Suggestions for laptop for son as a college freshman?

[Kevin Womer]

We understand a laptop is a necessity these days in college. In my day, it was notebooks and tape recorders. He has used a school provided Chromebook in high school and it was constantly having issues which the school would address, but in college he will be on his own. Reliability would be the most important factor. He is not going into graphic design and will be going to a community college about 2.5 hours away from home. He will be going into the trades but he is undecided at this time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated to get us pointed in the right direction.
Thank you,
Kevin

[julian abram]

Our department at the University of Arkansas recommends freshmen have a laptop with these 3 specs: Intel Core I5, 8.0 GB of RAM and 500 GB Hard Disk. The brand and model is up to the student (Hp, Dell, Acer, etc.) as well as the operating system (Windows or Mac). Just from personal observation I would say most students carry an HP, Dell or Mac with a 15" screen, some carry a 13" models.

[Matt Meiser]

I wouldn’t go cheap. You’ll just end up replacing it sooner. I currently really like the HP Spectre X360 line which Best Buy carries. Nice performance and a compact, lightweight machine with a decent display. I wouldn’t buy less than an i7 and 8, preferably 16gb if you don’t want to just be spending more in a couple years.

[Mark Carlson]

The school department might be able to recommend a computer depending on what type of courses hes taking. My general choice would be a samsung chromebook plus or pro. The one with the pencil stylus.

[Curt Harms]

The school department might be able to recommend a computer depending on what type of courses hes taking. My general choice would be a samsung chromebook plus or pro. The one with the pencil stylus.

Does the college have a preference? If he needs help connecting to school resources, he might have better luck with a machine the school's support people are familiar with.

[Jim Becker]

Most schools will have recommendations as already noted and I agree with the statement that this is not the time to buy the least expensive machine you can get away with. Quality counts because this is an essential tool for education...analogous to a business machine, rather than a personal nicety. I do not recommend another Chromebook in any way shape or form because the students may be required to use certain software applications that are only compatible/available on Windows or MacOS...such as MS Office. Most schools these days provide a subscription to Office 365 for students and faculty. You can't use that on Chromebooks nor can you use certain applications that may be required for some classes or subjects.

My daughter is using the MacBook Air she and I shared the cost of when she was a sophomore in HS. It's clearly well suited to get her through her remaining three years at Penn State or beyond.

[Matt Meiser]

Completely agree on no Chromebook. Its analogous to the people who showed up at school in the early 90's with a word processor.

[glenn bradley]

Near endless choices. The University where I work is currently handing out Dell Latitude 5480/5490 or 7480/7490 laptops as the staff standard platform. One of the groups in my department manage them and some of their folks operate the Help Desk so they have a historical knowledge of what survives. This is not a testimony, I'm just reporting in to add stuff to your decision process.

When I got my 7480, as always, I immediately tried to break it. My group does some terrible things to laptops and we can't have them fail when people are in the field. We run tools that make aggressive use of the hardware and the platforms undergo a lot of configuration changes throughout the day depending on what they are being used for. The 7480 held up fine which is more than I can say for some machines. I was pleasantly surprised. The point being that if this model can do all the things we have to do, it should perform for an average user just fine.

[Bill Dufour]

Buy a case and see how much breakage insurance costs. My high school charges $20 a year to fix/replace any broken laptops.
l would ask the department the student intends to major in if they prefer apple or ibm.
Bill D

[Patrick Irish]

Year old macbook pro would be perfect. Save probably 10%-20%. I'd also check the Refurb section in the Mac store. Save $$ and they are all warrantied like a new one, only a year.

I'm still using my 2008/2009 macbook I got for grad school. The first year they went to intel processors and alum chassis. I did max out the ram and swamped in a solid state hard drive about 4 years ago. I'm getting close to having to buy a new one as the OS I'm using can no longer support certain applications.

Point is, 10 years I def got my money worth and it wasn't the top of the line then. Figure $1,200 and he has it for 5 years, that's still good.

[Keith Outten]

An Apple MacBook Pro or Air would be my choice. My oldest daughter went through 3 Windows laptops over 8 years of college. My youngest daughter consumed 3 Windows laptops in her first three years so I bought her a MacBook Pro in her senior year and she is still using it today after 6 years. Only one Windows laptop in our family has survived, its the one in my shop that I use for my vinyl cutter. Several years ago Jackie and I each bought MacBooks, for us they are less expensive in the long run. I use an iMac as my business computer and in all the years we have been using Apple computers not one virus, failure to start up and no blue screens of death. They work and they are reliable for us.

[Stan Calow]

I use a small MacBook Air, and very happy with it, but while I was taking classes last year, I found it problematic to write and submit documents, spreadsheets and presentation materials, written on Apple software, to the schools Windows-based system. Docs could often not be opened or read by others, or got corrupted in conversion, even if I saved docs asWord/Powerpoint, etc. Probably my lack of current computer skills, but nevertheless, it was an obstacle.

I think I would ask the school, and see if they offer some student discount program with one of the providers, maybe through the bookstore. Also don't forget the cost of any additional windows software that will be needed that is not part of the package.

[Bill Dufour]

Does apple still offer discounts for students and teachers ?

on edit: They do offer college student pricing.
Note: the federal Apple loan has nothing to do with computers.
Bill D.

[Jim Becker]

Does apple still offer discounts for students and teachers ?

Yes, they do.[/QUOTE]


I use a small MacBook Air, and very happy with it, but while I was taking classes last year, I found it problematic to write and submit documents, spreadsheets and presentation materials, written on Apple software, to the schools Windows-based system. Docs could often not be opened or read by others, or got corrupted in conversion, even if I saved docs asWord/Powerpoint, etc. Probably my lack of current computer skills, but nevertheless, it was an obstacle.

These days, everyone, for the most part, uses Microsoft Office 365 regardless of platform. There are zero issues passing documents back and forth because it's one document format. There are no conversions. Nobody uses the free Apple applications for this kind of work.

[Charlie Velasquez]

I wouldn’t go cheap. You’ll just end up replacing it sooner..........

I would counsel just the opposite for this very reason.

For each of our kids we purchased computers for them as high school graduation presents to be used in college.

When our oldest son started we went top of the line and paid a premium. We made the purchase in late July as there was a sale. By December there were already bigger, faster, more powerful machines on the market for less money. But he was stuck with that machine for almost his whole time there.

For our other kids we went with less expensive models, but we replaced them almost yearly with newer less expensive models. That way they were never more than about 6 months behind in current technology.

Total, replacing during their time in school came out about the same as buying the one premium. And it actually saved us quite a bit. It gaves us an easy Christmas or birthday present, money we were going to spend anyway. So we didn't waste any money on superfluous presents.

P.S. These were windows machines. If you go the Mac route, you could easily be happy with that for the four year use.

[Wade Lippman]

We bought our son a high end laptop 7 years ago. The screen broke 3 times in the first 18 months. The reviews mentioned a fragile screen, but we didn't see that.
Got him a Chromebook and it was fine for the next 2.5 years. It had plenty of power to do whatever he wanted. Word processing and internet browsing doesn't require much power.

So if your son is like mine, the two most important properties are small size (my son likes 11") and durable.
I have a Yoga 11e; you can drop it 2' without hurting it.

[Jim Becker]

The bottom line is that the device must be able to run the specific applications that the school requires for their curriculum...regardless of cost for the device itself... ;)

[Chris Parks]

Besides the laptop the most critical thing is back up, if the Uni does not have facilities to back up work that would present problems if it was lost then at least an external HDD is required.

[Carlos Alvarez]

A lot of my customers have gone to MacBooks, even if they are primarily a Windows company, for the quality, reliability, and low cost. I know "low cost" seems opposite of "MacBook," but companies carefully look at the total cost of ownership, while consumers just look at the price tag. My customers are reporting basically zero issues with the MacBooks over a very long time, and plenty of Windows issues as well as hardware issues with cheaper laptops.

[roger wiegand]

A lot depends on how good the computer support on campus is. If they have excellent hardware/software support available on campus then a Windows machine can be made to work. If "desktop support" is absent or provided by you remotely then a Mac will be vastly easier to maintain. Both will do the job, the Mac much ore elegantly. My job, as the family desktop support person has gotten much easier and more pleasant since we got rid of the Windows machines. I do keep a version of Windows running on one of my Macs under VMware for a couple of programs that I use that are Windows only.

[Curt Harms]

My understanding is that there are two classes of Windows notebooks - - business and consumer. Business class machines are more money and higher quality/more durable. I have two Thinkpads (business class) T410 & X201. I replaced the spinning disk with a 256 GB. SSD. I run Ubuntu linux the vast majority of the time, Thinkpads have a reputation for being linux friendly. I do run Windows 10 on the X201 for a few minutes every 28 days and no issues there though the application is not demanding. I paid a little over $200 for both machines plus the SSDs, Corporate refurbs off Ebay.

[Matt Meiser]

That was my point. A business class machine or high end consumer machine like the HP series I mentioned or the Macs, whichever runs the applications he needs. My employer several years ago tried buying high powered lower grade consumer machines with the idea of spending less and replacing more often. We had all kinds of trouble and it wasn't worth it. Mine developed numerous stress cracks in the case from toting around the country, the hinge died, the battery didn't hold up to constant use and charge cycles, the keyboard didn't hold up, and on and on. It barely made it out of warranty even with Dell replacing most of the parts over time. We now get workstation-class laptops. Somehow we manage to run Windows, just like most of the business world and I'm on only my 3rd laptop in 11 years, including the first that only lasted about 2 years. The second due to a wave of hiring and higher priority replacements, mine got pushed out 5 years and while it was getting pretty long in the tooth but didn't keep me from doing my computing-intensive job. Its simply untrue that you can't get 4 years out of a good quality Windows-based device if that's what he needs for the program he's in.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Also remember that all Macs can run Windows in multiple ways (natively, or virtualized). They can all virtualize Windows applications, while maintaining the security and reliability of the underlying Unix operating system. PC Mag used to call the MacBook "the most reliable Windows laptop," not sure if they still do. They do a better job at Windows drivers than most other companies.

[Marshall Harrison]

I got 13" Apple MacBook Airs for my girls when they started college. BestBuy has (or had) student discounts.

I bought Windows machines for them in High School but in know time they were always so messed up from updates, viruses and Windows screwy registry screwups that they were slow and useless. Never going that route again.

[Carlos Alvarez]

BestBuy has (or had) student discounts.


Apple has student discounts for many products, and they can also be used at retail stores such as Best Buy and others. If you get a Best Buy credit account, you can get the Apple discount PLUS the credit discounts/bonuses too. Our last iPhones were about 12% off by stacking all the discounts and BB credit card bonuses.

[Derek Meyer]

Check out the Microsoft Surface Laptop and see if you can get a refurbished unit from the Microsoft store. We bought one for an employee at my work and saved about $800 over the cost of a new one, and the unit is top notch. I will look seriously at one for my next laptop.

[Dave Lehnert]

I always buy $300-$400 Windows laptops and get 6 to 8 years out of them.
The one I'm on now is 4 years old and think of it as new.

[Jerome Stanek]

I have bought a lot of refurb laptops from Mirocenter The one my wife is using is 6 years old the one I am using is 4 years and the ones out in the shop are 6 and 7 years. I got some for family members also that have lasted a long time in fact my niece has one that she takes to collage.

[Jim Becker]

I always buy $300-$400 Windows laptops and get 6 to 8 years out of them.
The one I'm on now is 4 years old and think of it as new.


I have bought a lot of refurb laptops from Mirocenter The one my wife is using is 6 years old the one I am using is 4 years and the ones out in the shop are 6 and 7 years. I got some for family members also that have lasted a long time in fact my niece has one that she takes to collage.

Consider that a college student is going to be constantly carting the computer around and that adds risk for physical damage over a very short time period. That's one reason that some of us have recommended more robust "business quality" machines. A laptop that sits on a desk or stays in the home the majority of the time is a bit different than one that is constantly in motion from dorm/apartment to classroom to library to coffee shop and back and forth. :) A broken laptop is an inconvenience for anyone, but it can be a real serious issue for a student or a business person.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Consider that a college student is going to be constantly carting the computer around and that adds risk for physical damage over a very short time period. That's one reason that some of us have recommended more robust "business quality" machines. A laptop that sits on a desk or stays in the home the majority of the time is a bit different than one that is constantly in motion from dorm/apartment to classroom to library to coffee shop and back and forth. :) A broken laptop is an inconvenience for anyone, but it can be a real serious issue for a student or a business person.

Yup, and even with business assignments we can give junk to the people who just use it at a desk all the time. Usage time and style varies a lot too. We've had users who type super-fast and spend 90% of the work time active on the computer; the keyboards and mice on the cheap stuff can't take that. Low-needs usage can be covered by almost anything.

[Robert Engel]

I agree with Charlie re: you don't a cutting edge computer for college. And he is correct that the latest and greatest are soon depreciated & within a year the next generation comes out.

If he just needs the basics: internet browing, word processing you don't need much machine for that.

We have purchased several refurbished laptops over the years and had very good luck with them. Thats what I would recommend.

I have a MacBook and I would say be careful a lot of software is not compatible. For example, the music composition software my son needed in college would not run on his Macbook.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I agree with Charlie re: you don't a cutting edge computer for college.

You can't say that. You don't know. What is the student studying, and what are their computing needs? That's like saying that nobody needs more than a chisel and plane to work with wood.


For example, the music composition software my son needed in college would not run on his Macbook.

I am certain that it would. However maybe what you meant to say is that it wasn't obvious how, and he didn't research how to make it work.

[andrew whicker]

The company I work for provides us with laptops every two years. We don't have Apple options. My best laptops have been ThinkPads. I'm using a Dell Latitude E7240 and it's a POS. Not recommended.

Note: I work remotely and bike commute to coffee shops / libraries / etc on a daily basis. I really beat up computers. Probably similar to college kids without the keg stands.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I agree, the ThinkPad business line is excellent. Their mid-high-end models are on par with Apple. They cost a little more, but also include some features the Apples don't.

[Curt Harms]

I agree, the ThinkPad business line is excellent. Their mid-high-end models are on par with Apple. They cost a little more, but also include some features the Apples don't. after IBM's involvement ended, some felt the build quality and keyboards (perhaps the best notebook keyboard out there) were no longer what they once were. They recently offered a sort of anniversary edition supposedly like the original. I will not have a notebook without the pointing stick and buttons and Thinkpads seem to have the best implementation.

[roger wiegand]

If the college offers IT support, go with what they support unless your kid is capable of doing his/her own troubleshooting and maintenance. In MA the state schools offer a set of recommended computers pre-loaded with the required software carrying a four year warranty at deeply discounted prices. They are set up with appropriate anti-virus and backup software, with pre-installed links to the campus servers. Better, each campus has a walk-in center where they stock parts for those computers and can re-image the hard drive within a couple of hours should that become necessary.

Not getting those midnight calls "Dad my computer is broken and I can't find my term paper" is priceless!

[Curt Harms]

If the college offers IT support, go with what they support unless your kid is capable of doing his/her own troubleshooting and maintenance. In MA the state schools offer a set of recommended computers pre-loaded with the required software carrying a four year warranty at deeply discounted prices. They are set up with appropriate anti-virus and backup software, with pre-installed links to the campus servers. Better, each campus has a walk-in center where they stock parts for those computers and can re-image the hard drive within a couple of hours should that become necessary.

Not getting those midnight calls "Dad my computer is broken and I can't find my term paper" is priceless!

Excellent advice. Also have a good backup plan - high capacity USB flash drives are cheap and online storage can be found for free in limited quantities. O.S. and apps are relatively easy to replace, user created data not so much.

[Kevin Womer]

Thanks for the valuable insight. We ended up going with a MacBook Air. It should serve him well for a while, we all have iPads and love them. He is more comfortable with Apple. We checked with the school at his orientation and it will be fine. I appreciate the advice from all of you.
Thank You,
Kevin

[Curt Harms]

Does your machine have the butterfly keyboard switches? If so, you may want to look into some sort of extended support.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/26/apple_keyboard_failing/

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/16/apple_gives_keyboard_rubber_pants/

I'm not an Apple guy so am not well versed on Apple issues but this sounds like an expensive "oh crap".

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for the valuable insight. We ended up going with a MacBook Air. It should serve him well for a while, we all have iPads and love them. He is more comfortable with Apple. We checked with the school at his orientation and it will be fine. I appreciate the advice from all of you.
Thank You,
Kevin
THat's a good choice. I helped my daughter buy a MBA when she was a sophomore in HS and she's now about to enter her sophomore year in college. I expect hers will easily last for the remaining three years of school with no issues. And it "just works".

[Carlos Alvarez]

Does your machine have the butterfly keyboard switches? If so, you may want to look into some sort of extended support.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/26/apple_keyboard_failing/

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/16/apple_gives_keyboard_rubber_pants/

I'm not an Apple guy so am not well versed on Apple issues but this sounds like an expensive "oh crap".

LOL, apparently "The Register" is like our National Enquirer; lots of hyped language and no accuracy. Do they also report on people who see aliens, and chemtrails? But in any case, I'm pretty sure the Air has the old keyboard. I've had the new KB on my MacBook for about four years, love it.

[Curt Harms]

LOL, apparently "The Register" is like our National Enquirer; lots of hyped language and no accuracy. Do they also report on people who see aliens, and chemtrails? But in any case, I'm pretty sure the Air has the old keyboard. I've had the new KB on my MacBook for about four years, love it.

If so, so do Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2018/06/23/apple-macbook-pro-butterfly-keyboard-broken-free-repair/

and business insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/macbook-keyboard-issue-fix-detailed-by-apple-in-new-patent-2018-3

Their writing style can be evocative of the sensationalist British papers but is often done tongue-in-cheek. And Apple doesn't like them.:p

[Roger Feeley]

See if you can get something through the college. When my daughter started northwestern law, if you bought a laptop through them, they warranted it for three years including on campus depot repairs. It really paid off when somebody spilled coffee on her computer. She took it in and they transferred the hard drive to a loaner unit on the spot. She was good to go in about an hour.

You might not not get the b3st gaming computer but reliability is a big deal.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Their writing style can be evocative of the sensationalist British papers but is often done tongue-in-cheek.

It's a ridiculous writing style that ruins all semblance of credibility.

Also I wasn't saying that there weren't a few issues with the new KB, for some users. I was commenting on the article and the over-blown feel it gave.