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For today’s average college student, a laptop is no longer an accessory, it’s an essential tool. Current technology allows college students to take part in study groups without leaving their rooms or even with students on a different campus.
The first thing any college bound student needs to do is find out from their school if there are any specific guidelines to be followed for laptops. For the average college student, a system with at least a 320 GB hard drive is standard as they will no doubt have music and videos in addition to school-related documents and programs. When it comes to processing speed a dual core processor of no less than 4 GB RAM will do.
Some of the top offerings on the market are:
1. HP Pavilion dm1z: This offering from HP is priced at under $500 making it a good deal for most college students. Its specs include a dual core CPU, 3 GB RAM and 320 GB of storage. Its 11.6 inch display might be a tad too small for some students. The battery life is not too shabby either, which is important to the always on the go student. Another great feature is the HP Thermal Assistance Software. This cool feature adjusts the fan speed based on it sensing whether the laptop is on a hard surface or someone’s leg. Students will love the comfort of not having to deal with excess heat when the laptop is on their laps.
2. HP Pavilion dv6t: This is a more expensive option, but its specs justify the price. Aside from a 500 GB hard drive it also has 4 GB RAM and is powered by Intel Core i3 and comes with a 15.6 inch display. For students who don’t want to be slowed down by constantly typing passwords, the handy fingerprint reader is a plus. The size of the processor and memory enables smooth running of various applications easily.
3. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s: This is another example of a quality offering from Lenovo. This laptop has a 320 GB hard drive and a 14 inch display. It also has an impressive 6 GB RAM and the processing power of the Intel Core i3. When it comes to security, few laptops beat the Lenovo. This one comes with a fingerprint reader so you can enable biometric login access. Since students share laptops, at least they don’t have to worry that their passwords can be easily cracked. This allows a better sense of privacy and security.
4. Toshiba satellite C655-S5118: Priced at roughly $450, this is another good deal for the budget conscious college student. With an Intel Core i3-370M and a 320 GB hard drive it should be more than capable of delivering the kind of performance needed for any field of study.
5. Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL: The price may be too much for some college students but it is hard to dismiss any product from the current technology leader, Apple. It has a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor and a 13.3 inch display, and features a 320 GB hard drive. The design of this laptop also makes it a winner in the opinion of many. Weighing only 4.5 pounds, it can be taken from class to class with no trouble.
6. The Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011: One of the newest laptops on the market, this is definitely no lightweight. With a minimum of 4GB and a maximum of 8GB of memory, this will allow students to run even the most memory intensive applications. Powered with the Intel Core i7 2.2 GHz processor and a 750GB hard drive, most college student will be pleased to own one. The 15-inch screen could have been bigger, but other cool features make up for this. Of course, this doesn’t come cheap with a price tag starting at $2000.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, web cams and memory card readers now come standard on most laptops and it makes sense to look for these features. Whether being used for class or online discussions about assignments, these features are useful. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth makes it possible to get as Internet access from almost anywhere and sharing of information is greatly enhanced.
Some college kids need more processing power than others or keypads with additional features. For example, mathematics or engineering majors will find a laptop with a separate numbers keypad ideal. Graphic students will need more processing power and a large display. For them a 17 or 19 inch monitor should be a big selling point. Of course, these extras will cost more. Most laptops offering additional power and add-ons will run over $1000.
© 2010, Best College Laptops
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Laptops For College: Coupon Codes -
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These days students don’t think twice about taking their laptops or other electronic devices with them wherever they go. In fact, in many classroom settings, electronics, Internet connections and conferencing technology are essential components. Not surprisingly, this has given rise to yet one more choice facing students at various levels. As published reports indicate, many individuals are now weighing the benefits of both laptops and their sleeker counterparts, tablet PCs in the classroom.
<strong>Making Comparisons</strong>
Tablet PCs are the obvious choice if the personal criteria are convenience and a lighter load. Beyond these considerations however, technical aspects of these devices might make one or the other more suitable for certain tasks. The decision basically rests on the content of the course and what is required during lectures.
· Tablet PCs: It is true that there are many developers busy churning out apps for these devices. The big question is, how well do they handle full blown, feature rich applications? Users will no doubt prefer to have a mouse on hand, plus the ability to quickly switch between programs and windows as necessary. Typing may be an issue for those less experienced with the touchscreen format, especially with large blocks of information. They are acknowledged to be ideal for settings where previously prepared information, such as literature texts, will be read.
· Laptops: Reports seem to suggest that this is still the king of the classroom setting, even if it is beginning to give some ground to tablets. Its main advantages are of course storage and the types of software it can run. No matter how light manufacturers make it, a laptop will simply never be as light as a tablet PC. As stated previously, they are easier to use when lots of information has to be inputted in a relatively short space of time. The larger screen is also an advantage as windows can be placed side by side and still be viewed comfortably.
There are students and teachers who support using both devices. There is no denying that they complement each other. Most students still seem to have a preference for the depth and functionality of laptops. Tablets are constantly evolving, their portability and lightweight may eventually win the day.
© 2010, Best College Laptops
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Laptops For College: Coupon Codes -
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Being a college student you need a laptop that is not going to give you any trouble. If you use a PC during college you are immediately in the “uncool” crowd as you don’t have an apple logo on the back of your monitor. It is amazing how good apple does with their marketing. Well anyway, I digress. The Dell Inspiron 1545 is about a third of the price of a macbook and will give you the ability to surf the internet, listen to music and write your thesis all without crashing or giving you any problems.
Assuming you know your way around a computer and are able to trouble shoot the simplest of problems you can save a lot of money buying a pc for college versus a mac. Keep it up to date with all the updates and don’t go web browsing in “bad neighborhoods” on the internet.
The inspiron 1545 has a nice large screen and plenty of hard drive space for all your applications and music. This will make your college stay a lot nicer as long as you have a carrying case for it that will protect it in case you accidently drop it. I dropped mine once and had to replace the screen. I am pretty tech savvy so I was able to do it myself with the help of dell’s support site. I didn’t have mine in a nice case like an incase but after I replaced the screen I went out and bought one right away so that wouldn’t happen again.
Some other things I have found to be annoying with this laptop while at college is that the power supply is acting up on me and now it isn’t charging anymore so I constantly have to have it plugged in if I want to use it. I think it might be a faulty power supply or the connection where the power supply plugs into the computer might have come un-welded.
I would also like to say that I would definitely upgrade the laptop from the standard configuration that dell gives you. I chose to upgrade the screen to the extra bright, glossy screen and I also upgraded the wireless card to draft n protocol. It wasn’t that much to upgrade these things and it was well worth it. This is especially true with all the typing I do on this while in college.
So all in all you can save yourself a ton of money buying a dell inspiron 1545 laptop directly from Dell’s website rather than buying an apple macbook. I have also found you can get the best deal from buying directly from Dell’s website. I found it is even a better deal than buying from the discount stores like tiger direct and the like. College is rough enough by itself; you don’t need a crappy laptop dragging you down while you are trying to excel during the best years of your life.
© 2010, Best College Laptops
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Laptops For College: Coupon Codes -
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