Computers & Electronics

New laptop recommendations

  • Last Updated:
  • Apr 7th, 2014 6:41 pm
Tags:
None
Newbie
Nov 15, 2013
4 posts
Toronto, ON

New laptop recommendations

I am looking to buy a new laptop I have a budget of around $1000. It will be used for school mostly. Any recommendations?

15" screen is needed
14 replies
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 1, 2013
6493 posts
3282 upvotes
redflagdeals.com
Pretty much anything above $400-450 will be good for school use unless your in engineering, computer science, or need to edit movies/photos etc. What exactly will you be needing it for and what are the specs of the computer you are using right now?
Newbie
Nov 15, 2013
4 posts
Toronto, ON
Engineering, and I will be playing games CS mostly.
Deal Fanatic
Jun 17, 2013
5120 posts
1501 upvotes
Montreal
CS.. counter strike? That runs on my five year old acer that was 400 bucks
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 1, 2013
6493 posts
3282 upvotes
redflagdeals.com
arclite2 wrote: Engineering, and I will be playing games CS mostly.
When I was at university, all the engineers had Intel i7 laptops so I'm assuming that they need the processing power. With that said, here are some suggestions:
http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/ ... f2e9a9en02
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/del ... a58ed5en02
http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/id ... :000040D8:
http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/id ... :000040D7:
http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/id ... :0000451A:
This one has a fast processor and is decently priced: http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/id ... :00003FD1:
Deal Addict
User avatar
Sep 7, 2012
3095 posts
1332 upvotes
West
Get something with exceptional battery life or you'll be like why the hell didn't I when you're always searching for plugs.
Sr. Member
User avatar
Sep 14, 2013
618 posts
395 upvotes
Kitchener
If you like UNIX systems, OSX actually isn't a bad choice for computer science / engineering students and battery life is known to be quite good.
Newbie
Nov 15, 2013
4 posts
Toronto, ON
arent dells and hp really just garbage? i heard those things break within a month
Deal Addict
Mar 13, 2012
1921 posts
807 upvotes
Calgary
They are. Only good thing about the HP posted(IMO) is the processor, not many laptops have the full fat processors nowadays. I know there's a Lenovo with similar specs, can't remember the model number right off the bat.

Edit: dealseaker posted it, the y510p. I agree with the other poster saying to get something with good battery life, but that's a trade off between battery life and processing power. Not sure how good the full Haswell processors are at managing power usage, but you should be able to get close to what the manufacturer states battery life as with normal usage.
Deal Fanatic
Feb 16, 2006
5264 posts
2270 upvotes
Vancouver
arclite2 wrote: arent dells and hp really just garbage? i heard those things break within a month
Like most laptop manufacturers, you get what you pay for. Typically the business class products are better built than the low end consumer swill.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 1, 2013
6493 posts
3282 upvotes
redflagdeals.com
I was originally going to recommend a refurbished mac air for around $850-$900 before I realized the OP wanted a 15" laptop. If you can bear with a smaller screen, this is something to think about: http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FD231 ... el-core-i5
or this: http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FD760 ... el-core-i5

Not to mention that these are more portable, lighter, and will have a longer battery life than anything else mentioned so far. Especially the one in the 2nd link that has a more efficient Haswell processor and better graphics.

If you're a big spender then you can get this 15" beast: http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FD103LL/A

BTW: I'm not a big fan of HP either but it had a good/fast processor considering the price.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Aug 10, 2011
2351 posts
1122 upvotes
Edmonton
My coworker was looking for a laptop too and of the various ones on sale right now this seemed decent for the price:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msc ... .295531900

Only caveat is - as with pretty much every non-ultrabook, hybrid drives aren't all that common and SSD equipped drives are ridiculously priced.

I have a hard time in good conscience recommending a computer to someone with a regular hard drive as its main drive, particularly when almost every laptop out there is fitted with a 5400rpm turtle. I'm also surprised at how many 15.6" laptops have 1366x768 resolution screens.

Top