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Best windows laptop under $800 usd.
- Thread starter Milly342
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They tend to run cooler with slightly better battery life. I buy the AMD versions for work here when they’re available…
Given you’re buying for school, pretty much any machine these days will do it for you. So it comes down to build quality. You’re not gonna find a lot in your price range that isn’t *cheap* plastic that will inevitably break. Thinkpads are a bit more robust.
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It’s either I pay $800 for a laptop and get a iPad Pro or pay like $1500 strictly for a better quality laptop
im upping my budget to around $1500
If you want we can look together. Would you be interested in Dell XPS for example? Because if you think it'd be okay I'd do some research about the hinges, fans etc. I don't know what software you'll run, but Surface also seems a great option.
I’m really a MacBook guy tbh I’m gonna do research on this because I have no idea what windows laptop so ideal. I’d the dell xps good? I don’t need a touchscreen or a 2 in 1 I actually prefer ones that don’t do that. Yeah my college says for business majors theirs software than Mac OS can’t run for some reason
They can come with touchscreens.
I purposely go out of my way to not buy that useless feature, my X13 does not have it.
I understand, but do you have an intel MacBook? Would you consider a used Intel MacBook? That way you could run Windows on it as well.
Dell was good when I used it and as NT1140 said, Thinkpads are good as well. I'd recommend avoiding any MSI laptop though.
I've had several cases with the MSI laptops where the hinges just break out of the blue, but as stated you have unlimited options. Once you pick out a brand you'll have to do research on the specific model you're planning to buy.
I currently have a 2020 i3 MacBook Air. They said I can use a MacBook and when I need to use a program I can just go and use the computers in the library but I don’t want to rely on that if you know Whag I mean. I saw this laptop on Best Buy https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sku/6535504.p?skuId=6535504
I’ll second the ThinkPad recommendation. I’ve got a work issued Lenovo currently, and it’s slim and lightweight but more than powerful enough for what I need, and it seems pretty durable despite the plastic construction and thin case. Seems like Lenovos still have some of that IBM ThinkPad DNA in them, and not just in the form of a trackstick. (‘Course, it was work issued, so I couldn’t tell you how much it cost.)
Wait, if you’ve got a recent Intel MacBook, that changes things dramatically. Just save your money and buy Parallels or VMWare Fusion (and, strictly speaking, even this step isn’t 100% necessary, thanks to VirtualBox and BootCamp) and a Windows license.
My plan was to sell this MacBook because it’s in its last knees like when to get 2 tabs open it starts to freak out
Then, if you’d rather have a Mac, you might consider buying a late model Intel MacBook Pro on the second hand market (I don’t see any currently on Apple’s Certified Refurbished Store, alas), make sure to get one with 16GB or 32GB of RAM and as much flash storage as you can afford.
No offense meant, but I get the sense that you’re not really being honest or clear with yourself about your thinking. Unless you have more of an idea what your budget is and what your needs for a computer are, and you tell us what those needs are, it’ll be hard for us to make a solid recommendation. Are you maybe buying new hardware to justify buying new hardware (ie self-rationalization)?
As is, unless we know what kinds of things you need the laptop to do, it’s hard to make spec recommendations, and we can only give recommendations in broad strokes. For instance, I’d avoid anything running Windows 11S, that’s a recommendation I feel comfortable giving generally (the machines running Windows 11S tend to be cheap garbage that would feel cheap even compared to cheap ChromeBooks). But I can’t really recommend specific models or tech specs without knowing what you’ll do with the computer.
Everything you said makes sense, I would use the laptop for note taking, web browsing, YouTube and Netflix here and there, a lot of excel and PowerPoints and a lot of video calls
Maybe this might work for you?
ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 (13" Intel) | Our lightest ThinkPad ever
With up to 12th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro processing, our lightest ever ThinkPad offers exceptional productivity, viewing, and audio, plus advanced security.
www.lenovo.com
A little over your initial $800 budget but a 13" machine that's lighter than your Macbook Air and decently specced with 12th gen. i7-1260P processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD.
Nice little machine. Personally I’d go with the X13 models because it has a dedicated HDMI port which I find handy. That and you can get an AMD model which runs a bit cooler and longer (in my personal experience).
Just go with the iPad Pro and learn how to be productive on this immersive and incredible device.