New Laptop for Grad School

Looking for my first laptop. Always built desktops but I am traveling half way across the country and don't have the space to move it. Just need it for basic school things (word, powerpoint, web browsing) no gaming at all. Didn't know what brands were good these days. Price range under $500 if that's doable for what I am using it for. Thanks!

Default recommendation for school laptops:
Business class Dell Latitude or Lenovo Thinkpad T or X series. Check the Dell and Lenovo outlets respectively, lots of deals to be found that will still carry a full factory warranty.

The 5420 listed here isn't a bad option, but the 6430s would definitely be my choice with that SSD for $100 more. Or you could look at a 6430u for ~$500 with the code posted here.
Save 25% on ANY Dell Outlet Business Latitude 6430u UltraBook! Coupon N6B7N3X4VC?7SR Only @http://del.ly/6019XDkZ (Exp. 4/12 11:59pm CT)

Those are just the current deals. They update/rotate/change twice a week or so. So if you find a model you particularly like but is a bit too expensive, be patient, there will probably be a sale.

kennedy said:

Looking for my first laptop. Always built desktops but I am traveling half way across the country and don't have the space to move it. Just need it for basic school things (word, powerpoint, web browsing) no gaming at all. Didn't know what brands were good these days. Price range under $500 if that's doable for what I am using it for. Thanks!

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I'm a Grad School student myself. I'm not sure if you are open to the concept of a portable Atom-based tablet, but if so, I would highly suggest the Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 (Model 367927U). It's a little bit outside of your price range, but the main reason is that the 27U model has a Wacom Digitizer + Stylus Pen which allows you to take notes in class, annotate PDF's, access the full suite of Microsoft Office, MatLab, and any other x86 based software. Battery life is fantastic (about 9-10 hours) and the tablet itself is only 1.3lb.

I wrote a very lengthy review on Amazon if you have any interest in reading it. It comes from the perspective of a Grad student.

If you do end up with the Lenovo TPT2, I would suggest this keyboard case (Kesington Keyfolio Expert). It is a bit pricey but very light in weight, and the keyboard is one of the best that I have ever typed on.

P.S. I forgot to mention that the tablet makes you look bad @$$ in class. A ton of people have come up to me and said how cool this tablet is, and how it seems much more practical than an iPad. Great conversation starter if you are single *hint, hint*.

I would not settle with an Atom. It's not even 64-bit compliant, and the GPU was outdated as soon as the SoC was released. 2GB RAM isn't even enough for web browsing.

pelo said:

I would not settle with an Atom. It's not even 64-bit compliant, and the GPU was outdated as soon as the SoC was released. 2GB RAM isn't even enough for web browsing.

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Disagree. Have you even used an Atom-based tablet? Not previous generation ones like the Atom z270, but the current generation z2760? Don't knock it until you try it.

I, too, was a non-believer in the Atom SoC until I started playing with the Samsung ATIV 500T at BestBuy. All of the Atom-tablets are quite smooth as long as you're not pushing it with Heavy Photoshop or Gaming.

Also, OP wanted something that can do basic school-related productivity. This handles Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, etc. with ease. I am in that EXACT situation and can personally attest to the experience.

Extra Proof: Go on YouTube and look at all of the Youtube "Hands-On" videos of the Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2, the Samsung ATIV 500T, Dell Latitude 10, etc. All of the Atom tablets have identical specs (Atom z2760, 2gb ram, ~64gb of eMMC storage, 1368x768 resolution, etc.). The main difference is with the actual build (e.g. the tactile feel of the tablet, shape, and screen-size).

Furthermore, check out reviews from TheVerge, CNET, Slashgear, etc. Another good source for information is at the Tablet PC Review Forums in the Lenovo section and the Samsung section. Both have huge communities of folks using their Atom tablet as their daily device for school and work.

Web browsing is more than satisfactory. It even bests iPad and Android tablets in many Browser and Javascript tests. The only caveat is that you can't use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Google and Mozilla haven't optimized their coding for Windows 8's environment from both touch and performance perspectives, so it's a sluggish (read: crappy) experience. You are stuck with IE10, which is absolutely a downside, but not a dealbreaker, IMO.

Again, just read my own review of it on Amazon that I linked to previously. The Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 isn't a perfect tablet by any stretch of the imagination, but for a mobile device that I can bring to class, take notes, write papers, work on Macros in Excel, etc., it is a very, very, very good fit.

It all depends on what you're doing.

The average usage pattern for me is 20 tabs up, and some are heavy on HTML5. If you throw in high quality videos, your Atom SoC will stutter (read the extremetech review). This new generation of Atom has only 8% higher IPC and ~25% better performance, but mostly attributed to clock speeds. As far as overall performance goes, it's woefully behind an A15 and roughly on par with Qualcomm's Krait smartphone SoCs (and even worse graphics performance).

If you're going to be doing light duty stuff, it's fine. But don't kid yourself into thinking that the new Atom is somehow amazing.

Ryan already broke the news on the Atom S1260, but it is good to recap. The Atom launched in 2008 and the CPU architecture was called Bonnel. Bonnel was a dual issue, in order design with a rather long pipeline (16 stage).

Since then, the core architecture has had one minor update, codenamed "Saltwell". Saltwell came with an improved branch predictor and a post-fetch instruction buffer to make sure that the same instructions are not fetched twice. Those were about two of the very few IPC improving features that Saltwell added. Saltwell also got turbo boost and finer grained DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency scaling). All other improvements were almost strictly power related: the L2-cache got a separate voltage rail, deep sleep state C6 was added.

In the some models, the L2-cache doubled to 1 MB. The end result was that we found Saltwell cores to be about 8% faster than Bonnel based cores, clock for clock. Using a similar amount of power, the 32 nm Saltwell core at 1.86 GHz (N2800) was about 20% faster than the older 45 nm 1.66 GHz Atom N450 with Bonnel architecture.

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it's still the same Atom core and it performs roughly the same. It hasn't gotten any better, but Win8 is a lot easier on it than was Win7. If you stick to Metro, you'll be fine (if you're not gaming at all). If you stray outside of Metro, then prepare for a world of hurt.

If you're planning on keeping it for a couple of years, I'd wait until AMD releases their Jaguar-based Win8 convertibles or cough up a bit more money and buy an Ivy Bridge/Haswell-based laptop/convertible.

I strongly second the recommendation for a Thinkpad X or T-series. I had a T61p for Graduate school and it turned me into a Thinkpad fangirl -- fantastic machine. The x230 is what I'd strongly suggest you get (great portability, great screen, great keyboard, great all around). Otherwise one of the 14" T-series models.

If you don't like Thinkpads then the Dell Latitude is your next best bet. If I remember correctly the models starting with a "6" are the best, followed by the ones starting with a "5." Not sure.

Cheaper options would be Thinkpad Edge or Dell Vostro, but imo it's worth a little extra to get the slightly higher quality.

I just bought a Acer Aspire E1 for my girlfriends birthday, and i'm extremely happy with this machine for the price i paid.

Specs:
Intel Core i5 3230M 2.6 GHz (3 MB Cache)
4 GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, Intel HD Graphics 4000
Windows 8, 4.5-hour battery life

It covers all the basics and although people kept telling me Acer was cheap (as in build quality) i gotta admit i like the plain Jane looks and construction that this machine has.

I third the Thinkpad/Dell Latitude suggestions. If anything, the keyboards on them are among the best in the laptop world. Solid build quality, too.

I don't want a tablet but rather a conventional laptop

I've found the combo of a think pad t61 with a ssd and a HP touchpad with Android to be an excellent combo for my needs. Get a 2nd monitor for home, and you should be set-- within your budget.

I will day the t61 is a touch on the heavy side.

tablet route = i3 or better. Atoms, even the newer ones are slow. I got the dell in my sig for $735 delivered and I upgraded it for about $250. The only thing I that I would have liked to purchase at the time was a 9 cell. The 48WH battery is good for 3 hours an the 9 cell would have gotten me closer to 7

I have increased my budget to $700 so that should give me a little more to work with

What is your major? I worry about long-term use on a $500-700 laptop.

I suggest a Lenovo X230t. Or just any Lenovo X or T.

Lenovo T430

/thread

I am a Nutrition major. I will only really need it for writing papers and web browsing