Laptop suggestions please

[Junglepeanut]

My daughter is heading to college next year and wants a laptop for school. Looking for suggestions for the best quality/reliable setup under $500. Doesn't seem like she wants an Apple product..... other than that i am open to any suggestions, I am not a techy kinda guy at all so speak to me in a really dumbed down language please.

She is going to school for nursing so it won't need to be capable of any specific tasks

[ford]

A Chromebook is probably worth considering depending on what she's going to college for.

When she's chosen/accepted to a school and has registered for classes she should look up the syllabus for each class. The syllabus should let her know if there are specific programs she needs and if any specific OS is required.

Lots of schools can get discounts on computer software (at least back in my day). If you do a campus tour I'd ask about computer discount programs the university might participate in.

Take my advice with some salt, I worked for AppleCare part time while in college and got a good deal on a MacBook Air which I was very happy with its performance. It lasted probably 10 years (though I had a logic board issue 2 weeks after my 1 year warranty expired... Apple still covered the problem). My wife bought a MacBook Pro which survived law school after her college computer clunked out prematurely.

I don't know the exact costs of a college these days, but a MacBook Air with AppleCare+ could be worth the investment... Though, you'll feel like an idiot walking out of the Apple Store =P

If you go the Chromebook direction, I would steer clear of Lenovo and HP. I've had Acer and Dell Chromebooks. Both worked really well.

[superman]

I would also say it really depends what she is going to school for. If it is anything in the engineering realm, I will say that putting autocad and even some other softwares on macs were a pain. If she is going into something say graphic design a mac may be a better option. I would also look into the school program for buying a computer. They generally have decent deals.

[JonM]

Before you buy anything, check with the school to see what their requirements are. I know when my daughter went for her undergrad, the school had some pretty specific system requirements. If her laptop couldn't run their specific security suite, it wouldn't even connect to their network. In her case, a Chromebook was not supported since the software only ran on Windows & Mac. There were also CPU and RAM requirements the laptop had to meet.

[Junglepeanut]

Thank you all for the info so far guess I should have pointed tout what she studying. She is going to school for nursing so she should need a computer specifically geared towards something

[JonM]

Yeah, so definitely check with the school to see what their system requirements are. Once you have that, one computer brand is as good as another these days. At that point, it just becomes a matter of finding the best deal on a laptop that meets their specs.

[chrislognshot]

finding good laptop under $500 going to hard. since some programs she might need to get will need more then 16gb of ram and she need lager SSD drives and or Hard Drives. this why saying under 500 like other people said school and classes she taking will have requirements for laptops.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Make sure to look for student discounts as some places offer them for computers and software!

[Falcon16]

$500 is an extremely tight budget for anything but the most basic note taking laptop. That said it really will,as others have said, depend on what she's going to school for. I recently helped a buddy spec a machine for his daughter that got into game design school. He had zero clue just gave me a list and his CC and said don't spend over $2K. I ended up out the door for $1500 for a Ryzen 5 5600x with a 3060ti 32GB of RAM 2 1 TB SSD's plus a 1440p curved monitor with 165hz refresh. She already had a gaming laptop she bought herself but needed a desktop. Little off topic there but you get my point we need to know what she's going to school for to really make an decent recommendation

[the_matrix_guy]

Keep an eye out for blackfriday sales. Mid-tier is usually the best bang for your buck. But as others alluded, it all depends on the user's needs. If she is not doing anything intensive like content creation, design, or gaming, then she should be looking at low-end to mid-tier in the $400-600 range since it'll just be for internet and office use.

Also, make sure she future proofs for at least 2-4 years so buy something that will also take care of her curriculum for the next 4-8 semesters.

Macs are stupid status symbols. They do have nice, sleek designs, and decent OLED screens on the newer models -- but hardware wise you're always better off with Windows. Windows PC's have a much better price/performance proposition. I recommend Acer, Dell, & HP. I bought a Dell last year and its been perfect so far. they also have the best screens IMO. Dell is known for their professional monitors / displays and their laptops benefit from their display prowess compared to HP and Acer and Asus. Probably the biggest difference maker for anyone, even if the user doesn't do any software intensive work -- is the quality of the screen.

[the_matrix_guy]

it's worth mentioning battery life / mobility is an important performance metric for a student . Which is why you shouldn't buy a powerful laptop if she doesn't plan on doing anything intensive. For starters, it'll be a waste since she'll never use the hardware to anywhere near its intended purpose. Secondly, the laptops are bigger and heavier. And lastly, the battery-life suffers greatly in high-performance laptops, requiring the user to plug in and recharge after only 1-2 hrs even on lower brightness.

[Siress]

For nursing school, my guess is that - among the usual laptop features - she needs something that prioritizes availability and ease of capturing notes, be they typed or drawn. Students always need a machine that can withstand some abuse, so that rules out the vast majority of devices in my opinion.

My first thought is to go for a category of devices often overlooked; the tablet with attachable keyboard. These devices are far more durable in that the hinge, the most common point of failure by a huge margin, is not integrated with the machine. In addition to the durability, it also means it'll have a touch screen by default (for drawing notes or just handwriting notes for speed), excellent battery life, and may even come with a cellular service option to further improve availability.

Personally, I have very limited experience with devices in this category. I'm more of a power user, so I have to lug around the 15-17" workstations if not a full blown tower. I did, however, pick up a MS Surface Go 2 from ebay for ~$150 to aid with some little tasks around the house and have enjoyed it for what it is. They are small, but small means more durability, power efficiency, and improves availability because you're more likely to carry it everywhere if it's not cumbersome.

I haven't thought through how this would be utilized as a primary machine at home before now, so please do some research on the added cost and experience of using a suitable docking station. In order to keep it from being cumbersome to plug the peripherals and display(s) in, I suspect one would want to use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with a USB-C external display. It's possible to cast to displays that have that capability, so that maybe worth looking into as an option. A $50 chromecast and bluetooth compatible keyboard and mouse maybe all that are needed for a fully wireless experience (aside from power) if she already has a TV or monitor. The USB-C to Displayport or HDMI adapters are cheap, though. Some even have a couple of USB ports as well so she could plug in peripherals as well if needed. All in all, you'd probably fit her needs optimally - though she may complain about the small size at first - and save a few hundred dollars.

I almost forgot to mention: pay attention to the student deals on laptops and, particularly, software. The most obvious is a free license to Office 365 so she can use the usual Office suite and save her work to the cloud (OneDrive) in case something happens to her computer.

[cellophane]

My daughter is heading to college next year and wants a laptop for school. Looking for suggestions for the best quality/reliable setup under $500. Doesn't seem like she wants an Apple product..... other than that i am open to any suggestions, I am not a techy kinda guy at all so speak to me in a really dumbed down language please.

She is going to school for nursing so it won't need to be capable of any specific tasks

My first thought is to go for a category of devices often overlooked; the tablet with attachable keyboard. These devices are far more durable in that the hinge, the most common point of failure by a huge margin, is not integrated with the machine. In addition to the durability, it also means it'll have a touch screen by default (for drawing notes or just handwriting notes for speed), excellent battery life, and may even come with a cellular service option to further improve availability.

Personally, I have very limited experience with devices in this category. I'm more of a power user, so I have to lug around the 15-17" workstations if not a full blown tower. I did, however, pick up a MS Surface Go 2 from ebay for ~$150 to aid with some little tasks around the house and have enjoyed it for what it is. They are small, but small means more durability, power efficiency, and improves availability because you're more likely to carry it everywhere if it's not cumbersome.

It will run over $500 - but the Surface series would be a good choice. I have a Surface Pro (4 i think?) and it is fantastic. When I take notes (architecture background) I tend to make lots of sketches and doodles, use different colors, and draw arrows all over to connect thoughts, and the pen interface is amazing for that. They are also really light weight, even with the power cable, which is great for portability.