Laptop for university work.

[anonymous-user]

Looking to buy a decent small laptop for taking notes and writing essays, must be light and easily portable as I cycle a lot. I know nothing about computers etc...no, make that NOTHING. I see the Microsoft surface pro and smaller go get good reviews, only looking to spend 5/600 quid. Any thoughts??

[bitchstewie]

Maybe look at a Chromebook, or even a tablet.

There are some limitations and connectivity is more relevant than with a "traditional" laptop, but for note taking and essays I'd struggle to find a reason to need to spend that much.

[randlemarcus]

Go is great for notes via OneNote, but needs keyboard/monitor etc for proper essays. Ebay surface dock and it connects via the funny shaped cable. V good.

[QuartzDad]

My two sons at Uni have Asus Zenbooks, light and around £600. They both like them.

[parabolica]

QuartzDad said:

My two sons at Uni have Asus Zenbooks, light and around £600. They both like them.

Zenbooks are a good shout; alternatively checkout the Dell Outlet for a mid-range 13" Inspirion or similar. Otherwise a new ipad with the keyboard case would probably meet your needs also and is well under £600.

[Dr Slotter]

Most university IT departments have some suggestions on hardware (and software) that works well with their particular network and associated software setups. May also be some suggestion on suppliers with perhaps some discount.

[Slushbox]

I have an Asus VivoBook E201, 11.6 inch. Very tough, decent keyboard with plenty of travel. All day battery. It immediately updates to Windows 10 Pro, (from the Windows Store) gratis, which is a bonus. Spill proof keyboard. Chunky build for hand-to-hand fighting or bicycle crashing/rain/blizzards.

I use it with Libre Office for essays, Windows 10 mail. Some Netflix abuse. V. good second machine for travelling. Add a USB blob or SD card for more storage if needed.

£160.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoBook-E201NA-GJ00...

As mentioned, most of the unis offer discounts on hardware (or through an NUS card) or manufacturer's retail site. Search 'student discount' on Dell, Lenovo, HP.

MS Office 365 is usually free if you have an academic email account from a subscribing Uni, so there's no need to buy it. If not, Libre Office docs (free) works well for straight text submissions. Some unis are hooked up to Google apps for collab/course work submissions and offer accounts and set-up advice.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products...

Edited by Slushbox on Tuesday 9th July 16:53

[captain_cynic]

QuartzDad said:

My two sons at Uni have Asus Zenbooks, light and around £600. They both like them.

+2 on the Zenbooks and Asus in general for laptops. £500 is about starting price for a Zenbook though.

My last Asus lasted over 6 years before I replaced it... it still works, it just cant play modern games any more.

[hutchst]

I'm a zenbook user. Plus points are lightning boot speed, lightweight and slimline, downside is lack of connectivity needing a pocketful of plug in adapters.

[dmsims]

Bought daughter an Asus UX305FA 8GB RAM, SSD 4 years ago - still going strong (unlike the previous POS Macbook)

Paid £420 from https://www.xsonly.com/

[sgrimshaw]

Slushbox said:

I have an Asus VivoBook E201, 11.6 inch. Very tough, decent keyboard with plenty of travel. All day battery. It immediately updates to Windows 10 Pro, (from the Windows Store) gratis, which is a bonus. Spill proof keyboard. Chunky build for hand-to-hand fighting or bicycle crashing/rain/blizzards.

I use it with Libre Office for essays, Windows 10 mail. Some Netflix abuse. V. good second machine for travelling. Add a USB blob or SD card for more storage if needed.

£160.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoBook-E201NA-GJ00...

That's a cracking little machine for the money, especially with Win10 Pro. I might grab one just to use for connecting to customer's networks where domain logons are required (not possible in Win 10 Home).

Having used Windows Tablets in the past however, I would suggest you keep a very close eye on the amount of available free space on that 64GB eMMC. It can get used up really quickly and eventually you might well end up with Windows bhing there is not enough space to do it's updates.

[Tycho]

randlemarcus said:

Go is great for notes via OneNote, but needs keyboard/monitor etc for proper essays. Ebay surface dock and it connects via the funny shaped cable. V good.

You don't need the official dock for it either. I use a Targus dock in work but a USB-C dongle should suffice as the Go has USB-C connectivity. I got a dongle from Amazon for about £25.

[Slushbox]

sgrimshaw said:

That's a cracking little machine for the money, especially with Win10 Pro. I might grab one just to use for connecting to customer's networks where domain logons are required (not possible in Win 10 Home).

Having used Windows Tablets in the past however, I would suggest you keep a very close eye on the amount of available free space on that 64GB eMMC. It can get used up really quickly and eventually you might well end up with Windows bhing there is not enough space to do it's updates.

Good tip.

The E201 is the Jim Dandy of laptops.

There's 43 GB left on the 64GB drive with W10 Pro, Libre Office and a handful of progs installed. This decreases by 20 GB when Windows upgrades, but Disk Cleanup removes it, after about three weeks. I remove it manually, which is not much of a faff. There are plenty of holes to plug SD cards and USB blobs into it. :-)

Also Windows update to Pro has go through endless cycles to get to the latest version. A day can pass while you froth and fume. No fan. Don't use it on the bed to avoid smoke.

The E201 doesn't have an Ethernet port, nor yet is the RAM upgrade-able. On the upside it has the most sensitive WiFi antennas known to man. It picks up twice the local SSID's that my Lenovo does. 5Ghz, too.

That said, it's a great portable, tough, web-note-book-thing with a really nice keyboard action.

Other brands are available.

[Vaud]

If you for a Dell, check their "Dell outlet" and click on "Coupons" - there are often some very good deals and always a student discount.