Do you need that much storage? You can get a nice chromebook for $300 and store whatever you need on drive/cloud/usb etc.
I have a mac, pc desktop, windows laptop and chromebook. I always go to my chromebook because it's inexpensive, does what it needs to do and I never have to worry about it being stolen or dropped.
Things I want: 13'' screen, 128gb+ ssd. I am totally uninterested in laptops with mechanical drives. It'll be used for school almost exclusively, and none of the stuff I'll be doing requires much computing power. $600 is the absolute max. Thanks!
For new machines, I feel like I'm usually recommending "Chromebook" in most of these threads. If you're a humanities major, a Chromebook will do just about everything you need, and the things you can't do on it -- advanced digital image processing, video processing, heavy development, specific applications, etc -- you can probably use your university's computer lab for.
The latest 2017 HP Chromebook 13" looks awesome and has gotten good reviews, and it's $500:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/08/hp-chromebook-13-review.html
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...BxYTkjITS9AsXnOroSXK19km4bX5zJ9HEcaAnYu8P8HAQ
It's got a very premium feel, great screen (3200x1800), great battery performance, weighs only a couple pounds.
Drawbacks are 4GB of Ram and it only comes with 32GB internal storage, though has an SD slot on the side and you could buy one of those slim SD cards that go flush with the system and add another 64GB or 128GB as you need it. But, if you're in the Chrome ecosystem you really don't need a lot of storage, as your photos, music, documents, and mostly everything else that takes up any space, are usually stored in the cloud. You have to be willing to try some things differently.. Like if you take a development class and need a development environment, consider using a hosted development VM in the cloud... If you need Office products, consider using Office 365, etc. Things like video or advanced photo editing are off the table, but you can get by with the 80/20 rule for most things these days (E.g., you can do maybe 80% of normal video or photo editing using tools on the cloud, and that extra 20% wont be available really). Heck, even with development these days you can get by with so much on the cloud or in a virtualized, remote environment.
Thinkpad X230 / X250 / X260 Refurb or used. They'll fit your budget (Maybe not X260) and are built like tanks. On top of that they usually have have really long warranties, which carryover making the purchases even more safe. On top of that pretty much all the parts are easily user replaceable if the need arises after the warranty runs out. The keyboards in Thinkpads are sublime are well worth their reputation.
Skip X240 though, since it doesn't have dedicated physical mouse buttons to use with trackpoint. Once you'll get used to trackpoint you'll never use trackpad again.
Disclaimer: Typing this on a X250.
I paid 400 for a refub Surfacec Pro 3 i5 128gb.
The keyboard is not that bad to be honest.
Normally I don't like MS 2-in-1 but I have to use it at work day to day, I like it enough I brought another one for myself.
I see Thinkpads recommended a lot. Is it just that they are robust and last, because I think they are so ugly. I am looking for a long lasting mid-priced laptop at the moment but I don't know if I could live with how ugly the Thinkpads are.
I bought a cheap surface knockoff from Banggood.com
It's called the Cube Mix Plus.
For 300 bucks I got,
-128gb ssd
-4 gigs of ram
-Intel M3 Kaby Lake
-Surface 2 screen and digitizer.
-USB C charging and data.
-Full Win10
Man I've been looking at surfaces for a while, and this looks like a pretty good knockoff, assuming that you can use a stylus pen with it
Surface 2 screen and digitizer.
I see Thinkpads recommended a lot. Is it just that they are robust and last, because I think they are so ugly. I am looking for a long lasting mid-priced laptop at the moment but I don't know if I could live with how ugly the Thinkpads are.
My experience differs tremendously. Got two 2011 MacBook Airs and they run great. Plus, MacBook resale is high and part of that is because they age well. They definitely age better than Windows laptops.Im in love with my 2016 macbook pro 13. I haven't really liked any pc laptop i've tried.
So why am I saying this?
Because:
Don't get an old mac laptop. I have had several (as a dev) and they age fast and hard. Mac OS requires a good processor and lots of ram to not be horribly slow. For a small budget, PC laptops are the Only valid choice. Got lots of money, though? Get a new mac.
My experience differs tremendously. Got two 2011 MacBook Airs and they run great. Plus, MacBook resale is high and part of that is because they age well. They definitely age better than Windows laptops.
I see Thinkpads recommended a lot. Is it just that they are robust and last, because I think they are so ugly. I am looking for a long lasting mid-priced laptop at the moment but I don't know if I could live with how ugly the Thinkpads are.
If you actually plug in your laptop 8+ hours a day and sometimes lock the laptop at work drawer you want ugly looking reliable business laptops.
Bringing personal laptop to work was also a gray area in my previous position, that was another reason I chose black thinkpad.