Best Sub-$1000 Laptop for College

untam3d123

Honorable
Nov 5, 2013
1
0
10,510
Title says it all. I plan to use it for basically everything (productivity, programming, media, and gaming). Note: the gaming I plan to do is not particularly resource consuming, as I pretty much only play simulation games and Dota 2. I prefer that it is rather lightweight, but I honestly don't care about screen size, as I have a larger monitor on my desk in my dorm room. Battery life is important to me. Finally, although I would like to have a SSD, ultimately I most highly value having a reasonable of data storage capacity.

Thank you for the help.
 
Solution
(http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-582PG-7657-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00K2O4QPY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1405469979&sr=8-3&keywords=acer+laptop+850m)

This laptop is over $1,000, but it's lightweight, performs well in all activities. It also has a great battery life (6.5 hours advertised), which is a big factor for students.

Or check this out (http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JK-DS71T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00IAA5BSS/ref=psdc1_t2_B00K2O4S0W_B00IAA5BSS) - These laptops are more high-performance PC's so there cost are relative to their computing power. :)
(http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-582PG-7657-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00K2O4QPY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1405469979&sr=8-3&keywords=acer+laptop+850m)

This laptop is over $1,000, but it's lightweight, performs well in all activities. It also has a great battery life (6.5 hours advertised), which is a big factor for students.

Or check this out (http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JK-DS71T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00IAA5BSS/ref=psdc1_t2_B00K2O4S0W_B00IAA5BSS) - These laptops are more high-performance PC's so there cost are relative to their computing power. :)
 
Solution

mackneasy

Estimable
May 23, 2014
3
0
4,510
You might have to make a compromise. For great battery life, lightweight build, and gaming you'll find very little below the $1000 mark. I'd have to say that the Asus N550JK that Jason and iceblitzed endorse seems like a great laptop. It's got a 5 hour battery life, 1TB HDD and a good GPU. However it weighs 6 pounds. If you want similar specs in a lighter build you'll be paying a lot more.

If Dota 2 is the best representative of the games you'll be playing, you'll be fine purchasing a lesser-spec'd laptop, giving you the wiggle room to buy a light laptop.

Though you may not care about screen size, keyboard size matters. Consider how comfortable you are purchasing a small laptop with a cramped keyboard versus a 15" or 17" laptop with a large keyboard and numpad (unless you also plan to have a keyboard peripheral).

For storage capacity, a lot of laptops these days come with 1TB HDD's. If you still want an SSD, you might want to consider purchasing one separately (wait for a good deal on a site like Newegg) and installing it later.

I'm not very motivated at 4am to do specific research (and I can spend hours researching for a piece of tech) but I hope my thoughts were of some help to clarify what you want. If you have anything more detailed to add I'd be more than happy to help after I get some sleep!