Best laptop for a student

[raw99]

Need a new laptop as I exactly dropped a cup of coffee all over my old one and is subsequently now dead. It will be mainly used for research and the standard microsoft office stuff but needs to be quick at what it does and will reliably last me a few years. Any good recommendations?

 

[fralexandr]

If you want it to survive coffee the panasonic toughbook can usually survive, but those are pricey... old refurb dual cores are available for ~$500 but also tend to have 1024x768 screens which isn't very functional. More modern toughbooks are $1500+

Otherwise, decent i5 laptops tend to go on sale for <$500

Gateway 15.6" Ultra Slim Notebook: i5 1035G1, 1080p, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM, Win 10 $409 + Free Shipping

Walmart has Gateway 15.6" Ultra Slim Notebook (various colors) on sale for $409. Shipping is free. Thanks to community member FloatingQuark for finding this deal. Available Colors:Black ...

slickdeals.net

If you want to spend a bit more, you can get a 4700u

HP Laptop: Ryzen 7 4700U, 15.6" 1080p, 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD $555 + Free Shipping

Office Depot and Office Max have HP 15-ef1073od Laptop for $559.99 -> Now $554.99. Shipping is free. Thanks to community member Suryasis for finding this deal. SpecsAMD Ryzen 7 4700U ...

slickdeals.net

 

[raw99]

My old laptop was an i5 but i found it to be quite slow - are there any decent i7s going for less than $1000?

 

[fralexandr]

My old laptop was an i5 but i found it to be quite slow - are there any decent i7s going for less than $1000?

How old was your i5? If it was earlier than 2017, it was likely a 2 core/4 thread and might have been on a spinning HDD.
For the most part, the main difference between i5 and i7 mobile CPUs of the same generation are the i7 are clocked a few hundred MHz more and have more cache (~10% more performance) Making them poor choices if price is a concern. In the mobile space, being i7 doesn't automatically make it significantly faster, due to cooling and power limitations.
modern i5/i7 laptops (8th gen+) like the one I linked are 4 core/8 thread and on nvme/SSD drives.

There are i5 and i7 mobile parts that are 6 core/12 thread which are available around $900 and typically found in gaming oriented laptops which weigh 1-2lb more. There are also a few 8 core/16 thread i7 but those tend to run ~1500+.

the 4700U I linked to previously is 8 core/8 thread and at <$600 is a good value. I would go with the HP in my previous post unless you want to play games, in which case you'd want something with a dedicated GPU.

some other laptops to consider:
6 core/12 thread ryzen w/ gtx 1650 $600 1x8gb sodimm, so if you want to upgrade it you can just buy 1 more DDR4 sodimm. You would have to remove the whole bottom panel to access the RAM slots, potentially voiding the warranty, however.

Gateway Creator 15.6" Laptop: Ryzen 5 4600H, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, GTX 1650 $599 + Free Shipping

Walmart has Gateway Creator Series 15.6" Laptop (GWTN156-2BK) for $599. Shipping is free. Thanks to community member BradyA for finding this deal. Specs:AMD Ryzen 5 4600H 3Ghz, 6 Cores ...

slickdeals.net

6 core/12 thread i7 w/ rtx 2060 $980

Lenovo Y540 15 15.6" FHD, Intel Core i7-9750H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Black, Windows 10, 81SX015GUS - Walmart.com

Buy Lenovo Y540 15 15.6" FHD, Intel Core i7-9750H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Black, Windows 10, 81SX015GUS at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

 

[karpory]

try to focus on portability, also touch screen feature will be handy .. search in Lenovo Yoga line

 

[killster1]

try to focus on portability, also touch screen feature will be handy .. search in Lenovo Yoga line

i have a touchscreen 4k laptop and i cant say that i have actually ever touched the screen. funny all they do is office and research and need a 1000$ laptop? just focus on a decent ssd upgrade and anything in ryzen 4000 or intel 8th gen and up. even a I3 should blow through office and simple stuff.

 

[Work360]

I think HP and Dell are what you're looking for. i5 is good enough for your using purpose.

 

[raw99]

How old was your i5? If it was earlier than 2017, it was likely a 2 core/4 thread and might have been on a spinning HDD.

My laptop was bought in 2017, it was a Dell Inspiron. It was reliable but sometimes painfully slow running multiple applications e.g. spotify, Word and Powerpoint. I would have thought an i5 would be quick enough but it seemed slow as often things to several minutes to open. Not sure if its the processor's fault or something else though. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[SamMaster]

My laptop was bought in 2017, it was a Dell Inspiron. It was reliable but sometimes painfully slow running multiple applications e.g. spotify, Word and Powerpoint. I would have thought an i5 would be quick enough but it seemed slow as often things to several minutes to open. Not sure if its the processor's fault or something else though. Thanks for the suggestions.

There is a chance your i5 was a 2/4 or 4/4 core/thread processor. 10th gen+ mobile i5 are 4/8 core/thread.

 

[benjemin3]

Better buy 4th gen hp i5 probook