Best affordable, light laptop for programming work?
March 27, 2017 11:16 AM Subscribe
I'm going to start a master's program in computer science in the fall. My current (Windows) laptop is great, but it's too heavy to carry to class. I'm looking for something under $1,000 (ideally closer to $500 or below; I'm poor) that I can bring in for in-class assignments and group work. What would you recommend?
Response by poster: I'm comfortable with Windows or Linux. Macs are nice, but usually too spendy for me!
posted by marfa, texas at 11:29 AM on March 27, 2017
posted by marfa, texas at 11:29 AM on March 27, 2017
If you wanted to REALLY go cheap, you could build a Raspberry Pi 3 laptop - there's one brand/kit called Pi-Top. A bunch of linux distros run on it (and I guess Win 10 embedded edition or whatever), but it might only be handy as an exercise in minimalism.
posted by destructive cactus at 11:34 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by destructive cactus at 11:34 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
The basic Asus Zenbook is a great all purpose ultraportable. You can get it openbox on Amazon for ~$600. Obligatory Notebookcheck and Wirecutter reviews.
posted by givennamesurname at 11:35 AM on March 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by givennamesurname at 11:35 AM on March 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
I wouldn't be surprised if your MA program either provided a laptop or at least had a program whereby you can get a discounted one. Have you looked into this?
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:36 AM on March 27, 2017
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:36 AM on March 27, 2017
You might have a look at the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. The hardware gets good reviews (I use the Windows version at work, albeit not for programming), and the DE comes pre-loaded with Ubuntu, so you're not paying for a Windows license you may not use.
My favorite feature is the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 charging. I can keep the regular charger at home, and charge at work via the dock on my desk (which miiight be Thunderbolt, but I think is technically USB-C until the Thunderbolt people certify it's Thunderbolt 3). I literally plug in one cable to dock to a desktop mouse, keyboard, and dual external monitors, AND charge the battery.
posted by willpie at 11:41 AM on March 27, 2017 [3 favorites]
My favorite feature is the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 charging. I can keep the regular charger at home, and charge at work via the dock on my desk (which miiight be Thunderbolt, but I think is technically USB-C until the Thunderbolt people certify it's Thunderbolt 3). I literally plug in one cable to dock to a desktop mouse, keyboard, and dual external monitors, AND charge the battery.
posted by willpie at 11:41 AM on March 27, 2017 [3 favorites]
I abandoned laptops for a while but now I'm using one of the cheapest chromebooks with chrome remote desktop to get into my Windows box at home. It works well, fairly light, and I'm only carrying ~200 in electronics with me rather than 600-800.
posted by PMdixon at 11:50 AM on March 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by PMdixon at 11:50 AM on March 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
I can counter that I love my 12" MacBook, and I'm a software dev. I wouldn't call it affordable though. For your price needs, I'd go with something like an HP Chromebook 13 in the $600 config, slap crouton on it and you've got a cheap, lightweight, and high quality Linux machine.
posted by dis_integration at 11:58 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by dis_integration at 11:58 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
The 12" Macbook is pretty spendy (although lovely, I bought one the day they were launched). But for significantly under $1000, look at a refurb MacBook Air 13", the refurb page is here.
Refurbished Apple machines have full warranty and are as new. Great way to get a decent computer cheaper than normal. That would easily do you right through a course like yours, my son did the same on a lesser machine.
posted by tillsbury at 12:11 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Refurbished Apple machines have full warranty and are as new. Great way to get a decent computer cheaper than normal. That would easily do you right through a course like yours, my son did the same on a lesser machine.
posted by tillsbury at 12:11 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Check out both the Dell and Lenovo outlets - with the right coupon (just watch the sales sites like Fat Wallet or Tech Bargains), you can get quite nice Dell Inspirons for around $600 (sometimes less). Lots of people here prefer Lenovos over Dells, but I've found the low end Lenovos to be lacking, particularly on the keyboard side.
If you just need something to mostly take notes on and don't have to run general purpose software, at least not in any fast amount of time, I'm very fond of my $175 Asus C200M Chromebook for that purpose. It doesn't have a great screen, but it's good enough, and the keyboard is very nice for the money. Highly portable and I regularly get about 10 hours of battery life out of it. And it will run Linux if you need it to, just not with any speed if your classmates are using i7s.
posted by Candleman at 12:19 PM on March 27, 2017
If you just need something to mostly take notes on and don't have to run general purpose software, at least not in any fast amount of time, I'm very fond of my $175 Asus C200M Chromebook for that purpose. It doesn't have a great screen, but it's good enough, and the keyboard is very nice for the money. Highly portable and I regularly get about 10 hours of battery life out of it. And it will run Linux if you need it to, just not with any speed if your classmates are using i7s.
posted by Candleman at 12:19 PM on March 27, 2017
A light distro on a Chromebook is probably a winning combination. Try LinuxLite, Lubuntu or MX16; they're full-featured, sleek-looking and light!
Another good option is a refurbished X-series Thinkpad. Something along the lines of an X60, X61, X201 would serve you well. Slight less lightweight but still quite transportable, sturdy and the keyboards are good.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:24 PM on March 27, 2017 [3 favorites]
Another good option is a refurbished X-series Thinkpad. Something along the lines of an X60, X61, X201 would serve you well. Slight less lightweight but still quite transportable, sturdy and the keyboards are good.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:24 PM on March 27, 2017 [3 favorites]
I wouldn't be surprised if your MA program either provided a laptop or at least had a program whereby you can get a discounted one. Have you looked into this?
I would absolutely wait and see if there's a program for getting student discounts. It's only March! If you don't already have a .edu email, find out when you'll get one. Dell and all the major companies have discount programs (or they used to).
posted by AFABulous at 12:41 PM on March 27, 2017
I would absolutely wait and see if there's a program for getting student discounts. It's only March! If you don't already have a .edu email, find out when you'll get one. Dell and all the major companies have discount programs (or they used to).
posted by AFABulous at 12:41 PM on March 27, 2017
1. Yes, wait until summer for student discount season.
2. Most academic programming is done on Unix platforms, and Windows isn't great for that, generally, so be prepared to dual-boot Linux.
posted by redlines at 2:01 PM on March 27, 2017
2. Most academic programming is done on Unix platforms, and Windows isn't great for that, generally, so be prepared to dual-boot Linux.
posted by redlines at 2:01 PM on March 27, 2017
Oh, and also, most laptops nowadays are powerful enough for light programming. You're not going to get much extra mileage out of a slightly better processor or a couple more gigs of RAM. For anything beyond light programming, I imagine your university will provide you remote computers you can SSH into.
posted by redlines at 2:07 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by redlines at 2:07 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm on a Lenovo Yoga (mine's a 2, I'd get a 3 now) and like it for portability (hate the tiny screen, but that's what you get for portability; I have big monitors at home).
Any laptop less than 3 years old is going to be fine, and I do not know how they teach programming in these here fancy modern days but I suspect there will be lab environments you'll connect to remotely. But still, my colleagues and I all run one or more instances of SQL server on our laptops (Yogas, older Dells, a Surface Book) and use Visual Studio and all that. Having a big solid state drive is nice, beefing up the RAM is good, but you'd be hard-pressed to buy a laptop today that you couldn't do programming work on.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:14 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Any laptop less than 3 years old is going to be fine, and I do not know how they teach programming in these here fancy modern days but I suspect there will be lab environments you'll connect to remotely. But still, my colleagues and I all run one or more instances of SQL server on our laptops (Yogas, older Dells, a Surface Book) and use Visual Studio and all that. Having a big solid state drive is nice, beefing up the RAM is good, but you'd be hard-pressed to buy a laptop today that you couldn't do programming work on.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:14 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
I would absolutely wait and see if there's a program for getting student discounts.Thirding (fourthing?) this. Your school may have some sort of program, and even if it's not the absolute best deal, it may help to narrow down your choices a bit. And it'll be more likely you'll end up with the same thing as a lot of your classmates, which can have advantages.
posted by bfields at 6:24 PM on March 27, 2017
I second Too-Ticky's suggestion of a refurb or even used X-series. My X200, while not a powerhouse, only cost $50 on eBay, and it's very light and portable compared to the boat anchor it replaced, but still feels sturdy enough to take some knocks. And being a business-class unit, it's got some nice features despite its age, like gigabit ethernet and a couple of empty mini-pcie slots.
Add in $50 for 8 gigs of RAM, the $60 SSD I already had, and $30 for a USB3 expresscard, and it's actually quite a lot of machine for less than $200. And at that price, I don't feel the need to baby it.
And then there's the nostalgia factor...it has a modem. A 56K dial-up modem. :-P
(Amusingly enough, the modem is the only bit of hardware in it that Ubuntu doesn't support out of the box. Go figure.)
posted by MoTLD at 10:12 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Add in $50 for 8 gigs of RAM, the $60 SSD I already had, and $30 for a USB3 expresscard, and it's actually quite a lot of machine for less than $200. And at that price, I don't feel the need to baby it.
And then there's the nostalgia factor...it has a modem. A 56K dial-up modem. :-P
(Amusingly enough, the modem is the only bit of hardware in it that Ubuntu doesn't support out of the box. Go figure.)
posted by MoTLD at 10:12 PM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
I have been using a think pad 11e at work for small on the go programming jobs, and I am pretty happy with it. The screen is small, but the keyboard feels nice, and it is solidly built and not too expensive. I wiped the windows 10 that it came with and installed Linux Mint with no trouble. $299 on Amazon.
posted by Maxwell's demon at 10:35 PM on March 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Maxwell's demon at 10:35 PM on March 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
My preferred strategy for this sort of situation in the past has been to buy a high-end business laptop that's a few years old. They're cheap, well-built, repairable, upgradeable, tough, and still reasonably quick.
Newegg has a page of cheap refurbs here. (This one and this one both seem decent, but I admit I have a thing for Thinkpads.) I also then install Linux on them; once again, Thinkpads have been pretty good for that.
posted by suetanvil at 11:41 AM on March 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Newegg has a page of cheap refurbs here. (This one and this one both seem decent, but I admit I have a thing for Thinkpads.) I also then install Linux on them; once again, Thinkpads have been pretty good for that.
posted by suetanvil at 11:41 AM on March 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by eatcake at 11:26 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]