Laptop for Uni under $500

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  OverburdenedWarrior on 11/02/2015 - 23:30

  Hi there,

  Just spent the last few weeks running around looking for something similar, must've spent ages just comparing all the cheap laptops.

  In the end, I decided to grab the Transformer Book T100.
  (Link: https://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers-tablets/tablets/asus/asu…)

  However, it is only 10.1".

  The only downside I see so far is that it'll take a while to get used to the cramped keyboard, so buying a secondary wireless keyboard is advised.

  The Good Guys were the cheapest at the time, ($415) plus they had the newer stock. (Ask the salesperson to check the box, and look for Intel's Z3775. It's faster than the one in the original models that everyone seems to be selling, plus it's the same price. The Good Guys are the only place I've seen with regular stock however.)

• 

  ozhunter on 12/02/2015 - 00:04

  How old is your mbp? Out of the 4 laptops you listed, the toshiba chromebook would be best for your needs(weighs 1.49kg) but I think overall you'd have a better experience with your mbp.

• 

  plmko on 12/02/2015 - 00:21

  +4

  Go to Ebay and get yourself a used Sony Duo 11 ultrabook. About $500 gets you i5 and 128gb SSD. Everything will feel like junk compared to it for that money.

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  iridiumstem on 12/02/2015 - 00:35

  Everything you said can be done on a tablet + a bluetooth keyboard, perhaps look into that?

  The reason that I am suggesting this is:

  Macbook Pros are relatively high end Macbook, especially when you compare them with your selection of the laptops, in short, you are probably going to end up having a slow laptop that weighs 1kg+ (which still is a lot if you have textbooks) that you carry around and never actually use because it's slow. Even if you end up being able to sit down and use it, it's going to be annoying to set it up i.e. taking out 14 inch laptop, power plug etc etc. Also, at your price range, you have to compromise between portability, performance and build quality, you cannot have all of them; sometimes you lose out on all of them. It's better to go for tablets or chromebook IMO, $500 is decent amount of money for tablets or chromebook.

  Windows tablets are decent if you know what you are going in for. However, they are relatively low end as well (atom CPU, basically they are like netbook CPUs from olden days that improved to be around the same as old day laptop CPU from 5~6 years ago). In short, you'd need to go in and expect that it's going to be slow and the UI is going to take some time to get used to. That being said, it's not a bad choice. OverburdenedWarrior suggested t100, I suggest HP Pavillion X2.

  Even though X2 is expensive, you need to pay same for 32GB one for 64GB t100, I still think it is worth it because of following reasons.
  I personally think Pavillion X2's better in terms of build quality. I've found the keyboard on the x2 to be better than t100; The weight is not purely taken by the connection of the tablet and the keyboard but some of it gets distributed to the back bit as well, which would make it less shaky. Battery time of X2 is longer. HP probably has better services. I personally found the screen of X2 to be better than T100. Also active stylus support is something to look at, it really does help when you want to quickly jot something down on your lecture notes. Also stylus helps with situations where you need to click things on the move as Windows have small UI for a tablet. My suggestion is you should go visit JB hifi and compare both t100 and Pavillion x2.

  If you can spare little bit more and can find a second hand Surface Pro (Not RT or Surface 2, but Surface Pro 1 or 2), that would be better since Surface Pro has better CPU and everything even though I'd not use it as a tablet but rather a laptop (light for a laptop, heavy for a tablet as it is basically an ultrabook in a tablet form).

  I also suggest high-end Android tablet or iPad with a bluetooth keyboard or a keyboard cover as well, easier to carry around, has limited ability to edit documents, etc etc. I know that Android and iPad's office is limited, but I seriously doubt that you will do more than adding in paragraphs and deleting some paragraphs on the move. If you need serious computer work, you can either take your macbook pro with you or go to the computer labs (depending on your school).

  Just my 2c.

• 

  elusive on 12/02/2015 - 01:50

  It will be used purely to look at lecture slides, web browsing ie; readings, social media, using search engines and typing up assignments.

  Any Intel Atom processor of the Bay Trail generation (Z3xxx) should be sufficient. If you like to have a lot of tabs or media-heavy webpages, you might want to go Celeron or Pentium.

  Look for battery life and weight (you'll be lugging it around all day). You'll want to find one with a good keyboard, too. Try it out. Others have suggested the Windows tablet/convertibles, and my suggestion would be the same - but they max out around 11 inches. They're also a bit RAM-limited (2 GB) - it can do what you need individually, but might struggle a bit with multitasking.

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  scrimshaw on 12/02/2015 - 07:00

  If you go to MSY there is a GIGABYTE Q21M-49012s
  http://cdn.msy.com.au/Parts/notebook.pdf

  Specs
  Price $379
  Quad core Atom N2930
  4GB RAM
  500GB drive
  11.6inch
  1.35KG lightweight
  2 year warranty

  • 

    scotty on 12/02/2015 - 12:35

    Product link on MSY. N2930 is slow but not as slow as Z37xx tablet-class CPUs on ASUS T100.

    Seriously for portability I'll think even 14" is too big. Those 14" laptops listed by OP aren't much smaller than MBP and some might be even heavier. A 11.6" laptop like Gigabyte Q21M here would be much more useful.

  • 

    mrmarkau67 on 17/02/2015 - 17:08

    Right now there is an Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 on there for $474. Slightly better specs than the Pavilion X2, but the screen doesn't detach, it folds back Yoga style.

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  kthomas on 15/02/2015 - 09:44

  Thanks everyone :)

  I went in to have a look, and I'm not sure what I was expecting but I thought 13" would've been smaller, so I realised I'm actually after something around 11 inches.

  Will do some more research and probably come back in a few days for some more advice :)

  Thanks again :)

  • 

    iridiumstem on 16/02/2015 - 22:17

    +1

    Pavilion X2 $444.00
    HP Cashback $50.00 cashback
    So it would result to $394. (I haven't been able to find one in JB-HiFi and OfficeWork website, but I think it might've been cheaper there. I definitely know that JB HiFi sells one because my place sells Pavilion X2. So please do check.)

    I know that you can get Asus t100, 64GB around the same price, but I mentioned this before, better quality etc etc, so I suggest you go to JB-Hifi or somewhere and compare. I personally think it worth the price difference, but it's just me.

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  snvl on 18/02/2015 - 18:27

  If you don't mind refurnished http://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-asus-transformer-convertible…

  • 

    andyman1908 on 20/02/2015 - 11:39

    +1

    That seems like the US groupon site ?

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  thegrimripperoffer on 08/03/2015 - 21:40

  If you are a software developer or doing any sort of IT work, a transformer book or almost any cheap ultrabook will work. You just need to take the hhd out and put in a ssd, install ubuntu and you're good. That's what i did.

  If you're doing pretty much anything else at uni, a chromebook works best. Get a google account and get ingrained into the google ecosystem (drive, calendar, gmail etc.). it'll be the best decision you've made.

  If this is your only computer, and you want to store movies and play games, you need to step your game up and get something a bit more beefy. For just a light, fast uni workbook the above works well.

  • 

    Agret on 11/03/2015 - 12:07

    Why would you install Ubuntu if you are a software developer? Don't think Visual Studio/ReSharper would work on Linux. I would recommend Windows 8.1 for any sort of laptop as the boot speeds are crazy fast thanks to the hybrid boot where it just hibernates the kernel on shutdown. At the school I work at we recently re-imaged all the computers to Windows 8.1 and all the older laptops are so much nicer to use now that you don't have to wait 3 minutes for them to boot to desktop.

    • 

      scotty on 11/03/2015 - 15:16

      Ubuntu boots super fast even with a cold boot, on my 4 year old ThinkPad. Besides Visual Studio on a $500 laptop? For many software developers, vim and a bash prompt is all he/she needs for a edit-compile-run-debug cycle.