Looking for a very cheap laptop for note-taking in class

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Zaub

Estimable
Dec 1, 2014
4
0
4,510
Hello, I'm in college and what I'm looking for is the cheapest possible laptop, without it being a piece of garbage that just feels like it could break apart at any moment, and that would only be used for microsoft office and the internet; netflix, social networks... Definitely nothing crazy. I got my main rig at home for video editing, gaming etc. So this laptop would specifically be for class.

Again, it should definitely not feel flimsy, it needs a very good battery life and it should be lightweight!

Thank you!
 
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I suppose Google Sheets would be good enough to work with basic Excel spreadsheets. But it will not be able to handle Excel macros and definitely will not be compatible with VBA.

I recommend the following 15.6" Acer laptop with a Core i3-7100u and Intel HD 620 with a 1080p screen for $350. I think I read somewhere that battery life based on average daily usage is roughly 5 to 6 hours which means you may need to carry the charger with you.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-E5-575-33BM-15-6-Inch-Notebook-Generation/dp/B01K1IO3QW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1506966947&sr=8-3&keywords=i3-7100u


The Intel HD 620 is good enough for some "lite" gaming if you are between classes and don't have much to do. You should have no problems with playing LoL at...

Zaub

Estimable
Dec 1, 2014
4
0
4,510


Thanks for the answer, but it uses ChromeOS which isn't able to run Microsoft Office, which really isn't practical :/
 

vapour

Commendable
Aug 28, 2017
253
1
1,210


Check this out:

https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/2481498?hl=en
 
I suppose Google Sheets would be good enough to work with basic Excel spreadsheets. But it will not be able to handle Excel macros and definitely will not be compatible with VBA.

I recommend the following 15.6" Acer laptop with a Core i3-7100u and Intel HD 620 with a 1080p screen for $350. I think I read somewhere that battery life based on average daily usage is roughly 5 to 6 hours which means you may need to carry the charger with you.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-E5-575-33BM-15-6-Inch-Notebook-Generation/dp/B01K1IO3QW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1506966947&sr=8-3&keywords=i3-7100u


The Intel HD 620 is good enough for some "lite" gaming if you are between classes and don't have much to do. You should have no problems with playing LoL at 1080p with max graphic settings, or Skyrim with medium settings at 1366x768 or maybe 1600x900 resolution with pretty decent performance. Of course installing a second RAM stick can improve integrated graphics performance by 5% to 15% depending on the game.


If you want something smaller and lighter than a 15.6" laptop, then there is the 11.6" Dell i3168-3270 (comes in 4 colors) starting at $340. It is a convertible laptop with a less powerful quad core Intel Pentium N3710 that has a 1366x768 touchscreen, 4GB of RAM (only one RAM slot) and 500GB hard drive.


https://www.amazon.com/Dell-i3168-3270RED-Laptop-Pentium-Windows/dp/B01IUYTLP2/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1506967688&sr=1-5&keywords=11.6%2Blaptop%2Bn3710&th=1
 
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Zaub

Estimable
Dec 1, 2014
4
0
4,510


Oh! Good, I didn't know that. Thought I read the opposite somewhere. Thank you for the info

 

kaystoner

Prominent
Oct 6, 2017
3
0
510
You can get amazing deals on eBay - look for "seller refurbished" by Microsoft certified resellers. Also, look for corporate brands like HP, Dell, Lenovo, for professional-grade configurations for a fraction of the price. I've saved over $2,000 on laptops alone, over the last 15 years. That's not even including the workstations I've bought. Great deals are out there -you just have to know where to look.
 
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