Laptop life? What to get for A-levels and Uni?

From the father of a child just finished the first year at Uni...

Slightly different to you as the GCSE/A level lap top we had was pretty much dead so we bough a new one for the first year at Uni (a decent one so it would last the 4 years of her course) however she says that there is actually very little need to take the lap top to uni on an average day so its mostly used in the room.
She tells me that in her course, very few people take notes on lap tops in lectures - I had imagined that everyone would be tapping away but apparently this is definitely not the case.
All lectures are recorded and you can watch them back at your leisure.
All resources are online
There are so many workstations available around the uni campus that you just log on with your ID and have access to all your data.

it will, of course, depend on the subject and the Uni but we are Chemistry.

Windows/Mac choice might make a difference if you are doing a creative course - a friends daughter opted for a touch screen windows Surface machine for her design/art course. Course leader said their software wont run properly on Macs.

My opinion would be cheap/cheerful now and replace in 2 years ready for Uni if budget will allow - I notice you said 'if' she goes to Uni.
I would go for thin/light if budget allows (probably no need at all for CD/DVD player)
There will be deals during the summer 'back to school' or 'uni bundles' - often lower spec and cheap for a reason however thats not to say they will not run everything you want.

The lap top will almost certainly be used for (in order)
1. Spotify
2. Netflix
3. School/Uni Work

Hope this helps.

Feel free to fire back any questions.

This is quite a good deal on a basic decent laptop with 3 years warranty

https://www.aldi.co.uk/p/083785202477400?gclid=CjwKCAjwj4zaBRABEiwA0xwsP2Gjm92F4v6fMZaYVY-8iu9Xm92FBPB_4AMr3ttaQlECPGmmF6zOJRoCwpYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CIOlocrckdwCFRn3UQod2FQAFw

It's fine for the requirements

OP only wants a basic machine , others in the same spec only have 32gb , not 64gb

It's light and flexible .

My daughter had trashed her expensive one by year 2 of university as I suspect most of them do . Dropped , left on charge endlessly, accidental spills.

You COULD spend loads of money for cutting edge but realistically you only need to look at a 2 year old mobile phone owned by a teenager to see what happens to their stuff

OK, so sounds like she isn't doing anything particularly intensive. The question really is how much you want to spend...


Any bog standard Windows 10 laptop will do her fine for light use, bottom spec usually around 4GB RAM, mechanical HDD, i3 or equivalent CPU - if you want to "future proof" her I would recommend


W10 64-bit
8GB RAM minimum
i5 (or equivalent) minimum
SSD (not HDD)


Don't worry too much about built-in disc drives etc, as long as it's got at least 2 sets of USB ports and an HDMI connection she'll be fine. Everything else can be bought as USB "plug in" devices.

Tarambor wrote: »

Well I used to sell refurbished ex-corporate laptops 5 years old and run a Thinkpad T400 which is over a decade old now so I don't agree with that statement if you're talking decent ones but if you're talking about the majority of what PC World sell which, Apple excepted, is mostly low to mid end consumer grade crap nowhere near the quality of corporate grade then they have a point.

As for the comment by Stoke about Macs being a waste of money, they're not because they don't depreciate. My current Macbook Pro is 3 years old and they're selling on Ebay for just £200 less than I bought it for new. Find me another laptop that costs you just £200 to own for 3 years. So yes whilst the initial cost of your first one is quite eye watering ultimately they end up being cheaper to own than even the cheapest laptops you can buy due to the fact you can sell them a couple of years later for nearly what you paid for them.

What a stupid and quite ridiculous remark. Of course they depreciate. You literally (correct use of the term) contradict yourself in the following sentence. To say they don't depreciate suggests could legitimately sell a second hand one for the price of a new one. Duh.... No you can't.

Your second comment is even more ridiculous, but that's the reality distortion field right? Just another one sucked in and bitten by Steve and his slick talking. Did the turtle neck and winning smile get to you? That's called grin !!!!ing mate. He's had your pants down.

The generally accepted 'usable' lifespan of a laptop is 4-6 years for some reason, as suggested by the Tech Guy (I use the term loosely) from PC World. Dorks in PC World will continue to suggest when buying a laptop, that we should be looking for a new one after a roughly 5 years. OK. Good.

However, what the sales dork is describing is the 'recommended' lifespan. I am yet to meet anyone who actively replaces their computing equipment inline with the manufacturer/market suggestions, other than a mobile phone, which we (and by we I mean society) inexplicably replace every 2 years. I reckon you're more like 18 months, synchronised with the newest iPhone, am I right? That's a fanboi for you.

A good 5 year old laptop with an SSD would probably (almost certainly) outperform a new laptop with a HDD, although new laptops with HDD's are getting seriously rare now anyway. So the recommended lifetime of a piece of equipment is variable, but the reality is, we should replace when we need to, and most people live their life by that.

It's this life mantra, that means most people keep laptops beyond their anticipated lifespan. My ex partner continues to use her laptop from university. That means it is over 10 years old now. My best friend continues to use his laptop from BEFORE University, that's now nearer 12 years old. I personally continue to use an old Core 2 Duo which is probably over 10 years old now, most days of the week as one of my laptops for work.

My ex partners laptop is a budget brand eMachines which cost (assuming she paid full RRP) £299, and came fully loaded with a Core 2 Duo, Windows Vista and 2GB of RAM. The equivalent MacBook from 2008 according to Cnet who are pretty much Apple's own media mouthpiece they're so biased, indicate the typical price for a MacBook back then is £949. Now according to the same article, quote:

The entry-level machine uses an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU running at 2GHz, 2GB of DDR3 RAM and a 160GB hard drive

So the specs are probably not far off that of the machine my ex partner purchased. I think hers had a slightly smaller HDD at 120GB, but the processor was a Core 2 Duo running at 2GHz.

So, fast forward to now:
Here's a 2008 MacBook with 3GB of RAM and a faster processor for £79.99
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-MacBook-A1181-13-3-Laptop-2008/173399152075?epid=78692782&hash=item285f6515cb:g:mowAAOSwCmFbN3MD

Here's another for £97:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/13-inch-Apple-MacBook-2-4GHz-Core2Duo-2GB-RAM-80GB-HDD-A1181-Early-2008-9006/302794578147?hash=item467ff698e3:g:CgsAAOSwivNbOiHt

And another for £169, but with significantly better spec:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-MacBook-A1181-Core-2-Duo-2-00GHz-13-2007-2008-4GB-320GB-HDD-Mac-OSx10-7/192522088692?_trkparms=aid%3D555017%26algo%3DPL.CASSINI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20151005190705%26meid%3Df192e7620ff5412088f6e3a5edf716e4%26pid%3D100506%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26%26itm%3D192522088692&_trksid=p2045573.c100506.m3226

and the eMachines from the same era?

Lower spec'd than the one my ex owned, £79.99:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/eMachines-Laptop-E525-Series-Intel-Celeron-Dual-Core-1-8Ghz-120Gb-HDD-2Gb-Ram/263758449191?hash=item3d693a8a27:g:e1kAAOSwhIZbJvLR

With the AMD, instead of Intel CPU, £69:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/eMachines-G420-AMD-Athlon-X2-2-10Ghz-Laptop-4Gb-RAM-250Gb-HDD-Windows-10/142845729025?hash=item214244d901:g:MQcAAOSwWV9bMovs

Unfortunately, there are no others I can compare too. Now, I know they're not as pretty as the 10 year old Mac but they are proof that your theory is essentially nonsense.

What it also suggests is that Apple products basically depreciate in-line with most other products and like most electrical hardware, their depreciation eventually flatlines and it is probably around the time their price syncs up with their equivalent PC rivals. They may well hold their value for their first few years, but unless you are willing to subscribe to the 2-4 year turnaround of your laptop, then you are not going to experience the financial benefits that you are desperately trying to sell.

So, Macs are a complete waste of money for a student, unless it's all about 'feels'. If you want to look good while sat in Starbucks, go for a Mac. If you want to use pretty and glossy software, go for a Mac. If you want to have interesting discussions in posh Wine Bar Bistro's about being creative on your Mac, go for a Mac. If you want to get a degree, complete your work and not spend an absolute fortune doing so..... buy a PC.

And all that was typed by someone who actively refuses to use Windows and is currently on Debian