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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here, and this is a video on some inexpensive laptops for
00:09students. And I know you can get some very cheap laptops out there for, like, 200 bucks
00:13that have Windows 10 on them, but those laptops, I feel like they wouldn't last for regular
00:18use. For what a student does day in, day out, putting it in and out of your bag, using it
00:21every day, those are not good laptops, I feel, for students. So what I have in front of me
00:26are three very well-built, well-priced laptops that all do different things. These aren't
00:31competitors. There's not going to be a comparison of them. It's just three individual laptops,
00:36and depending on what you do as a student or what you want to do with your laptop, you
00:39might be interested in one of these. And I also have a couple other side picks as well,
00:44but the three main ones are the Asus UX330, the Acer Aspire 5, and the Lenovo 320S. So
00:52let's start off with the Acer first. I've done a full review of this thing before. This
00:55is a great device for students who want to get a laptop for school, but also want to
00:58do some light gaming. Basically, it's an inexpensive, regular-looking, 15-inch laptop that can handle
01:04current gaming titles reasonably well because of the video card. It has an MX150 from NVIDIA,
01:09which is kind of like the GT 1030, and most current titles are very playable on this machine.
01:13If you want a more detailed review, I'll link my video below. The configuration with the
01:17MX150 costs $600, and it's a great laptop for the money. Now, there are two things that
01:22might be an issue for students. First is the battery life. I'm only getting around
01:26five hours of battery life for this, so if you want to bring it to school and you have
01:29a full day of class, you're going to have to bring your charger with you. The second
01:32thing is that it's not super thin or light. It's not like a really thick gaming laptop,
01:37but it has some size to it. Now, if you are looking for something that's a little thinner
01:40and lighter that is still a good price point, it's this thing, the Lenovo 320S. So this
01:46thing starts at, I think, $550 for the base model. It's a full aluminum build, but the
01:50chassis has some flex to it. The bottom panel is easy to open up for upgrading the RAM and
01:55storage. The screen is a little dim, and the base model isn't a 1080p screen. It's not
02:00bad though. Videos and pictures still look really sharp at normal viewing distances.
02:04The keyboard is comfortable to use, but the keystrokes are a little softer than I'd like,
02:08and there's no backlighting. The trackpad uses Windows Precision drivers, which are
02:12really good, and the battery life is surprisingly good as well. I'm getting around seven hours,
02:16but this thing comes in a couple configurations. It starts at around $500, $550, depending
02:20on sales, but great device for students.
02:22Okay, next up we have the Asus UX330, which is the successor to the UX306, which I've
02:28reviewed in the past, and this thing is a surprisingly good laptop for the money. Now,
02:32it's not super cheap. It's $700. This thing has great build quality and a pretty simple
02:37design. It has two regular USB ports, a USB-C, and a micro HDMI. It has a good screen, 1080p
02:44matte finish, and it gets pretty bright. It also has a nice backlit keyboard and Windows
02:48Precision trackpad. Tracking is really good on the surface. It's just a nice texture,
02:53but the button clicks are a little shallow. They don't feel bad, though, just really short
02:57travel. The speakers on this thing are really good. They're located on the bottom, and,
03:02I mean, for this price, it's kind of crazy how good these speakers sound. They have Harman
03:06Kardon branding, but usually, having branding like this for a laptop speaker doesn't mean
03:10anything. They usually sound very average, but these actually sound good. It still doesn't
03:14have strong bass, but it's very clean audio, and you'll be happy with these speakers. It
03:19is a 13-inch screen. It's a little bit smaller than the other two laptops I've mentioned
03:22so far, so depending on what you do or what you want to do with your laptop, this might
03:26be too small, but if you're looking for a 13-inch device, you're on the money. The one
03:30thing I don't like about this device is actually the fan noise. It comes on way more often
03:35than you'd like it to, and when it does, it's pretty loud, and it actually comes on when
03:39you're doing very unintensive stuff, like watching a YouTube video or browsing the web.
03:44It's kind of weird because this is something that software should be able to fix, but it's
03:47been out for several months, and there hasn't been a change, so we'll see. Now, for the
03:51price, for $700, it's not something that is for someone looking for the cheapest laptop,
03:56right? There are going to be cheaper laptops than this, but if you're in the market for
04:00something that's kind of higher-end, like an XPS 13 or an HP Envy, those are like $900
04:06or more. This thing is a lot less, but still a really good laptop. Now, the other thing
04:10I want to mention, this is not part of the three that I was originally going to talk
04:13about, is kind of like an off-pick. So this is the Dell Inspiron 13 7000. Now, this is
04:19a 2-in-1 device. I'm not a big fan of 2-in-1 devices. I find that they're a little bit
04:24kind of cumbersome for everyday use as a student, but I know that a lot of my audience are crazy
04:29about 2-in-1 devices just because they're so versatile. This one's $650, and I think
04:33it's the best foldable 2-in-1 device at this price point. Now, there's a lot of inexpensive
04:382-in-1 devices, and a lot of them suck, just they're not good as laptops, they're even
04:42worse as tablets, but this one is very usable in both forms. The keyboard in particular
04:47is surprisingly good for the price. It feels like, honestly, it feels like their XPS keyboard.
04:52It's really good. Trackpad is good. It's a Windows Precision Driver. The whole thing
04:55has excellent build quality, lots of metal, impressive speakers for the price. It's a
05:00great 2-in-1. The two things that I don't love about it, though, are the screen and
05:04the battery life. The screen feels a little dim, and I really wish it was brighter because
05:08this is such a good device for media consumption, but because of the dimmer screen, you can't
05:11use it outdoors readily, and the battery life could be better. I'm only getting about
05:15five hours of life on this thing, but for a cheap, but well-built 2-in-1, this is my
05:19top pick. So, the last thing I want to talk about are some devices that are, well, they're
05:25not really on the table here. It's kind of like a theoretical device. So right now, the
05:298th generation CPUs from Intel have been launched, Intel's Coffee Lake, and those 8th gen CPUs
05:34are kind of trickling down into all these devices, and everything is getting refreshed,
05:38so the 7th generation Kaby Lake CPUs, those prices are coming down a little bit, but there
05:43are some 6th generation Skylake CPU laptops that are significantly cheaper, and they're
05:47still available on Amazon, and some of those devices are barely a year old, so they're
05:51actually quite new still. It's just a matter of perception of whether or not you want the
05:55brand new one that's coming out, or one that's a year and a few months old. Okay, I'll link
06:00all this stuff below, and I'll link some 6th generation Skylake CPU laptops down below
06:05as well. Some of those have amazing pricing, like this 510S that I have over here. But
06:09yeah, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it. See
06:12you guys next time.