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Good Laptop for a Uni Art Student? HELP

Takoto

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Posted August 22, 2012 at 10:23PM

I'm going to be going to Uni this year, starting late September. I already have a very good laptop (it's a gaming one but runs all my art programs nicely), but the problem is it's pretty large and heavy, not something I want to take on the train every day.

I was wondering if anyone could give me suggestions, I need a laptop quite small/portable, but capable of running something akin to Photoshop or Photoshop: Elements.

The actual art program I use does not work on MAC and isn't compatible with them, so Macs are out of the question for me.

I don't really have a price range as I can probably use part of my student loan, but something around or under £200 would be ideal, and something under £400 would be... expensive but I can still afford it and would buy it if it's my only option.

I already have a (quite small and portable) graphics tablet. The laptop would need to have at least 1USB port, for the tablet.

Thank you for reading!! And thank you in advance to any answers!!

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frybluff

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Posted August 28, 2012 at 2:22PM

Your problem is that you are somewhat asking the impossible.

Loss, theft, or damage is a fact of life for a laptop, at Uni. That's what insurance is for, but insurance won't replace loads of vital coursework, unless you have it safely backed up. You need an external hard drive for that, that you can keep safe. That will set you back around £70, leaving you with £330, even from your higher end.

Then, lightweight and reasonable performance, really means Ultrabook. Way outside your budget. You can get light-ish conventional laptops, but that usually means "flimsy". Not ideal for uni, either.

You really need something with an i3 processor, 4GB of RAM, and at least a 500GB hard drive. They CAN be found for £330 (just).

Your best bet is to go somewhere, like PC World (I'm not necessarily saying, buy there), and check the look, and feel, of some possibilities, that you like. Then shop around for a decent price.

You can always refer any selection, back here, for an opinion, on its quality, before you actually buy.

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wee eddie

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Posted August 28, 2012 at 3:00PM

Get yourself a Second hand MacBook

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frybluff

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Posted August 28, 2012 at 4:11PM

Or get yourself a second-hand Macbook. Good idea!

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morddwyd

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Posted August 28, 2012 at 7:15PM

I used to work in a college with a strong Art & Design faculty, and although I did not work there I know that without exception they worked solely with Apple equipment, while the rest of the six campus college was totally Windows networked.

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wee eddie

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Posted August 28, 2012 at 8:58PM

Takoto: There's very little 'Art' software that is not better done by Mac Software.

By sticking with whatever Software you are currently using you may be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

By the way your £200.00 option is probably impossible, even Net-books exceed that price and are hard pressed to run a high end Word Processor, let alone anything complex

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CommandJG

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Posted August 30, 2012 at 6:37AM

Yeah. I do agree with above comments, go Macbook or second-hand one!

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charlie1973

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Posted September 27, 2012 at 2:44PM

Hi,

I work with Dell and I know they have some great deals on their Deals page, have a look at laptop deals

Also there are offers just for students. One offer live at the moment is you get a free xbox360 4GB with a laptop purchase. Have a look www.dell.com/uk/p/student-offer-xbox

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tanjagersten

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Posted November 29, 2012 at 8:14AM

From all the experience i have with laptops Hp is definitely the best, so do what you have to and get one.

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tanjagersten

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Posted December 3, 2012 at 10:22AM

Here I also found a really nice article about student laptops: http://www.mawista.com/blog/en/cheapest-high-quality-laptops-students/

I think you'd make a really good choice if you chose one of the Dell Inspiron series, they tend to perform really well, and are built to last. I think an i5 processor with at least 4gb of ram should be enough for your daily uses. If you want a laptop with a better graphic card you'd have to pay more because they are quite expensive these days. The Intel processors have them integrated so that shouldn't be a problem.

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