Daughter going to Uni and she needs a Laptop

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RodBell

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My daughter is soon going to University to study Photography at degree level, however all be it desktop machines I can deal with I know next to nothing on what she'll need for a laptop. All of her "friends" are telling her to go Macbook, however over my years in IT I've grown to dislike Apple and the noose they've slowly wrapped around the users so I would really prefer her to not go down that route.

For around £500 (GBP) what should we be looking for in a laptop that would be great for her photography editing at college? We'll be signing up for the monthly subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom so that's not an issue it's more of a hardware problem we're currently stuck at.

Any pointers or links would be great?

Thank you,
 
i5 or better still i7 processor, lots of RAM (often cheaper to upgrade yourself after purchase). An SSD is nice, but not essential.

I like Dell and use a 7000 series Inspiron for day to day stuff, but others hate Dell. YMMV.
 
Hm. She'd probably be best with a Mac to be honest- for battery life, weight, portability...

My daughter recently switched from a laptop to a macbook and takes it everywhere.

But there again, my son went for a lightweight laptop. I'll message him and find out which one he went for.
 
Know it's not what you want, but my daughter has a MacBook Air, which is excellent, lightweight and has a very good battery life.

Plus as a student, your daughter will get a good student discount from Apple...
 
Acer Aspire apparently.

Small, light weight. He takes it to lectures/library all the time.
 
Thanks for this information all very very valuable I'll get to looking at all of this in the morning.
 
RodBell said:
Thanks for this information all very very valuable I'll get to looking at all of this in the morning.
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They are both students (obviously!) and so can't afford mega bucks for their laptops.
My daughter got student rates through her Uni, my son just looked for a good deal.
 
It's down to usage TBH, what her degree is and what she'll be using it for. I had a MacBook Air that I used extensively while travelling but with less travelling I appreciated a larger screen size
 
ianp5a said:
Oh dear.
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Why?
I can't stand them - it's a personal thing cause my mate loves them :)
I prefer a Windows based laptop, but you've got to admit...
 
kendo1 said:
Why?
I can't stand them - it's a personal thing cause my mate loves them :)
I prefer a Windows based laptop, but you've got to admit...
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I don't hate any operating system. But you can get a variety of different hardware choices and a variety of prices.
 
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Apple is hugely restrictive in what it will allow you to do generally but I've always found my various MacBooks hugely reliable.
That being said, my windows laptops of old were a bit flakey and unreliable, however I will say my Microsoft surface that I now have I'm hugely impressed with
 
neil_g said:
I'll admit a retina pro is on par with my dell m3800 :p
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We are talking about affordable, student laptops.
We don't all live in Mayfair :)
 
My daughter paid £800 for her new MacAir inc discount. (£1000~ otherwise)
I think my son paid about £300 for his Acer.

Both suit their own requirements.
 
Let her get to Uni first. The discounts obtainable using her Uni login/email address will far outweigh anything you can hope to sort now.

When I lectured at Uni, there were unbeliveably good deals for hardware and software.

Also bear in mind that the Uni will provide most of the resources required as a matter or course. PS/LR etc are likely to be available to her for free anywhere she can use her University login, whether that be at Uni, in halls/digs, or in Australia. She will be accessing the University's server and volume deal with Adobe or whoever provides the software.

So buy nothing yet until she has seen what is available to her. And the Uni may have a leaning towards Mac or Windows, so hold your horses, I can understand your desire to help her get a foot up, but you are definitely better waiting.

(Also a student once came to me to explain he was paranoid about getting a Mac Book Pro stolen after his parents had provided him with one. I could understand the risks and asked him about insurance but he was terrified of what his parents would say if he lost the £2k laptop).
 
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I don't like apple for much the same reasons as above however people think they're cool and uni students are all about being cool. When she says "my friends think I should get a Mac" read that as "all my friends have a Mac and dad I want one too" :)
 
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rjbell said:
I don't like apple for much the same reasons as above however people think they're cool and uni students are all about being cool. When she says "my friends think I should get a Mac" read that as "all my friends have a Mac and dad I want one too" :)
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If that was the case, I'd definitely not get her one! Don't follow the sheep. :D
 
I bought my daughter a dell inspiron 17" screen model. 6 years on she's still using it, I've just replaced the hard drive with an ssd recently.
 
I bought a retina 15 mbp in my last two years at uni (with student discount) and found that it was an excellent purchase. Still top notch (to me anyway!) now - i7, 512 SSD, 16GB ram .
 
Speaking with daughter and wife last night and after reading all the advice here and Shreds post too. We've put the brakes on seeking a laptop until September until we can see what the Uni will point her in the direction of, or what discounts we may be able to claim etc.

Thank you all for this advice here, I've bookmarked this thread to return to it come September.
 
RodBell said:
Speaking with daughter and wife last night and after reading all the advice here and Shreds post too. We've put the brakes on seeking a laptop until September until we can see what the Uni will point her in the direction of, or what discounts we may be able to claim etc.

Thank you all for this advice here, I've bookmarked this thread to return to it come September.
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We went to the local Apple Store before my daughter went to Uni - she had the acceptance and we told them which Uni she was going to, they gave us the student discount no problem.

We bought her the Air as previously mentioned, mainly because of battery life, screen, portability etc over what else was about then. My daughter wasn't bothered either way, she wasn't and still isn't an Apple bod (doesn't want iPhone etc), but she wouldn't use anything else presently as its been fantastic for her.

Also worth remembering, nearer the time of September, if you do go Apple route, they also have some good offers on for students - I think the last years offer in August / September time was a free set of Beats headphones...

I hope she has a great time at Uni and I hope you cope - i struggled and still miss my daughter like crazy when she goes back after coming up for a short time, dads and daughters eh !!! [emoji3]
 
Battery life alone it's worth getting a MacBook Air. There is simply nothing else that is comparable that lasts as long as it does. Three years old mine is and I still get an easy 12 hours of active use. Saves having to carry around the charger.
 
dejongj said:
Battery life alone it's worth getting a MacBook Air. There is simply nothing else that is comparable that lasts as long as it does. Three years old mine is and I still get an easy 12 hours of active use. Saves having to carry around the charger.
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+1, loved my Air
 
One thing to consider, if she gets an Apple (and in my opinion, the MacBook Pro is the way to go) using the Academic discount it includes 3 years off AppleCare support. So, if she get ANY issues, she can call them up or take it to an Apple Store and get support/repair/replacement as necessary.

But - as has been said, the Uni may have a spec they can suggest. My daughter was at Uni 2 years ago and the provided NO software - she had to supply al the software she needed but, again, the academic discount made the Adobe stuff much more affordable (this was before CC was widely in use).
 
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