Laptop for Uni

[JimM169]

My daughter started uni in Sep and she's been struggling to access some of her online lectures on her 2014 Macbook. She's tried updating various things but I'd like to get her something new for better reliability. I'm not an Apple fan so it will be a Windows laptop and she's not into gaming so all she really needs is web browsing and Microsoft office (she gets Office through Uni so not looking to purchase that) . Her only request is decent battery life.
Not looking to spend loads so something around £400 would be ideal. What spec should I be looking at or any suggestions of suitable machines would be appreciated?

Thanks

Edited by JimM169 on Saturday 3rd December 17:19

[Scrump]

I started a similar thread last year when looking for a new laptop for my daughter for uni.
I ended up getting her a new M1 MacBook with the education discount, a bit more expensive than the laptops I was looking at but not stupidly so and of course she really, really, really wanted to stay with Apple.

I have since bought another one for my other daughter to take to uni.

[JimM169]

Thanks but to be honest she's not fussed about it being Apple as literally all she uses it for is her coursework so I'd rather save a couple of hundred £. If it was a new phone then that would be another matter!!

[Scrump]

Lucky you! My two are massive Apple disciples.

[xeny]

Try the Dell outlet.

[sherman]

HP.

Just go buy whatever Currys have in stock. For your budget the spec will all be much of a muchness.

[Gunk]

You may need to spend a bit more than £400, about £700 will get you something decent which will still be a decent computer in 3-4 years time. We’ve now ditched Macs and moved over to windows machines, you can still run iCloud on them and they’re faster and loads cheaper, just picked up a 17” HP lap top for around £1200 and it’s so much better than an equivalent priced MacBook

[colin79666]

MacBook Air M1. Yes it is expensive but it really is so much better than anything sub £1k with Windows on. Do a 3 year degree with it and it’s less than a quid a day.

You also get the bonus of not having a Windows update take a whole lecture to install and break printing after.

[QJumper]

I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft, but I've got 3 PCs and a tablet, all running Windows 10, and I've never had an update interrupt anything I'm doing, or cause any kind of problems. Just set them to run overnight, or snooze them if they pop up at an inappropriate time.

Whilst it's possible to spend fortunes on the latest, fastest machine, I imagine any decent brand £400 laptop will be more than adequate for a university course.

If you're more comfortable with Windows, and are likely to be the "IT department", then stick with Windows.

[ATG]

If they're going to university, set them a budget and let them choose for themselves. They are adults after all.

[3anascooter]

a used MS Surface would be my suggestion. Daughter in her last year at uni now has one, having previously used a huge Dell 17 inch screen laptop (left in room) and a Lenovo flip thing for taking to lectures (she also tried an iPad with keyboard in year 2). She wishes she had the Surface from year 1 now as uses it exclusively now

[mikef]

Gunk said:

We’ve now ditched Macs and moved over to windows machines ... they’re faster and loads cheaper

That certainly wouldn't be my experience, looking at similar specs and build quality for an ultralight alptop (yes, there are cheap plastic Win laptops, but are they going to last the duration of a uni course and have any value at the end?)

Example of similar cost machines that we own: Dell XPS 13 (2020 model, 9310) used for uni, and Macbook Air M2 (2022 model), both with 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM:

Geekbench 5 single-core CPU score: MacBook Air 1891, XPS 1526
Geekbench 5 multi-core CPU score: MacBook Air 8873, XPS 5378
Geekbench 5 GPU OpenCL compute score: Macbook Air 20376, Dell XPS 12385

The only advantage of the Dell is that it has a touchscreen (if that's important to the user)

Actually my answer to the question of which laptop I'd recommend for uni would probably be one of the two systems above, however a refurb'ed XPS 13 from Dell costs around £1K

[xeny]

For university, I'd rather go with 2 x £500 machines a couple of years apart than 1 £1K machine. Too much scope for spillage of wine, beer and tea.

[andybracing]

Ive just got a lenovo ideapad for general internet/email/word etc, its not a pad as in the name, but a small laptop.
It was £140 from amazon, it is actualy faster than my old all singing 5 yearold laptop, and its small, esy to carry, and if i drop it i will just get another at that price. oh and as it has no hdd or ssd the battery lasts a hole day easy.
I think with online storage the need for the high end stuff is becoming irelivant, unless you need power hungry programs or gaming, and i dont use either.
At that price, its disposable, and runs win 10 fine.
At unit, any laptop is likley to get broken/stolen etc, so why not, Its abit like a cromebook but running windows.

[daqinggregg]

Another here, with a Lenovo Ideapad. Used for office applications, surfing the net, watching movies and online meetings. Had 5 years, used extensively for travel and outside work. I’m not a technical person; this is just a user’s perspective.

Pros;
Good battery life
Very light
Intuitive keyboard
Robust

Cons
Audio, average, OK with headphones.

[Jonny_]

If you're not fussed about brand new or flashy looks then it's worth a look at refurbed ex-corporate ThinkPads on eBay. T series and X series specifically. They're generally very well made and have decent battery life.

I'd look for something like a T490 or X390 with an 8th gen Intel processor, which will meet the spec for Windows 11. You might even get lucky and find an early T14 for £400.

Check listings carefully though as the standard varies quite a lot. Watch out for password-locked BIOS, low rent 1366x768 displays and non-UK keyboards!

[aSharchO]

mikef said:

Gunk said:

We’ve now ditched Macs and moved over to windows machines ... they’re faster and loads cheaper

That certainly wouldn't be my experience, looking at similar specs and build quality for an ultralight alptop (yes, there are cheap plastic Win laptops, but are they going to last the duration of a uni course and have any value at the end?)

Example of similar cost machines that we own: Dell XPS 13 (2020 model, 9310) used for uni, and Macbook Air M2 (2022 model), both with 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM:

Geekbench 5 single-core CPU score: MacBook Air 1891, XPS 1526
Geekbench 5 multi-core CPU score: MacBook Air 8873, XPS 5378
Geekbench 5 GPU OpenCL compute score: Macbook Air 20376, Dell XPS 12385

The only advantage of the Dell is that it has a touchscreen (if that's important to the user)

Actually my answer to the question of which laptop I'd recommend for uni would probably be one of the two systems above, however a refurb'ed XPS 13 from Dell costs around £1K

And a 2022 XPS 13 plus with the i7 1280p (my new work machine) will beat the MacBook Air, no point in comparing old specs vs new especially with newer generation CPUs.

[Insert Coin]

Kids only wreck their devices anyway, a £300 used Thinkpad from EBay is more than sufficient.

[mikef]

aSharchO said:

And a 2022 XPS 13 plus with the i7 1280p (my new work machine) will beat the MacBook Air, no point in comparing old specs vs new especially with newer generation CPUs.

The 9320 XPS Plus starts at £1,800, half as much again as the MacBook Air. The current price-comparable model, the Dell XPS 9315 is behind the MacBook Air on Geekbench scores.

[Greenmantle]

Insert Coin said:

Kids only wreck their devices anyway, a £300 used Thinkpad from EBay is more than sufficient.

All day long ^^^

Thinkpad / Lenovo. Does what it says on the tin / Not desirable / Pretty robust.