Solved Best student laptop that doesn't cost £2,000

@Hazel123

A lot of the concerns you have are the same reasons I wanted my Android phones back in the day. I wanted without question
1). a physical keyboard to type on
2). a user replaceable battery because eventually the battery craps out and I want to change it
3). ability to add a SD storage card on my phone and expand the memory.

Funny enough, I'm still on an Android....but I have none of those options anymore. I got used to the larger screen and the lack of a physical keyboard, and most vendors no longer have user replaceable batteries nor SD card slots. The battery part still bums me out a little, but it's jus the way the industry went and so many people upgrade their phones so frequently they aren't blowing through batteries.

From the storage front, almost all my music comes from the cloud and is streamed, so I don't need storage for MP3's. And as an office 365 subscriber, I get 1TB of OneDrive space. I have my phone setup to sync pictures and videos to my OneDrive account in the cloud. This way if my phone is damaged, lost or stolen...I still have all my irreplaceable pictures and videos. And if my phone gets tight on space, I can remove the pictures and videos directly on the phone and still know that I have them in the cloud. And Microsoft does a better job with enterprise backup and uptime than most average joe's at home.

@Hazel123

If your concerned with your son's deleting a file and it's gone forever, there's nothing to worry about, cloud storage has versioning and its own recycle bin. This is true for both OneDrive and Time Machine.

Thanks. Read quite a few reviews (buyers and professional reviewers) about the base M2 macbook air now and some people do say it is underpowered and needs the 500gb and 16gb ram. Other chats online from students say they use a tablet more than anything until University - for note taking. Laptop just for typing up essays and he has a desktop at home. He has an interview next week at the College so will ask them then what would be best to get. If he really wants the macbook I'd fork out the extra and go for it, but personally I think the surface pro would be better for the needs - both a tablet and a computer. The macbook air M2 with 500gb and 16gb ram is about £1,550. With £200 insurance/applecare for 3 years it brings it up to £1,850. Only just below £2,000!.

What I don't want to do is get a macbook and find he then needs an ipad!

Hazel123 said:

Thanks. Read quite a few reviews (buyers and professional reviewers) about the base M2 macbook air now and some people do say it is underpowered and needs the 500gb and 16gb ram.

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The real crux of the issue is that for whatever reason Apple decided to use a single nand chip on the 256GB version, versus the 2 x 128GB configuration they did on the M1. This is also why the M2 has substantially better write speed because it uses 2 x 256GB nand chips on that drive.

So, if you get a base model with 8GB of RAM, and they you start throwing a bunch of load at it, it's going to consume that RAM and then start swapping out to the SSD, where the speed of the 256GB model is going to then play a great part in the overall system performance. Generally speaking, if you plan to throw a bunch of load at a MacBook air you are probably using the wrong machine for the task. But if you went with 16GB of RAM, you would be less likely to hit that swap, and thus the speed of the drive won't play as great of a part. The real key is that college students typically use these machines for basic tasks. They normally aren't using it to render 4k videos, etc.

But if you want to truly play it safe, going 16GB of RAM and going with the 512GB drive is best bet for an M2 Air with solid performance for heavier workloads. But those 2 upgrades take it from $1,099 for a 13" model to $1,499. That's a 36% increase.

And honestly if you are at $1499, i would strongly consider a 14" MacBook Pro with the M3, 512GB, 16GB model that would be $1799. It's way, way more machine. Better screen, better graphics, better battery, bigger screen, more ports, active cooling, better speakers, better resale, etc. So, you get a fair amount for that extra $300.

Hazel123 said:

Other chats online from students say they use a tablet more than anything until University - for note taking. Laptop just for typing up essays and he has a desktop at home. He has an interview next week at the College so will ask them then what would be best to get. If he really wants the macbook I'd fork out the extra and go for it, but personally I think the surface pro would be better for the needs - both a tablet and a computer. The macbook air M2 with 500gb and 16gb ram is about £1,550. With £200 insurance/applecare for 3 years it brings it up to £1,850. Only just below £2,000!.

What I don't want to do is get a macbook and find he then needs an ipad!

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Yeah, as I mentioned way earlier in the thread, I think a touchscreen for being able to take drawings while in class for notetaking would be great. But as just a tablet, probably not great as I would also have to carry a keyboard with me everywhere as typing on screen for anything more than just a few notes would drive me crazy.


You definitely have a lot to consider. For my daughter, the M1 mac book air was a clear winner as it was $899 with the student discount and has been perfect for her needs.

As there is no great rush right now I'll see - he often changes his mind (as he did the other day) and the interview might make a different. I can understand why he would like a macbook and a laptop but will suggest he thinks about what he would use it for. Yes macbook pro is better - but not as portable. The idea is something portable for college as he has a desktop. I think his thinking was - if a Surface Pro is about the same prices as a macbook, he'd prefer a macbook.

Hazel123 said:

Yes macbook pro is better - but not as portable. The idea is something portable for college as he has a desktop. I think his thinking was - if a Surface Pro is about the same prices as a macbook, he'd prefer a macbook.

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Macbook pro's are totally portable. In fact the new models are very close in size to the air.

Here is a new macbook pro m3 on top of a macbook air m2


Here are the specs, on size, and weight.


Here they are side by side from the top.



The size is negligle, imho. The pro is in the back and the air in the front. And remember, it's a 14" screen on the Pro and a 13" on the Air, so you get more screen space.



And size from the side.

A huge consideration for deciding whether to use a tablet or a laptop could be, does he touch type? If he has to take class notes by writing/printing by hand, then a tablet might be the better choice. And very importantly, the Surface Pro can instantly change from a tablet to a laptop!

I am the KING of recommending bargains and such. I mean I love to do it if I know of one. But a student laptop... is very tricky. Here's what I think matters most about them --

1. As solid a battery as possible. It's not that kids can't plug in but you know what I mean. What makes those Macs so tempting is how the silicon extends the daily battery life. Desperate for PCs to catch up there so I can recommend a PC without looking back. But --

2. -- if going with a PC, and I know this sounds silly -- make sure the power brick isn't gigantic but manageable for plugging in activities.

3. The screen needs to be bright enough that it can be used outside. Not always, but not never either, you know?

4. You want a more durable build, for laptops slips and falls. And along side that --

5. -- extended warranty. If you can manage 4 years, go for it.

5. If I had a kid in college I'd get them a second computer in case something happened to the first one. No interruptions from studying. It would be a dorm room PC with a nice enough screen and speakers that doubles as a TV/Music system for chill times. I just purchased a honey of a Mini PC from somebody called Trigkey that's $240. Add a decent monitor, keyboard, and mouse and that right there is $400. I'm saying this in regards to your overall budget, and so that we have that --

6. -- an Asus Zenbook something like this --


-- but first watch some reviews on YouTube and make sure the battery is good and the PC meets the above requirements

That's $869 plus $147 for four years protection plus $400 for the Mini PC setup/dorm room TV for $1416 before tax.

The Pool Man said:

I am the KING of recommending bargains and such. I mean I love to do it if I know of one. But a student laptop... is very tricky. Here's what I think matters most about them --

1. As solid a battery as possible. It's not that kids can't plug in but you know what I mean. What makes those Macs so tempting is how the silicon extends the daily battery life. Desperate for PCs to catch up there so I can recommend a PC without looking back. But --

2. -- if going with a PC, and I know this sounds silly -- make sure the power brick isn't gigantic but manageable for plugging in activities.

3. The screen needs to be bright enough that it can be used outside. Not always, but not never either, you know?

4. You want a more durable build, for laptops slips and falls. And along side that --

5. -- extended warranty. If you can manage 4 years, go for it.

5. If I had a kid in college I'd get them a second computer in case something happened to the first one. No interruptions from studying. It would be a dorm room PC with a nice enough screen and speakers that doubles as a TV/Music system for chill times. I just purchased a honey of a Mini PC from somebody called Trigkey that's $240. Add a decent monitor, keyboard, and mouse and that right there is $400. I'm saying this in regards to your overall budget, and so that we have that --

6. -- an Asus Zenbook something like this --

Amazon.com

-- but first watch some reviews on YouTube and make sure the battery is good and the PC meets the above requirements

That's $869 plus $147 for four years protection plus $400 for the Mini PC setup/dorm room TV for $1416 before tax.

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Yeah... for £1,850 you could get two of these Zenbooks and still have enough money left to go on a nice, long, Zen vacation!

Exactly.

Out of these 3 MacBook models I'd definitely go with the latest M3 Pro. Most value for the money. It is 2.5-5x faster than the M1 Air. I configured all 3 with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD and the cheapest CPU option available.

hdmi said:

Yeah... for £1,850 you could get two of these Zenbooks and still have enough money left to go on a nice, long, Zen vacation!

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lol

So for fun I ordered up this situation on Amazon. The linked laptop, 4 year warranty on it, the Mini PC with a three year warranty, an LG 2K 24 inch monitor (dorm TV), a wired illuminated keyboard and mouse (no student wants the hassle of a rechargeable batteries), and Oontz quality portable speaker ($79, which is both the PC/TV speaker and a portable speaker for the kid's phone). Grand subtotal in the US --


After my post some MacBook Airs were presented. As I said those batteries are tempting but, just for fun, I'm going to order Apple's versions of these products. Matching RAM and storage and screen size. With warranties. The thing, though, a Mac person would tell you to skip the Mac Mini and awful icky 3rd party monitor and get a 'better' iMac for your troubles, which includes Magic mice and keyboards and speakers.

Okay then. To get a 14 inch screen in a laptop requires a bump up to a MacBook Pro, and that's not an accident they set things up that way. Also, only a 3 year warranty is available here. The iMac includes some wireless keyboard and mouse action, a bonus over my PC option. I'd bet the iMac's speakers aren't as good and certainly not as portable for a kid that wants a speaker in his backpack sometimes.

But you see all is forgiven because it's 'Apple' and 'the best' and 'I love my Mac!' and 'that ecosystem baby'!

Grand sub-total --

The Pool Man said:

The thing, though, a Mac person would tell you to skip the Mac Mini and awful icky 3rd party monitor and get a 'better' iMac for your troubles, which includes Magic mice and keyboards and speakers.

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Not true. I have a MacBook Pro as well as a Mac Mini. Love my mac mini. I don't use the magic mouse or Apple keyboard.

The Pool Man said:

But you see all is forgiven because it's 'Apple' and 'the best' and 'I love my Mac!' and 'that ecosystem baby'!

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Have you ever owned a Mac? I use Mac, PC and Linux. While I don't love everything about Apple there are some things they do incredibly well.

It's not always necessary to match up specs. The Apple M series CPU is an incredible performer and has extremely low power consumption, this provides incredible battery life. I'd happily give up the high end core i9 CPU that work gave me in my Dell precision that lasts no more than 2 hours on battery for something that gave me all day battery life. For the stuff I do, I don't need an i9, or an i7.

The Pool Man said:

lol

So for fun I ordered up this situation on Amazon. The linked laptop, 4 year warranty on it, the Mini PC with a three year warranty, an LG 2K 24 inch monitor (dorm TV), a wired illuminated keyboard and mouse (no student wants the hassle of a rechargeable batteries), and Oontz quality portable speaker ($79, which is both the PC/TV speaker and a portable speaker for the kid's phone). Grand subtotal in the US --

View attachment 84078
After my post some MacBook Airs were presented. As I said those batteries are tempting but, just for fun, I'm going to order Apple's versions of these products. Matching RAM and storage and screen size. With warranties. The thing, though, a Mac person would tell you to skip the Mac Mini and awful icky 3rd party monitor and get a 'better' iMac for your troubles, which includes Magic mice and keyboards and speakers.

Okay then. To get a 14 inch screen in a laptop requires a bump up to a MacBook Pro, and that's not an accident they set things up that way. Also, only a 3 year warranty is available here. The iMac includes some wireless keyboard and mouse action, a bonus over my PC option. I'd bet the iMac's speakers aren't as good and certainly not as portable for a kid that wants a speaker in his backpack sometimes.

But you see all is forgiven because it's 'Apple' and 'the best' and 'I love my Mac!' and 'that ecosystem baby'!

Grand sub-total --

View attachment 84080
in his

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That right there is driving into serious Core i9-13900H complete with 32GB DDR5 and the upper echalon of Nvidia's RTX 4000-series territory.

pparks1 said:

While I don't love everything about Apple there are some things they do incredibly well.

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The most incredible thing to note about Apple being, that they sell 2 years old GPUs at the price of 2 months old GPUs.

So had a chat. Said he doesn’t like tablets (when a few days ago he was asking for a surface pro). Fair enough. I suggested the zen book flip just in case he needed a touchscreen and wasn’t sure if a MacBook would get used if he already has a desktop. But it’s been left we’ll ask the college about it. They don’t have anything online about recommendations but another 6th form college recommends windows not Mac, regardless of what subject you’re doing.

If a Mac will get used and last 5 years through university as well, will get one but I’d rather get the zen book flip.

The Zenbook 14X OLED such as the one that @The Pool Man linked to also has touchscreen. It has a 180 degrees (lay-flat) ErgoLift hinge, whereas the Zenbook Flip has a 360 degrees (flip) ErgoLift hinge. It also comes with an Asus Pen 2.0 stylus with 4096 pressure levels and 4 replaceable tips.

EDIT: included accessories vary according to country and territory so, whether the stylus already comes bundled with it or has to be bought as a separate option will depend on where you live. But anyway... as for the Zenbook Flip, the Intel Core i7-13700H in the Zenbook 14X OLED is a lot faster than the Core i7-1360P found in, e.g., Zenbook 14 Flip OLED.

Interesting that the 14 is faster. It was the Zenbook S13 flip I was looking at. It's going to be a difficult sell if he would rather have a macbook. I still think he needs a touchscreen though might not realise it yet. And don't want to then be asked for an ipad as well! And that would mean carrying two gadgets. Didn't get much info out of the college - need to speak to the right person.

And the charger socket is replaceable in the Zenbook (unlike the HP Spectre X360). Also the ssd can be upgraded in future. Not sure about battery life though.

pparks1 said:

Not true. I have a MacBook Pro as well as a Mac Mini. Love my mac mini. I don't use the magic mouse or Apple keyboard.

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I did not mean 'every' Mac person. It's a viewpoint thing, where the iMac screen is so magical and glorious and retina super glorious that the very idea of an 'Amazon' monitor just isn't a thing. And Apple Support ALWAYS punishes you for non-in house purchases.

pparks1 said:

Have you ever owned a Mac?

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I owned Macs ONLY for 29 years. Because of how TERRIBLE Windows was in comparison. I even sold Macs in the first West Coast American store for years. I was more Mac than 98% of peeps who ask your question.

The iPhone 6S was garbage. But because I was clueless I accepted it was my fault. Until I bought a OnePlus 3 and got twice the phone for half the price. What an iOpener that was.

This inspired me to try Windows 10. The good people of this forum held my hand because, once again, I was clueless about all things Windows. This was around 2015.

Now I would call 75% of Apple users fools. Yes, they do some things very well, but if you're not a flimmaker or audio person -- you're being taken for the previously explained ride. Apple under Tim Cook has been pretty bad, M1 aside.

Recently I had a battle with a Mini PC and my LG OLED screen. For weeks. Drove people in these parts crazy. Only to learn Windows 11 was fine and it was the 'webOS' on LG TV causing the problem. Yes, seriously.

You're seeing me taking a tone here because as proud as I was to stand preach 'Mac' during the Windows 7 era -- I'm now just as proud to tell people to go Windows/Android. Windows 11 is not perfect by any means and with Co Pilot may be heading in the wrong direction, but for most users Windows is the smarter choice. And you get to have several PCs instead of one Mac.

The best smartphone I've ever owned? Not an iPhone. Not OnePlus. Believe it or not -- the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite. Takes great pictures, the battery is chugging along in year 3, super light weight, sexy shiny back -- for $320. If Apple wasn't forcing competition out of America the phone would have been free with my carrier. This is one reason I hate Apple and Tim Crook more than words can describe. I despise that tool.

Oh, and the myth of keeping a Mac for 5 years is wildly bad advice. (I'm not saying you said that, but I just read it somewhere in this thread.) Once any Mac (or PC) is out of warranty it is worthless once something goes wrong. And if nothing goes wrong the battery will be toast in 5 years. I'm stunned Asurion offers four year warranty but I've had good luck with them and basically it's an insurance policy.

Apple limits you to three years because even they know their laptops aren't reliable after that. (For if they were, AppleCare would be for 5 years, wouldn't it?)

I’ll update when I see where this goes. It’s a slight dilemma. He clearly wants a MacBook Air (without ever having seen or used one but I think has decided they are the best). I struggle with the idea as would never buy one myself for various reasons. And the zen book flip is a nice computer.

Don’t want to end up with it being an issue though.