Laptop deals back to school
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Plus, check out our top app picks for students, free software and must-have gadgets for your dorm room. Buying a MacBook is like getting a ticket to a land of fantastic new software.
The Best Back to School Laptop Deals of 2018 – Save up to $500 and More Benefits!
In addition to all of the free apps that Offering a simple and stripped-down experience, Google's Chrome OS is extremely easy to use if you can use a browser, you're goo High school and college are periods of ever-expanding responsibility for students. When you were younger you might have had mom and dad's help to get you up in the morning, tell you where you need to Up until around , both consumers and businesses could be counted on to upgrade their laptops every three years on average, because technology changed so quickly that anything older than that felt Even if you're familiar with the most common conne As an infographics artist, I rely on a Wacom drawing tablet to get sketches into my computer.
Drawing on the iPad has been challenging due to the limitations of the typical rubber-tipped stylus: Luckily, at a time when a lot of students will have to learn new skills—whether life skills or skills to help them in s The standard Pavilion no Whether you're taking notes or writing papers, having a laptop is essential for college students going back to school. Some courses even require them! Unfortunately, buying a laptop for college can be hard on a student budget — especially when you consider the ever-increasing costs of tuition, books, and supplies.
Here's everything students need to know to get a deal on a laptop for college. Before you start laptop shopping, the most important thing to do is see if your university or degree program has specific computer requirements.
As you might guess, the performance in exquisite and smooth. Courtesy Google. Buy Now From HP. It also has anti-glare technology so you can work or play video games in various light conditions. Pin It on Pinterest. The keyboard has just the right amount of travel between the keys to keep your fingers rested while typing.
Most students can get by just fine with low-end systems, which are useful for note-taking and word processing. But some coursework may require specialized software that's more demanding.
And must-use software for some majors may only run on Windows. If your major is among them, you'll likely have to cross Macs and Chromebooks off your shopping list. The last thing you want to do is show up for class with a laptop that can't help with your coursework, so it's important to find out what you need before you buy.
Universities often list general software requirements for undergraduates, but different degree programs may have their own necessities. To find out, do a quick web search for your university name, degree program, and "laptop requirements. If you're like most students, you'll need the ability to do the basics: Any computer on the market today can do these things with ease.
If that's all your degree program requires, buying a laptop for college is simple. Below, we've outlined the basic laptop specs you should look for.
If your degree program asks for more, you should take their recommendations over ours. Regardless of brand, though, you're looking for a middle-of-the-road processor that gives you good performance at a reasonable price. For better performance, look for Core i7 or Ryzen 7 Mobile chips — but expect to pay at least couple of hundred dollars more for the upgrade.
The Best Laptop Deals for Back-to-School 2018
While more gigahertz is better, anything in those processor classes should be fine. Budget systems may use Intel Celeron processors.
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However, these systems are likely to be sluggish, and that could cost you time even if it saves you money. Minimum GB Drive With the easy accessibility of cloud storage — which lets you keep files online so you can access them from anywhere — systems with smaller hard drives aren't a problem. Solid state drives give you faster performance, but come with a higher price tag. And 4GB may be fine if you aren't going to push your system very hard but don't try to run too many apps or open too many browser tabs at once. Almost anything should be fine for the majority of users. However, if your degree program involves heavy image or video processing, look for a laptop that has its own GPU.
Gamers should also look for a laptop with discrete graphics. Just remember that laptops generally don't hit the advertised numbers, particularly if you're doing anything that takes a lot of processing power — so don't forget to carry your power adapter. For that, 13" is just right. Smaller laptops have cramped screens and keyboards, while larger laptops can be too heavy to lug around.
Shop Best Buy for great back to school deals on laptops, tablets, dorm essentials, and all the latest tech for the school year ahead. With the new school year just around the corner, there are so many great back to school deals online that offer discounts on amazing laptops.
Comfortable Keyboard You won't find this listed in the system specs, so it's best to hit up your local brick-and-mortar store to see how certain laptop keyboards feel. Watch out for the compact keyboards found on laptops that are 12" or smaller; they can be hard to type on. Be sure to check the ports and drives that are built into the system.
As laptops get smaller, they're likely to have fewer ports to plug in your accessories MacBook Pros , for example, replace standard USB ports with smaller Thunderbolt ports. Make sure your laptop has the ports you need, or plan to invest in a USB hub. Another casualty of the lighter laptop is the disc drive. Many systems skip a DVD drive. Considering we download most of our software online these days, this isn't necessarily a problem.
But if you know you need to read physical media, either look for a laptop with a DVD drive or budget for an external drive. But laptop prices vary wildly with customization. Here are some guidelines to get your costs as low as possible. Take advantage of student discounts. These are offered by most manufacturers and some retailers. Check with your campus bookstore to see if your university has any special deals, or shop the education section of the manufacturer's website. Shop back-to-school sales.
Sometimes seasonal sales will be better than an education discount, and sometimes they won't. Look at refurbished models. If you buy refurbished from the manufacturer, these computers are just as good as new — and come with a nice discount. Be careful buying a refurbished laptop from a third party, though, because you can't be sure what's been done to refurbish it.