Ask Engadget: Subnote or full-sized laptop for university use?
By Darren Murph 
posted May 15th 2008 6:30PM
posted May 15th 2008 6:30PM
We know, the vast majority of you either graduated or got past one more wave of exams this past week, but there's no better time to buy a lappie for school than when you actually have time to enjoy it, right? "I'm looking to buy a laptop before I head off to college in a few months. I know there's too many choices out there in each category to ask for specific recommendations, but I'm wondering how current students feel about their machines. Is a subnote potent enough for university use? Is an ultraportable a better alternative? Or should I get a full-blown 15- to 17-incher as an all-purpose rig? My future GPA is hinging on your responses."
Let's hear it, bookworms. Is that CloudBook / Eee / 2133 Mini-Note treating you alright? Or would this poor freshman-to-be be better off with something larger? Toss out your opinions below -- friends don't let friends buy the wrong computer. If you'd like our readers to study a question of yours, send us an inquiry at ask at engadget dawt com, capiche?
Psh be a real student and use the good ol' fashion pen and paper.
black mac book... or if your up to it, mac book pro : )
laptops was made to be portable not for games. I am using desktop PC for games and EEEPC for studies. I you can do like me, than I recommend to do so.
15" laptops isint portable or comfortable to work, play games. Buy UMPC.
P.S. eeepc can play more than emulators, there are a lot of older good games, that eeepc can handle. Two of my classmates bought macbooks and yes, they can play smth like BF2 on low settings. But who cares? We allways playing counter strike 1.6 and having good time during the lectures. eeepc can play it at 70fps.
This is what I'm going for next year at uni:
Laptop: Macbook Air (or a tablet if apple releases one at wwdc)
Desktop: Quad-Core Hackintosh with 24" screen (big screens are way more useful that powerful machines)
Server: Cheap and silent
First off, what do you plan to do with it? Are you a gamer who needs the hi-def screen and sound. Then obviously go with the brick. I am now going into my fourth year and hate my ginormous book. It is basically my desktop computer that has a screen that can fold down.
The only logical choice I can see is to go with a tablet. All the new ones now a day are really light making the older heavier ones seem like a burden when taking notes. Combine that with a program like onenote and you'll never need spiral notebook again. Not to mention how much easier it is to use photoshop if you're into art.
Oh, yeah.
I'm also getting a DUPLEXING SCANNER. Together with Omnisofts's OCR capabilities I get scanned and searchable copies of class handouts onto my laptop. I've done this before, and it's by far the best way to keep handouts and notes at hand
Dell m1330 no question. I have one, several friends have one, we all love it.
Back when I was at Uni a decent laptop was far too expensive, so I made do with a powerful desktop and scribbled down notes on a pad. I found this made me take in a lot more as I transcribed them to the computer later, and I didn't look like a flash git in lectures.
Also, having a desktop meant I could run the LAN games that we all played in halls...
Subnote for note taking and the occasional homework. Use the library computers for most of your work because you get a lot more studying done at the library than with your roommates hanging around and also the large computer screens makes for far more comfortable paper typing sessions.
Then, get a game console ... Wii, 360, PS3.
I have an HP Pavillion dv4000 which I love (except that I am having heating issues right now). It is a little heavy for class with its 15.4 inch screen. This semester I had lugged it around because I couldnt write as fast as some of my professors spoke.
Having to carry around my big laptop got to me and towards the end of the semester I got an EEE PC. I love it. I have had to make some upgrades, but it is great and perfect to take to class.
My suggestion: if you can afford both do both.
More reasonable suggestion: Get a full laptop, the power is necessary at times and you can carry it if you need to. If you want something easy to carry there are full power laptops that are light, look hard and maybe pay a little more.
x61s
ok. A powerful portable laptop that is perfect Is the dell xps m1330. I use mine for notes in class then bring it back to play games in my room, it Is the only 13inch notebook that I know that has a decent dedicated graphics card in it.
I used an eee for the past semester without complaint. Although the keyboard is small so are the desks at college. While people could only have their macs or any other computer on the desk, I could have my eee and a notebook to draw graphs on for econ classes. The fast start up time is nice so you aren't having to memorizing what the professor is saying to write it down. Its also really light weight so I could dump books in my bag with the eee while walking around without looking like a dork with a bulging bag. Plus its cheaper than having a blackberry and looks like you are actually listening to the professor than messaging friends. The only downside is the battery life but it is still decent. I only used the eee for classes while I had a 19in wide screen laptop in my room for gaming or more intensive tasks.
I've gone through 3 laptops since I started attending Uni 3 years ago, migrating from a 4.5kg (10lbs) Acer, over a thin 15.4" Sony Vaio to a second hand Thinkpad X31 (12", 1.6kg or 3lbs).
If you intend to take your laptop with you a lot (I study computer science, so for me this is 'always'), I can't recommend the 12" form factor enough. I've also tried a 10" Vaio and 8" HandheldPC device, and 12" is, for me, the perfect combination of mobility and a full size, touch typable keyboard.
If I had to buy a laptop right now, I'd either get a Lenovo IdeaPad, or an X300, with a strong preference towards the latter.
Don't be afraid of "the screen will be to small". You're not supposed to use these things for watching videos with all your friends. You're going to be carrying it around, so think light and small.
EEE PC 701 (Black) All the way!!!
XD
but yea....i want to get a 900....still, very light and inexpensive option for uni users.
I don't have time to read all the comments - but I just finished a degree and used a Fujitsu T4010 convertible tablet PC for pretty much everything at university.
I highly recommend a tablet pc of some description - if a brand new one is too expensive then try to source a second hand one.
Use Microsoft One Note or Agilix Go Binder for taking notes, then everywhere you have your laptop you'll have all of your work and notes with you. Check out the snipping tool for windows xp tablet pc edition as well (might be standard in Vista though - I only have XP Tablet PC edition on my Fujitsu).
Check out http://www.studenttabletpc.com/ for heaps of great info and tips on how to make a tablet pc give you an advantage over your competition.
Regardless of whether or not you get a tablet - try to invest in a book scanner (for example a Plustek Opticbook) - then you can scan your textbooks in and have those with you everywhere as well - OCR the scans then you can do a ctrl-f and search the entire book much quicker than you could with a hardcopy.
Personally I have both a laptop, and a sub note. I use the laptop at my student digs for work, reports etc... but take the subnote (eee pc 2g) to university as its small, light and will do for surfing the net and making a few notes / excel documernts in lectures that I can then transfer onto my main windows machine at home.
A bigger issue you should look at aswell is the whole teathered broadband or mobile broadband for student digs. I am currently liking the pay as you go mobile broadband, its good!
I'm planning to get a Blackbook, or the high end white one, and then just max out the RAM and stick that new Samsung 500Gb drive in it - more worthwhile than spending another £700ish on a MBP, plus it's smaller. Though I'm hoping for an Aluminum cased revision at WWDC '08!
I've got a Dell XPS M1210. Not available anymore but the M1330 is a good replacement. I wouldn't go for anything above 12 or 13" if you're carrying it to uni and back, way too much effort.
Obviously with the 12" or 13" laptops you will be getting a full speed laptop with a good hard drive size, so unless you need the screen size/resolution it can act as your main PC whilst at uni.
I do have another PC with a 20" LCD that is far more powerful for gaming, video editting and other such stuff but that is rarely used these days compared to my laptop since the laptop is easier to use around the house and wherever I want.
I am considering getting an eeePC or MSI Wind in the future purely for how portable it is, since some days lugging a big folder and even my M1210 into uni can be quite heavy.
But when it comes down to it, 12" or 13" with a good resolution (ie HD) so you can get watching those HD TV and Movie rips that you'll be sourcing over the high speed uni fibre!
Uni students should be fine with a small, 13-inch notebook. A MacBook, for me at least, was a perfect laptop at uni. They're great for everything from notes in class to some light 'documentary' making. Now that I work in video editing I've upgraded to a MPB.
For non-mac users, the lenovo laptops are fantastic (not packed with bloatware, light and fairly reliable). I used to have a thinkpad provided to me by my high school, and it did everything I needed it to.
I would look at the MSI laptops, there is one out there which is sub £500(uk) with a 2ghz duel core amd processor and an ATI graphics chipset which does great for minor games. I own one of these is a 12" nice res, looks good you can get it in many colours, it did come with vista but never mind.
It runs a 3.9 in vista windows experience test which is fantastic for a budget laptop
If you know what you are doing with a windows based laptop and secure it well with free firewall and virus checkers like AVG 8.0 and Zonealarm to name a few you will not have a problem with it. I have had not one crash as of yet
I have a dell 12.1 and love it, everybody who buys a big laptop and then brings it to class regrets it!
Don't fall for the apple shit; they aren't anymore reliable then PC's, friends just died the other night in the middle of a final paper.
I have a XPS m1330.
It has all the power I need and it has everything. In had a 15.4" laptop and there is a noticeable weight difference in my backpack.
Good luck on your purchase.
I went with a powerful desktop for the hardcore stuff like gaming, then bought a Vaio TZ UMPC for carrying around and making notes. It's a fantastic combination, they both really complement each other with power and portability, but on the other hand the total price of the two was over £2000 (~$4000)
For Uni I'd reccomend a desktop replacement laptop over a smaller laptop or a desktop.
This is what I used at Uni, idealy I would have had a full desktop, but due to space and the advantage of being able to bring my whole system home with me for the holidays I bought a 16" laptop.
Most of the time it just stayed on my desk in my room, but for the occasional time that I needed to take it home for a holiday, or to DJ at a party having a laptop meant this was easily possible.
As for Mac or PC, if you are not already Mac, and are not a hardcore gamer, I'd heavily suggest you give Mac a go, you won't regret it.
James
Nearly identical specs for laptops at about the same size:
MacBook: $1299
Dell Inspiron: $1099
Ibuypower: $ 965
I like numbers. Macs are more expensive for the same hardware plus you have to pay for every update they do to their operating system. I think college users who are strapped for cash as it is should definitely choose Windows PC first and then decide whether they want to game (full on laptop) or use a umpc which would be much better in classrooms (then have a desktop for games :).
Actually, updates are free. They are just like service packs for Windows. Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 for example are completely different operating systems and are equivalent to Windows XP vs Vista -- they are not service packs. Service packs and security updates would be represented by a the third number, (in this case, 2) like 10.5.2 for example.
I'm an undergraduate student, and I got fed up with my 14.1", 2.4kg Asus A8Ja - a bit big for use on lecture room desks, and a bit heavy for portability (but light for performance).
Now I have a second-hand 12.1", 1.66kg ThinkPad X31 to carry around, and leave the A8Ja at home with a second monitor as a desktop.
Macbook. I feel sorry seeing all these kids with 15+ (sometimes 17in widescreen) laptops. They don't even fit on the desks in the classrooms.
Macbook has the perfect footprint.
Laptops are horrible, particularly for MOST student applications. They're the fad these days, but they are still horribly unreliable, easily stolen, easily broken, and have near-useless battery life. If you have 2 back-to-back classes, chances are any laptop you think you might use in class will be dead at the end of it all... leaving you hunting around for a power outlet. Now, maybe there are outlets in classes these days, but I tend to doubt this is true in most colleges.
As the owner of a computer service company, I never hear of ANY student who actually uses their laptops in class - it sits in the dorm room.
A decent desktop is WAY more productive than a laptop, and provides you with an upgrade path as you continue to use it.
Still, if you insist on getting a laptop, a 15" is where I would recommend being - the 17" widescreen models are just too big to be considered portable in any real way, and suck down batteries even faster. If you're going for a "desktop replacement", just save your money and get a friggen desktop!
You can get a nice budget gaming Desktop for around 900 and a Linux based Eee PC or Eee PC clone for 350. If you have to walk any distance to get to class weight is something you need to think about. The next summer you can just upgraded the desktop for a few hundred dolors. Best bang for your buck combo.
I'm on a 15.4" MacBook Pro, but then it's uber light and portable for it's size, so if I had to have a non-mac machine (Nevarr!) it would probably be a 13/14 inch for the weight.
I just bought a HP Pavillion 9812us
It has a 17" screen...I personally prefer the larger screen.
Also, this has a full keyboard (including the number keypad that is usually found on desktop computer keyboards)
Don't feel like reading this thread, so if it's been said, I apologize.
Get a desktop. I wish I had done it. You'll find that the occasion to actually use the portability of the laptop isn't as much as you like to think as you're trotting off to school. First semester freshies bring their computers EVERYWHERE, it's part of how we identify them. I got a tablet before my freshman year and regret it constantly.
The desktop is a much better value for the system you get and the ability to upgrade is a HUGE deal. Remember, you're going to spend the next 4+ years as a poor college student and that means there probably won't be an upgrade while you're still in school, so a bit of performance is worth it. (apparently my 256 megs of ram don't cut it so much anymore)
As far as the portability goes, every school I have seen has enough labs to make the point basically moot. If you have a class with computers, it will be in a lab. Unless you seriously think you'll be using it to do schoolwork from places without a desktop (which is doubtful as an undergrad) I'd go for the desktop and just keep all essential files on your network drive that you can VPN into from anywhere.
I'm off to uni this year and i'm going to use a macbook. I also have a monitor from my old pc(may it rest in peace) and a keyboard and mouse which will connect to a dock in my room. Let's face it, a macbook(or a windows laptop of similar power) is more than enough for your average uni tasks(unless your doing graphic design or stuff like that). As for gaming, I have a console I'm taking with me.
P.S.: Who cares if you use a mac or pc? I have a mav because I like it better. If you prefer a pc, good for you, u don't have to explain to me why your laptop is better than mine, because i don't care. For my purposes, a mac fits me better than a pc.
A small tablet is the best. You can take notes in class and annotate e-texts.
ive just sold my macbook and am waiting to get MSI's Wind. i'm hoping os x is pretty easy to load on to it as i couldn't cope with windows any more. the macbook has been great during my degree but possibly too much of a distraction, something smaller would stop me pissing around
for my design work ive got a home built PC with OSx86 and a 22" screen.
I have a 12.1" HP laptop (the tablet model) and after having it for 6 months I would definitely say go with a small laptop. The last laptop I had was a 17" and you could feel the difference in weight plus having to carry a much larger bag.
I use my laptop for AutoCAD primarily so I am limited in what I can see on the screen (the only downside to getting a smaller computer) but the trade down in size is worth it.
Well, I've been chugging away for the past couple of years on a well-aged, Ubuntu-driven Dell Latitude C400 (basically a forerunner to todays ultraportable notebooks, except with less sexy and more suck). It's done me plenty well for taking notes and writing papers, which, if that's all you're going to be doing with it, a sub-note will be fine for. Easy to carry between buildings, doesn't take up a lot of desk space, etc. However, if you plan on doing anything more intensive (or if you've got to get your WoW on at some point), I'd spend the extra money and get a decent 15-17 incher.
I am a commuter and this is what I recommend from personal experience.
Lenovo usually have sale going on labor day. I used to have compaq desktop replacement and it sucked. last year I got the X61 for about 1040 with upgrades plus shipping and tax. good thing I like about X61 is not only the actually laptop is small but adapter is small as well. Also battery runs about 7hrs for me just web + typing, so don't even bother carrying the adapter.
If you are staying in dorm. get a 14" or 15" laptop that have decent power but also on light weight side and get a gaming console.
MacBook Air
who am I kidding - it's less pricey than the smallest MacBook Pro and like $500 more than the starter MacBook - but I love it!
small size, light weight, full keyboard, wireless N, OS X baby!
Just buy a full size lappie. Trust me when I tell you that staring at a 8" screen will wear you out in no time. After about an hour your nose will be touching the screen and you'll have a splitting headache as well.
Besides most of those ultraportable lappies don't have a optical drive which makes it kind a hard to install software which comes with some books. And a external optical drive isn't handy either. You will mis it every time you'll need it most.
I'm a Mac head so I would go for a MacBook, or a refurb. MacBook Pro. When you're doing your homework the last thing you need is computer that's unreliable. But again I'm biased.
The answer to these types of questions is "enough for your needs".
If you're planning on taking it to class, 12" is probably the size you're looking for. You can always hook it up to a larger monitor in your room for around $150.
If your GPA depends on your laptop, get something cheap and basic like a Asus Eee. That way, you'll only be able to do your basic schoolwork on it and won't play games, download movies, etc.
However, if you plan to do computer science or take engineering classes, get something like a Thinkpad T61. Boring but an excellent ratio of weight/power/screen size.
Go for the regular 13.3 inch Macbook. Now is the time for one to
switch away from Windows to a Mac - while you're still in your prime.
It's only 5.0 pounds, so it's not heavy. Ultraportables are only for
those who must carry around a lot of other things in their bags and
really can't afford to carry a lot of weight on their shoulders, so I
wouldn't really recommend the Macbook Air because of it's higher price
and lower performance (a typical student doesn't have much money to
spend, but has high demands for performance). If you're fit, you'll be
able to handle the Macbook. If you think you'll need a bigger screen,
consider this:
At my University, there are several computer labs with 22 inch LCD
monitors hooked up to Linux machines (I'm in computer science). I
just carry around my Macbook with it's power adapter, a minidvi to VGA
adapter, and a VGA cable. I can simply hook up my Macbook to the 22
inch monitors, along with using the mouse and keyboard provided at the
workstation. So I would suggest checking out the computer labs in your
campus first, to see if this solution is feasible.
No matter what you get, spend a few bucks ONCE and a few minutes EACH DAY backing up your data. I'm staff at a university and every year there's one student who declares that a hardware failure ate his homework. After data recovery is attempted, at least half of them turn out to be telling the truth.
So BACK UP YOUR DATA and don't keep your porn on the same physical volume as your research papers! M'kay?
13" seem to be relatively good sized. 10" may be too small, and 15" is too heavy, theres the dell xps13 series, those would be pretty good, and you have an option for video card etc for gaming!
I have a Macbook that I use for school- it's fantastic. Portable enough to travel with, durable enough (more than the MBP) to take to lessons, yet full-featured (4GB, 250GB) with a decent screen and a fantastic keyboard.
Also, don't get the Air, it sucks.
Based on what everyone has been saying and my own experience as a college student I would assume you have $1000-$1500 to spend.
In that case I must recommend that you get a desktop and a portable laptop. If I didn't have an absurd number of PCs to begin with(4 at last count) then my ideal situation would include a new desktop with a dual core processor, 2gb of ram, an average video card(even the cheap new ones kick ass) and a good hard drive(recommend split the size in half and buy two).
If you're going to be at your desktop its nice to have a big monitor and a seperate keyboard and mouse so you dont get sucked into the computer. The power from the desktop will be very nice.
For the laptop, heck go cheap and small. Its purpose is portability, whip it out in class(the laptop i mean) and type some notes up, get back to the room and back them up on your desktop.
As a college student don't look for power in a laptop, its not worth it. Laptops are supposed to be portability and used for the simple stuff. They can't replace the raw power and comfortable office use that a desktop will provide.
I think a non IT student would be best off with a reliable macbook. Basic white one. not a fancy all singing one.
its the perfect size and has everything a student would need!
student discount AND fixed at an apple store if anything goes wrong
(Y)
depends on you
If you intend to take notes on it, get a smallish one, 14-15 inches, they make some of those with decent enough power and graphics to do whatever you need, except new and high graphics games, but the monsters that play those are much too big to carry to class all the time.
I am about to graduate, but if I had it to do over I would have gone with a decent PDA, or the nokia internet tablet
At least make sure your laptop can flip around into a tablet PC