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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. So if you're looking for a laptop for school or college,
00:09there's a lot of really good inexpensive options and I'll probably do a video on those shortly.
00:13But if you have a larger budget, like $1200-$1300, you can get something that's really, really
00:18premium that'll last you many years. And with the new Surface products out right now, I
00:22thought I would do a video talking about what I think are the best laptops for students.
00:26So we have the Surface laptop, the 5th generation Surface Pro, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the
00:3112-inch MacBook, the XPS 13, and I'll throw in a Razer Blade Stealth. Now this isn't an
00:36exhaustive list, but in terms of popularity, general availability, and pricing, those are
00:40my picks. Now when you choose a laptop for school, there's a few things that kind of
00:44come to my mind as being really important. And in just no particular order, build quality
00:48and portability are some of the more important things. You want your laptop to be light,
00:53but also to last a long time, and these all have excellent build quality. They're durable
00:57enough to toss in and out of your bag without too much worry, and you can get some inexpensive
01:01skins to cover them up so you don't scratch the Surface. These are from dbrand. Another
01:05important thing is the keyboard. You want something that you actually enjoy using and
01:08you feel comfortable typing on. Now all of these have great keyboards, it's more about
01:12preference. Some people will and some people won't like the MacBook butterfly switches,
01:16but in general you'll get comfortable on any of these keyboards. The Surface Pro is a two-in-one
01:21device with a removable keyboard, so if you're in a classroom that doesn't have a lot of
01:24table space and you're often typing in your lap, I'd probably skip this one and just get
01:28a regular clamshell laptop. The other thing is that most of these don't have dedicated
01:31page up or page down keys. You can do the same kind of thing with function up and down,
01:36but if you deal with a lot of code or large documents and you want dedicated keys, the
01:40Surface products have them. Another thing that I think is important for college students
01:44is battery life. Your laptop just has to have good battery life, at least for a lot of students,
01:48because there is a lot of really good devices out there that have great performance and
01:52good value, but they just don't have good battery life. And for those devices, I didn't
01:56include them in the list because I don't feel comfortable recommending a device with a five
02:00hour battery life. The ones here all have full day batteries, so you don't need to bring
02:04the chargers with you. Some of these laptops use USB-C to charge, so you can share some
02:08chargers and there's even battery packs that can charge laptops over USB-C now. I'm not
02:13going to talk about performance too much because truthfully you're not buying these laptops
02:16for like blistering gaming performance. They do all feel pretty similar in terms of how
02:20quick the overall system is, and gaming performance is also going to be pretty mediocre. But anything
02:25with a Thunderbolt 3 port, like the Razer Blade Stealth, can connect to an external
02:29GPU for playing games. In terms of pen input, depending on the person you are and the type
02:33of courses you're taking, you may or may not find these useful. Personally, I think they're
02:37amazing. You can use it for note taking, annotating course materials, drawing, whatever you want.
02:42iPad Pros also have the Apple Pencil, but like I mentioned in an earlier video, the
02:46overall usability of an iPad Pro as your one and only computer isn't great, even in iOS
02:5111. So I don't recommend it as your only device. Without a doubt, the Surface Pro is the king
02:55for pen input. The Surface Laptop can do it as well, but it's not as good because it's
02:59got a wobbly screen. You kind of have to hold the screen while you write. I mean it's usable,
03:03but the Surface Pro was kind of built around the whole idea of pen input. Now I've done
03:07individual reviews for all of these, and I'll link them below if you want some more information,
03:11but just some quick notes about them. First, the two MacBooks. They're both expensive,
03:15both have awesome screens with great speakers. My only real issues with them are the USB-C
03:20ports. Now my stance on USB-C has always been pretty positive, especially in 2017. I don't
03:25mind Apple being as aggressive as they have been in terms of pushing the whole USB-C thing,
03:30but I don't think it's the right choice for students because all it takes is just one
03:33time, one time when you need a USB-A port on your device and you just don't have an
03:37adapter, that's going to suck. But if you can afford a MacBook and you think you can
03:41handle the dongle student life, then go for it. The new Razer Blade Stealth with a 13-inch
03:46screen is actually one of my favorite Ultrabooks on the market right now. It's really expensive
03:49though, at $1400. The older model with the 12.5-inch screen is $900, so you're definitely
03:54getting better value there, but overall it's a really good device and there's actually
03:58nothing I'd really dislike about the Razer Blade Stealth. Really thick bezels and the
04:02trackpad isn't great on the 12.5-inch version, but it's a solid device. The Dell XPS 13 is
04:08also really good. The design has been around for a few years now, so it's a little stale
04:11to me, but that's about it. I mean, I wish it had pen input. There's an XPS 13 2-in-1
04:17that does have pen input, but I don't really like that device. The regular XPS 13 is boss.
04:22And if you're on a tighter budget, you can always get the older versions, like the 9350
04:25for a pretty steep discount and those still kick ass. Alright, the Surface Laptop was
04:30supposed to be built for students and visually it's appealing with the cool colors and stuff.
04:34I do like the keyboard. I like the fantastic screen. I don't like that the screen wobbles
04:38when using the pen. The other thing I don't like is the Alcantara material. For students,
04:43you're often eating and drinking when you're using your computer, so it's gonna get gross.
04:47And lastly, we have the Surface Pro, and I still think this is the best all-around device
04:50for students. It's expensive, especially once you add all like the pens and the keyboard
04:54and stuff like that, and it's not the prettiest device. It looks okay, but it's not like super
04:58gorgeous like the Surface Laptop, but it's very versatile and a lot of the feature set
05:03is geared towards students and productivity. Now, I wish it was cheaper. There's always
05:06the option of getting the Surface Pro 4, the previous generation. That's a little bit cheaper
05:09than this with really similar qualities. But yeah, I mean, any one of these devices are
05:14good. This is still my favorite.