Reliable Laptop for Uni?

Author
Discussion

pauljdh

Original Poster:

188 posts

163 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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My third and youngest girl is off to Uni in October and whilst she has a Lenovo laptop she's looking for something more like a working tool than an entertainment centre.

Tempted by a refurbed HP Elitebook with a SSD and a smallish screen - portability,fast boot, and reliability are important (sounds like a MBA to me!)

Anyone acre to recommend anything please and even better known any sources of warranted refurbished laptops?

Thanks

Paul

DavidY

4,458 posts

283 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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She should be entitled to Unidays discounts https://www.myunidays.com/ this will give a discount off new prices.

jamoor

14,506 posts

214 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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Apple macbook 13"

944fan

4,962 posts

184 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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Lenovo are truly fking awful. Bin that. Our global IT management have done a deal and we are stuck with them. Have to spend the first day removing all the bloatware from them,

Anyway, OP - Dell laptops have always served me very well. Lots of choice.

GreigM

6,726 posts

248 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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944fan said:
Lenovo are truly fking awful. Bin that. Our global IT management have done a deal and we are stuck with them. Have to spend the first day removing all the bloatware from them,

Anyway, OP - Dell laptops have always served me very well. Lots of choice.
From the machines we buy for our business in terms of reliability I would rate Lenovo significantly above Dell and HP (all between the £1000-£2000 price point). Don't know what its like with cheaper machines, but Dell in particular have been very unreliable of late. About 4/5 years ago we used a load of Sony machines - absolutely bulletproof, but they stopped building them in decent specs.

ZesPak

24,421 posts

195 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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Another vote for dell.
Important note though, what's the budget?

QuartzDad

2,230 posts

121 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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Eldest son has just finished his first year at uni and loves his Asus Zenbook UX305.

poing

8,743 posts

199 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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GreigM said:
944fan said:
Lenovo are truly fking awful. Bin that. Our global IT management have done a deal and we are stuck with them. Have to spend the first day removing all the bloatware from them,

Anyway, OP - Dell laptops have always served me very well. Lots of choice.
From the machines we buy for our business in terms of reliability I would rate Lenovo significantly above Dell and HP (all between the £1000-£2000 price point). Don't know what its like with cheaper machines, but Dell in particular have been very unreliable of late. About 4/5 years ago we used a load of Sony machines - absolutely bulletproof, but they stopped building them in decent specs.
Same here, my Lenovo stuff is easily the most reliable. A few users who had HP before have even commented on how solid the Lenovo is, one admitting to dropping it a couple of times and it still works perfectly.

For me personally though I'd be tempted to get a Macbook if the budget will stretch that high, they do student discounts too. For work I buy Lenovo, for personal use I buy Apple, currently still using a MBP from 2011 and it's only problems are a scratch and dent caused by me dropping things on it.

ambuletz

10,690 posts

180 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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After having 2 dells I got myself a Lenovo a couple of weeks ago (ideapad 510s). bargain for something with a x1080 screen and SSD. colours not as good as my (broken) 5year old XPS15 but then again that did have a quality RGBLED screen.

as for OP. most entry level gaming laptops have extra speakers + a sub. my XPS had them and were very good. sorry, not that helpful.

George111

6,930 posts

250 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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Dell, I bought one for my niece a few years ago from the outlet store, just buy whatever basic i3 or i5 model they have. Add your own SSD afterwards, Samsung comes with drive replicating software if you buy the retail version.

Latitudes are the business grade laptops and are better built than the others but it's not worth paying more than 15% more for one over an Inspiron.

Most importantly, teach him/her to use backups, USB and on-line backup storage simultaneously ! Laptops get stolen all the time and that vital essay will go with it at just the wrong time.

Jonesy23

4,650 posts

135 months

Friday 26th August 2016
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Personally I'd go with adequate and cheap rather than looking for anything half decent. Basically the cheapest thing I could buy new that would run what I needed and no more. Much less pain when it gets lost or broken. And if it's in heavy use it can be treated as disposable and replaced every year.

As long as everything is kept backed up or online then the actual machine itself doesn't matter.

GCH

3,984 posts

201 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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pauljdh said:
portability,fast boot, and reliability are important (sounds like a MBA to me!)
Can you use the generous student discount (& free student applecare) with the apple refurb store, or does it only apply to brand new? Either way, there is your answer - MBA 13"

l354uge

2,892 posts

120 months

Sunday 28th August 2016
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Second hand Think pad x series with an ssd.

Less than £250, super portable and sturdy.