Need laptop suggestions for college student

[Easto]

Our granddaughter is entering college next semester. She will be taking all of her classes online. We would like to buy her a nice laptop that will hopefully hold up and be relevant for her 4 years of study. Since she won't be lugging it all over the place I thought something with a larger screen may be useful. Also, since she'll be doing most of the work online I'd like something with a fast wireless connection and anything else that might make the online experience go as glitch free as possible.


I pretty much can tell one model from the next as far as features go, but I'm not as versed in network/GPU/display features to look for. If you can recommend a solid line of models I can take the search from there i.e. price point etc (FYI <$2000)

[Philip]

I would look for a combination of factors in a laptop:

1. Will she want/need a touchscreen ? some "2-in-1" laptops from Lenovo and Dell have pen input, my daughters/wife find it quite useful for writing directly into PDF files, etc.

2. Size/Screen resolution/portability/weight ... Kids have good eye sight, I would go for something in the 14-15" range. 1900x1080 resolution is good for me (larger fonts), but higher resolutions may look crisper. There is always the option to pickup an extra monitor for $300 if she needs more screen real-estate. USB-C ports can support hdmi output with an adapter.

3. Specs ... I'd go for a 12th gen Intel or later, newer Ryzens, etc. 16-32GB of RAM, 512GB+ SSD.

As far as graphics, you'd only need a discrete graphics card for gaming I suppose.


Any touchscreen Thinkpad X1 would be great (7th generation and newer), they are tough too: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/c/lapto...ad/thinkpadx1/

For example, Lenovo Thinkpad X1 2-in-1 7th gen... Integrated pen input, etc.: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/lapto...el)/21cd000hus

Dell 2-in-1 are great as well