Category: How to choose

Top 10 laptops for online college students in 2023 (March Must-Haves) ($640-$3,650)

Online college papers

The importance of having the right laptop while attending college online cannot be overstated. A good laptop not only enhances your learning experience but also ensures that you can participate in online classes seamlessly. That's why I've put together this guide to help you choose the perfect laptop for online college.

We'll be looking at the essential specs you should keep in mind when purchasing a laptop, such as processing power, storage, battery life, and portability. Additionally, we'll cover some extra features that can make a big difference, such as webcams, backlit keyboards, and touchscreen displays.

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Guide the Best laptop for teaching

Choosing a laptop for teachingLets get this out of the way, there’s no ONE best laptop for teachers. That’s not because I couldn’t find them – don’t worry, I did find some great deals. But there are some unknowns in the equation that only you could know: what are your personal needs and are there any restrictions within your school?

First off, we’ll need to figure out what you need personally as a teacher. Keeping that in mind, I’ll guide you through the general requirements on how to pick a great laptop for teaching. And finally, at the very end, I’ll give some great options to choose from.

What am I looking for in a laptop for teachers?

Personal requirements for a teachers laptop

Personal requirement What do you teach?

First of all, elementary school teachers have a bit more freedom than the others. For an elementary teacher, I’d suggest just going forward and buying whatever suits their lifestyle best. And any of my recommendations at the end of the article should suffice them. Just pick what you fancy the most and what matches your budget.

If you’re teaching a single (or a couple of) subjects, there can be additional requirements that only you are aware of. Usually, these needs are not explicitly stated. I suggest spending 5 minutes to imagine yourself going through the day. Sometimes, even listing out what frustrates you with the current laptop can show what is important to you.

For example, a PE teacher might strongly prefer a lighter laptop so it’s very easy to carry. Also, a very bright screen would be crucial whenever the laptop is taken outside. This is especially important in mostly sunny states. Then, having even a slightly above average display will not be enough.

Please take at least a few minutes to go through your day and write down how you’ll be using your laptop. These small adjustments will help you to evaluate my recommended laptops and to find new ones. Though for the majority of teachers, the general requirements I’ll lay out in a minute will cover most problematic areas when using a laptop for teaching.

Also, are you primarily teaching online? If so, you might have a bit more room to move around than other teachers. Online teachers generally rely on online platforms which are platform-agnostic. That’s a fancy way to say that Windows, MacOS X, Linux laptops, and Chromebooks are all fine for you. Also, online teaching allows to not be so restrictive in most areas. In that case, even a higher-end Chromebook is a viable choice unless you’ll be teaching students how to use some particular piece of software. At the same time, online teachers are the only ones that can very reasonably buy a desktop-replacement laptop and not be troubled by its weight. All in all, for a laptop for teaching on the web, there are more right answers than wrong ones.

Personal requirement Operating System

Do you prefer one Operating System over any other? Or in most cases, do you HAVE to get some particular OS? In most cases, a teacher should look to laptops with Windows and MacOS X. This means 90% of laptops out there are still on the table.

In result, Chrome OS is left out in most discussions about laptops for education. Education is a slowly moving industry which means most of the software you’ll be using for your work is either on Windows or MacOS X. This usually is your school’s policy or at least getting a wrong one becomes an inconvenience when working with others. Luckily, nowadays OS is more of a preference than a hard requirement. But just in case, make sure, you will not need to use some archaic grading software which was designed only for Windows.

It is generally recommended to have the same OS as your students do and in a vast majority of cases, Windows is still the dominant player in the market. Though MacOS X is still a viable option if you strongly prefer it over Windows.

Personal requirement Size

Do you have any size preferences? There are 4 size categories you should consider:

  • Very large (17″) – is a viable option only if you will not be carrying the laptop regularly
  • Classic large (15.6″) – the most popular size for the longest of times. It gives enough screen estate for serious work while being reasonably portable.
  • Small (13.3″) – an increasingly popular choice in the past few years. Great for taking the laptop in and out. These laptops usually have great battery life and a good enough app performance for any type of teacher.
  • Very Small (11.6″) – best when you need a very small laptop on-the-go. At the same time, it is a problematic choice due to its screen size. I would recommend very small laptops only if it will be your computer.

Now, I’ll start off listing 3 MAJOR and 3 MINOR requirements. You should pay a lot of attention to the major ones and according to your budget, check a few of the minor ones.

Major requirements for a best laptop for teachers

Major requirement Good battery life

I know that you’ll have a socket to plug your laptop in but nevertheless, a solid battery will pay in dividends whenever you’ll be working off-the-grid. In our specific case, I’d recommend 5 hours of battery life but reaching a full 8-hour workday is definitely a major plus.

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Picking the 5 Best Laptops for Travel

What is a good laptop for travel I can only wish you’re not yet packing your bags while searching for the best laptop for travel. These laptops are not easy to pick as they demand hard compromises between performance and portability. And as any laptop owner knows, with great power comes no battery life. But if you’re in search for both, strap in, I’ve researched this subtle topic so you don’t have to.

In this post, I’ll cover the major and minor requirements for the best laptop for travel and how to measure them. And at the end, I’ll list out my top 5 picks that you can simply grab and take on a trip without any regrets. And even if you won’t find my suggestions matching your taste, you’ll at least know how to find them on your own.

What we are looking for in a best laptop for travel?

Major requirements for a laptop for travel

Major requirement Light

Of course, you better off having a light laptop than a heavy one. That couldn’t be truer when working on the go and packing your luggage.

Despite the fact that there is some variation in weight within the laptops of the same size, a 15″ laptop will (almost) always be heavier than a 13-inch one. In the past years, heavy and bulky laptops have gone off market apart from some workstations and desktop-replacement gaming models.

First of all, I recommend not looking above 15-inch (15.6″ more precisely) notebooks. They are a great pick if you need a laptop with a lot of horsepower. That would be the case if you’re travelling and working with very demanding software – audio, video editing, 3D modeling or programming.

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Ultimate guide to the Best Laptop for Pro Tools

Choosing a laptop for Avid Pro Tools
Pro Tools logo is Avid trademark. Use of it does not imply any affiliation with them.
Pro Tools is extremely demanding. Especially when you are a plugin fanatic like me. Many would say that you must build a dedicated PC to even run Pro Tools without pulling your hair out. But that simply isn’t true. Yes, in a studio, a dedicated PC/Mac with a powerful set of hardware will go a long way and will give you extra space to play with CPU-intensive plugins on a low buffer, but laptops these days can come closer to that level of performance than ever before.

But everything comes at a cost. Expect to spend ~$1400 for a good laptop for music production. If that’s beyond your budget – I’ve found a few cheaper options that offer good enough performance to run even complex projects.

In this post, I’ll lay down the requirements for the best laptop for Pro Tools and then I’ll finish strong with a list of Top 9 laptops for music production. Short and sweet.

And oh boy, did I spent too much time on this article… But enough complaining, let’s get this post rolling.

What am I looking for in a laptop for Pro Tools?

Let’s start off by taking a look at the official system requirements:

  • Intel® Core i5 processor
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 15 GB
  • USB Port

Mind you, these requirements were released for a desktop PC. Right off the bat, since Desktop i5 ~= Laptop i7 processor (and sometimes even worse), we’ll need i7 series CPU. And that’s a minimal requirement! 8 GB of memory is a bare minimum to run Pro Tools, but I and Avid themselves recommend to get at least 16 GB. Meanwhile, 15 GB of disk space and USB-port are irrelevant requirements.

Sadly, Avid does not provide much information on what would make a great PC for Pro Tools. This is a very common problem with requirement sheets – not enough information on how the system should scale and on what components money could be saved.

To address this, I’ll break down my personal requirements for the best Pro Tools laptop one-by-one.

Major requirements for a Pro Tools laptop

I’ll start with major requirements for Pro Tools. They will be your bread and butter and you should invest in these key areas whenever possible. They’ll save you time for years to come. Ignore them at your own peril #wordOfTheDay.

Major requirement Very good processor

I’m sure you know how important a processor is for these kinds of tasks. But for Pro Tools, single core performance is more important than the number of cores/threads. That’s because audio chains cannot be “shared” mid-way between several CPU threads. In short, that means that the longer chain from synth/sample to your ears – the more stress is put on a single core.

Right now, in the laptop I mix with, I have a Core i7-3630QM which is comparable to the more recent i7-5500U and i7-6500U CPUs. It does its job very well and I’m glad that 2 years ago I bought a laptop with this processor. But it has its limits, especially when I have a habit to pre-master in my initial mix. Additional plugins especially at the end of the mastering chain put a lot of strain on the processor and that’s where I have to start dropping down quality settings and turning off oversampling which is not ideal.

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Choosing the Best laptop for QuickBooks

Working with QuickBooks on laptop
QuickBooks logo is Intuit trademark. Use of it does not imply any affiliation with them.
This year I had to start doing my own taxes for my freelance work. To get everything cleared up, I had to talk with an accountant that I’ve helped out multiple times with various computer problems. Since I’m a “computer person“, she asked to help her out with building a new PC for accounting or picking a new laptop. After all, it shouldn’t be that hard to find the best laptop for accounting software, like Quickbooks.

The first idea that popped into my head was “oh that’s easy, accounting software shouldn’t require anything special“. But then I remembered the problems she faced with her previous PC. And then I started recalling the problems I have when dealing with spreadsheets…

That’s what this post will be about – the problems that should be taken into account (heh) when searching for the best laptop for Quickbooks. On the second half of this post, I’ll give some great laptop models depending on your budget and needs.

Enough of my stories, let’s get this post rolling.

Word of caution. This post is very strictly focused on accounting and not on very demanding 3D/audio software. This post will focus on a laptop for Quickbooks and other accounting software, whether it’s on the web (online) or desktop (offline). Since Quickbooks Pro, Premier and Enterprise do not demand high-performance components, the laptops I’ll recommend will be great for the desktop versions and QuickBooks Online. Worth noting, I am assuming that the laptop will not be a part of client and server setup.

These requirements will also guide as to good enough laptops to smoothly run other accounting/business software, such as Microsoft Office, TurboTax, Lacerte etc.

What am I looking for in a best laptop for Quickbooks?

Official system requirements for Quickbooks Premier 2016:

  • 2.4 GHz processor
  • 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
  • 2.5 GB of disk space
  • Internet access
  • CD/DVD-ROM for CD installations (optional)

Meanwhile, requirements for Quickbooks Online are practically non-existant.

It doesn’t take a genius to notice that if a computer is good enough to run QuickBooks Premier, then it will be good enough to run Online version. I’ll just make sure that the laptop will be able to run any QuickBooks product that it will need to (Desktop or Online).

But these requirements are just the start. How these official requirements translate into exact parts I’m should be looking for? And what else is needed for a QuickBooks laptop?

Major requirements for an accounting laptop

Major requirement Mid-range processor

QuickBooks performance depends almost entirely on the processor. At the same time, there’s no need to go for an expensive power-hungry CPU – Quickbooks will work very well even on a lot cheaper hardware.

I do, however, recommend not going for the cheapest CPUs. As time goes on and additional software piles up, low-end processors start taking too to long to respond to commands. And if we’re shopping smart, we can find that the price difference between a low-end and a decent mid-range processor can be negligible.

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What is the best laptop for League of Legends

How to choose a laptop for League of LegendsOne of the best things about League of Legends is how well optimized it is for cheap laptops. That’s why you don’t have to break a bank if you just want a notebook for casually playing LoL. Apart from that, League scales pretty well into better hardware (except for multi-core usage, but that’s a problem for many games with lock-step engine). But if we want to find the best laptop for League of Legends, there’s some research to be done.

Quick update. Last guide update: November 15. I’ve decided to refresh the guide with the latest laptops with the new Intel Core 7th gen processors and Nvidia GTX Pascal video cards.

In short, expect to spend under $800 for a basic laptop for League, powerful laptop – under $1300 and around $1500 for some of the best laptops for League of Legends. The latter will be able to handle gaming way beyond LoL.

So what are we looking for?

LoL requirements

League of legends has ridicoulously low minimum and recommended requirements. That’s why even most entry-level laptops will be sufficient to play LoL.

At the same time, there are plenty of reasons to get a more expensive laptop for LoL if you’ve got the budget for it.

Obviously, you might need a laptop with better specs for other games. Few PC games are as accessible as League is, so you’ll need to spend some cash on latest hardware if you like to keep on top on the latest releases. But since you’re getting a laptop for LoL now, I guess you’re sticking with it for a while and I won’t assume that you need a laptop with a top-notch graphics card.

But even if you only see yourself playing League of Legends for the next few years, you might need a better rig if you’re considering streaming. Even if you’re not dreaming about going pro, having an occasional stream for a couple of your best mates can be fun.

Now I’ll break down all main requirements one-by-one.

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What is the best laptop for Computer Science student? (2017 August)

Notebook for computer science studentsI have been a computer science student for about as long as I’ve been blogging about laptops – I’m close to finishing my 2nd year. In that time, I’ve seen what laptops suit this course the best. Sadly, I bought my laptop before the course started and in a way, I’ve made some mistakes in my judgment – but I’m here to make sure you don’t make them.

August 2017 update. I’ll go in-depth on what type of laptop you should be looking for and at the end, I’ll give a few of top-notch suggestions that I’d pick if I’d be buying a laptop today.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

So what are we looking for?

Major requirement Powerful processor

As a computer science student, you’ll probably have to code in several languages:

  • Java
  • Some scripting language (PHP/Python/Ruby)
  • Some functional/logic language (Prolog/Haskell)
  • Likely some C/C++/Objective-C

In all of these cases, your laptop performance will not limit the execution of your code. Yes, it might take a second longer to compile or 5 seconds longer to start a Java server but that’s not a good enough reason to stretch your budget for a better processor.

Even though a basic mid-range 2 core processor should suffice when compiling your code. So why am I edging you towards a fast processor? There’s one important reason on why you should aim for a higher-end CPU if possible. Responsive and snappy workflow actually makes you a better and a happier programmer.

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10 Best laptop solutions for Go Pro video editing in 2023 (March edition) ($640-$6,000)

background for Go Pro video editing

If you're looking for a great way to document your adventures, you can't go wrong with a GoPro. But, capturing footage of your exploits is only half the fun. To relive and share those incredible moments with your loved ones, you need to edit your videos. With so many video editing software options, which one should you choose? More importantly, which laptop would give you the best experience for GoPro video editing?

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9 Best Laptops for Lightroom (240+ Laptops compared)

Choosing a laptop for Lightroom
Choosing a laptop for Adobe Lightroom is not particularly hard – having a high-end graphics card is not necessary, laptops with larger and faster hard drives and memory are now commonplace. But it gets problematic when you have to take into consideration screen and upgrade potential.

Surely no sane man would go through all new, well-received and best selling laptops to find out what is the best one for Lightroom. But you’d be making a mistake if you call me sane.

So I compiled a list of 244 laptops (most of them are outdated, but they are always down in the list when comparing metrics). Then I compared them to their performance (using real benchmarks), storage, screen quality and weight. I have weighed all of these metrics according to what’s important to Lightroom – so you know these laptops are the best for their purpose.

In this post I’ll cover 8 best laptops for Lightroom and what’s so great AND what’s not so perfect about them. Also, I will make sure that anything above budget options will also be a viable option for other software you might end up using (khm khm.. Photoshop).

This time, unlike any other, I’ll start off with the laptops and then I’ll write about how did I end up choosing them. Finally, at the bottom of the article, I’ll give you the link to the spreadsheet covering all the quantified comparisons of these 240 laptops ranging from $370 to $3700!

Here we go!

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In-depth guide to 6 Best Laptops for Revit (2018 Summer Update)

What is the best laptop for Revit?The upside of Revit is that it doesn’t require a powerful graphics card and that makes Revit a lot more suitable for laptops. Knowing that I’m going to guide you through the requirements for a good Revit notebook and my picks for the best laptop for Revit.

2018 June 3rd update. Updated CPU, GPU write-ups, replaced all laptops and updated the spreadsheet!

What are we looking for?

I’m very glad that Autodesk put in the effort to outline various levels of Revit hardware/software requirements instead of just putting up a list of minimal requirements. This allows us to understand which parts scale better than others and where we should put our focus on.

Major Requirements for the best Revit laptop

Processor

Autodesk makes it very clear that the processor should be #1 priority:

“Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended.” – Autodesk

Unlike other visual software (AutoCAD, Solidworks etc.), Revit does not need a powerful graphics card for rendering the drawings.

So what do I recommend?

For an entry model under 950$ – a higher-end Intel Core i5 model is a necessity. Anything above that should have a 5th-7th generation “i7” processor. In some rare cases (covered at the end of the guide), there are laptops under $900, that come with a fast i7 H-series CPUs.

Exact models, I am talking about are:

  • Intel Core i7-7700HQ, i5-8300H, i7-8750H or equivalent for 950$+ models
  • Intel Core i5-7300HQ, i7-7500U, i5-8250U for anything under 950$

Memory

As per usual, 8 GB of RAM should be your starting point and 16 GB is the magic spot where you don’t have to worry about the memory (for the most part).

Right now, 1000$ is a good line to draw for what amount of memory is acceptable. Any laptop under 1000$ can have 8 GB of RAM and anything over that must come with 16 GB on board.

It does not matter much whether memory is DDR3/DDR4.

Solid State Drive

For Point Cloud interactions, it is required to have either a 10,000+ RPM hard drive or a SSD. Since laptops don’t come with HDDs over 7,200 RPM, that leaves us with only 1 option – a Solid State Drive. SSDs have fallen dramatically in price and apart from budget laptops – should be a part of any Revit laptop.

Now you need to draw a line on how much storage you need – 250, 500, 1000 GB? Most likely, something like 250/500 SSD + 1 TB HDD is enough. In that case, your OS, Revit, and projects you’re working on should stay on the SSD while older projects and general media can be moved to a spacious HDD.

There are some well-rounded laptops that don’t come with an installed SSD. In that unfortunate case, I recommend keeping 100$-200$ extra for 250/500 GB SSD (I’ve had the best experience with Samsung drives, but there’s plenty of good brands to choose from).

Minor Requirements for the best laptop for Revit

We’ve got down our 3 major requirements – processor, memory, and storage. Now any leftover budget should go towards making sure it lasts long, it has a great screen to look at and it can perform well when using other professional software apart from Revit.

Screen

You’ll be looking at it throughout the day (and once in a while – throughout the night), so we might as well make sure it looks good.

A good screen is essential in 3 simple ways:

  • it allows working during bright sunlight without straining your eyes
  • it helps you see your work as it should be seen (as it will be in real life and how your clients will see it)
  • it makes your work a bit enjoyable

Every screen can be broken down by its resolution, contrast, brightness and color gamut.

When talking about the resolution – go for Full HD (1920×1080). There’s not much reason to go above Full HD, especially when Revit developers do not recommend going above 150% DPI scaling. That simply means, that fonts and buttons in Revit will not scale properly at high resolutions.

Contrast should be 800:1 or more, average brightness should be 280 cd/m or more (which is ~20 cd less than usually advertised maximum brightness). Good contrast and brightness are mostly important when working outside or near a bright window.

Finally, color space/gamut is not usually mentioned with other specifications but some reviewers measure it. In that case, 90%+ sRGB coverage and 60%+ Adobe RGB coverage indicate a wide color space. That means that the screen can produce vivid colors. In some cases, you might need to manually calibrate the screen to minimize its color bias – tendency to be a bit too blue/green or red.

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