Help Me Get a Laptop

Jukain

Jukain

!_!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
I've decided that I want a laptop for school, and I have a budget of like $1400 according to my parents, so...yeah.

I've been looking into some stuff, and I know that I want at least 8 GB of RAM and a 13-15.6" screen. Based on my purposes, I've decided I either want a touchscreen Windows 8 laptop or a Macbook Air.

My purposes: surfing the web, schoolwork, some music, maybe Minecraft, IRC.

I've been leaning toward the Macbook Air, but I'm concerned about whether the 256 GB SSD is enough. Is it? Should I go with Windows 8? If so, what should I be looking at?

Thanks for any help you guys can give~
 
j/s i have a macbook air and it's really solid. i prefer osx to windows 7/(bleh)8; after about a week it feels like you're zooming through shit with the "magic trackpad". it's also a sturdy fucker, i've had it for almost 2 years and it works pretty much as well as the day that i got it. i do try to keep all of my shit organized and delete extraneous things, which obviously slows down a computer's performance decay, but when i say it runs like a champ i mean it. i've tuned it so that it feels like my laptop, too (as stupid as that sounds), and it looks slick as fuck. SSDs are so good.

the only downside is that it was quite expensive and if i didn't have a wealthy relative then it wouldn't have been an option. i have the 13'' one with a 128GB hd, and it was like $1500...not sure what model that you want but it could go above your price range. as far as hard drive space goes, 128 is doing well for me -- i'd like a bit more, but it's fine. 256 should be more than enough if you're just blarghing around on the internet and such.

if you don't want to go the mac route, i would definitely suggest against a win8/touchscreen laptop. windows 7 in my experience is beyond superior to the garbage of windows 8. i also don't like the touchscreen laptop fad...i guess if that's your cup of tea then go for it, but it seems gimmicky to me. also if you want any kind of power to play games (minecraft is pretty low-intensity, but if you ever want to get a steam account and blow your life savings) then i'm not actually sure what the specs are. are they more like tablets or laptops in the power department?

in any case i would advise against a win8 laptop. lenovo's thinkpads are solid as fuck, nice warranty, nice design, feel good to use. i think they are quite customizable too when you order so the 8 GB RAM/whatever else you want wouldn't be a big problem.
 
Let me start off with this: macbooks are not bad computers, but I really can't find any reason for anyone to purchase them. For the same system specs, you can save hundreds of dollars just by NOT purchasing an apple product. Windows 8 is not absolutely terrible either, touchscreen support is kinda meh but it has vastly improved over its first release. I have a windows 7 dell 17" laptop that I really use as more of a desktop than laptop, but I love it the same. Windows is always gonna be windows, pretty reliable and you know things will work out find for you.

A smaller windows 8 laptop would be better than a larger one, though, as you can use the touchscreen to take notes on and it's less awkward than on a large screen (I use a tablet for all my notes and it is fantastic). I just can't think of any perk of macs that justifies the price.
 
When it comes to computers I know my stuff, and despite being biased against Apple, the MacBook Air is one of the best ultra-portable laptops (we'll call them ultrabooks from here on) you can buy right now. Haswell made them a lot better than the previous generation, with a lot of review sites estimating the average battery life is around 10 hours on a full charge. The only drawback, however, is it's shitty display. 1366 x 768 is an awful screen by 2013 standards, and this is coming from someone who is posting from a 1600 x 900 ultrabook, which I also find subpar.

So what do I recommend for you: The Acer Aspire S7 (392). It is hands down the best Windows 8 Touchscreen Ultrabook. The only laptop that comes close is the Sony Vaio Pro, but the display on the S7 is much better. Both will come stock with 8 gigs of ram, an i5 CPU, and a 128 GB SSD. Obviously there are various SKU's that will cause the price to increase depending on what upgrades you make, but there is no better W8 touchscreen laptop at the moment than the S7. Regarding your storage dilemma, I'm currently posting from a 256 GB ultrabook. When I first received it, I was worried that 256 GB of storage would not be enough to hold all my files. I'm used to working with large files on my desktop with tons of software and various games downloaded, thus I have terabytes of storage. But after owning this laptop for about 9 months I still have 180 GB of storage left, which technically equates to about 40 GB of storage used since Windows 8 takes up a decent amount of it.

Speaking of W8, it is not bad. In fact, if you get the S7, you'll probably love it. I don't have a touchscreen laptop but I am running Windows 8, and I honestly prefer it over 7. I bought a piece of software called Start8 when I received my laptop to grant me a start button, but with Windows 8.1 rolling out soon you won't need to do anything like that. There are a lot of tasks that you do daily which you wouldn't think a touchscreen would help with, but trust me, after experimenting with different devices using one, they are fantastic.

tl;dr

MacBook Air is the best non-Windows Ultrabook on the market.
Acer Aspire S7 (392) is the best Ultrabook on the market (yes, even compared to those without a touchscreen).

**The 392 is important when buying as it indicates it is the latest refresh running Haswell. You can also tell if it's running Haswell if the CPU is an Intel i5/i7 4xxx
 
Last edited:
I almost always recommend Apple for laptops. They're great and if anything goes wrong (no they don't "just work" they are computers), you can drop by your nearest Apple Store and they'll figure it out for you. When I was searching for a laptop, screen quality and battery life were very important to me as was the power to run applications like Adobe's Creative Suite. Macs do that well. It will do basically everything you need for school while being extremely lightweight. Apple also has the best trackpad in the industry.

I'd never recommend an Apple desktop, but their laptops are worth it.

A 256 GB SSD is enough though I recommend grabbing an external hard drive (You can get 1TB Western Digital Passports for <$70) for storing non-essential files and for backup purposes.
 
Macbook Air is a good laptop. The main hang-up is the price, although a $1400 budget gives you quite a bit of leeway there. I went Win8 for cost and also to avoid any potential Office formatting glitches and to avoid software fidelity issues, especially with MATLAB, which I use(d) pretty heavily as an engineering student. Granted, these aren't huge problems with OSX anymore, but nonetheless every now and then something will pop up on a Powerpoint and my first troubleshooting thought will be "did you make this on a (whatever the machine hooked up to the projector isn't, which more often than not = Mac OSX)?"

However Apple keyboards and trackpads just feel so right. I require an external mouse for most Windows machines, but Apple machines I could totally skip out on that mouse.

256 GB is more than enough storage. You could probably get by with 128 GB, too. Check your current machine and see how much hard disk space you're using just to make sure, though. I've heard nothing but good things about SSDs too, the one thing that hung me up about getting one was price (although it's probably totally worth it and I should have done it to avoid headaches down the road). Also getting an external HDD for backup (and to assuage storage fears if you still have them) is good practice, but you probably don't need to get a whole terabyte.

Also if you go Win8 you can use free software to get the start menu. I use Classic Shell.
 
based on feedback, stuff from family, and own research, i'm probably gonna go with the air

i can get an education discount via family members, so i can get the 13.3" with 256 gb ssd and the 8gb ram upgrade in addition to iwork for just under my budget

thanks everyone for helping me out, i was legitimately skeptical of both before reading these posts

question: do i actually need office? i can get it relatively cheap too.
 
I've been doing fine with just Google Docs, wouldn't recommend it if you need any specialized features though.

I'm not a huge tech junkie, but I'd normally tell you not to get a Mac if you're planning to upgrade it or mess around with the parts. I've gone through a couple of Acer laptops myself and they last somewhere between 2-3 years if you're using them daily like I do. In general the software bits are also easier to tweak.

I think it depends on what kind of other stuff you're planning to do with it. I wouldn't recommend a Mac if you want to use it for games, but if you think you'll ever end up using heavy graphical software like Maya, a Mac would be great. Likewise, a Windows is easier on the budget for most tasks.
 
as of now there's no feasable consistent practical purpose for a touch screen on a laptop.
Take my word for it. (and immediately shave the price of your purchase in half)
 
For me, Office is a must. It helps with tons of stuff and it's better than Google Docs and Open Office imo. You can always download Office for free, so...
 
Unless you plan to use your laptop to game, it will not take nearly $1400, you can basically just pick whatever you think is the cutest & best size at that point. Computers are basically all good these days.

Also the first thing you should do is upgrade from windows 8 to windows 7 when you get the laptop ;) (unless you are into other non-microsoft stuff, that is all cool too!)
 
i don't have MS office and it kinda blows at times. i'd just drop the money, honestly. docs and open office are cool but for formatting etc i find it extremely useful to have something that matches up with our high school's computers (and i assume most colleges use office too)
 
I have said this many times before and got into heated arguments with others about it but the two most important components of any laptop (or computer in general really) are the display and the keyboard, and are often the ones we tend to overlook the most, even though they are how we physically interact with our machines. If I were to buy a laptop now, I'd go for something with at least a 1920 x 1080 resolution display, preferably IPS and not TN (ie the type of panel that inverts horribly if viewed off center). Unfortunately you won't find any Apple product that meets those requirements at your price range (I believe the 13 inch retina MBP starts at $1500). However there are certainly some Windows machines that at least meet the good display criteria for your budget. In fact, the one Faint recommended is a solid choice.

Edit: I didn't see that you have already decided on the MBA. Anyway, no matter what you decide, good luck, buying your first personal computer is always an exciting time!
 
Faint said:
Google Docs or Open Office are fine replacements to Microsoft Office, but the latter will give you the better experience.
Click to expand...
libreoffice is also a good alternative now (it's the office suite packaged with ubuntu and some derivatives), although it does hang quite a lot on my '11 macbook air. google docs is quite good but the spreadsheet function is not really any good (you can't even draw trendlines on plots...), so i bought apple numbers for $20 off the app store and it's powerful enough for what i need. google drive + numbers is probably sufficient for the majority of high school and college students.

note that if you're ever going to do any programming, you'll be better off with a macbook air, while windows has superior legacy support if you ever need old programs since mountain lion won't let you run powerpc applications (apps made before like 2005 for OS X).
 
i mentioned that i was getting iwork, which is word + numbers + keynote

my question is if i i need word on top of that
 
By school, do you mean like high school or college? If college, you may want to check out if they have any software deals for MS Office, I know I've gotten all of mine free that way.

As for whether you need it in addition to iWork, don't know myself, only Apple products I have are phone and tablet.
 
well idk about apple but i have linux, and it comes with libre office, which is pretty much open office as far as i'm aware.

it's free, and it comes with things like a version of word, powerpoint, and others - six in total, if i'm not mistaken. you should even be able to try it now and fiddle around with it, as it is, like i said, free, and you can get it https://www.libreoffice.org/ there
as for openoffice, it is http://www.openoffice.us.com/openoffice/free-open-office-download-yahoo.php?pk=11756 there

so no i can't imagine that you'd need word specifically, especially since libre office for sure will happily save as a microsoft word document - in fact, it'll save to any type of word doc [so '95, 2003, 2010, etc], so i wouldn't think it's necessary.

your purposes seem pretty light/casual, though: as such, i don't think you should get a new one. if you need to play all the latest games and program heavily [in which case, you should have windows], then i could see that, but not when the most intensive thing you'll be doing is minecraft. i'd shop around and look for deals; saving money is rarely a bad thing. read around for reviews, though - you don't want some shady guy selling you a computer that's slow or crappy or runs on SWAP. if you can, see if you can test it out a bit to see if it's smooth or not. your purposes almost seem like a chromebook would honestly suffice, though i don't know how well minecraft runs on those, if it runs at all.
 
touchscreens are meh.

I got a thinkpad t430 last summer and I've been very happy with it! I highly recommend a T series thinkpad. I'm very rough with my laptop from taking it to class and back and walking all over campus with it in my backpack, and it's very solidly built. I bought it for about $900 with the 1600x900 display and the best graphics card that was available. I also got a caddy that goes in the optical drive slot, a 256 gb SSD, and a TB hard drive. The SSD is the primary drive where I have windows and most of my programs and the TB hard drive goes in the caddy that I can remove super easily to put the optical drive back in on the rare occasions that I need it.
 
Shiruba said:
well idk about apple but i have linux, and it comes with libre office, which is pretty much open office as far as i'm aware.

it's free, and it comes with things like a version of word, powerpoint, and others - six in total, if i'm not mistaken. you should even be able to try it now and fiddle around with it, as it is, like i said, free, and you can get it https://www.libreoffice.org/ there
as for openoffice, it is http://www.openoffice.us.com/openoffice/free-open-office-download-yahoo.php?pk=11756 there

so no i can't imagine that you'd need word specifically, especially since libre office for sure will happily save as a microsoft word document - in fact, it'll save to any type of word doc [so '95, 2003, 2010, etc], so i wouldn't think it's necessary.
Click to expand...

libre office is okay as a stand-in for office and I do like that it keeps the pre-office 2007 layout, because the current menus really blow in office. BUT, it lacks a lot of features that office has there are a few bugs with it (like certain parts of the layout changing every time I open the file), so you may as well find a torrent for the latest version of office. When I re-did my CV layout with tables the libreoffice table tools were really lacking in comparison to Office.
 
Hey man! I got a new lenovo laptop a few months ago with a Ci5 3230M and 4 GB RAM for $550. I got it cheap because I opted for FreeDOS preinstalled rather than a flavor of Windows (do they do that in the US or is only in India lol ?_?). I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to get a laptop with 8 GB RAM for less than $700. $1400 is overkill unless you're really keen on getting a MacBook Air. Otherwise you should look at the Asus VivoBook S400, which is pretty MacBook-Airish, except it has a much better CPU and a 14" 720p touchscreen (720p isn't that great, but it's acceptable for a 14" diagonal). I can't pass comment on Windows 8 because I don't have it and probably will never use it, but I recommend using a linux distro like ubuntu if you need to do a lot of programming. It's much easier to set up a programming environment in linux than in Windows.

Also, the Intel HD Graphics in all IvyBridge/Haswell Core Intel CPUs (caveat: there are many classes for Intel Haswell graphics, some barely entry-level and others almost as good as upper-midrange dedicated cards) are more sufficient for Minecraft. Skip the dedicated graphics card.

edit: Shiruba, chromebooks can't support Minecraft. And it's not ideal for programming either because some CBs are ARM based.
 
ShortsTheory said:
Hey man! I got a new lenovo laptop a few months ago with a Ci5 3230M and 4 GB RAM for $550. I got it cheap because I opted for FreeDOS preinstalled rather than a flavor of Windows (do they do that in the US or is only in India lol ?_?). I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to get a laptop with 8 GB RAM for less than $700. $1400 is overkill unless you're really keen on getting a MacBook Air. Otherwise you should look at the Asus VivoBook S400, which is pretty MacBook-Airish, except it has a much better CPU and a 14" 720p touchscreen (720p isn't that great, but it's acceptable for a 14" diagonal). I can't pass comment on Windows 8 because I don't have it and probably will never use it, but I recommend using a linux distro like ubuntu if you need to do a lot of programming. It's much easier to set up a programming environment in linux than in Windows.

Also, the Intel HD Graphics in all IvyBridge/Haswell Core Intel CPUs (caveat: there are many classes for Intel Haswell graphics, some barely entry-level and others almost as good as upper-midrange dedicated cards) are more sufficient for Minecraft. Skip the dedicated graphics card.
Click to expand...

edit: Shiruba, chromebooks can't support Minecraft. And it's not ideal for programming either because some CBs are ARM based.

edit2: oh fuck, how do I delete this? T_T
 
To play Minecraf you'll indeed need a VERY powerful laptop I'd go with the Asus ROG g750 but I still don't know if it can handle that.......................................................ok seriously why would you spend 1400$ on PC if you are not going to play any game on it.Buy an HP envy 6:
1)It's 800$ CHEAPER
2)Good specs you can play most games in good quality.
3)Beautiful sharp design.
 
Farpafraf said:
To play Minecraf you'll indeed need a VERY powerful laptop I'd go with the Asus ROG g750 but I still don't know if it can handle that.......................................................ok seriously why would you spend 1400$ on PC if you are not going to play any game on it.Buy an HP envy 6:
1)It's 800$ CHEAPER
2)Good specs you can play most games in good quality.
3)Beautiful sharp design.
Click to expand...

Is this the one: http://www.flipkart.com/hp-envy-6-1001tu-sleekbook-2nd-gen-ci3-4gb-500gb-win-7-hb/p/itmdafk6twjsvkck?pid=COMDAFK3VFZH5VCG&cmpid=content_computer_8965229628_gmc_pla&tgi=sem,1,G,9226359,g,search,,24937129580,1o1,,,c,,,,,,,&gclid=CP-ZifmpqroCFcM34goduHwAlA
Because I find the SandyBridge i3 kind of meh. You can even get IvyBridge i5's for about the same price, if not less.
 
I don't know what the newer ones are like but based on my experiences with my three-year-old Envy I would definitely not recommend that line. The battery life is horrendous and it's more or less always producing enough heat to fry your balls if you actually use it on your lap (and as a result the fan is going at maximum speed all the time)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top