or something else. I’m not entirely sure what sort of requirements I’ll need it for, so if people could give some advice on this that would be greatly appreciated

(I’m taking Biomedicine (With placement year) if that helps, and I do have a MacBook Air but it’s very old, 11 years this year and it’s already been heavily used so I’d likely sell it and reinvest the funds into a fresh laptop)

Reply 1

FairyPeriapt

Hi, I went through this same dilemma so I'm going write down all of my own personal advice plus the advice I got from student ambassadors at the Uni's I went to go look at. I would like to say that I've selected to study History so this may be a bit more general than what you were looking for. Hope the search goes well. :smile:

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Size - are you commuting far/for long? larger laptops/tablets can cause problems/be inconvenient and bulky

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Capabilities - what can the laptop actually do? can you fold it into a tablet for easy document editing? I sit quick at processing commands and loading things quickly?

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Research - Look at reviews across a variety of website, What reviews are there? What sales are available? Do they offer student discounts (Student Beans and Uni Days are helpful for this)

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Battery life + storage - Lectures can be long and split across the day with large spaces of time in between so will the battery last? Can the storage cope with the files you might need on the device?

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Programmes - Will you be using any specialist software? Can the device cope with this?

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Cost - What's you're budget?, some good advice I got was for the first 1-2 weeks attend with your regular laptop and get a feel for the workload and then decide, You can also directly ask your lecturer who will give you the clearest view of the workload expected in the module

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Repairs/Insurance - Roughly how much would it cost to repair/replace lost parts/charger?, Would you consider insuring it? If so, what would that cost

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Comfort - can you actually envision yourself carrying it around everywhere? Do you actually like the look/feel of the laptop? IK that seems trivial and stupid but not actually liking the laptop might put you off wanting to use it to do work

Now I personally opted for a Samsung Tablet( SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2024) 10.4” Tablet - 64 GB, Grey to be specific). It came with a pen which is helpful for writing notes on PDFs, files, notes apps etc., the case i bought for it can hold the pen and came with a magnetic Bluetooth keyboard which works decently well and transforming the tablet into a laptop. I also opted for a table as I have firsthand experience from college/ A Levels the kind of back and shoulder pain carrying a large laptop around can cause.
I also looked at Lenovo Tab P12 - 8GB RAM, 128GB Storage and HonorPad 9 12.1-inch Tablet - Space Grey at the time and I personally went for the Samsung as it was a sort of in between option between those two and on sale for £259 at the time

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