Laptop buying advice

Skydie

Honorable
Aug 19, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hi, I'm looking to buy a laptop for university, but I'm pretty clueless where to start. I've normally always gone for Dell computers however I've noticed their current XPS 15 doesn't have a Haswell processor and apparently has Wi-Fi issues (which would be a real deal killer as my apartment doesn't have Ethernet connection) and grid lines on the screen.

PS: From the UK.

Here is some info:
Must be under or approx 2.5 kg (has to be relatively portable).
Must have Windows 8
Touch screen not necessary
1080P screen
Budget - approx £800
14/15 inch screen
SSD would be nice, but if the laptop is fast it's no problem.
Need the laptop for mid September.
Never bought a laptop before so I'm not sure what sort of battery life is good for uni, but I'm guessing 5/7 hours?
Don't need a Blu Ray burner/reader, a DVD burner would be nice but not necessary.
HDD space isn't too much of an issue, primarily being used for work not videos. So 500GB.
Should last 3-4 years.

Primary use will be for doing school work, but I need a laptop which can play game to an acceptable FPS, I play SC2 a lot and the machine should be able to not lag after 1 hour in a 4v4 at Medium/High setting. At the same time need to be able to take the laptop around campus and from my apartment, which takes around 15 mins. So don't want anything like a brick to lug around, I've not had a laptop before but is 2.5kg heavy for taking around? I'm kinda guessing on that.


Thanks.
 
Solution
Check into the Lenovo Ideapad y510p . Could be pretty close to what you're looking for to do all of that for light gaming + school, and generally comes in between $900-$1200 US dollars based on specs. The higher end setup comes with SLI GeForce 750Ms (but no DVD drive, the second card takes that port apparently, so keep that in mind when customizing), 15.6" 1080p screen, and I believe >500 GB hard drive. Might be heavier than 2.5 kg though.

Site advertises (for customization):
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT750M 2GB graphics
Up to 16GB DDR3 memory
Up to 1TB HDD + 24GB SSD
Up to 5 hours' battery life
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) widescreen display
Starting at 5.95 lbs (2.69 kg) / .61" thin

My friend has one of these that he just got for school, and he...

CraigN

Honorable
Aug 15, 2013
76
0
10,660
Check into the Lenovo Ideapad y510p . Could be pretty close to what you're looking for to do all of that for light gaming + school, and generally comes in between $900-$1200 US dollars based on specs. The higher end setup comes with SLI GeForce 750Ms (but no DVD drive, the second card takes that port apparently, so keep that in mind when customizing), 15.6" 1080p screen, and I believe >500 GB hard drive. Might be heavier than 2.5 kg though.

Site advertises (for customization):
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT750M 2GB graphics
Up to 16GB DDR3 memory
Up to 1TB HDD + 24GB SSD
Up to 5 hours' battery life
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) widescreen display
Starting at 5.95 lbs (2.69 kg) / .61" thin

My friend has one of these that he just got for school, and he loves it.

2.5kg isn't that painful to carry. I have an ASUS 17.3 that's 9.9 lbs and it's not a terrible burden in my backpack (Then again, I don't carry any books)
 
Solution