Laptop for Uni student

PapaJas

Hi. My son is off to uni and needs a new laptop just for doing his studies there. Doesn't need it for gaming etc. Budget is around £600-£700. What is important in a laptop for uni study, and does anyone have any recommendations please? Thank you

ButterCheese

You don't have to spend that much.  I would say 8GB RAM, 14-15 inch screen, intel core i5 or equivalent processor.  Depends if it needs caryying around a lot, I prefer bigger screens but smaller ones are obviously easier to take on trains etc.  I don't know if it will be taken into lectures because I left Uni 25 years ago.  Windows 11 is a must, and MS Office student package

On-the-coast

Personally (and I've just advised my son on his uni laptop purchase) I'd buy at secondhand "business" laptop of around 14 inch screen size.
They tend to the thinish and lightish (both important to students) and very tough.
decent battery life (gaming laptops are dreadful for battery life)
I'd strongly recommend 16GB ram minimum
and a decent built in web cam
touch screen adds cost, but is personal preference.
USB C charging (so you can easily top up from a decent battery pack in an emergency in a lecture with no power outlets.)
minimum 1920x1080 screen (i prefer 1920x1200 which is more "businessy")

Uni will almost certainly make a Microsfoft 365 account available for free, so don't worry about software.
yes needs to be windows 11 - most will come with that (as windows 10 will not be suppored from October)

Disk size (hard disk) not that important... but he will (he will wont he!!) be storing his information in the cloud, but I'd want 512GB (though could cope with 256)

HP / Dell / Lenovo with the specs outlined above you can get a A1 grade machine for around £300 or less... and a 2-3 year old one for £400

My 5 year old Lenovo business laptop only cost me £180... and it's perfect for slinging in the car or quick browsing when i need it. (i have other PC's for other purposes).

tacpot12

Excellent advice from On-the-coast. The only thing I would add is to consider what course your son is doing, and whether the course might drive any special requirements. If his course is on media production (which might require video editing) or any form of engineering (which might require Computer Aided Design software), then you might find he does need the sorts of graphics capabilities that come with a gaming laptop.

He should be able to find out whether there is any expectation of having a certain spec. of computer for his course via the faculty.

However, I expect that his course won't drive any special requirements, so a second-hand business laptop will be ideal for portability and battery life. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad 13 as my laptop.