Advice needed for a College Student

[XPPD1510]

My daughter is off to college this summer/fall. I will be buying her a laptop to take to college with her.

She will be going to primarily a Dell campus, but the tech support there handles all major brands.

They recommend a 2+ ghz processer, at least 3 gigabytes of RAM, a large hard drive, and a CD/DVD burner. She will need a good wireless card to connect anywhere on campus and long battery life.

They also recommend a 3 year onsite warranty.

Also required is Microsoft Office Professional and a good anti-virus software.

We are also going to need to purchase a small portable printer for her dorm room and a good flash drive.

What is your budget?
<$1500 with some wiggle room.

What country will you be buying this in?
USA

What size notebook do you prefer?
Thin and Light (13 - 14-inch screen)
Mainstream (15 - 16-inch screen)

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
Maybe

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for?
Web Surfing, Office and Productivity Software, Listening to Music, Photo Editing, Video Editing, Video Chat and Conference, Movie Streaming and Viewing

Completing college.

Where will you be using this laptop?
Will be used different places

How many hours of battery life do you need?
4+

Will you be buying online or in store?
online or in store

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
Standard Resolution (1366 x 768)
High Resolution (1600 x 900)

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen?
Glossy or Matte is fine

Is the laptops design important to you?
Yes

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
Around 05/31/2012

How long do you want this laptop to last?
4 years

How much storage capacity do you need?
250 GB

Are you interested in SSD for storage?
No

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
DVD Burner

Thank you for your sound advice. I will be watching the bargains sub-forum as well.

[Something glitched and the opening post vanished.]

[Jarhead]

*Note: I'm a current college student (rising sophomore), so hopefully I can help out.

Business-class laptops are better to take to college than the regular, consumer-class laptops that you usually see at big box stores. They're more durable, built better, and usually come with better warranty/phone service. I'd look into the Dell Latitude, HP Probook, or Lenovo Thinkpad X or T series of laptops, which can be found on each OEM's website. Two particular models you should consider are the Dell Latitude E6520 or the Lenovo Thinkpad T520, both of which are great 15" business laptops. Don't know how much the E6520 gets, but a 9-cell on the T520 will give about 8 hours of real-world battery life, whereas the 6-cell should be around 6-7 hours.

Whatever laptop you get, I suggest the following:

• Focus on the display first and foremost. 1366*768 on a 15" laptop isn't very good, not only because of low PPI and resolution, but also because the displays are low-quality (color, blackness, etc). Instead you should aim for at least 1600*900 minimum, or 1920*1080, both of which are typically high-quality panels. An upgrade to 900p is usually very cheap (for the T520, it's +$50, whereas an upgrade to 1080p would be +$200; however, after using the 1080p panel for a year I highly recommend it).
• All other upgrades (CPU, RAM, etc.) shouldn't be placed on as high as priority as the display (or hard drive, since you mention you need a large one). Go with whatever base CPU and RAM the laptop comes with (be it an i3 or i5; both will be more than enough for your daughter in college).
• I would recommend that you stay away from consumer-class laptops. Students, like myself, with either intentionally abuse them (shove them into backpacks unprotected, etc) or will have accidents (like liquid damage from that secret beer pong party ). Dell and HP business laptops come standard with a 3yr NBD (Next Business Day) warranty, though Lenovo Thinkpads come with the usual 1yr depot warranty (though can be upgraded for a cost).

Since 900p and 1080p screens are hard to see in person (since big box stores tend not to stock them), here's a visual comparison between 768p (common), 900p, and 1080p displays using an Excel spreadsheet (so you can see both vertical and horizontal differences):

Spoiler :

^^^To compare with a real-life analog, a sheet of wide-rule filler paper has 26 rows that you can write on.


^^^College-ruled filler paper has 30 rows to write to.

[pepper_john]

Thinkpad T420 with 900p display upgrade or T520 with 1080p upgrade. If you want more mobility and a good screen, then thinkpad X220 (12.5") with an IPS screen display.

edit: lenovo has deep discount for students.

[MattB85]

My recommendation would be a Dell Latitude E6420 or E6520. I have two Dell E-series notebooks, one for work and one for personal use, and both have been completely reliable. The work one gets bounced around a bit and it has proven to be durable as well.

[Karamazovmm]

Im going to recommend something lighter and more portable, depending on what course she is going to do, you could go for a ultrabook, its all the rage this year.

Sincerely you have already some good options

MBA 13 - its easy to install windows on it, but the touchpad loses some functionality.

folio 13 - good and rugged hp ultrabook

dell xps 13, asus ux31, envy 4t

not ultrabooks, but quite portable, lenovo thinkpad x220, toshiba r835

all the ones that I mentioned give around 6h of battery life, being the leader by far the x220, which gives on a single battery more than 9hs.

[XPPD1510]

Thank you for the great advice, especially regarding the display.

I will look at all options. Hopefully, I can find something with the software already included and part of a large discount.

[Jarhead]

Thank you for the great advice, especially regarding the display.

I will look at all options. Hopefully, I can find something with the software already included and part of a large discount.

Software is generally never a problem for college students. Most universities have a web portal that students can access to install free copies of the software they need. I wouldn't base a laptop purchase with a priority on software, since it's trivial to acquire it. Laptop shopping's main goal is to buy the hardware that's best for your needs.

For example, I have Office 2010 Professional Plus and the full edition of MATLAB installed on my laptop, all for free. I could also install TrendMicro's full AV suite for free as well if I wished, as well as a bunch of other stuff that I happen not to need.

[Stormyy]

I always thought high resolution on a small small would be terrible.

[Jarhead]

Well, on 15.6" display, 1080p looks beautiful. However, I don't know how I'd react to seeing the VAIO Z with 1080p in person >.>

[Stormyy]

You'll need a magnifying glass (that is if you're talking about the 13.1 model).