Student latptop, Help me find a good student laptop for Uni Options

[mack]

Hi
I have started Uni and have decided that it is about time to get a laptop. I am hoping that you can have some input to help me decide (I have looked at tablets, netbooks and ultralights but I don't see them as worth it or cost to much for what they can do.)
I want to try and find one for around the $800 mark
I have found this one so far which I think looks fairly good ASUS N53SV-SX792V

http://www.mln.com.au/product/?itemID=3495&typeID=23

[800_series]

https://www.mln.com.au/bargainbuys/

Today's deal seems relatively interesting. Dunno if it's exactly what you want, but it has a decent battery life and upgradeable RAM.

[mack]

https://www.mln.com.au/bargainbuys/

Today's deal seems relatively interesting. Dunno if it's exactly what you want, but it has a decent battery life and upgradeable RAM.

Thanks
not really what I am looking for. I would like to have current gen i5
Basically what the linked one has as specs would be my ideal, just wondering if there are any similar/better deals
It will mainly be used for simple tasks such as word processing and some other basic programs for my course.
Anything intensive such as some games, I will just use my computer for.

[unco_tomato]

Ultrabook is the way to go IMO, but unfortunately they are a tad pricey, with nothing really bringing competition to that segment except the Macbook Air.

[mack]

Ultrabook is the way to go IMO, but unfortunately they are a tad pricey, with nothing really bringing competition to that segment except the Macbook Air.

yeah I have really been killing my self over the ultralights or laptop. I can see how they are good but it's just the price that is the killer when I compare it to say a laptop

[nesquick]

someone on here had alot of problems with a N53sv not so long ago so buyer beware.

I was going to suggest some of the asus U series like the U30,U31 which would be in your price range and they have 8 cell batteries but a having trouble finding any retail stores that still stock them.

failing that you could always get a toshiba, good machines and good warranty although a tad bland looking.

[alexdtree]

i bought a samsung last year for uni for 1k and i dropped it on the road, repair bill $450 is now a glorified paper weight...
in the hindsight of that my personal recommendation would be go cheap!
if you have gaming systems at home already stick to them for gaming, and get something that is cheap with a long battery life for uni.
weight didn't really bother me.
unfortunately i cant recommend any models but i would aim for a netbook personally. for uni the my 17" samsung was over kill.

[nobody813]

Ah yes, the N53SV :-P

No comment

[mack]

i bought a samsung last year for uni for 1k and i dropped it on the road, repair bill $450 is now a glorified paper weight...
in the hindsight of that my personal recommendation would be go cheap!
if you have gaming systems at home already stick to them for gaming, and get something that is cheap with a long battery life for uni.
weight didn't really bother me.
unfortunately i cant recommend any models but i would aim for a netbook personally. for uni the my 17" samsung was over kill.

Yeah dude thanks for the advice
All I really need to word processing, wireless, screen and keyboard
I just got back from the shops and had a look at the Netbooks. Taking in what you said above anyone know a good netbook

So sorry for dramatically changing my mind here people but any suggestions on netbooks?

[nesquick]

probably anything with an AMD CPU, shits all over the Atoms afaik.

[GoFaster]

Is there anything wrong with these Lenovos , they seem to be priced quite well.

[nesquick]

they looks pretty ugly, even toshiba laptops look better than lenovo laptops.

although some of the top end ones are pretty good (in the respect of they are stuff of legends in the enterprise level)

This post has been edited by nesquick: Feb 29 2012, 10:16 PM

[The Tick]

they looks pretty ugly, even toshiba laptops look better than lenovo laptops.

although some of the top end ones are pretty good (in the respect of they are stuff of legends in the enterprise level)

With good reason :D


If I went back from a mac to PC again, it would be straight back into a T series lenovo or their equivalent these days.

Anyhoo - If you are looking at a netbook, just make sure the keyboard is something you can work with. I haven't seen one yet I would be comfortable typing on personally and really, the keyboard is a bigger deal than you realise.

While some people can easily make their way around an 11 inch screen, I would also be inclined to see it in action (find a live model) prior to purchase.

As tomato said, Ultras with a 13" screen look to be the sweet spot these days. I noticed MSY selling some Acer "hummingbird" core i3s for $769.00. While I am not a fan of the brand it's a sleek looking unit.

[NukeJockey]

Yes! As The Tick said, make sure you pay attention to the keyboard! I didn't even think to test the keyboard when I bought an Asus K53 and its horrible, all plasticy and crap.

Chose a laptop for my dad, was an Asus 14" with an i5 2430m but only onboard graphics, was about $600 from JB Hi Fi, great little laptop for office sort of stuff, nice and zippy, good battery life (6 hours on a 6 cell battery without full power saving) and an amazing keyboard, with Asus' newer gen of laptops they changed the plastic keyboard to an aluminium one and it feels amazing, great screen on it too, definitely a laptop I'd recommend.

[nesquick]

yea keyboard is an important one, I love the keyboard on my vaio, its such a pleasure to type on it plus its backlit so win win.

have a good look at the screen color saturation, viewing angles, image sharpness and see how reflective it is since I use my laptop at uni outside waiting for classes and the matte screen stops any reflections but I have used laptops with gloss screens and its absolutely horrible.

This post has been edited by nesquick: Mar 1 2012, 11:40 AM

[TazFromOz]

Don't get anything over 15 inch. Smaller if possible, though the 11 inch netbooks may be too small. For what you want you can spend a lot less than $800. My current uni laptop cost me zip, nadda, nothing. I lucked out and nabbed it off freecycle:
http://www.epinions.com/review/pr-Toshiba_...4875956868?sb=1

Under windows it sucked (why they got rid of it) but I'm running a modern, but stripped back, version of Debian, and it's faster than my brother's laptop which is, literally, 16 times faster (cpu clock speed) and has 20 times the RAM.

So it's 10 years old. It still does all the things you listed. It has two pcmcia slots, which I use to run a 4 port usb2 hub, and a low profile wifi card. It weighs less than 1.5kg (including power brick and cards), etc, etc. Only thing is the low battery life (20-30 minutes), so I might splash out and spend $40 or so on a new battery. Don't see why I'd need to spend a few hundred on a new one though.

Seriously, look around on gumtree, etc. Get freecycle sent to your phone email account (only way you'll beat out anyone on popular items like laptops). With the number of people 'upgrading' to new netbooks you can luck out and pick up something really cool.

This post has been edited by TazFromOz: Mar 1 2012, 06:28 PM

[fenix14]

You could try this ultrabook

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/aspire-s3-ultrabook

My brother bought it for uni as he started this week he snatched it up from Jb-HI for $780 and he loves it.

[lunchbox1988]

I have to say, the Ultrabooks are the way to go, I get about 5 hours of light work (word processing, some server management and a bit of background music via earbuds) and it is all I could want as I use it at a desk with power most of the time.

[sm1ddy]

I'm on an older Asus EEE pc.

That said, I rarely use my netbook because my school has decent computer labs and laptops just seem to become a distraction in class.

[magnusson]

Macbook pro 13"? It has a 500gb drive and an intel i5 2.4 ghz cpu i think.