Need Laptop/Tablet for college

[DDuno]

I recently bought a cheap asus laptop for college. It didn't have great specs and only cost me around $200. Anyways It didn't perform well for me. I need a laptop or maybe a tablet for college. I currently have a nice gaming desktop, that i built. Therefore, gaming is not a factor that i will be including in my search. I was looking at the Windows Surface tablets, but couldn't decide on what will be best for me. I really just need to use Word, and browse the internet with ease. The smaller, the better. If anyone could offer some advice on what to buy, it would be great. My budget is around $500.
Thanks

 

[Guest]

I recently bought a cheap asus laptop for college. It didn't have great specs and only cost me around $200. Anyways It didn't perform well for me. I need a laptop or maybe a tablet for college. I currently have a nice gaming desktop, that i built. Therefore, gaming is not a factor that i will be including in my search. I was looking at the Windows Surface tablets, but couldn't decide on what will be best for me. I really just need to use Word, and browse the internet with ease. The smaller, the better. If anyone could offer some advice on what to buy, it would be great. My budget is around $500.
Thanks

My recommendation is the Apple MacBook Air 11" for $769
http/store.apple.com/us/product/GD711LL/B/refurbished-macbook-air-14ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5

Please let me explain:
I was also in a similar situation. In September of 2011, I had enough money to build a new gaming computer for myself. I built the exact computer that THG recommended in their System Builder Marathon at that time and have been happy with their selection of components ever since. But the plot thickens. I still needed a laptop for college. I bought the MacBook Air 11" and installed Windows on it shortly after I built my main desktop in 2011. It is now the end of 2014 and I have no complaints or issues with my laptop. The SSD did die and I had to replace it myself. In the process I upgraded the capacity to 256 GB and did away with OS X (Yosemite) altogether. This laptop is the smallest ever, pretty fast for it having an Ultra Low Voltage processor, and did in fact survive college now that I'm almost done. The extra cash goes into the Apple brand, the engineering behind the form factor, and the ability to dual boot into OS X and Windows (your choice). In my opinion it still out-shines the Surface Pro because of the full size keyboard that is great for writing papers, browsing the internet, playing Mass Effect 2, WoW, Quake Live, or what have you.

Whatever you choose, please let us know what you went with. I will come back to this thread later in the day...

-David

 

[rockie_]

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314562&cm_re=820m-_-34-314-562-_-Product

 

[DDuno]

I'll consider the Macbook, never really been a huge Apple fan. I had a mac book in highschool and I liked it OK, but I really like Windows more. I'll consider though. Any more recommendations will be appreciated

 

[Guest]

I'll consider the Macbook, never really been a huge Apple fan. I had a mac book in highschool and I liked it OK, but I really like Windows more. I'll consider though. Any more recommendations will be appreciated

You're absolutely right. I'm running Windows 8 Professional on my MacBook Air. That's the best part, good hardware with your choice of OS...

Comparing any portable PC laptop out there with the MacBook Air, the most important features would possibly be:
1. Intel Core i5 (or i7) for general speed and the integrated graphics that can run some games...
2. Good battery life.
3. Full size keyboard.
4. Large responsive track pad.
5. SSD based storage so that your Windows experience is not hindered.

The MacBook Air covers these features pretty well, all in a beautiful package...
I think it's the best laptop out there...(IMHO)

The only caveat being a laptop with dedicated graphics for some gaming, preferably something with nVidia GeForce 970m or 980m...