Laptop for college, help please

[Kiri27]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a laptop for college under $500. I've been trying to find one that suits my tastes, but it has been pretty rough as the specs I want aren't available in the smaller models of laptops.

If anybody could lend a hand, I would greatly appreciate it.

Specs to have:
- CPU: i3/i5/i7 6th gen or greater (no AMD & no Celeron/Pentium/Atom)
- Screen: under 15.6" screen size, 1080p
- Drive: 7200rpm HDD (500GB+) or SSD (any capacity)
- RAM: as long as it is 4gb+
- OS: Windows 8 or 10, 64-bit
- I/O: at least 3 USB ports (one has to be 3.0/3.1), a headphone jack, and HDMI

Most 15.6" laptops have almost all the desired specs under or at $500, but I need the portability of something smaller, which is why I'm struggling to find a laptop.

Also, 7200rpm HDD is desired over the SSD as I need storage, but the main thing when it comes to the drive, is the ability to boot quickly when needed (I consider 7200rpm "fast enough" for my needs. A 5400rpm HDD wouldn't cut it in a time-sensitive situation. Yes, I sound irresponsible lol).

And no, a chromebook would not suit my needs. As much as I love and support Google, I cannot use Chrome OS for productivity.

If any laptop with the above specs exists at the sub-$500 price point, please let me know. I'm pretty sure there may not be any, but I'd figured it's worth throwing the question out there on TH forums.

Thanks for your time,
- Kiri

 

[azaran]

So good news, there's a lot that will do the trick in the just under $500 mark. Costco, has 1 model, Amazon has a bunch, Newegg has like 5, and you may have other options in the plethora of online retailers. Dell, HP and Acer seem to be about the only options. Low end laptops aren't exactly known for their robust build so go with the one with the best looking options and user reviews, build quality will likely be roughly the same across brands.

I'm not linking all the listings, there's just a lot out there and you can sort out your preferences, but specifically on amazon the HP Pavilion x360 and the Dell i5368 may be up your alley.

Bad news, you're going to have pretty similar options and they're all pretty much on the low end of the specs you want.

Amazon and Newegg have really good controls to narrow the search down, I'd suggest using the screen size, OS, i3 and price to narrow it down and it should be easy browsing from there. Costco has a great warranty policy on electronics so if you end up deciding you hate it in the first week or so a return is pretty painless. Also look in to any deals your school has, as often they have some sort of setup with Dell or HP. You can also call Dell directly and ask for the educational dept, and you might swing some deals that aren't listed online. I've done that last one myself a few times and gotten some good luck out of it.

As for the specs to expect:
- CPU: You're getting at best an i3. Depending on where you go it'll be 6th (6100U) or 7th (7100U) gen. Plenty for note taking in classes, web browsing and watching media.

- Screen: It's going to be in the 13in range. Most seem to be 1080p or in that range.

- Drive: I sincerely doubt you're getting 7200rpm in those little packages. Cost of the higher speed aside, 7200rpm drives generate more heat and pull most power from the battery. So short of putting it in yourself, you're going to find 5400rpm as the norm. Drive size ranges from 500GB to 1TB for HDD, typically 128GB for SSD. Any time dependent issue you have is not going to be resolved by going to a 7200rpm. So decide which is more important, space or speed because you're not getting both. Given the size of external drives, its not a terrible option to go SSD and just have a USB 3 2TB drive floating in your pack.

- RAM: You're going to get 4GB to 6GB max. Some models will be expandable to 16, so look out for those listings.

- OS: You want Win10, it's just going to make life easier for software support.

- I/O: 1x HDMI, 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 seem to be pretty much the standard. You're not going to get 3.1 at your price point. Most seem to have headphone jacks.


* Edit. Something I forgot to mention. If you want more powerful hardware, you can check out refurbished models. The upside, higher power options possibly in your price range. The downside, it's older hardware and the warranty is typically 90 days. Older hardware isn't always bad, a 4th gen vs a 7th gen for note taking will not be noticeable. But for laptops the big issue is battery life and the later generations tend to draw less power with each new gen. But if your heart is set on an i5, you can get a 4th gen i5 for the price of a 6th/7th gen i3.