Back to school what laptop to buy

August 7, 2013 9:39 PM

I have a grandson who is going to college. I have 400 dollars to use to buy him a laptop as a surprise. I see several sites with bundles etc. I just want to see what the blue says how I can get the most laptop bang for my buck.
posted by Upon Further Review to Computers & Internet (28 answers total)

One of the base-model Lenovo with integrated AMD CPU+GPU would be my first choice in the $400-450 range. Purchased one for a family member last year, aside from the 1366x768 screen (which you will find on every laptop in that price range) it was surprisingly fast and capable, even able to run Skyrim at medium detail...
posted by thewalrus at 9:49 PM on August 7, 2013

Hi! To help you find the best laptop selection for your grandson, we'll need some more information about him. Could you please tell us:

1. His anticipated major
2. What kind of computer he currently uses
3. What his interests and hobbies are
4. Whether he's tech-savvy
5. Whether he's into computer games and if so which ones
6. Whether he already has a smart phone and/or tablet, and if so, which one(s)

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the success of a laptop purchase, and the above questions can guide us as we give advice.

My guess is, as a recent grad myself, you might be better off giving him one small gift and then including with that gift a card that says something like, "From Me to You: $400 towards the laptop that'll get you through (college, that is!)" because then he can be in charge of the purchase and invest in the device he feels is the best fit. Congrats to him (and you, proud Grandpa!)
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 9:50 PM on August 7, 2013 [8 favorites]

Laptops are kind of personal these days, especially for young people. It's not just a tool necessarily, it can also be a statement or an expression of their personal style. Also, if he's at all a techie, I would not surprise him with anything tech-related unless you too are incredibly well-versed in computer-y stuff. If I were you, I would give him a giftcard (maybe a Visa pre-paid card or a Best Buy gift card) so he can use it to pick out what it is he actually wants.
posted by greta simone at 9:51 PM on August 7, 2013 [5 favorites]

these birds, I don't think there is going to be a whole lot of functionality difference in a $400 laptop these days, from your list it seems like you're trying to define whether the laptop should be performance oriented or a general all-rounder... If the budget was $900 there is much more variety between heavier, "gaming" oriented laptops, ultrabooks (very thin and light), or generalist laptops (medium weight, with dedicated GPU).

At $400 everything is going to be pretty much homogenous and the difference will be the build quality of the plastic, the quality of the keyboard, and small details like exactly what NIC & wireless card are in it (compatible with Linux, or win7/win8 drivers available only).
posted by thewalrus at 9:53 PM on August 7, 2013

True, but not always -- if the grandson is a film student or artist, for example, the processing power of a $400 computer may not be enough to meet the needs of his class assignments. That's an important thing to consider when gifting someone a wonderful gift like a laptop. If the grandson only needs to be able to surf the net for research and do basic word processing, a tablet might be a better and more cost-effective present. $400 is a generous gift; there's no harm in assessing the different avenues in which to invest said gift.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 9:58 PM on August 7, 2013 [4 favorites]

If you have hopes of this laptop lasting him through the next 4 years, $400 isn't going to cut it.

$400 will buy you an entry level HP, Dell, or Acer laptop that won't be of great quality (and especially given that he is likely to be carrying it in his bag to classes and it will be bumping around).

Moreover, the university bookstore (or something) probably has packages and discounts that are worth looking at.

And this is a pretty personal decision.

You can contribute $400 TOWARD a laptop maybe.

FWIW, I'm a university professor and honestly, 95% of my students have the smaller MacBook Pro. It is also increasingly common for students to bring tablets to class.
posted by k8t at 10:02 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

You can contribute $400 TOWARD a laptop maybe.

This is my recommendation... I got a few gifts of earmarked money like that around that time in my life, and they were great gifts that I still have and use 20 years later (it wasn't for a computer, obviously). But the advantage is your grandson can get something he wants, and can even chip in some extra if more bells and whistles are worth it. The other thing that's particularly good about this approach at this age is that implicitly says "You're an adult, you can decide what you want/need".
posted by aubilenon at 10:08 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

I agree -- giving your grandson $400 towards a laptop of his choice is a better idea, so that he could made the decision based on his particular major, needs, preferences, and so on. And a Macbook is a great idea, though it would be more like $1000-1200, and that is not unreasonable for a computer that will last through college.
posted by shivohum at 10:10 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

a tablet is a really poor idea, even a $400 laptop has much greater content-creation ability and general "learn the guts of a computer" ability than a $400 tablet... You can't install Virtualbox and run Xubuntu, Debian or Arch Linux on a tablet. Tablets are passive content consumption platforms, laptops are content and work creation platforms.
posted by thewalrus at 10:26 PM on August 7, 2013

There are certain purchases that HAVE to be made personally. A laptop is one of them. I'm with Bird.
posted by megatherium at 10:30 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

1) His intended major makes a huge difference. Do not buy a tablet for a computer science major, for example.

2) $400 is a very basic laptop - he may wish to choose a better model.

3) Things to look for in a college laptop: battery life, wireless cards with 5Ghz support, screen resolution.

There's a decent 'what to get' here: http://blog.superuser.com/2013/05/30/what-laptop-should-i-buy-for-college-2013-edition/

Note that the cheapest they recommend are about $700 - this is probably where I would suggest, too! I would doubt the longevity of a $400 laptop for 'most' college students I know - it is difficult to find a well made laptop with sufficient portability in that pricerange.
posted by Ashlyth at 10:49 PM on August 7, 2013

I think this a wonderful idea but I agree with above posters that your money will go a lot farther if you put it towards a laptop instead of trying to find a $400 machine. He needs something that's relatively lightweight, sturdy enough to last 4 years, and decently fast. Are there any other relatives or family friends who could go in on the purchase with you?

Also I do think that laptops are rather personal, especially at his age, and it may not be the best for you to pick one out as a surprise. It's not just the "cool" factor. He is old enough to have preferences for operating system, screen size vs portability, etc.
posted by radioamy at 11:06 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

If I were you, I would give him a giftcard (maybe a Visa pre-paid card or a Best Buy gift card) so he can use it to pick out what it is he actually wants.

Don't do this. Just give him a check or cash. I have an all Apple household and our ~6 computers over the last 5 years have come from 5 different retailers because we stalk deals/refurbs/etc. If he's a PC person, he'd have even more retailers to choose from (not to mention possibly wanting to get it with cash from craigslist; we've purchased a computer with Apple's warranty, Applecare, there before). A gift card would just be a hassle. Get a card and put in the money.

I agree with everybody else. It's a generous gift toward a laptop.
posted by sweltering at 11:30 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

If you absolutely don't want to give him a cash gift, and are dead set on buying the system... you could get a fairly decent refurbished or used machine for this much.

Like say(links may break, maybe) this, or this(which is more durable, but has less storage)

Hunting i could find many other similar deals floating around on say, the dell outlet site and probably several others(Asus, and other reputable quality manufacturers have refurb outlet sites as well)

If you're willing to go not totally new, or even used your options open up to not just the cheapest bargain basement machines put together like junk, but solid midrange stuff. Thinkpads are some of the best machines out there, it's like buying a basic honda. Neither of those are old either, they were current generation until a couple months ago.
posted by emptythought at 1:14 AM on August 8, 2013

(jeeze that first link blew up pretty fast, the point is to just give a serious look to sites like that though)
posted by emptythought at 1:27 AM on August 8, 2013

Dell Inspiron 17" laptop, $399. "Ideal for everyday computing" it says, and indeed it is.

No offense but people are kinda snobby about laptops around here. We always buy Dell, we always buy at the bottom end, we use them for graphic design, programming, web design, crunching enormous datasets and music/film media consumption. They get carted around, they are total workhorses, and they last 4 - 6 years.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:28 AM on August 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

I just ran this question by Kinetics 1 and 2 who are college students. 1 is veterinary science and 2 is music production/something arty/maybe-moviemaking-or-singing-who knows she's young.

They both said, "God! Why didn't Grandma get us anything nice when we went to college??! This kid is so lucky!!!"

But I digress.

They then said that almost everyone has at least a basic MacBook at their respective schools and they pretty much live on their Macs for notetaking, music production, making movie scores, Skype, reading and annotating textbooks, etc.

They also noted that most of their friends have iPhones that they sync with their Macs.

So their suggestion is maybe get him an iPhone and barring that to give him the money for a computer.
posted by kinetic at 4:15 AM on August 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

DarlingBri, a 17" laptop to carried around to class? Yuck.
posted by k8t at 4:29 AM on August 8, 2013 [6 favorites]

I agree that you should check with him about whether a 400 dollar laptop will meet his computing needs, but I went to college with tons of people who survived fine through four years on entry level laptops. MacBooks or other $1000+ computers were definety not ubiquitous, not at my liberal arts college two years ago anyway.
posted by geegollygosh at 4:52 AM on August 8, 2013

It's worth commenting that I've seen maybe one 17" laptop being carted around, in a CS department with several hundred students. They are just too heavy and too big - until you're a student with a semi-permanent desk.
posted by Ashlyth at 5:31 AM on August 8, 2013

It's a lovely thought to surprise him with it but it's much better to offer to help out with whatever he might pick for himself. Beyond personal style and tastes, his department may have specific requirements for what he'll need.

If he wants advice on where to get a lot of value for the money, the afore mentioned Dell Outlet has some excellent bargains for under $400, particularly if you're search out coupon deals to use on them. If he wants something small and light, Liliputing has a daily best small laptop post which often has some nice thin and light systems for not very much money.
posted by Candleman at 7:17 AM on August 8, 2013

On the one hand, I agree that giving your grandson $400 for a laptop is better than buying him a $400 laptop. Most obviously, he may already be planning on a specific machine with his parents, or the university IT may be willing to support models sold through their bookstore but not other models, or at the extreme the university may require one of a few specific models.

On the other hand, it's difficult for me to imagine that undergraduates who actually need, by any reasonable sense of the word, more computing power than a basic i3 or AMD APU laptop has are more than vanishingly rare. This would be essentially the same as saying that about five years ago, they would have needed an advanced workstation because no laptop had enough computing power. The rare undergraduates who end up doing high performance computing or slinging around datasets that won't fit in a laptop's memory ought to have access to the school's high-performance cluster anyhow.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:22 AM on August 8, 2013

I see several sites with bundles etc. I just want to see what the blue says how I can get the most laptop bang for my buck.

Generally speaking, people get the most bang for their bucks by avoiding bundles. Bundles in electronics are like fish specials at restaurants: occasionally it's because they scored a great catch, but usually it's because they bought too much yesterday.

I agree it's a wonderful sentiment but possibly not an ideal outlet.
posted by cribcage at 7:24 AM on August 8, 2013

I agree that you should offer the $400 towards a new laptop, so your grandson can choose his own (depending on major, weight, etc). As to the choice of laptop, when I was recently shopping for one, I found the SuggestALaptop reddit to be helpful. They have a list of suggested laptops at all price ranges on the side, and you can read through some of the questions there in your price range, or ask your own. Even though it's geared towards gaming, the features that make the computer good for that will also make it good for what a college student needs it for - watching movies, word processing, running Matlab, etc.

As to the notion that everyone is using a mac, well, I work at a large public university, and this is definitely not true here. Students carry all brands of laptops and use all different OSes. They are generally on the lighter end of the spectrum (not many 17" behemoths). One thing to check is if you can get a laptop through the school; there will be an education discount and some schools offer onsite, free repair service for computers on their approved list.
posted by bluefly at 10:02 AM on August 8, 2013

Best answer: DarlingBri, a 17" laptop to carried around to class? Yuck.

Well fine, get the 15" for $349 instead. It weighs 5 lbs. The Mac Air weighs 2.5 - 3 lbs; it's half the weight and three times the price.

Sorry but I just sort of reject the idea that if a student who doesn't have a laptop can't get a Macbook nothing else is good enough. It smacks of the "I only got an iPad 2 god mum I wanted a fuckin iPhone 5 fuck sake" Ghosts of Christmas Past to me.

Upon Further Review, maybe the thing to do is touch base with his mom or dad and find out what the plan is for your grandson's computing future. If the plan is to send him off with no laptop and he's said nothing about getting a Mac with the very first credit card he can get his hands on, then I would go ahead gift it.

"I wanted to make sure you have what you need for college, but if you have already made other plans for school, we can return this for 30 days and I'll give you the money towards a different computer or towards books" is a really nice way to do a really nice thing, still preserving options without ruining the surprise.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:06 PM on August 8, 2013

Counterpoint - I did a science degree and knew absolutely nobody who had a mac. I mean, those things are expensive and we were students.
I would suggest getting a Toshiba if you can find one in your price range though, I've been through quite a few laptops and the Toshibas have been hands down the most reliable. I agree that giving him the money towards choosing his own would be preferable though if it's an option.
posted by stillnocturnal at 1:07 PM on August 8, 2013

Best answer: Something that has only been touched on, is that some institutions, particularly smaller institutions, may have excellent support for one platform, such as having site licenses for useful software, and being able to do quick-turnaround, on-campus hardware replacement, while doing nothing for people with other systems, beyond allowing them on the network, and giving them access to network printers. The examples I know of have excellent Mac support and limited Windows support, but some may break the other way.

This might seem inconsequential, and at a large commuter school, it may well be, but for more isolated schools, or more insular schools in urban areas, the difference between stopping by the on-campus hardware repair shop on the way between classes vs catching a bus into downtown, or driving to the nearest city is huge.

So, another vote for providing funds in support of a new laptop of the student's choice.
posted by Good Brain at 4:11 PM on August 8, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for all of the feedback, I appreciate it. I think providing the money towards the laptop makes sense, I know a few others who will kick in for him so he can get a decent one that could support his classload.
posted by Upon Further Review at 8:16 PM on August 8, 2013