{"id":583,"date":"2016-03-26T06:23:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T06:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/?p=583"},"modified":"2018-05-27T12:08:53","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T18:08:53","slug":"best-laptop-for-computer-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/best-laptop-for-computer-science\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the best laptop for Computer Science student? (2017 August)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ttr_start\"><\/div><p>\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/notebook-for-computer-science.jpg\" alt=\"Notebook for computer science students\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-681\" \/>I have been a computer science student for about as long as I&#8217;ve been blogging about laptops &#8211; I&#8217;m close to finishing my 2nd year. In that time, I&#8217;ve seen what laptops suit this course the best. Sadly, I bought my laptop before the course started and in a way, I&#8217;ve made some mistakes in my judgment &#8211; but I&#8217;m here to make sure you don&#8217;t make them.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <strong>August 2017 update.<\/strong> I&#8217;ll go in-depth on what type of laptop you should be looking for and at the end, I&#8217;ll give a few of top-notch suggestions that I&#8217;d pick if I&#8217;d be buying a laptop today.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Without further ado, let&#8217;s dive in.\n<\/p>\n<h2>So what are we looking for?<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"headline-label\">Major requirement<\/span> Powerful processor<\/p>\n<p>\n  As a computer science student, you&#8217;ll probably have to code in several languages:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Java<\/li>\n<li>Some scripting language (PHP\/Python\/Ruby)<\/li>\n<li>Some functional\/logic language (Prolog\/Haskell)<\/li>\n<li>Likely some C\/C++\/Objective-C<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n  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&#8217;s not a good enough reason to stretch your budget for a better processor.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  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&#8217;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 <a href=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/best-laptop-for-programming\/\">programmer<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\n  Get this, your code will crash or work improperly 100s of times a day and when you consider that your PC is taking 5 extra seconds every time, you are on a verge of experiencing some major nerd rage. On a more serious note, I&#8217;m generally very happy that my if a program I&#8217;ve written doesn&#8217;t work &#8211; I don&#8217;t need to wait long to know it, fix it and go at it again.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Which processors do I have in mind? Right now, you&#8217;ll see these processors most often:\n<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Low-end<\/td>\n<td>i3-7100U, i5-5200U, i5-6200U, i5-7200U<\/td>\n<td>500$ \u2013 700$<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Lower mid-range<\/td>\n<td>i7-6200U, i7-7500U, i5-6300HQ<\/td>\n<td>700$ \u2013 900$<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Upper mid-Range<\/td>\n<td>i5-7200U, i5-7300HQ, i7-7700HQ<\/td>\n<td>850$+<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>High-end<\/td>\n<td>i7-4900MQ, i7-6820HK<\/td>\n<td>1600$+<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>\n  P.S. Do not forget that by getting a faster processor you&#8217;re also chipping away at your battery runtime! That&#8217;s why I am OK with a low-end\/mid-range processors on smaller laptops that are used primarily for lectures and coding on the go.\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"headline-label\">Major requirement<\/span> Suitable amount of RAM<\/p>\n<p>\n  Right now I&#8217;m using 11 GB out of the 12 GB installed on my laptop. I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll have to update it to 16 GB in the near future due to my work habits. I like to keep most of my stack open.\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- @todo @image RAM USAGE --><\/p>\n<p>\n  At this very moment I&#8217;m running:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Netbeans<\/li>\n<li>Sublime Text<\/li>\n<li>Atom<\/li>\n<li>Apache server<\/li>\n<li>Java Tomcat server<\/li>\n<li>2 Ruby processes (Sass compilers)<\/li>\n<li>Git Bash<\/li>\n<li>MySQL database<\/li>\n<li>MongoDB database<\/li>\n<li>Photoshop<\/li>\n<li>20 tabs on Chrome (15 permanently pinned)<\/li>\n<li>Spotify<\/li>\n<li>f.lux<\/li>\n<li>Task manager and CPU\/GPU temperature monitor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n  I do not multitask, but I have to switch my work context several times a day between various tasks:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>audio\/images\/3D courseworks with Java<\/li>\n<li>Haskell worksheets<\/li>\n<li>working with other students on an assest web app (using Java Spring framework)<\/li>\n<li>work with several projects for my freelance clients (PHP and Node.js)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n  If that resembles the way you like to work &#8211; I heavily recommend getting at least 12 GB of RAM or more. But if you rarely go above 10 tabs on Chrome and your budget is under $900, it&#8217;s not necessary to go above 8 GB.\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"headline-label\">Minor requirement<\/span> Solid State Drive<\/p>\n<p>\n  Affordable SSDs are the best thing to happen to computers in the past 5 years. They&#8217;re a lot faster, lighter, more reliable and they end up consuming less power. Their price is still the main (if not the only) reason why we have to cling on the spinning hard drives.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  If you can spend over a $1000 for a laptop for your computer science course, having an SSD for your system partition is basically mandatory. And if you&#8217;re around $1500 mark, having a large SSD-only storage would be the best.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Right now I&#8217;m rocking with 250 GB SSD for my system and applications and 750 GB HDD to store my downloads, images, archives etc. I think you should have at least 500 GB (and ideally 1000 GB) of storage with a minimal 250 GB for an SSD.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  For me, as a computer science student, it speeds up my workflow quite a bit, especially when I&#8217;m in need to do a search through my files for a particular piece of code. It also tremendously speeds up my work on heavyweight IDEs like Eclipse and NetBeans.\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"headline-label\">Minor requirement<\/span>Linux Compatibility<\/p>\n<p>\n  Unless you&#8217;re buying a MacBook (which is a viable option), you&#8217;ll need a laptop that runs some Linux distro: Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, Debian and so on. Though, this is not a big problem in most cases. Most laptops work either flawlessly or with some trackpad\/indicator LED issues that often can be solved with an all-nighter and a cup of coffee. Of course, applying a patch to the kernel is not what I recommend for someone who hasn&#8217;t yet learned how to code.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Most people still come from Windows environment and you might want to have a dual-boot setup. In that case, I recommend getting a laptop with 500 GB SSD storage or at least 250GB + 1TB.\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"headline-label\">Minor requirement<\/span> Long Battery Runtime<\/p>\n<p>\n  Long battery time can be amazing: it allows to quickly start and end my work sessions &#8211; whether it&#8217;s in my home, university computer labs or some coffee shop on campus. Best batteries can offer enough juice for the whole day in the uni. What is more, ability to finally ditch that big black block charger makes taking a laptop a seamless task. I have seen how these types of inconveniences discourage many students from taking their laptops altogether.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  For example, in our course, quite often you can bring your own laptop and try out the code samples in the middle of the lecture as the lecturer demonstrates them from his own laptop.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  In practice, ~5% of students did that in our course. I am absolutely certain that more of them would if everyone had a lightweight laptop with a heavyweight battery. I&#8217;d see only lightweight, ultrabook-type laptops in the lectures and a lot more of heavy brick-type laptops when we HAD (or were heavily encouraged) to bring our laptops for various collaborative projects.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Having an easy-to-carry laptop comes in handy when making project presentations, meeting with coursework teammates outside computer labs etc.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Now we&#8217;re on the same page. But what does &#8220;long battery runtime&#8221; actually means? Where should I look and how should I judge it?\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  As a best case scenario, you should look at independent tests of battery life while browsing the internet over Wi-Fi. They still tend to overshoot the actual battery time as they tend to run at 10%-30% screen brightness. Usually, you&#8217;ll be using 40%-80% (or even 100% on sunny days). Also, test results of brand new laptops are as good as they&#8217;ll ever be. Even in a couple of months, your battery can start to perform worse than it did out-of-the-box (mine sure did).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Here&#8217;s a quick cheat-sheet for reading battery times and how to roughly convert them to &#8220;realistic&#8221; battery runtime.\n<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>Test<\/td>\n<td>Result<\/td>\n<td>Real-life result<\/td>\n<td>Judgment<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Manufacturers &#8220;sticker spec&#8221;<\/td>\n<td>6h<\/td>\n<td>4h 30min<\/td>\n<td>Average (bad for a small laptop)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3rd party Wi-Fi benchmark<\/td>\n<td>3h<\/td>\n<td>2h 30min<\/td>\n<td>Bad<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3rd party Wi-Fi benchmark<\/td>\n<td>7h 40min<\/td>\n<td>6h 50min<\/td>\n<td>OK\/Above average<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3rd party Wi-Fi benchmark<\/td>\n<td>11h 20min<\/td>\n<td>10h<\/td>\n<td>Great<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><span class=\"headline-label\">Major optional requirement<\/span> Lightweight<\/p>\n<p>\n  Having a light laptop goes hand-in-hand with a long battery life. I recommend looking for a light laptop especially if you see yourself spending a lot of time on campus between lectures.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  At the same time, having a light laptop is not all sunshine and rainbows &#8211; most people tend to overlook this.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Small and lightweight laptops usually suffer from restrictive airflow which makes them problematic to clean (which should be done after ~2 years after their purchase) and difficult to upgrade. <a href=\"http:\/\/forum.notebookreview.com\/threads\/what-does-unibody-mean.421556\/\" target=\"_blank\">Unibody laptops<\/a> suffer from this the most. They have few if any slots for upgrades and, when opened, are just as easy to navigate as minified <a href=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/best-laptops-for-javascript\/\">javascript<\/a>. Kappa.\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"headline-label\">Minor optional requirement<\/span>Dedicated graphics card<\/p>\n<p>\n  If you are a PC gamer and you can\u2019t wait to get your hands on all the newest gaming titles \u2013 you\u2019ll need to look at <strong>graphics cards like GTX 1060M, 1070M, 1080M<\/strong>. For a casual gamer Nvidia GTX 960M, 970M, 1050M chips will work just as well. As for the amount of dedicated memory \u2013 2 GB is enough for 960M and 1060M (and up) can benefit from 4 GB or more if you want to use Very High\/Ultra textures in games.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  If you\u2019re willing to make compromises, even 960M can be enough for latest games, if you play on low\/medium settings on 1440\u00d7900\/1600\u00d7900 resolution. Under these restrictions, it is easy enough for all casual games, most competitive titles and many 2016-2017 releases.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  But if you want the best laptop graphics card that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/pcmasterrace\/\" target=\"_blank\">Glorious PC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/PC_Master_Race\" target=\"_blank\">master race<\/a> can offer \u2013 1080M is your only good option. Yes, you could go crazy and look at the laptops that use desktop CPU\/GPUs but then you\u2019re reading the wrong article, mate. In that case, you&#8217;re looking for a gaming rig.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Laptop suggestions for computer science students<\/h2>\n<p>\n  I\u2019ve compared over 155 laptops to select 4 best laptops for computer science course that satisfy the requirements above or, at least, make very reasonable compromises based on their price.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"laptop-section\" id=\"laptop-1\" data-thumbnail-url=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/HP-X360-64x64.jpg\" data-number=\"1\" data-asin=\"\"><div class=\"row\"><h4 class=\"title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2tKOL1u\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">HP X360<\/a><\/h4><div class=\"laptop-number\">1<\/div><em class=\"subtitle\">Cheapest Computer Science Laptop<\/em><img src=\"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/HP-X360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\"\/><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"small-12 large-12 columns\"><a class=\"button button-link\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2tKOL1u\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">View on Amazon<\/a><\/div><\/div><div class=\"content\">\n<div class=\"pickrow\"><div class=\"name\">Price<\/div><div class=\"value\">$500<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"laptop-specs\"><span class=\"laptop-spec decent\">i5-7200U<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec decent\">HD 620<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">8 GB<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec great\">15.6&#8243; 1080p IPS<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">5h 20min Wi-Fi browsing<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">1 TB HDD<\/span><\/div>\n<p>\n  Entry-level laptop that is suited for mediocre computer science tasks which are not resource-heavy. Price for such specs is nice, as the laptop comes with features that many laptops with higher price tags don&#8217;t have.\n<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Processor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Check. Kind of. Intel Core i5-7200U is the latest generation mid-range mobile processor which is enough for most tasks.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Memory\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      8 GB? Minimum amount of RAM installed for such price is a great offer, but expanding RAM capacity would be a hassle, since you need to disassemble the motherboard itself in order to install RAM.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Solid State Drive\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      No SSD can be a drawback for some, however there&#8217;s always an option to replace HDD with SSD.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Battery Runtime\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      OK. 5h 20min \u2013 not great, but considering other specs and other similar laptops it\u2019s nothing to scoff at.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Optional\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Lightweight\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Average. 4.6 lbs\/2.1 kg is around average for 15.6\u2033 laptops.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Optional\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Dedicated graphics card\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Nope. So, forget the latest releases. You still should be able to play some older games without a problem (with low\/medium graphics settings).\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div><div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"laptop-section\" id=\"laptop-2\" data-thumbnail-url=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Dell-Inspiron-7000-64x64.jpg\" data-number=\"2\" data-asin=\"\"><div class=\"row\"><h4 class=\"title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2wDjlN5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Dell Inspiron 7000<\/a><\/h4><div class=\"laptop-number\">2<\/div><em class=\"subtitle\">2-in-1 Laptop For Computer Science<\/em><img src=\"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Dell-Inspiron-7000.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"409\"\/><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"small-12 large-12 columns\"><a class=\"button button-link\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2wDjlN5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">View on Amazon<\/a><\/div><\/div><div class=\"content\">\n<div class=\"pickrow\"><div class=\"name\">Price<\/div><div class=\"value\">$850<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"laptop-specs\"><span class=\"laptop-spec great\">i7-7500U<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec decent\">HD 620<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec great\">12 GB<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec great\">13.3&#8243; 1080p Touch<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">5h Wi-Fi browsing<\/span>| <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">1 TB HDD<\/span><\/div>\n<p>\n  If you\u2019re a fan of 13-inch 2-in-1 laptops, this one is a really good option.\n<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Processor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Due to the size, laptop comes with 2 core processor, however it is one of the recent 7th generation releases, so the performance will be astounding even when working on complex projects.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Memory\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      12 GB. Is just enough for heavy multitasking.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Solid State Drive\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      There&#8217;s only one PCIe port, so utilizing cloud-storing services such as Goodle Drive and Dropbox may become handy in the future.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Battery Runtime\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      For a 13.3&#8243; laptop, the battery life is subpar, however 5 hours is still decent whenever travelling, especially in 21st century when there are many plugs in public transport.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Optional\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Lightweight\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      3.5 lbs \/ 1.6kg is perfect weight if you live a life of moving a lot from X to Y. Sacrifing a bit of the performance for such comfort is always worth it.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Optional\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Backlit Keyboard\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Laptop comes with a backlit keyboard that allows you to work on your nightly work without making any typos or slowing down the typing speed.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div><div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"laptop-section\" id=\"laptop-3\" data-thumbnail-url=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Acer-Predator-Helios-300-64x64.jpg\" data-number=\"3\" data-asin=\"\"><div class=\"row\"><h4 class=\"title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2gNOvgM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Acer Predator Helios 300<\/a><\/h4><div class=\"laptop-number\">3<\/div><em class=\"subtitle\">Desktop-Replacement Laptop<\/em><img src=\"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Acer-Predator-Helios-300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"391\"\/><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"small-12 large-12 columns\"><a class=\"button button-link\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2gNOvgM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">View on Amazon<\/a><\/div><\/div><div class=\"content\">\n<div class=\"pickrow\"><div class=\"name\">Price<\/div><div class=\"value\">$1050<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"laptop-specs\"><span class=\"laptop-spec great\">i7-7700HQ<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec great\">1060M 6GB<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec great\">16 GB<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">15.6&#8243; 1080p<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">6h 40min Wi-Fi browsing<\/span>| <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">1 TB HDD<\/span><\/div>\n<p>\n  Acer Predator is a great desktop-replacement laptop. It comes with high-performant CPU and GPU while retaining great battery life. Great choice for people who wants to have it all!\n<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Processor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      I told ya! 7700HQs are everywhere! So, yes, the processor is good for any type of work. Right now I have a similar processor and I never find an opportunity to complain about it.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Memory\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      16 GB.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Solid State Drive\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      It is a weird mix of decent and good. The laptop itself comes with a 256 GB SSD which is just enough for storing Windows (or more realistically &#8211; Linux) and important project files, software on it to have high performance. However, there&#8217;s no HDD installed&#8230; yet&#8230; You get an SSHD 2 TB Firecuda that you have to install it by yourself which is odd, but once that hassle is done, you&#8217;ll have 2.25 TB of speedy storage.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Battery Runtime\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      One of the few laptops that has great performance while maintaining high battery lifetime.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Optional\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Lightweight\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Heavy for its size (5.5 lbs\/2.5 kg), but keep in mind it is a portable desktop-replacement!\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Optional\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Dedicated graphics card\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060M is a great graphics card for all gamers. It\u2019s enough to play games on highest settings.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div><div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"laptop-section\" id=\"laptop-4\" data-thumbnail-url=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Apple-MacBook-12-64x64.jpg\" data-number=\"4\" data-asin=\"\"><div class=\"row\"><h4 class=\"title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2tjRJKB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Apple MacBook 12<\/a><\/h4><div class=\"laptop-number\">4<\/div><em class=\"subtitle\">Best Portable Mac Laptop For CS<\/em><img src=\"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Apple-MacBook-12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"344\"\/><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"small-12 large-12 columns\"><a class=\"button button-link\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2tjRJKB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">View on Amazon<\/a><\/div><\/div><div class=\"content\">\n<div class=\"pickrow\"><div class=\"name\">Price<\/div><div class=\"value\">$1,570<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"laptop-specs\"><span class=\"laptop-spec good\">I5-7Y54<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec decent\">HD 615<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">8 GB<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">12&#8243;<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">6h Wi-Fi browsing<\/span> | <span class=\"laptop-spec good\">512 GB SSD<\/span><\/div>\n<p>\n  MacBook that is more than sufficient to run any Computer Science tasks without a hassle. It comes with a spacious SSD storage and decent specifications for a 12&#8243; display. Macbook fans won&#8217;t be disappointed in the portability and performance of this laptop.\n<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Processor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      2 Core Processor itself runs at a slow frequency (1.2 GHz), however whenever there&#8217;s a need for more power, automatically the processor will turbo the frequency up to 3.1 GHz which helps to remain stable workspace without any stuttering.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Major\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Memory\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      8 GB of RAM is slightly below minimum (12 GB).\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Solid State Drive\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Spacious storage of 512 GB SSD will greatly increase the performance of the OS X and file transferring.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Minor\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Battery Runtime\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      One of the few laptops that has great performance while maintaining high battery lifetime.\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n      Optional\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Lightweight\n    <\/td>\n<td>\n      Light laptop design (3.4 lbs\/1.5 kg).\n    <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div><div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<h2>Table of Best Laptops for Computer Science students<\/h2>\n<table><thead><tr><td>Laptop<\/td><td>Price (approx)<\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2tKOL1u\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">HP X360<\/a><\/td><td>$500<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2wDjlN5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Dell Inspiron 7000<\/a><\/td><td>$850<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2gNOvgM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Acer Predator Helios 300<\/a><\/td><td>$1050<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2tjRJKB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Apple MacBook 12<\/a><\/td><td>$1,570<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n<p><!--\n\n\n<h2>Computer Science laptops comparison spreadsheet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<p>\n  As I've promised, I'm giving away this comparison spreadsheet which you can use to quickly judge most of the best laptops on the market right now. <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1Pq6PfgHQ44w3hmfS0arD_86505qyz0CtSWCnV6utxPc\/edit?usp=sharing\">The spreadsheet I compiled to compare over 110 laptops<\/a>. I haven't filled in all battery times\/screen data - I've collected it for the laptops I already found to be well-balanced in their other specs. You can leave a comment in the spreadsheet (I think you need a Google account for that) and I can fill in some missing data.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1Pq6PfgHQ44w3hmfS0arD_86505qyz0CtSWCnV6utxPc\/edit?usp=sharing\">Click here<\/a> to open it in Google Sheets. Of course, it's free, no registration, no email, no downloads, nada.\n<\/p>\n\n\n--><\/p>\n<p>\n  Finally, don&#8217;t stress out about your laptop &#8211; just make sure it intuitively matches your the way you&#8217;re planning to use it &#8211; if you&#8217;re always on the go, don&#8217;t buy a 17&#8243; powerhouse. And if you need a gaming rig squeezed into a laptop body &#8211; don&#8217;t think about 13&#8243;-14&#8243; laptops. Well&#8230; unless you want to spend a mini-fortune on a Razer laptop.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ttr_end\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been a computer science student for about as long as I&#8217;ve been blogging about laptops &#8211; I&#8217;m close to finishing my 2nd year. In that time, I&#8217;ve seen what laptops suit this course the best. Sadly, I bought my laptop before the course started and in a way, I&#8217;ve made some mistakes in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tvain_child_ids":[]},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[49,48,18],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is the best laptop for Computer Science student? (2017 August upd.)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Before my final computer science year starts, I&#039;ve decided to write in detail about buying a new laptop for the course with 3 best laptops for most budgets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/best-laptop-for-computer-science\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is the best laptop for Computer Science student? 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