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[Henry Jones Jr]

My girlfriend will be starting med school this fall and the program requires that she have her own laptop for course materials and exams. She is looking for some laptop suggestions and would like one that's not too heavy or bulky, has a good battery life, and good build quality.

Here is a list of recommended specs the school provided:

OS: Windows 10
Memory: 8GB
CPU: Intel Core i5
Hard Drive: 500GB
Other: Both wireless and wired Ethernet port required (adapter if not on-board), internal webcam and microphone, External DVD +/- RW, and a 13" - 17" screen.

I do have my doubts about whether 500GB of space will actually be needed, and how often the DVD drive will be used. We were thinking a Surface Book might be a good choice, but we are both a bit out of the loop on laptops.

Any suggestions for laptops or external DVD drives would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Edit: her financial aid provides an allowance of $1900 for the laptop.

 

[Phobophile]

What's your budget? Those specs pretty much cover like the vast majority of laptops.

 

[Henry Jones Jr]

What's your budget? Those specs pretty much cover like the vast majority of laptops.

Anything up to about $2000.

 

[bggrthnjsus]

why wired ethernet? any self respecting medical school is going to have wifi, as will any self respecting hospital.

 

[Henry Jones Jr]

why wired ethernet? any self respecting medical school is going to have wifi, as will any self respecting hospital.

There is Wifi. It sounds like from the paperwork that they are required to connect via Ethernet when taking exams. I'm guessing this is for security and to remove any chance of connection drops during a timed exam.

 

[battousai11]

why wired ethernet? any self respecting medical school is going to have wifi, as will any self respecting hospital.

Some schools have exams where students need to be wired into a workstation to take them.

My advice would be to have her ask someone from the class above what most of her class ended up going with and just get an updated version of that.

 

[Henry Jones Jr]

Anyone have any suggestions? What laptops do you all use? Which do you like?

 

[metalslimer]

I'm currently in med school and my surface book works great. I've never had to use a wired setup though

But she really should ask upperclassmen what you actually need. I mean I was also told I would need like 20 books and that was wrong

 

[JackDT]

Any decent laptop will meet those specs (just make sure there's an adapter for wired ethernet, although probably you could use a USB one in any case).

There's a big difference in size between 13 and 17 inches. Maybe aim for 14 or 15?

I think the top models to consider are:

1. Dell XPS 13 or 15 (depending on screen size)
2. Lenovo X1 Carbon or T470. Both 14 inches. (or X1 Yoga if she would use a pen for notes)
3. HP Spectre x360 (13 or 15 inch model)
4. SurfaceBook is also decent, though I personally prefer a slightly larger screen than 13.5

 

[Meatfist]

XPS 15 or Spectre x360, both are built VERY well and have the specs she's looking for (and then some). You can get a USB ethernet adapter for cheap, many laptops don't have them built-in anymore

 

[ClosingADoor]

Whatever you pick, take a laptop with SSD even if the hard drive is a bit smaller.

 

[Nivash]

I'd advice getting something with good battery life. There tended to be somewhat of a scuffle over the few power outlets on long lecture days in my classes. Apart from that, I'd go with something that's reasonably light and with good build quality.

But really, anything will do, and with a $2000 budget you might as well get whatever she'd prefer as her primary PC overall.

EDIT: I'd probably go for the XPS 15 myself, even if the battery would get stretched. Either that or a Macbook.

 

[conpfreak]

With that budget, 13-inch Mac Book Pro with Parallels for Windows 10 or Bootcamp and forget about everything else. Build quality is unmatched and OS X is superior to Windows 10 as an everyday OS.

 

[HisImperialMajesty]

Highly recommend something with a touchscreen and pen, like the Surfacebook. When it comes to annotating lectures, you're going to be the envy of your class.

 

[Earthbound64]

Surface Pro

 

[Rad-]

Surface Pro is the best for lectures in my experience.

 

[SlickVic]

More internal storage doesn't hurt. Not sure specifically about the med school your girlfriend is attending, but most medical schools these days record most of their lectures and have them available for download for the first 2 years. Some students prefer going to lectures in person and taking their own notes, but plenty of students liked having the downloaded versions to review on their own time, especially before a test. She may consider an external hard drive to store them in the future, but for now, having something that can store a good amount of video on the internal hard drive to make it easy to review videos in the library is quite helpful. I would say anywhere from 500GB-1TB is reasonable. I imagine some schools have provisions to stream these lectures without requiring downloads, but for us we had to download them.

I don't really have specific laptop recommendations. I don't remember any classes requiring anything too intensive on hardware requirements. Not sure why they're requiring a DVD drive or ethernet port, but if they're recommending it might as well have those provisions. If she is someone who plans to study a lot outside the apartment, something with strong battery life is obviously good (though libraries on campus are pretty good with having plenty of power outlets in my experience).

 

[Arttemis]

Surface Pro 4 i5 model is a dream to take notes on. The stylus is phenomenal, and having One Note sync instantly to the cloud and it all being accessible/editable on my Android phone is just spectacular.

 

[gamz]

Highly recommend something with a touchscreen and pen, like the Surfacebook. When it comes to annotating lectures, you're going to be the envy of your class.

This. I would kill for this technology when I went to school.

 

[Henry Jones Jr]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Surface Pro 4 i5 model is a dream to take notes on. The stylus is phenomenal, and having One Note sync instantly to the cloud and it all being accessible/editable on my Android phone is just spectacular.

This is a question to you and all other recomending the Surface Pro. How do you feel about the keybard situation? I also worry about a laptop that wont stand up on its own without the kickstand.

 

[gamz]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!



This is a question to you and all other recomending the Surface Pro. How do you feel about the keybard situation? I also worry about a laptop that wont stand up on its own without the kickstand.

Then get a Surface Book. I'd wait until next month tho. The new ones will be coming.

 

[ty_hot]

There is probably a Surface Book 2 coming next month, if possible wait for it.

Good options already available: Dell XPS 13 or XPS 15, HP Spectre x360.

Surface Pro 4 is great but with that allowance you can get a real laptop.

I saw one video about the Samsung 9 15'', smaller and lighter than the Dell, seems like a good option as well.