Laptop spec for new uni student

[gpietersz]

I would be inclined to avoid HP - their printers are hugely worse than they were so I look at them with suspicion.

Its very hard to say what the spec should be without knowing what the usage will be. I would ask the department of the university running the course. If its just for writing essays and taking notes buy the cheapest you can (even a Chromebook will probably do), on the other hand if the course requires running CAD on your own hardware you want a high spec.

You get a lot for your money these days. I just bought a new work laptop for myself from a smaller maker. It cost a grand, has a Ryzen 7 and 32Gb of RAM and feels lightening fast almost all the time (admittedly running Linux, but a fairly heavyweight config).

 

[BaileyLeblanc]

Seriously? Someone here is offering to buy a MacBook. Judging by the request, the author of the thread does not want to spend too much and you suggest buying an apple device. The laptop you have chosen is suitable for working with text, but no more. He may not last 5 years, but 3 years is 100%

 

[Porky]

In 99% of cases for actual day to day working they only need MS office to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint, bulk of time will be downloading materials and uploading back to the hub.

Hence, they don’t actually need a very powerful laptop at all in most cases unless they are doing some specialist IT type course.

As for this vision of busy writing notes in lectures, dream on, in most cases they use downloads and most lectures are recorded so they can watch them again or for the first time if they couldn’t get their derrière out of bed in time to attend live.

However, the big elephant in the room is that whilst gaming might not be a concern I can tell you that most of the little beggars will be using the lap top to watch Netflix and YouTube on it so will likely want decent resolution for that, not to mention the tutorial videos.

As I side you might find this helpful: optional extra, if you have the cash to splash buy two Amazon Echo 8 devices or similar:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3422984

They can watch TV on them, saving the lap top and you can connect with you free on video call if they get at a loose end. Just say the magic words “Alexa, video call cherub” and you are connected.

Both of mine, called me whilst away at Uni on one of these, of course pre arranged