What Is The Best Laptop Computer For Taking Online College Classes?
How To Choose A Laptop for Class
Picking up a laptop for school or for that matter a computer especially if you are considering an online course can have you soon scratching your head wondering how the hell can you find the ideal laptop, one that meets your budget and one that performs really well for your chosen online course.
The first thing to remember is that yes, there are many options but which are the ones that is most important to you. Usually the following will be your primary considerations
- Price
- Performance
- Style
- Resale value
- Warranty
Let’s start with performance. This is probably the most important factor in your decision. Your computer performance mainly depends on the following
- Processor (CPU)
- RAM
- Hard Drive
- Graphics
Picking a top of the line laptop with the latest specs will mean a higher price. If you have to make concessions, then skimp on the hard drive speed and capacity. With storage being reasonable cheap these days you can always buy an external hard drive should you run out of space. Now if you are really on a budget then explore reducing your total RAM. But pick a model that has room or rather slots available to upgrade later on. Do NOT buy a laptop that has a low memory specifications and no additional slots to upgrade. Finally your graphics card is not crucial if you are not working on a design or multimedia intensive course. So this is another avenue for you to reduce the overall price of your laptop.
Style is something that is very individualistic. Some will swear by a mac whereas some will pick a refurbished windows machine. Style is entirely dependent on you and again the price you are willing to pay for your laptop. A fancy custom design looks awesome but be prepared to raise your budget accordingly.
Warranty is another factor that you must consider in your purchase. Most manufacturers offer a free 1 year warranty that should suffice in most cases with the option to increase that warranty further. Additional years do cost extra and keep in mind that with the short shelf life of most electronics, you most likely will be shopping for a new laptop in a couple of years since your latest and most powerful laptop will be so outdated by then.
Finally, let’s look at resale. Very few manufacturers command a resale value based on their brand. Apple is the only manufacturer that comes to mind and Lenovo to a lessor extent. That said, remember buying a Mac will set you back almost twice the amount than for a windows machine.
Picking the best laptop for school can be trying at times. Keep the above factors in mind and you should be good. Beyond that there a hundreds of tiny variables that I believe is not worth splitting hairs on. In the end you probably will decide based on the price, performance and who is offering the best deal at the moment. If you are lucky and your timing is right, you can pick up some fantastic bargains around Thanksgiving and X’mas and not to mention back to school savings.
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The best laptop for an online college student is one that is cheap, lightweight, has built in WiFi, and has a decent battery life. The Latitude C400 is a great little machine that runs forever and costs almost nothing these days!
Dell sells refurbushed cpu cheap, & Gateway gateway has all North America speaking tec support
The best laptop for you is one that meets your needs without unnecessary bells and whistles – and, most importantly, one from a manufacturer who has a good reputation for good support.
I watch our weekly ads very closely. A couple of months ago I picked up a Toshiba laptop with Vista Home, 80gb HD, and 512RAM. Paid $399 with a free printer at Office Depot. Of course, it was a two day sale. I would have liked 1gb RAM but the 512mb suits my particular needs since I don’t do games, movies, or music.
First, decide what you need. Than go shopping.