College Laptop (Need by the 21st!)

chili dude96

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Jan 22, 2011
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Basically I need a 14 to 16" laptop for college that is lightweight and portable with good battery life. I just need it to do web browsing, video viewing, and document editing. Being able to handle minor games such as DOD:S would be nice. However, I do not want any sort of gaming laptop. They are big, heavy, and power-hungry.

I have a budget of $700 to $1100 but my biggest issue is I really don't know how much I actually have to spend to get the type of computer I want. Some people have suggested I could go lower than $700. I don't want to cheap out and get something that crashes all the time. I want a smooth computing experience.

I need this laptop by Aug 21st so I have to make a quick decision due to long manufacturer shipping times. Thanks so much for your help! Any recommendations are appreciated.

1. What is your budget?
700 to 1100

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
14 to 15.6 (I prefer 14)

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I hope the 14" has 1600x900 or 1920x1080 not 1366x768.
I would like the 15.6" to have 1920 by 1080p.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
I'm hoping for a minimum of 3 real hours.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

Yes. I hope to be able to play my video games but it doesn't have to be on the best settings. Considering the Intel 4400 should be able to run Dods, CS GO, Dayz, any laptop I buy will be able to handle some games. Perhaps games like Borderlands 2 are more of a stretch.
 

The Tech Guy

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Aug 4, 2014
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I understand your question and concerns 100%. For what you will be using you PC for, you don't need to spend up to $1100 as you can get decent laptops below even $800 that will do a superb job for you when it comes on to document editing and handling minor games such as DOD:S. There are actually many of these laptops around that would be a good choice for you. Any of the laptops I listed below has great reputation and will do your tasks easily. They also surpass all your criteria by far.
1.Acer 15.6" Aspire Laptop
2.Dell Inspiron i15RV-1333BLK 15.6" Laptop PC
3 Acer Aspire E1-572-6870
 

chili dude96

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Jan 22, 2011
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A few dumb questions.

Would it be smart to get a laptop with 802.11AC? A lot of people suggest this because at college most computers will be hogging the 2.4ghz band and if I use the 5ghz I might have a better experience.

Also regarding resolution on the 14 inch laptops. As a chem major I will want to be able to have an excel sheet on one half of the screen and a lab report on the other half. Some have suggested 1366x768 is too low of a resolution for this and I should go for 1600X900 or 1920x1080 or just go for a 15.6 inch to avoid this problem altogether.

I'm hesitant to get a 15.6 inch because of the size. (It really isn't a huge difference though.
 

Joeteoh99

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Jul 20, 2014
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I would personally think going with an SSD would be a good choice, but if there's not enough storage in your HDD. Don't forget you could grab a 1TB HDD from any tech store. :)