Laptop for school

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KrentistDDS

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Hey all,

I'm looking to buy a laptop for school and I'm looking for some opinions on what you guys think is the best option.

I generally prefer windows to mac OS so that narrows it down a bit. I'll also have an iPad so I'm not sure I care for a 2 in 1 option although I wouldn't totally disregard it.

Which specs are enough and what's overkill? (i5 vs i7, 8g RAM vs 16g, 256 SSD vs 512 etc)

In terms of size, is 13" will be too small to look at for extended periods of time?

I'm willing to spend up to ~$1300 but would rather keep the cost a little lower than that.

I don't much care for gaming so not too worried about graphics..

2 that caught my eye are the Huawei matebook X pro (or the Huwei matebook 13 if specs are sufficient) and the Dell XPS (13 or 15?) but of course any suggestions are okay. Thanks

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Always go with SSD, more responsive. I am impatient and usually have 50 browser windows open, so I'd say 8-16gb ram minimum for multitaskers and multicore processors (quad core min, hexacore+ preferred)

What do you think of the LG Gram 17? Very lightweight 17" screen. I value screen real estate and the very lightweight option. Not performance heavy, but convenience factor is great.
 
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thats cute. laptop for "school". we all know its for DOTA and streaming.
 
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My school gets the XPS 13 for our whole class. I was afraid I wouldn’t like it coming from a big laptop but I don’t ever think it’s too small. I had a Lenovo flex before that was supposed to be top-of-the-line and I constantly had problems with it slowing down and the display was nowhere near as good as the XPS. It’s probably more expensive than the Huawei you’re looking at, but I bet it’s much nicer even if it has similar specs. If you haven’t been following the news, Huawei has also been implicated in tech espionage for the Chinese government...
 
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Anybody have an opinion on Acer laptops? People either seem to like them and rate them highly, or experience catastrophic failure. I currently use a POS, 5 year old Gateway laptop, so my standards aren't very high, if I could load a Google Chrome page in under 5 seconds that's a win. The XPS 13 seems good. However, I will literally only use my laptop for school/email/shopping etc, so I feel inclined to go with the cheapest, most reliable option I can find.
 
Go with SSD (faster than HD and as for how much gb i think 256gb is good enough unless you hate deleting and really want to store many videos and etc). intergrated graphics (game is not a priority), 8gb RAM should be enough for the dental school multitasking and perhaps IPS screen (better viewing over TN). Your lower end specifications will definitely work well for dental school and you do not need to be spending over 1k for those specs.
 
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The best Windows laptop you can choose over MacBook Pro 13 right now is the new Dell XPS 13. It comes in various configurations and so you can choose one as per use. You can also go with other options like Razer Blade Stealth 13 (if you want to play games), Surface Book 2 and Laptop 2.

Reference: Best Laptops For College Students
 
Just spent about 630 on a Lenovo flex 15 inch ips 2 in 1 8gb ram, 256gb ssd intel i5 processor +active pen and an average dedicated graphic card (not really for school.. it's extra) It was through Amazon.
 
Hey all,

I'm looking to buy a laptop for school and I'm looking for some opinions on what you guys think is the best option.

I generally prefer windows to mac OS so that narrows it down a bit. I'll also have an iPad so I'm not sure I care for a 2 in 1 option although I wouldn't totally disregard it.

Which specs are enough and what's overkill? (i5 vs i7, 8g RAM vs 16g, 256 SSD vs 512 etc)

In terms of size, is 13" will be too small to look at for extended periods of time?

I'm willing to spend up to ~$1300 but would rather keep the cost a little lower than that.

I don't much care for gaming so not too worried about graphics..

2 that caught my eye are the Huawei matebook X pro (or the Huwei matebook 13 if specs are sufficient) and the Dell XPS (13 or 15?) but of course any suggestions are okay. Thanks

I used a Surface Pro and absolutely loved it. The ability to have a tablet and a laptop all in one was so nice. Seriously the best of both worlds. Can make hand written notes on powerpoints on it. Can type a paper just like I would on any other laptop. Can draw on a diagram of the cranial nerves and save it and add it to a PowerPoint for a presentation. None of these things are as intuitive and easy to do on any other laptop, in my opinion.
 
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