Suggestions for a laptop

AnnBar

I have a son going to uni this year too but he planned ahead and got a laptop for his christmas/birthday.

If I were you I would offer him enough money to buy a decent laptop - £300 to £400. If he wants something fancier like a macbook, which are much more expensive, then he would need to find the rest of the money for it himself.

Voyager2002

BusyLizzy wrote: »

Thanks for all your ideas.
I didn't realise that there was so much to consider!
My son has made a casual remark about fancying an Apple Mac book. Any comments?

Very flash, and very pricey!

zkellerman

Macbooks are incredibly expensive. Looks like he's after something flashy and expensive courtesy of his parents rather than practical / useful! As for the netbook comments, a lot of netbooks have a 93% size keyboard, missing only a few unessential keys. Personally I don't find them too uncomfortable after typing for a long time on them but it's going to be different for some. I've had heavy use from both a netbook and laptop and I just wouldn't want to be carrying a cumbersome laptop around with me all day, on top of books / materials.

Depends on what you want for your son though, you're the one buying it! I'd be dead against a Macbook though as they're not really practical at all for University work and would be a theft magnet. That and you'd be looking at spending about 800 quid upwards for something which you can get for half that price which does pretty much the same thing. If you're after a laptop make sure it has a decent battery life, memory and processor. :money:

bouncydog1

Totally disagree on the MacBook comments. DD has a MacBook pro bought last year for 1st year UNi and it is fantastic. The majority of her housemates also have them and no more a theft magnet than any other laptop. suggest you find out exactly what your son is going to be doing on his course and buy the very best you can afford that is going to last him. Apple store have been very helpful and if he waits until he gets to UNi and buys via the Apple store will get good discount.

Ettenna

I've got an HP Pavilion DM1 netbook. It's an 11.6" screen rather than 10.1", which makes a lot of difference. I use it in lectures, in the library and at home as well. It has sufficient USB ports but will also support a 4-way hub. I think that "normal" laptops are enormous now!! The only thing I don't like is having to have a separate DVD drive but I don't use it very often for DVD/CD's.

the-mango

zkellerman wrote: »

As for the netbook comments, a lot of netbooks have a 93% size keyboard, missing only a few unessential keys. Personally I don't find them too uncomfortable after typing for a long time on them but it's going to be different for some. I've had heavy use from both a netbook and laptop and I just wouldn't want to be carrying a cumbersome laptop around with me all day, on top of books / materials.

I agree that it's not uncomfortable typing on a netbook and I use mine all the time for taking out with me, but if that was my only computer I don't think I'd survive. I have a laptop which I use at home, in fact I rarely use my netbook at home, just due to screen size I think.

The best compromise I think would be a lightweight laptop, if they exist? they must do! Sorry bit out of touch with the laptop world

Rikki

My son had a desktop in his halls. Bigger screen for watching dvd's, easier to work at and harder to steal. Then a netbook for taking to the library and lectures because it was lighter and took up less space.

Certainly worth thinking about.

jbreckmckye

As Rikki mentions, why not a desktop? This idea that students wil take their machines into lectures is a total red herring - when I was a student, I saw this tried in the very first week of the course then never again.

Laptops are about twice as expensive as desktops of equivalent power, are easily stolen, are quick to overheat and typically exhibit poorer build quality. They cannot be upgraded (well, with a few exceptions), their keyboards are harder to type on and their small monitors directly impact productivity. And if your son does take an interest in PC gaming, he's going to face a lot of difficulties with a lappy.

Finally, you don't mention what your son is studying, but if he needs to use certain digital tools as part of his work - like graphic or media manipulation tools, or development environments for computer scientists - power will be paramount, and you can get a lot more bang for your buck taking the desktop route.

Helix

jbreckmckye wrote: »

As Rikki mentions, why not a desktop? This idea that students wil take their machines into lectures is a total red herring - when I was a student, I saw this tried in the very first week of the course then never again.

Laptops are about twice as expensive as desktops of equivalent power, are easily stolen, are quick to overheat and typically exhibit poorer build quality. They cannot be upgraded (well, with a few exceptions), their keyboards are harder to type on and their small monitors directly impact productivity. And if your son does take an interest in PC gaming, he's going to face a lot of difficulties with a lappy.

Finally, you don't mention what your son is studying, but if he needs to use certain digital tools as part of his work - like graphic or media manipulation tools, or development environments for computer scientists - power will be paramount, and you can get a lot more bang for your buck taking the desktop route.

What about doing group work in the library. On my course we often had group assignments and it wasn't practical to find enough free computers grouped together. A Laptop was essential really, but it might be because I did an IT course.

jbreckmckye

That's true, some courses do expect laptops for certain activities. I'd still find out if that's really the case for this course, though.