Laptops for your Major

Hey Subbies,

As you all probably know I just finished school in May, and I'm really happy to finally finish one of my goals in life, and that was going to a 4-year University and being the second person to go to college in my family. But as the saying goes for an Art-design student like myself we are pretty much broke but I'm blessed to have people around to help me out like building my desktop pc and helping me with transportation to go to college. However, I couldn't afford Apple and have yet bought one even though I'm bilingual with both Apple and Microsoft OS because it has always been PC at home/work and Apple at school, In addition, I'm picky, so building a computer would be nice (if they could just let us pick the processor, RAM and hard drive than were golden cough cough... i5/i7, 500-512GB, 8GB of ram). I really hate that can't build my own custom laptop now that they have the new Surface, Macbooks, and etc. coming out now.

Recently, my co-worker is going for her master's in Psychology and we're both Alumnus of CSU. She's actually looking for a laptop for her internship this fall. She's thinking about getting a Mac computer simply to do documentation on and she says, "They seem more reliable than PC, they are $200 more than other PCs, and most of her classmates use Apple laptops." Her sisters are Art majors, so they have Macs of course and her boyfriend also owns an iMac. I'm a bit confused when she said they're $200 more than other PCs, which are possibly the top-of-the-line laptops i7, 500gb-1T HDD, and +8gbs of RAM between $600-$900 models. I told her to try gazalle.com if you want to buy a Mac for the first time because for a brand new Mac you'll pay $1200&up + Apple Care ($99-$299)+ software($40-$100). At school alone, Macs are targeted no matter if you're in an affluent area or not and I've heard a lot of stories of Apple products being comprised over the years.

But I've noticed since high school all my Art buddies started out with iPods/ iMacs (because we grew up with them) than the iPhone before jumping on the  Macbook train. I'm not only weary of buying something over $1000 that isn't a car or home or any other investments these days. But the most reliable computers I have owned have been my Lenovo and Asus desktop, so far with my Lenovo Ideapad lasting me 7 years even after my monitor hinge broke it still keep going till now.

Today, I want to recommend some top-rated brands for this year and I hope computer brands come up with better-tiered systems that is relative to ram and hard drive space:

Processor | HDD/SDD | RAM
i3             | 128-256gb      | 4gb (Everyday User)
i5             | 256-500gb      | 6-8gb (Standard/ Designers/Communications)
i7             | 512-1TB     | +8gb (Computer Science/ Gamers/ Content Creators)

*500GB is a good baseline for PCs and I  found it hard to max it out on my Lenovo i5 machine.
If you use PCs just for work/business a 13-inch computer is just fine. But for multi-taskers like myself try 14-17 (15 inches is recommended).

Okay, so what's best for you:

For the everyday person, Asus Zenbook UX330 is a good chose but if you want to dip your toes into Apple then try Macbook Air or an iPad for simple banking, documentation, emailing.

Designers/ Content Creators:

It will always be an Apple Macbook pro for us designers. But if you can't afford that then what I was always told to do is to look at what Gamers or Computer Science majors were using because usually, their computers were so robust like Alienware or Asus or Msi just right for what I needed. When I was still in school I saw my friends use Alienware, Microsoft Surface, HP, Acer, Lenovo, and Asus to do all our design work, so don't feel obligated to run out and buy a $2000 computer unless you have the means to do so. Also, for you videographers, there is a line of PC called Razer with their Blade line that is a powerhouse with great sound quality for whatever you are working on in the studio or on the go.

Computer Science/ Business

Lenovo Thinkpad hands down are my personal recommendation and if that's a little out of your budget try the Ideapad line.

Science/ Engineer

Well, I can't say that I'm surprised but Dell's reboot of their XP line and with their new Precision is a top pick this year and it seems to be a good fit for Computer Engineers these days.

Law/ Medicine

Microsoft Surface line is a great fit for portability and functionality. I would recommend it to design students as well.


If you still not sure check these sites out:

https://www.laptopmag.com/college-laptops
https://www.wiknix.com/best-laptop-for-college-students/
http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/best-laptops-1304361