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Ok, you board experts…suggestions on a laptop?

Feb 9, 2013
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Need a new laptop for one of the kids for school (college) and it’s the first non-Apple device we’ve bought in a long time.

A long time ago we got PCs from Dell and I’ve always used Dell laptops for work, so that’s an option. Lenovo seems to have a good rep as well.

Any suggestions on brands, places to purchase and service plans (if any)?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Thanks for the suggestion.
He has a Chromebook that worked fine for HS but college doesn’t recommend.
When you said "kids for school" I think he assumed little kids for elementary. I know I did.

For college, take them to Costco and let them pick one out. Some really value screen size, while other users want more horsepower. If all they are doing is web stuff, Word/Excel, and taking notes, you can be pretty basic and cheap, but if they are into gaming or using heavy graphics software, you'll want to jump up to a gaming machine.
 
Need a new laptop for one of the kids for school and it’s the first non-Apple device we’ve bought in a long time.

A long time ago we got PCs from Dell and I’ve always used Dell laptops for work, so that’s an option. Lenovo seems to have a good rep as well.

Any suggestions on brands, places to purchase and service plans (if any)?

Thanks in advance!
My last few work laptops have been Lenovo X1s and they have been great. Maybe overkill for a student. It is definitely overkill for me.
 
When you said "kids for school" I think he assumed little kids for elementary. I know I did.

For college, take them to Costco and let them pick one out. Some really value screen size, while other users want more horsepower. If all they are doing is web stuff, Word/Excel, and taking notes, you can be pretty basic and cheap, but if they are into gaming or using heavy graphics software, you'll want to jump up to a gaming machine.
Good point, thanks, clarified my post.
 
Stay away from Dell. I've had several now, and will never buy another one.
That’s the thing. I have always had Dell laptops at work but if there’s ever an issue I just call IT and they fix it or I get a new one. Don’t recall having that many issues though. What other brands have you liked?
 
My last few work laptops have been Lenovo X1s and they have been great. Maybe overkill for a student. It is definitely overkill for me.

This is what I bought my college son two years ago. X1 Carbon with 16GB RAM. It is pretty solid. Look for deals and sign up for Lenovo rewards and you can get a free smart clock or something.

 
I was really hoping there were going to be stripper pics in here. Leaving disappointed :-(

night-dancer-stripper.gif
 
Need a new laptop for one of the kids for school (college) and it’s the first non-Apple device we’ve bought in a long time.

A long time ago we got PCs from Dell and I’ve always used Dell laptops for work, so that’s an option. Lenovo seems to have a good rep as well.

Any suggestions on brands, places to purchase and service plans (if any)?

Thanks in advance!
Just went through this with my oldest, who is heading to NC State in a couple weeks. We started with the specs recommended by the College of Engineering and then looked at the Dell and Lenovo models they recommended. We went with a Lenovo ThinkPad and beefed up the RAM and a couple other things. Don’t know how your kid’s school works for tech support, but NC State is a certified support shop for Apple, Dell and Lenovo, so with a 3-year warranty, he get just take it in on campus for any necessary repairs. I normally don’t go for all the extra support, but in this case, I wanted to make on-campus support easy and I added the computer version of the accidental death & dismemberment policy because…..college.

We’re largely an Apple house now (we were definitely not a decade ago), but I’ve never liked Parallels and he’ll have some things that do need to be run in Windows.
 
Just went through this with my oldest, who is heading to NC State in a couple weeks. We started with the specs recommended by the College of Engineering and then looked at the Dell and Lenovo models they recommended. We went with a Lenovo ThinkPad and beefed up the RAM and a couple other things. Don’t know how your kid’s school works for tech support, but NC State is a certified support shop for Apple, Dell and Lenovo, so with a 3-year warranty, he get just take it in on campus for any necessary repairs. I normally don’t go for all the extra support, but in this case, I wanted to make on-campus support easy and I added the computer version of the accidental death & dismemberment policy because…..college.

We’re largely an Apple house now (we were definitely not a decade ago), but I’ve never liked Parallels and he’ll have some things that do need to be run in Windows.
Thanks, sounds similar to our situation. (Except yours is on the ball and my son is a bit of a procrastinator and his mom is about to strangle him…)

Question…did you buy the extra service thru Lenovo (or Costco/Best Buy) and NC State can handle repairs or does NC state sell service plans?
 
Thanks, sounds similar to our situation. (Except yours is on the ball and my son is a bit of a procrastinator and his mom is about to strangle him…)

Question…did you buy the extra service thru Lenovo (or Costco/Best Buy) and NC State can handle repairs or does NC state sell service plans?
I was able to get a slightly better package directly from Lenovo (plus NC St was already back ordered and I had it from Lenovo in 2 days), but the school options were not at all as overpriced as I had been expecting. I was just able to do a little more with chips and RAM going direct to Lenovo vs. taking the pre-configured versions NC St stocks.

Since NC St is an authorized repair/sales shop, I had exactly the same options for warranty/service plans whether I bought from Lenovo or the school. Same options, same price. The biggest key was that NC State required a 3-year warranty to be able to do covered repairs and provide loaners, if necessary, so I went with that.
 
I will never buy a PC again, but Lenovo is probably the best brand out there. Why no Apple op?
 
I will never buy a PC again, but Lenovo is probably the best brand out there. Why no Apple op?
I won’t speak for OP, but with my son’s stuff, there’s going to be enough need for Windows-based engineering software that it just didn‘t seem worth it to go with a Mac. I’m a big Apple fan and we’re 90% Apple at home, but I’ve used Parallels in the past and always had a ton of problems with it, so we just went the straight Windows route.
 
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I will never buy a PC again, but Lenovo is probably the best brand out there. Why no Apple op?
What Hawkifann said above. We have two iMacs, a MacBook and four iPhones so not anti-Apple by any means.
Sounds like school doesn’t it recommend it either although you can make it work. My son isn’t a huge Mac user other than his iPhone.
 
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That’s the thing. I have always had Dell laptops at work but if there’s ever an issue I just call IT and they fix it or I get a new one. Don’t recall having that many issues though. What other brands have you liked?
Probably Lenovo.

My company has a contract with Dell, so that's what I've had the last 11 years. Lots of bad experience.
 
Preferably under $1,500

For college, that is way more than you need - unless perhaps you are an engineering major and they tell you in advance you need some ridiculously powerful PC. I don't think we spent more than $500 on either of our kids' computers.

Basically, it needs to be Windows because anything else and you can bet your a** some instructor will require a piece of software that doesn't work on anything else. At least 16GB RAM, and whatever screen size they are comfortable with. As far as reliability, I'm not sure you can find a brand that isn't going to be reliable these days. Get on Amazon, checks the specs, and you're good to go.
 
Check out ASUS.

My buddy who knows more about computers than anyone else I know just got his 2nd ASUS laptop for right at $1K.

i7
512GB SSD
16GB RAM
very bright OLED touchscreen

Might have been their Zen line. Not their lower line.

Personally I have an ASUS from their cheaper Vivobook line. Not as spiffy as his, but very nice. Worth a look if you want to save a good chunk of money.
 
For college, that is way more than you need - unless perhaps you are an engineering major and they tell you in advance you need some ridiculously powerful PC. I don't think we spent more than $500 on either of our kids' computers.

Basically, it needs to be Windows because anything else and you can bet your a** some instructor will require a piece of software that doesn't work on anything else. At least 16GB RAM, and whatever screen size they are comfortable with. As far as reliability, I'm not sure you can find a brand that isn't going to be reliable these days. Get on Amazon, checks the specs, and you're good to go.
Solid State drives are absolutely necessary these days, and make a difference in price.
 
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