I work at target in the tech section. Our laptop selection isn't huge and the default prices are a joke, but they frequently go on sale for crazy discounts and are actually competitive. So if nothing good is on sale, just don't buy from Target
I saw lots of discount tags and browsed what they had, and there were some more-than-solid deals on Vivobooks & Zenbooks (if you can tolerate ASUS support)
@@Collin_J if you're lucky enough to catch clearance for laptops, the deals are wild. Clearance is in store only and laptops only hit clearance like once or twice a year, but I got an MSI laptop with similar specs to the one Austin got in this video for around $300 because it was way overpriced at nearly $1,000 but clearance took off 70%
That’s why when I was in college I created specific power plans that switch throughout the day depending what class I was in. No need to use the GPU to render everything when you are not doing a graphical intensive task. Sure it was a little inconvenient to setup at first and then automate. But after that it was able to be used through my entire day without the need of a recharge.
Disable the dedicated GPU and mess with the Windows power settings a bit (i.e. lower CPU clock while on battery in Control Center, set Power Saving Mode to always on while on battery in Settings) and voila, you laptop now lasts about as much as the similarly priced office laptop. If that fails, just buy a 20-30k mAh power bank for $60 or so and that should carry you through the entire day with battery to spare.
I bought the Lenovo for my son, everything was working fine until his friends told him to install free office and now the laptop has damage to the operating system.
He installed malware, then? Did you try just running a Windows Defender scan? You can also just follow any online guide about removing malware from your device, though it could involve reinstalling Windows.
There is no way that a free office program can harm an operating system. He or his friends have definitely downloaded other unsafe software, been on an unsafe website. But regardless, it is not possible to destroy the operating system, yes, you can get viruses or malware on your PC, which can be removed again with antivirus. The only way to "damage" the PC's operating system is by deleting hidden system files. It doesn't happen with a free office program, nor have I seen a virus or malware do it, and I've worked in IT for over 30 years and have seen many PCs with viruses and malware, and on at no time has it harmed the operating system and it has always been fixable. The only way those files can be deleted is if you delete them yourself, and that's easy to do if you're curious enough, believe me. But one thing is for sure, it's not the PC's fault, regardless of brand, and if it can't be fixed with an antivirus, it's always possible to reinstall the OS, which I'm guessing is Windows, and 100% comes with a serial number to that purpose.
Exactly for most people those things are fine in my tutorial classes at unis most people have like low to mid-range 13 inch windows laptops and a close second is jut base macs. For most students your main concern isnt power its just having a laptop that'll still work if you accidentally spill coffee on em
@@lynnrotter8642 Chromebooks and lenovo kind of laptop ( any brand but something focuses on medium GPU for school photoshops and such , not intensive GPU photoshop stuff ) Yeah school laptop sure but I think 700 is not bad if you want a normal task laptop like the one you'll use for work or just daily consumption. School , I think isn't needed much. I have 800$ gaming laptop but it's about 500$ price , my 300 comes from importing and all tax-wax , stuff, It does heat in heavy games but nice at playing old games ( like dead space or those - very old ) , And for new games I never got to test since it's 512Gb of space and I filled it with 2010 ~ games because I haven't played them.
I have rarely used Laptops in the Past. I see things like the Track Pads, as being last resort options. I almost always pack a mouse and pad if I am going to use my laptop away from home. I usually use a different keyboard and 2nd Monitor when I am at home. Port selection and ease of upgrading should have been heavier emphasized. How much of a chore is it to open, just to add a new battery or extra Ram(assuming it is not soldered)?
Obviously I am not an Apple guy, but I would choose a Macbook M1, if I just want all around (non gaming) use. I just think it is cringe only having one port. Also, I would have chosen the Lenovo LOQ, or Legion 5, before the ASUS TUF.
@@greenman8 New batteries are not practical to install at all, and you cant fit a bigger battery in a spot where there was a smaller one, and the problem does not lay in the battery but the performance and optimisation of the laptop. Apple has 20 years of experience in laptops and phones and know how to make a very power efficient device as the chips and batteries in the newer macbooks actually originate from phone hardware.
@@herblybxb_ I had to sacrifice space intended for a 2-1/2 inch drive, but the first thing I did with my Lenovo was install a higher amp-hour battery (60ahr to 90ahr I believe) It really wasn't a sacrifice, I used an m.2 nvme drive instead of the 2-1/2" In hindsight, I really didn't need to do that upgrade, my Laptop is docked at home 90% of the time.
This one hundred percent. Most university courses, especially in the stem section, have programs that you need to run that require strong laptop hardware, and a Chromebook won't cut it.
Why wouldn't you target a price point or form factor for testing? There are way too many variables here for any valid conclusion to be made, especially when comparing them to each other. There's a reason laptops are rated by category ie. best budget, best small form factor, etc.
Zero technical comparisons (Cinebench, TimeSpy, Battery life, Screen brightness, App compatibility, Weight, Value per dollar etc.) make this video pointless, its just random devices not even being tested for school use
There is also some aspects that makes the Macbook a bad choice. It SUCKS to use it in a school format! What if you need to use software that is only made for edge browsers or special programs that can only be used on Windows? You're going to be forced to buy a $200 windows laptop just to do those tasks. The 8GB ram is going to be a bottleneck in gaming before you consider the lack of a gaming library on Mac. Also for high ram use tasks like video editing as mentioned because the student is likely going to be using other programs along side with the video editor. Web browsers just don't take little bites into the RAM anymore. Plus what if the video editing program they need to use is not compatible with the Mac? Then they are forced to spend at minimum of $400 to get a Windows laptop for that task. No one is going to care about the screen or speakers if something else is keeping the task from being finished.
When I started college they specifically told us MacBooks would not work for most of our school work. This rang true as when following along in lecture all the professors used windows and they had little to no knowledge of how to communicate differences in excel hotkeys etc. They recommended an ASUS Zenbook. I got a Dell XPS15 and have liked everything about it except the placement of the webcam and some initial microphone issues that were fixed with an update.
@alexgreen9571 You can't... Bootcamp is not supported on ARM devices from Apple. Parallels does sort of work, but isn't guaranteed to run all X86 applications & you need to pay for it afaik. Doesn't really solve the compatibility issue.
Some laptops make opening the item to be serviced/upgraded a nightmare. You wouold think all Laptops would make it easy to swap out the battery or RAM. Hell even a simple access panel would be glorious! (A Glory Hole for your Laptops-Sexy Time!)
@@BattaCham So? If you have several browser windows/tabs open and a video feed in the background you will run out of memory and the whole thing will become unresponsive. I know because this would happen constantly with the PC I used to work from home. Difference being I could upgrade to 16GB (and did). Many laptops today don't have an upgrade option so you're stuck with a piece of hardware that costs hundreds and is effectively a facebook machine for your grandparents.
I graduated college last year and used a Acer Nitro 5 with the 17” screen for 2-3 years. I don’t regret it all. It was harder to carry around and the battery sucked but the speed, screen quality, and keyboard made it worth it. There’s just so much performance in it and I can game literally anywhere I have internet and a power plug. I would strongly not recommend a MacBook. I’ve never been a fan but the big problem is a lot of our software’s we would have to download is only windows compatible. Many of the people with MacBooks had to buy cheap laptops just for school.
I was absolutely baffled by that, I knew apple pricing was obscene but jesus christ, the Microsoft Surface uses the literal same kind of keyboard and I got mine brand new for $30 but even not getting super lucky like I did, you can easily find them $80 or less.
Just buy a Bluetooth mechanical keyboard for around 50-80$ and trust me, it will be insanely more worth it than apples 249$ keyboard that’s very overpriced. I recommend the Royal Kludges keyboards because they are really good for their price point.
2:21 you select "tablet" as a filter and are surprised there's tablets in the selection?? + the one on the right was a laptop. a chromebook and 2 in 1, but a laptop anyway. Unless those are just images pulled by the editor after the fact but that still doesnt mean there was no laptop to be found
I assume that the narrative was kinda a lie and he just got the laptop types most people buy for the reason he said IPad because it seems cheaper and a lot of people have them Used Mac because it's cheap Gaming for programming jobs and because a lot of kids use college as a way to get a gaming laptop (speaking from experience) And a mid range lenovo
When I was in school-a few years ago-we didn't get a choice to bring our own laptop. My schools wanted to use their Chromebooks so they can literally see what you were doing on their laptops. Whoever these kids are getting a choice to bring their own device, consider yourself lucky. I know things are different on the college level.
Not to play devil's advocate, but the reason they have to have all that monitoring is to comply with E-Rate funding. To get the funding, the school/district is required to install some sort of content monitoring software. Its not that schools and admins want to be evil and spy on you, but it is because they're required to do that. I mean, we have kids who regularly try to watch fury pron on their school computer. We have kids searching for self harm. These are things that we're required to act on.
Right??? I'm sitting here like - You don't go to the computer lab to use one of the 100 identical Dell Office-Pad-Opti-Think-Stations to do all your Microsoft Word-ing? And on that rare occasion get the cart full of the tiny 8-inch laptops that are pretty slow but ooooohhh so fun to use? You just... buy your own freaking entire laptop? I had to beg my parents for a graphing calculator (The ultimate overpriced item) let alone an entire computer!
My school didn't mind if you had them but you couldn't use them in most classes unless you had a SEN accommodation or the teacher allowed use of mobile devices (this included laptops) for specific activities. I even checked my old high schools policy today and its even stricter now than I was when I left 10 years ago, They don't allow any mobile device (cell phone, iPad, smart watch, laptop etc) to be used on school grounds even during breaks unless the teacher gives permission they have to be powered off and in your bag!! When i was there we were at least able to use our cell phones and laptops during breaks.
There's a multitude of reasons why i say you should pick the lenovo over the MacBook in this scenario, but only one that isn't biased on my own opinion: compatibility. How many school apps are available on Windows vs macOS (or even ChromeOS for that matter)? We, at one of my schools, had some students with MacBooks. The school had classes in a program that didn't work with the M1 for some unknown reason (it wasn't a macOS issue, as the older ones with intel cpu's faced no issues at all) So they had to either use vm (and we know what apple thinks of doing that) or get/borrow a windows laptop. So while i say the MacBook and Lenovo is a tie, you should think about what kind of OS is needed, although it's certainly a small percentage that doesn't work with apples proprietary cpu's today anyway, but it can still happen.
If a school is requiring apps that don't work on Macs they are doing something wrong. Quick google search says most college students have Macs. I manage just fine.
@@treymatus5014 right so because apple have decided to not support a certain game developement tool on their macbooks, the school is doing something wrong?
@@Saibanaito If the school requires it, yes. Macs are far too popular to require something that doesn't work on them. Also, I'm fairly certain it's not "Apple not supporting" but the developer of the tool chosing to not make it available.
I work as a sales rep for a laptop brand in best buy. You'll get a much different experience in there, cause people go to best buy to go and see their electronics first-hand. Many workers will ask if you need any help, looking to guide you based on your needs. The selfish incentives most of them have is a revenue number they shoot for, but that's more shooting for standards more than anything else. Some of us are literally just there by the hour to talk to you and help guide you, for me, through a specific brand. Online isn't terrible, but you're overwhelmed with options the employees are meant to help you with.
@melu0o 1. General Recommendation: - Avoid MacBooks with Intel processors; opt for those with M series chips instead. 2. MacBook Air: - 13" or 15" Models (M2-M3): - Ideal for general use. - Includes features like MagSafe and a modern design. - No significant difference in power between the M1 Air 13” and M1 Pro 13”models with the same chip, except the Pro has a Touch Bar and fan. These don’t include the MagSafe charger. 3. MacBook Pro: - 13" Model (M1): - Similar in performance to the MacBook Air but includes a Touch Bar and a fan for better cooling. - 14" or 16" Models (M1-M3): - Best for demanding tasks like software development, machine learning, and 3D modeling. - Features a new design, MagSafe, and additional ports such as HDMI and an SD card reader for better connectivity.
More memory can go in quite easily as well as having room for a M.2 and also a 2.5 SSD so no need to carry an external HD. Also kids want to game so they can be happy with that instead of bugging their parents for a gaming console.
Tip - when you do videos reviewing sites selling refurbished tech, instead of buying multiple different items, buy 3-4 of the same item in different conditions to properly assess the quality control of the site.
You made 2 major mistakes. 1. No student carries a small bag. You forget they have to carry textbooks and other school items. 2. You were using the laptops all wrong. The only one you did right was the iPad. You don't hunch over your laptop. You hurt your back when you hunch over the laptop.
Eh, I’ve rocked a smaller bag through all of college so far. No need to bother if I can get all my textbooks online. Also take all my notes digitally as well so no need for notebooks.
@@davidholloway1042 It’s not for everyone but it has definitely become more reasonable. Got an ipad 9th gen that handles all my notes, online quizzes, and homework. Before that I used a midrange 3 in 1. Can get some pretty good deals on midrange laptops when they go on sale. How reasonable the setup is depends on your universities curriculum. Only times I’ve really touched paper are for quizzes and exams.
Coming from an Ideapad 1 owner here: The hinges on these things snap just so very easily. I bought one for school, didn't even last a year. Build quality is terrible overtime (when adjusting the screen the whole chassis bends), the screen is not great, it's just not great overall. I switched to an M1 Air and I have not regretted it once. Best of class build quality and performance. One advantage of the Ideapad 1 with the Ryzen chips is they are power efficient and very fast (when plugged in) and absolutely devour tasks for the price. Great video pointing out these things!
What more do you need than something that can run a search engine and word processing software for school? Outside of certain college classes that require 3d modeling or video rendering.....a base level reliable laptop is all anyone needs.
I wouldn’t call school computers a base computer. They’re awful and just genuinely worse at helping students. Who deserves actual technology that last and works well.
Pretty much, good battery life, low weight, screen bright enough to see in a very well lit environment, enough ram to have 50 tabs open which is the average of most students I've met, even if it's stupid, decent enough mic which is more important than the camera so people can understand you. You can live with bad versions of everything above, but all those things will make your life a lot easier. And if you have around 500 bucks you can have all those things with a used macbook m1 or better, or a nice ryzen 5 5000 series or better windows laptop new (or used if you can find a good deal). You can also go for an old thinkpad for closer to 200 bucks if you need something that can still do most of those things well enough for a few years.
@@Waspinmymindalways student needs is a word document in my browser I mean a $30 tablet can do that too so no they don't need a 500 hard laptop for school don't even start that BS
@@jj926 - Makes three categories of Value, Performance and Practicality - Gets the cheapest Mac - Defines "performance" as "webcam and speaker quality" - Defines "practicality" as "battery life" - Oh wow, Mac wins! Yeah, this was pretty shameless, wasn't it?
In my opinion pricing on laptops nowadays are really improving. Laptops in 2018-2023 had the worst value ever that i had to stick with old thinkpads and precisions. I think I might upgrade soon!
The winner here is definitely Lenovo. It runs Windows, so you have a great choice of software, it is light and slim, it costs not so much money, you can upgrade its RAM and SSD, it is much easier to repair and most importantly it has a lot of connectors for peripherals.
it's much easier to repair because it will potentially break within a year or two, these cheap ideapads usually has some weak plastic, especially those that holds the hinges
I used to work at Best Buy, I always steered my customers away from anything 8gb RAM or under $500. I just knew the kind of people I was working with wanted a laptop that wouldn't implode within a year and I spent way too much time in hs fixing shitty budget laptops.
8 gb ram sucks for windows 11. A MacBook with 8 gb of ram is decent since Mac’s optimize their software depending on the computer. Windows 11 eats up your ram you need atleast 16 gb.
@@personyt55 8gb for windows is the same for MacOS and Windows. I've used both. The issue is price not the 8gb. It's up to the person to open up too many programs and saturate up that 8gb on Mac or Windows. MacBook Air 8gb can easily hit the limit and go into swap
7:29 nobody uses a laptop on their lap -- they go to a coffee shop or library and put it on a table -- they might use it on the floor or on their bed, but nobody puts it on their lap
I mean - in terms of the ipad keyboard - you do know you can pair any bluetooth keyboard with it right, or use a mechanical switch type C keyboard? And that opens up some really good and inexpensive options.
This is gonna be a long one As a college student, after both watching the video and reading the comments I have a lot of objections to add: 1. You set a price range that it's a bit too high for the average household and also you haven't stuck to it (c'mon, the Lenovo and Ipad *no case or pen version*, are half the price of the Mac and TUF). You should've researched how much people are willing to pay for a pure school laptop (low to no gaming, practical and very portable). Most of the comments suggested $200-$300 as a price range and I agree, if you know you don't want top of the range performance, it's good enough for every household (especially with young students who might not take the best care of it. I've had a cheap Asus Vivobook, short time after I bought it, my cousin took it and dropped it, still works 5 years later). 2. The Target situation. After reading the comments, yea, your search got messed up by adding "Tablet computers" as a filter. Still, you had an HP chromebook on screen at 2:21, so there were laptops to compare. Even if there weren't, you should've chose another common store who had to be able to have a fair comparison (really, comparing 3 laptops to an Ipad, 1 of them even being a Mac is stupid). 3. Speaking of bad comparisons, the choices where too scattered and really hard to compare. You compare a Macbook meant for Apple Ecosystem (mainly businesses), a Lenovo Thinkpad (which is actually meant for the purpose of your video), a gaming laptop (which is meant for performance rather than ease of portability) and a tablet (which the video is about laptop), maybe you could've chose laptops with similar specs for the price range. That's why your battery test sucked, the Ipad has a small battery and the Tuf was meant to be held plugged most of the time, while the Mac and the Lenovo are build for long days away from an outlet. 4. Most schools rely on what Google and Microsoft offers for their workflow. I heard many cases where students were either required to have a Chromebook or a good Windows device, even I had to get a Windows laptop in school since we were taught on the Windows way of things (also Apple may not support some of the programs schools use with Windows). 5. The backpack, few people had that small of a backpack in school, and they were just carrying 1 or 2 notebooks in them and some food (that barely fit). Even in college I see people with big backpacks since most of them still use pen and paper to take notes. Also, at least in Europe, it's not that viable to carry a laptop with you since you are still required to carry physical books, notebooks and other study materials with you everyday, despite having a phone and laptop (at least till college, where there is more leasure with study methods). You were complaining about the portability of the Tuf in that small backpack, you should've bought an actual school backpack from Wallmart to test the portability. As a fun fact, my friend carries his Lenovo Legion to college everyday because of his major (he doesn't carry anything else, just the laptop, its charger and a water bottle) and he sometimes complains of sore back since he carries it with him all day. Can't imagine a middle to highschool student carrying a gaming laptop (which is about 2-2.5kg) and the tower of study materials required by the teacher everyday (which may be more than the laptop). I hope that you would revisit this topic with a bit more research in mind. Edit : Grammar, some rewordings and added more context to some points.
you should have set a price maximum or minimum hardware this just feels like going for a random pick of laptops. another test for the market of school laptops is to buy a bunch of school recommended laptops (these are usually closer to that vivobook)
Can't go wrong with MacBook Air (M1 & above) as a back to school laptop. Powerful enough for most task, great battery life, and lightweight. The TUF is amazing too if you're into gaming.
The problem for college use is most (engineering) applications don't run on mac os. Everyone who has a Mac runs a windows vm. Good gaming laptops are almost a must
Lol wish I had a laptop when I was in school. I mean in highschool I did but it was an old Thinkpad with Linux Mint on it. Worked perfectly for the Google suite that I used in school.
As an Apple Tech, those M1 Air have an issue with the Battery just failing out of the blue. I have lost count how many Batteries i have replaced on that very same unit you purchased.(ironically i am watching at work AND replacing batteries on 7 of these just today) It's a great Device otherwise. That said, the Air battery is actually REPLACEABLE! Unlike the Macbook Pro versions where the entire top case/Battery/Keyboard needs to be replaced (entire system teardown)....So, i guess that's a feature?
For school, battery life is very important. I’d give the MacBook Air a big bonus for the battery life alone. It will actually last an entire school day, and for a laptop, that’s amazing.
this video is absolute non-sense. What matters most about a laptop is portability first and foremost, secondly ease of use (the ipad or a touchscreen laptop are great in lectures) and way down at the bottom is performance, frankly so long as you can have like 12-15 tabs open you'll be fine most work is research based and any editing you do will be with low quality footage. 3d work is often done on the school/uni's machinary they are unlikely to offer that work without the tools to complete it. Your perspective is valid but is very far off the perspective of a student.
the colour grading in Austins videos are alway so warm like seriously you need to get that fixed it looks so bad its like im watching the video with night shift on
Something important to keep in mind about best buy, as a former employee, is that their first priority is credit cards. It is entirely understandable that the website will try and push the most expensive model in a given category right at the top because that's what associates are encouraged to do in store, since the goal is credit card and membership sales.
My exact job is getting laptops for online learners. Go ahead and throw the iPad away because it's not going to be compatible with lockdown browsers and state testing apps. That's a non starter.
2:21 Dude, u literally sorted by tablet computers (as shown in the top left) and ur saying they're "acting" like a tablet is a laptop? That's ur fault that's all that came up.
So the #1 issue I always see with any Macbook in the school space, isn't the upfront cost its the year over year cost especially IF IT BREAKS, unless you have apple care which might not be in your budget year after year. The price to repair an Apple anything is much higher then most Windows computers. What I normally recommend to college students needing a laptop is a 2nd hand business laptop from a year or so ago. A Lenovo Thinkpad E14 with a Ryzen can 4/5500u can be had for 300-400$ depending on how you spec it. It can be easily upgraded and repairs prices are dirt cheap. The Dell Latitude 7410, and Surface Laptop 4's are also solid 2nd hand buys from businesses but repair prices are not as low as the Thinkpads most the time.
One of the main reasons the tuf has such bad battery life is usually using armoury crate, as it is extremely bad, I own a tuf f15 and I got about 3 hrs of battery life out of the box, but with ghealper instead of armoury crate, I now get closer t 11 hrs using microsoft edge
m1 air in 2024 is crazy. like even for school, having a 100 tabs open for homework, some youtube and all of that. pages, numbers and VS code? the laptop is cooked
why're you lying lmao, I still use my m1 air for school, and I use vs-code and have like 3 different chromes with 10 tabs each for hw. It's completely fine and runs well.
Nah man, apple products are under specced so you spend on upgrades then you can't do a thing to them afterwards, then they have limited lifetime of updates, but Linux can fix that unlike on iOS devices once their iOS is done a few years later you have a slow brick, plain don't invest in apple, just buy used laptops
@@noahsilva-lopez3491 try running multiple docker containers with localstack, one server, one db maybe a redis. you're going to need that for a project now wouldn't you. good luck trying to use android studio or any of the jetbrains IDEs (including pycharm). while that's running in the background caching , reading, writing, clogging up L1, L2 and L3 cache , using up RAM, open up your chrome and come back to this video to comment "wow you were so right, this laptop does suck"
My biggest issue isn’t that there aren’t good laptop options available, it’s that every school my kid has been to now(4 different ones) requires Chromebooks. I’ve yet to find one that isn’t a complete piece of crap and have basically just resorted to buying a cheap one and replacing it when it breaks for one reason or another (which is usually about a year)
The M1 Air is the best laptop I’ve ever owned. Still powerful, super portable, and, most importantly, I can actually use it on my lap without a significant risk of burning myself. I have a Steam Deck, so gaming performance isn’t important to me in a laptop.
The tuf definitely deserved first place at performance. Suddenly some parts that definitely fall under practicality were involved in the performance score. The performance category isn't about the total package, the totals are about the total package. Performance should be rated on pure performance, just the numbers, the pure power.
What school are you going to? Every course along with our assignments are managed in canvas, gradescope, webassign etc. Thats not to mentioned external sites and software that we need, which aside software with specific student access like Solidworks, they make us pay for (which can be a couple hundred more dollars for a class). I go to a large state university as well and they basically cover nothing.
Don't the students get a laptop from the school that they can use both at school and at home? In Denmark, students in most schools are given a laptop that they can use at school and at home. It is of course on loan, but this applies as long as they go to school, which is from 0 to 10th grade. Each class is one year. However, you do not have to use a 10-year-old laptop in the last school year you go to school, as you get to renew the laptop you borrow every 3-4 years. year, maybe more often, depending on the school you attend. And no, they are by no means gaming PCs, but a laptop that you often also see in office environments. In fact, the ones I'm aware of are the Lenovo with a 14" screen.
My M1 Air is about 3 years old a this point and not gonna lie, it's still running great and handles everything I throw at it very nicely. Probably going to keep it for another couple years.
Austin did mentioned one very important thing is the weight running around school with a heavy laptop is going to be a pain unless your training to be rock lee. 😅
@@wolfbrave4866 No one, repeat, NO ONE, knows what carrying a heavy laptop is like, until they’ve carried around an HP ZD8000 in college. The thing is easily double the weight and thickness of my Lenovo Legion 5 Slim laptop. The thing also ran a Pentium 4M (this is Netburst, not the better Pentium M), and a Mobility Radeon x600.
i think judging the TUF display being too dim in studio lighting on a set was kinda throwing your results off because most students are not gonna be in studio lighting they are just gonna be chilling in class or at home
my dad paid 2700 USD for a "back to school" all-in-one with no gpu at Best Buy. you can literally get a laptop with an *RTX* series gpu for less than a third of the price of what my dad bought.
I work at Best Buy in the computing section, I can say that some of our laptops we sell are going for a fairly decent price. Although it was shady that the first one they recommended is a Dell XPS LMAO. I would also add the factor of how many people take home Macbooks from Best Buy. One of our top sellers even though it isn;t touch screen or 2-1 featured. People also shame the open box factors of a laptop but I would ALWAYS look in store before buying an open box online. Our systems to make those open box tags really suck :(
For school you don't need a huge and heavy gaming laptop which will drain the battery as quick as the roadrunner, an expensive, hard to repair and to upgrade Apple or a tablet with a keyboard. IMO the most convenient option is something like that Lenovo (not that model/brand especially). Normal more than enough specs and run under Windows.
I used to have a gaming laptop for school. It had a GTX 1650 and 24gb of RAM. My school provided laptops could barely have 3 chrome tabs open without crashing, but my gaming laptop could handle all of the work I'd ever been assigned. I'd recommend getting a cheaper gaming laptop if you can afford to spend a little extra, its 100% worth it.
For 10-12th grade, my primary computer was actually an M1 iPad Air with an ESR keyboard. Against the equipment it gives at school, it was surprisingly amazing. It performed better and did better than other kids that had their own computers. Even for college, an iPad will do everything you need a computer can do, webcam, great battery, good multitask, and unless the laptop it’s better at note taking. I now primarily use a MacBook Pro, but the iPad is still a useful tool for my college note taking, doing math to save paper, and as an extra display for my MacBook. Really long but there’s my thoughts on being an iPad kid in school.
Austin,, Nine years ago,, 2015,,, you did a video " Is a $170 Chromebook Worth It? " You seemed to like it at the time,,, and TODAY Chromebooks are still inexpensive $200...300 they have Android 13, desktop chrome browser with extensions,, Linux & 10 years of updates are you advertising the laptops or the shops where they came from?
It is always ALWAYS better to buy an older or refurbished device that's more powerful and capable rather than a newer device that's slower and has worse specs, as long as it has a warranty and a return policy if it's not in the advertisement condition or there's any issues with it.
iPad is amazing for college level because of its note taking ability. Being able to do homework and take notes and take pictures of the white board and put them in your notes is unreal. It doesn’t do everything a laptop can do, but a laptop certainly can’t do everything an iPad can do. I think the iPad should have done better for practicality, but since this was a laptop video, it never had a proper shot
I think one important factor that you should consider when buying a school laptop is your (or your kid's) attitude towards longevity. Like, if you're gonna have to replace the thing in two years because it's getting handled roughly, you're gonna want a different laptop than one you expect to still be using in five to seven years. Like, my laptop carried me from the start of high school all the way through college, so I'm happy I chose a pretty performant laptop that I handled with care, but I wouldn't just broadly recommend that approach to everybody. And of course you should always try to take care of your stuff, but it's an inevitability that some things are made to last and some just get you to where you need to be (e.g. just finishing high school) and no further. And that's fine, just watch out you don't end up spending long-term amounts of money on a short-term item, y'know.
Another point for iPad: left the thing on the roof of the car and then hit the highway. When I retrieved it it was mildly damaged but nothing serious. It flew off the roof at 66 mph without a screen protector and there was no damage to the screen.
Another issue with the MacBook that Austin didn’t mention is that most middle and high schools online work websites tend to only be optimized for windows and many colleges only have their corses on windows for similar reasons that being both limitations of macOS as well as the more open nature of windows and it simply being easier to program for at least according to most teachers
I'm throughly confused how Austin didn't see any actual laptops on Target's website. 6 of the top 10 options when I go there are proper laptops and only two are of the same brand.
Ikr. I got so confused when Austin literally showed on screen an HP 2-in-1 Chromebook at 2:21, yet he chose the Ipad and said Target doesn't have any laptops Edit: Also, I think Target showed him tablets in the laptop section because he chose "Tablet Computers" as a filter and the system considers any tablet that can be used with a keyboard as one (like the Ipad and the Magic Case)
I know for sure that parents do not spend $800-$900 on school supplies, they cheap out on the laptop(and that’s only if the schools don’t provide one), and then they buy school supplies which I can’t imagine costing close to $200
I feel like the majority of these are a tad expensive or odd choices as "back to school" laptops, the Lenovo being more in line with most people's budgets and uses.
One thing I can say about laptops for kids, is to ensure as best you can that the laptop can grow with the kids needs, don't get something that will only run word and powerpoint, have a bit more flexibility to allow for other tasks outside the classroom such as projects, social activities and the ability to be creative. Also teaching your child the responsibility of owning a laptop is important to not have them treat it like a toy that they will break. On the other end of the spectrum, having the most expensive laptop doesn't mean its any better, take the time to do the research and fit the needs of you child to the computer. Also make sure your school network and software needs are compatible to Mac before getting a Mac book. Some school systems will do laptop loaners and laptop school pricing to allow for savings.
I work at target in the tech section. Our laptop selection isn't huge and the default prices are a joke, but they frequently go on sale for crazy discounts and are actually competitive. So if nothing good is on sale, just don't buy from Target
I saw lots of discount tags and browsed what they had, and there were some more-than-solid deals on Vivobooks & Zenbooks (if you can tolerate ASUS support)
I hope management don't see this, lol
@@carltonleboss what're they gonna do, fire me? I put in my 2 weeks a few days ago so I'm good 😎
@@Collin_J if you're lucky enough to catch clearance for laptops, the deals are wild. Clearance is in store only and laptops only hit clearance like once or twice a year, but I got an MSI laptop with similar specs to the one Austin got in this video for around $300 because it was way overpriced at nearly $1,000 but clearance took off 70%
W employee
Having a gaming laptop sounds good til your battery dies during your 2nd class of the day.
That’s why when I was in college I created specific power plans that switch throughout the day depending what class I was in. No need to use the GPU to render everything when you are not doing a graphical intensive task. Sure it was a little inconvenient to setup at first and then automate. But after that it was able to be used through my entire day without the need of a recharge.
It only drains battery fast when ur actually gaming. When doing regular work, its about the same.
And your back will hate you too!
Disable the dedicated GPU and mess with the Windows power settings a bit (i.e. lower CPU clock while on battery in Control Center, set Power Saving Mode to always on while on battery in Settings) and voila, you laptop now lasts about as much as the similarly priced office laptop. If that fails, just buy a 20-30k mAh power bank for $60 or so and that should carry you through the entire day with battery to spare.
So true
I bought the Lenovo for my son, everything was working fine until his friends told him to install free office and now the laptop has damage to the operating system.
BNH Software helped me in this type of case and this can be a quick solution to this problem you have.
Thanks, I'm going to do this and if it doesn't work I'll have to call technical services.
That's crazy. How can a free office program damage the OS?
He installed malware, then? Did you try just running a Windows Defender scan? You can also just follow any online guide about removing malware from your device, though it could involve reinstalling Windows.
There is no way that a free office program can harm an operating system. He or his friends have definitely downloaded other unsafe software, been on an unsafe website. But regardless, it is not possible to destroy the operating system, yes, you can get viruses or malware on your PC, which can be removed again with antivirus. The only way to "damage" the PC's operating system is by deleting hidden system files. It doesn't happen with a free office program, nor have I seen a virus or malware do it, and I've worked in IT for over 30 years and have seen many PCs with viruses and malware, and on at no time has it harmed the operating system and it has always been fixable. The only way those files can be deleted is if you delete them yourself, and that's easy to do if you're curious enough, believe me. But one thing is for sure, it's not the PC's fault, regardless of brand, and if it can't be fixed with an antivirus, it's always possible to reinstall the OS, which I'm guessing is Windows, and 100% comes with a serial number to that purpose.
I thought you were going to be buying those $250 chromebooks or something.
Agreed, like my family never has spent 700 bucks on Almost any tech device. But a school laptop for 700 bucks sounds crazy to me!
Exactly for most people those things are fine in my tutorial classes at unis most people have like low to mid-range 13 inch windows laptops and a close second is jut base macs. For most students your main concern isnt power its just having a laptop that'll still work if you accidentally spill coffee on em
I thought you were gong to be buying those $250 chromebooks or something.
Annoying that one similar to that showed up, then he chose an impractical gaming laptop instead. This felt like shilling for Apple, lol.
@@lynnrotter8642
Chromebooks and lenovo kind of laptop ( any brand but something focuses on medium GPU for school photoshops and such , not intensive GPU photoshop stuff )
Yeah school laptop sure but I think 700 is not bad if you want a normal task laptop like the one you'll use for work or just daily consumption. School , I think isn't needed much. I have 800$ gaming laptop but it's about 500$ price , my 300 comes from importing and all tax-wax , stuff, It does heat in heavy games but nice at playing old games ( like dead space or those - very old ) , And for new games I never got to test since it's 512Gb of space and I filled it with 2010 ~ games because I haven't played them.
As a student, the speakers are usually replaced by headphones
I have rarely used Laptops in the Past. I see things like the Track Pads, as being last resort options. I almost always pack a mouse and pad if I am going to use my laptop away from home. I usually use a different keyboard and 2nd Monitor when I am at home.
Port selection and ease of upgrading should have been heavier emphasized. How much of a chore is it to open, just to add a new battery or extra Ram(assuming it is not soldered)?
Obviously I am not an Apple guy, but I would choose a Macbook M1, if I just want all around (non gaming) use. I just think it is cringe only having one port.
Also, I would have chosen the Lenovo LOQ, or Legion 5, before the ASUS TUF.
the headphone jack on my m2 macbook is astonishingly more nicer than the headphone jack in my PC or on an iPhone with an adaptor
@@greenman8 New batteries are not practical to install at all, and you cant fit a bigger battery in a spot where there was a smaller one, and the problem does not lay in the battery but the performance and optimisation of the laptop. Apple has 20 years of experience in laptops and phones and know how to make a very power efficient device as the chips and batteries in the newer macbooks actually originate from phone hardware.
@@herblybxb_ I had to sacrifice space intended for a 2-1/2 inch drive, but the first thing I did with my Lenovo was install a higher amp-hour battery (60ahr to 90ahr I believe)
It really wasn't a sacrifice, I used an m.2 nvme drive instead of the 2-1/2"
In hindsight, I really didn't need to do that upgrade, my Laptop is docked at home 90% of the time.
macs are great until the schools use apps that dont work on them.
That might be due to security issues within those apps.😢
Lately there are a lot of programs that work on macbooks, they need to drop the argument about that
Unless you are in the STEM field
Parallels & Crossover aren't free but will get the job done
@@Collin_J Depends what the App is. As some does not work well on ARM.
School laptop review. Not a single Chromebook… mans definitely doesn’t have kids
That, and my school system provides the hardware.
Factual. Chrome books are perfectly serviceable for 99% of regular school tasks. Maybe not great for personal use but thats a given
I think he's referring to college kids. not elementary kids
This one hundred percent. Most university courses, especially in the stem section, have programs that you need to run that require strong laptop hardware, and a Chromebook won't cut it.
college...
Why wouldn't you target a price point or form factor for testing? There are way too many variables here for any valid conclusion to be made, especially when comparing them to each other. There's a reason laptops are rated by category ie. best budget, best small form factor, etc.
Exactly
Zero technical comparisons (Cinebench, TimeSpy, Battery life, Screen brightness, App compatibility, Weight, Value per dollar etc.) make this video pointless, its just random devices not even being tested for school use
Because they run a YT channel and are chasing views and ad revenue not actual useful reviews to help people make informed decisions.
@@meowritz yeah
There is also some aspects that makes the Macbook a bad choice. It SUCKS to use it in a school format! What if you need to use software that is only made for edge browsers or special programs that can only be used on Windows? You're going to be forced to buy a $200 windows laptop just to do those tasks. The 8GB ram is going to be a bottleneck in gaming before you consider the lack of a gaming library on Mac. Also for high ram use tasks like video editing as mentioned because the student is likely going to be using other programs along side with the video editor. Web browsers just don't take little bites into the RAM anymore. Plus what if the video editing program they need to use is not compatible with the Mac? Then they are forced to spend at minimum of $400 to get a Windows laptop for that task. No one is going to care about the screen or speakers if something else is keeping the task from being finished.
school laptops suck
edit:mom i’m famous ps why y’all fighting my phone is going to explode
Yes
No shit
Fr fr
@@Batcave4956shut up dawg
@@Batcave4956 kid friendly
When I started college they specifically told us MacBooks would not work for most of our school work. This rang true as when following along in lecture all the professors used windows and they had little to no knowledge of how to communicate differences in excel hotkeys etc. They recommended an ASUS Zenbook. I got a Dell XPS15 and have liked everything about it except the placement of the webcam and some initial microphone issues that were fixed with an update.
That why you just use boot camp. Now you get the best of both worlds. Mac and windows
@@alexgreen9571not possible on new ones, like the one in the video
@alexgreen9571 You'd need a now outdated Intel based MacBook though.
You'd be better off not buying Apple at that point.
@@MLWJ1993 you slow or something? Read my last reply. You can use bootcamp on intel or parallels on apple silicon. Both work flawlessly with 0 issues
@alexgreen9571 You can't... Bootcamp is not supported on ARM devices from Apple. Parallels does sort of work, but isn't guaranteed to run all X86 applications & you need to pay for it afaik. Doesn't really solve the compatibility issue.
Just 8GB of RAM in $500+ laptop is ridiculous.
*Cough* Macbook Air. They at most have that and Apple doesn't ever want to go above that unless you pay 500 buck for like 8gb.
Some laptops make opening the item to be serviced/upgraded a nightmare. You wouold think all Laptops would make it easy to swap out the battery or RAM. Hell even a simple access panel would be glorious! (A Glory Hole for your Laptops-Sexy Time!)
theyre just as common above the $1000 mark now.
Its not a gaming laptop so ?
@@BattaCham So? If you have several browser windows/tabs open and a video feed in the background you will run out of memory and the whole thing will become unresponsive. I know because this would happen constantly with the PC I used to work from home. Difference being I could upgrade to 16GB (and did). Many laptops today don't have an upgrade option so you're stuck with a piece of hardware that costs hundreds and is effectively a facebook machine for your grandparents.
I graduated college last year and used a Acer Nitro 5 with the 17” screen for 2-3 years. I don’t regret it all. It was harder to carry around and the battery sucked but the speed, screen quality, and keyboard made it worth it. There’s just so much performance in it and I can game literally anywhere I have internet and a power plug. I would strongly not recommend a MacBook. I’ve never been a fan but the big problem is a lot of our software’s we would have to download is only windows compatible. Many of the people with MacBooks had to buy cheap laptops just for school.
I think it also depends on your major as well. I believe that I should be fine with a Mac since I'm getting a business degree
Surely the MacBook people could have dual booted windows or run a VM?
@@jjcoolaus Macbook people wouldn't know how to do that.
@@jjcoolaus you can dual boot linux on m1 macbooks but not windows, instead you use a windows 11 emulator like Parallels on m1 macs.
those acer nitros are great
What was Austin talking about? there are a bunch of laptop options at target, all he had to do was just unselect the tablet option...
I think he just wanted to buy an iPad.
well considering that many people only use iPad for school it makes sense that why he chose the iPad
Wow the iPad keyboard was a megascam.
I was absolutely baffled by that, I knew apple pricing was obscene but jesus christ, the Microsoft Surface uses the literal same kind of keyboard and I got mine brand new for $30 but even not getting super lucky like I did, you can easily find them $80 or less.
A keyboard for that set up shouldn't cost more than $50 (IMHO- even that is high)
@@KirsiKitten Any Bluetooth keyboard will work on a iPad
Just buy a Bluetooth mechanical keyboard for around 50-80$ and trust me, it will be insanely more worth it than apples 249$ keyboard that’s very overpriced. I recommend the Royal Kludges keyboards because they are really good for their price point.
All the Apple devices are scams lmao
2:21 you select "tablet" as a filter and are surprised there's tablets in the selection??
+ the one on the right was a laptop. a chromebook and 2 in 1, but a laptop anyway.
Unless those are just images pulled by the editor after the fact but that still doesnt mean there was no laptop to be found
this is the comment I was looking for thank you
I assume that the narrative was kinda a lie and he just got the laptop types most people buy for the reason he said
IPad because it seems cheaper and a lot of people have them
Used Mac because it's cheap
Gaming for programming jobs and because a lot of kids use college as a way to get a gaming laptop (speaking from experience)
And a mid range lenovo
When I was in school-a few years ago-we didn't get a choice to bring our own laptop. My schools wanted to use their Chromebooks so they can literally see what you were doing on their laptops. Whoever these kids are getting a choice to bring their own device, consider yourself lucky. I know things are different on the college level.
I know, how dare the school want to do school things in school.
Glad that wasn't possible for us, good luck trying to run CAD software on a chromebook, that thing would explode😂
Not to play devil's advocate, but the reason they have to have all that monitoring is to comply with E-Rate funding. To get the funding, the school/district is required to install some sort of content monitoring software. Its not that schools and admins want to be evil and spy on you, but it is because they're required to do that. I mean, we have kids who regularly try to watch fury pron on their school computer. We have kids searching for self harm. These are things that we're required to act on.
I would NEVER use a iPad for a laptop...
Ok
I did from 2011-2014. I’m a nurse now, still love my iPad.
I use both. My iPad sometimes as a second screen, or as something I can quickly whip out for notes or photos that my laptop would be impractical
im using an android tablet for school and its been quite good
Yeah, laptop=laptop but iPad = notebooks
I remember when i was in school if you had a laptop with you it would be taken till end of the day. Wild how times have changed.
Right??? I'm sitting here like - You don't go to the computer lab to use one of the 100 identical Dell Office-Pad-Opti-Think-Stations to do all your Microsoft Word-ing? And on that rare occasion get the cart full of the tiny 8-inch laptops that are pretty slow but ooooohhh so fun to use? You just... buy your own freaking entire laptop? I had to beg my parents for a graphing calculator (The ultimate overpriced item) let alone an entire computer!
Here they just give you one.
America is such a scam.
They're going to start charging for oxygen there soon.
My school didn't mind if you had them but you couldn't use them in most classes unless you had a SEN accommodation or the teacher allowed use of mobile devices (this included laptops) for specific activities. I even checked my old high schools policy today and its even stricter now than I was when I left 10 years ago, They don't allow any mobile device (cell phone, iPad, smart watch, laptop etc) to be used on school grounds even during breaks unless the teacher gives permission they have to be powered off and in your bag!! When i was there we were at least able to use our cell phones and laptops during breaks.
I got an Asus ZenBook for $400 at a back to school deal from BestBuy and been pretty happy with it, just takes some shopping around.
which one do u have?
@@snatiio I bought it last year, but it’s a q410v :)
Specs?
@@nogidoki3325 i5 evo, 512 ssd, and 8gb ram, it’s more than enough for school and media consumption
@@nogidoki3325 bro he literally told you the name just google it
There's a multitude of reasons why i say you should pick the lenovo over the MacBook in this scenario, but only one that isn't biased on my own opinion: compatibility.
How many school apps are available on Windows vs macOS (or even ChromeOS for that matter)? We, at one of my schools, had some students with MacBooks. The school had classes in a program that didn't work with the M1 for some unknown reason (it wasn't a macOS issue, as the older ones with intel cpu's faced no issues at all) So they had to either use vm (and we know what apple thinks of doing that) or get/borrow a windows laptop.
So while i say the MacBook and Lenovo is a tie, you should think about what kind of OS is needed, although it's certainly a small percentage that doesn't work with apples proprietary cpu's today anyway, but it can still happen.
Exactly!
If a school is requiring apps that don't work on Macs they are doing something wrong. Quick google search says most college students have Macs. I manage just fine.
@@treymatus5014 right so because apple have decided to not support a certain game developement tool on their macbooks, the school is doing something wrong?
@@Saibanaito If the school requires it, yes. Macs are far too popular to require something that doesn't work on them.
Also, I'm fairly certain it's not "Apple not supporting" but the developer of the tool chosing to not make it available.
@@treymatus5014 Guess schools have to drop engineering software altogether with your logic
Kinda wouldn't expect too much from school laptops, just not built to last
yea just for browsing the web and using Word/powerpoint
But none of the laptops he showed would be bought by a parent for there kids
@nicholas4839 I would hope not but some parents may like apple families 😂.
Yeah it's made for the basics
@@titaniumvideos1039 apple computers are perfect for school. Wouldn’t give little Timmy one but in HS sure.
I work as a sales rep for a laptop brand in best buy. You'll get a much different experience in there, cause people go to best buy to go and see their electronics first-hand. Many workers will ask if you need any help, looking to guide you based on your needs. The selfish incentives most of them have is a revenue number they shoot for, but that's more shooting for standards more than anything else. Some of us are literally just there by the hour to talk to you and help guide you, for me, through a specific brand. Online isn't terrible, but you're overwhelmed with options the employees are meant to help you with.
Never buy a new macbook. I got a M1 13" macbook pro with 16gb of RAM for $650 in very good condition on ebay.
Didn't he buy a new one for $650?
@@dannybrennan31 That was a Macbook Air with 8gb of RAM.
@melu0oby a little bit of research. Internet is full of information from geeks.
@melu0o
1. General Recommendation:
- Avoid MacBooks with Intel processors; opt for those with M series chips instead.
2. MacBook Air:
- 13" or 15" Models (M2-M3):
- Ideal for general use.
- Includes features like MagSafe and a modern design.
- No significant difference in power between the M1 Air 13” and M1 Pro 13”models with the same chip, except the Pro has a Touch Bar and fan. These don’t include the MagSafe charger.
3. MacBook Pro:
- 13" Model (M1):
- Similar in performance to the MacBook Air but includes a Touch Bar and a fan for better cooling.
- 14" or 16" Models (M1-M3):
- Best for demanding tasks like software development, machine learning, and 3D modeling.
- Features a new design, MagSafe, and additional ports such as HDMI and an SD card reader for better connectivity.
@melu0othe internet bro
13:00 On the upside, unlike the other laptop with 8 GB of RAM on the table you can actually upgrade it yourself (the SSD too)
More memory can go in quite easily as well as having room for a M.2 and also a 2.5 SSD so no need to carry an external HD.
Also kids want to game so they can be happy with that instead of bugging their parents for a gaming console.
Tip - when you do videos reviewing sites selling refurbished tech, instead of buying multiple different items, buy 3-4 of the same item in different conditions to properly assess the quality control of the site.
You made 2 major mistakes.
1. No student carries a small bag. You forget they have to carry textbooks and other school items.
2. You were using the laptops all wrong. The only one you did right was the iPad. You don't hunch over your laptop. You hurt your back when you hunch over the laptop.
Eh, I’ve rocked a smaller bag through all of college so far. No need to bother if I can get all my textbooks online. Also take all my notes digitally as well so no need for notebooks.
@mike-024 Not everybody has the availability to do that. They were supposed to do that years ago, and really haven't.
@@mike-024 yall still carry you textbooks? in my school they just use digital or keep them in the classroom
@@davidholloway1042 It’s not for everyone but it has definitely become more reasonable. Got an ipad 9th gen that handles all my notes, online quizzes, and homework. Before that I used a midrange 3 in 1. Can get some pretty good deals on midrange laptops when they go on sale. How reasonable the setup is depends on your universities curriculum. Only times I’ve really touched paper are for quizzes and exams.
@@jaydenthomas820 When I said get textbooks online, I was referring to digital versions.
Coming from an Ideapad 1 owner here: The hinges on these things snap just so very easily. I bought one for school, didn't even last a year. Build quality is terrible overtime (when adjusting the screen the whole chassis bends), the screen is not great, it's just not great overall. I switched to an M1 Air and I have not regretted it once. Best of class build quality and performance. One advantage of the Ideapad 1 with the Ryzen chips is they are power efficient and very fast (when plugged in) and absolutely devour tasks for the price. Great video pointing out these things!
What more do you need than something that can run a search engine and word processing software for school? Outside of certain college classes that require 3d modeling or video rendering.....a base level reliable laptop is all anyone needs.
I wouldn’t call school computers a base computer.
They’re awful and just genuinely worse at helping students. Who deserves actual technology that last and works well.
Pretty much, good battery life, low weight, screen bright enough to see in a very well lit environment, enough ram to have 50 tabs open which is the average of most students I've met, even if it's stupid, decent enough mic which is more important than the camera so people can understand you.
You can live with bad versions of everything above, but all those things will make your life a lot easier.
And if you have around 500 bucks you can have all those things with a used macbook m1 or better, or a nice ryzen 5 5000 series or better windows laptop new (or used if you can find a good deal).
You can also go for an old thinkpad for closer to 200 bucks if you need something that can still do most of those things well enough for a few years.
@@Waspinmymind you are incorrect
Thanks for the truth
@@Waspinmymindalways student needs is a word document in my browser I mean a $30 tablet can do that too so no they don't need a 500 hard laptop for school don't even start that BS
If you are going to college please do not use this video as advice thx
"wow, i can't belive austin chose the macbook," said no one ever.
he did the gaming test on battery he wanted the macbook to win and only used apples performance demo game
@@jj926 - Makes three categories of Value, Performance and Practicality
- Gets the cheapest Mac
- Defines "performance" as "webcam and speaker quality"
- Defines "practicality" as "battery life"
- Oh wow, Mac wins!
Yeah, this was pretty shameless, wasn't it?
In my opinion pricing on laptops nowadays are really improving. Laptops in 2018-2023 had the worst value ever that i had to stick with old thinkpads and precisions. I think I might upgrade soon!
Blame the block chain (mining was really big those years)
The winner here is definitely Lenovo. It runs Windows, so you have a great choice of software, it is light and slim, it costs not so much money, you can upgrade its RAM and SSD, it is much easier to repair and most importantly it has a lot of connectors for peripherals.
before I had a MacBook I had a Lenovo and I can tell you, it is not a great laptop at all. Much rather take a 10 year old used laptop and upgrade that
@@mangomet32Same. It struggled with basic multitasking and mine only ran windows S mode
@@FateBoost mine was having seizures starting up and other problems
it's much easier to repair because it will potentially break within a year or two, these cheap ideapads usually has some weak plastic, especially those that holds the hinges
@@narenchris711 they bend a lot aswell
I used to work at Best Buy, I always steered my customers away from anything 8gb RAM or under $500. I just knew the kind of people I was working with wanted a laptop that wouldn't implode within a year and I spent way too much time in hs fixing shitty budget laptops.
8 gb ram sucks for windows 11. A MacBook with 8 gb of ram is decent since Mac’s optimize their software depending on the computer. Windows 11 eats up your ram you need atleast 16 gb.
@@personyt55 8gb for windows is the same for MacOS and Windows. I've used both. The issue is price not the 8gb. It's up to the person to open up too many programs and saturate up that 8gb on Mac or Windows. MacBook Air 8gb can easily hit the limit and go into swap
7:29 nobody uses a laptop on their lap -- they go to a coffee shop or library and put it on a table -- they might use it on the floor or on their bed, but nobody puts it on their lap
true
I put it on my lap.😊
I mean - in terms of the ipad keyboard - you do know you can pair any bluetooth keyboard with it right, or use a mechanical switch type C keyboard? And that opens up some really good and inexpensive options.
This is gonna be a long one
As a college student, after both watching the video and reading the comments I have a lot of objections to add:
1. You set a price range that it's a bit too high for the average household and also you haven't stuck to it (c'mon, the Lenovo and Ipad *no case or pen version*, are half the price of the Mac and TUF). You should've researched how much people are willing to pay for a pure school laptop (low to no gaming, practical and very portable). Most of the comments suggested $200-$300 as a price range and I agree, if you know you don't want top of the range performance, it's good enough for every household (especially with young students who might not take the best care of it. I've had a cheap Asus Vivobook, short time after I bought it, my cousin took it and dropped it, still works 5 years later).
2. The Target situation. After reading the comments, yea, your search got messed up by adding "Tablet computers" as a filter. Still, you had an HP chromebook on screen at 2:21, so there were laptops to compare. Even if there weren't, you should've chose another common store who had to be able to have a fair comparison (really, comparing 3 laptops to an Ipad, 1 of them even being a Mac is stupid).
3. Speaking of bad comparisons, the choices where too scattered and really hard to compare. You compare a Macbook meant for Apple Ecosystem (mainly businesses), a Lenovo Thinkpad (which is actually meant for the purpose of your video), a gaming laptop (which is meant for performance rather than ease of portability) and a tablet (which the video is about laptop), maybe you could've chose laptops with similar specs for the price range. That's why your battery test sucked, the Ipad has a small battery and the Tuf was meant to be held plugged most of the time, while the Mac and the Lenovo are build for long days away from an outlet.
4. Most schools rely on what Google and Microsoft offers for their workflow. I heard many cases where students were either required to have a Chromebook or a good Windows device, even I had to get a Windows laptop in school since we were taught on the Windows way of things (also Apple may not support some of the programs schools use with Windows).
5. The backpack, few people had that small of a backpack in school, and they were just carrying 1 or 2 notebooks in them and some food (that barely fit). Even in college I see people with big backpacks since most of them still use pen and paper to take notes. Also, at least in Europe, it's not that viable to carry a laptop with you since you are still required to carry physical books, notebooks and other study materials with you everyday, despite having a phone and laptop (at least till college, where there is more leasure with study methods). You were complaining about the portability of the Tuf in that small backpack, you should've bought an actual school backpack from Wallmart to test the portability. As a fun fact, my friend carries his Lenovo Legion to college everyday because of his major (he doesn't carry anything else, just the laptop, its charger and a water bottle) and he sometimes complains of sore back since he carries it with him all day. Can't imagine a middle to highschool student carrying a gaming laptop (which is about 2-2.5kg) and the tower of study materials required by the teacher everyday (which may be more than the laptop).
I hope that you would revisit this topic with a bit more research in mind.
Edit : Grammar, some rewordings and added more context to some points.
you should have set a price maximum or minimum hardware
this just feels like going for a random pick of laptops.
another test for the market of school laptops is to buy a bunch of school recommended laptops (these are usually closer to that vivobook)
Why would you design a tablet without a headphone jack, especially if you are trying to market it as "able to replace your traditional laptop"
Because App$e is like that.
My school gives us Chromebooks to use during the school year and it gets the job done tbh
as a engineering student having not buy a macbook was the best decision i made in my college
Can't go wrong with MacBook Air (M1 & above) as a back to school laptop. Powerful enough for most task, great battery life, and lightweight. The TUF is amazing too if you're into gaming.
Yeap you got that right
Too expensive for a student mate
Agreed 👍
The problem for college use is most (engineering) applications don't run on mac os. Everyone who has a Mac runs a windows vm. Good gaming laptops are almost a must
Lol wish I had a laptop when I was in school. I mean in highschool I did but it was an old Thinkpad with Linux Mint on it. Worked perfectly for the Google suite that I used in school.
As an Apple Tech, those M1 Air have an issue with the Battery just failing out of the blue. I have lost count how many Batteries i have replaced on that very same unit you purchased.(ironically i am watching at work AND replacing batteries on 7 of these just today) It's a great Device otherwise. That said, the Air battery is actually REPLACEABLE! Unlike the Macbook Pro versions where the entire top case/Battery/Keyboard needs to be replaced (entire system teardown)....So, i guess that's a feature?
Here in Sweden all the kids get chromebooks in school. At least what I have seen.
A lot of schools do that here in the US. Some universities even give you a laptop.
For school, battery life is very important. I’d give the MacBook Air a big bonus for the battery life alone.
It will actually last an entire school day, and for a laptop, that’s amazing.
Bruh people buy stuff like chromebooks for school. Not a single thing you purchased
Bought an Omen 16 for school. Can't stand Chromebooks after multiple bad experiences with it and bad loading times when in my computer science class.
this video is absolute non-sense. What matters most about a laptop is portability first and foremost, secondly ease of use (the ipad or a touchscreen laptop are great in lectures) and way down at the bottom is performance, frankly so long as you can have like 12-15 tabs open you'll be fine most work is research based and any editing you do will be with low quality footage. 3d work is often done on the school/uni's machinary they are unlikely to offer that work without the tools to complete it. Your perspective is valid but is very far off the perspective of a student.
the colour grading in Austins videos are alway so warm like seriously you need to get that fixed it looks so bad its like im watching the video with night shift on
Something important to keep in mind about best buy, as a former employee, is that their first priority is credit cards. It is entirely understandable that the website will try and push the most expensive model in a given category right at the top because that's what associates are encouraged to do in store, since the goal is credit card and membership sales.
16:16 1080p display?!
Yeah I was going to say the display is 2560-by-1600
My exact job is getting laptops for online learners. Go ahead and throw the iPad away because it's not going to be compatible with lockdown browsers and state testing apps. That's a non starter.
2:21 Dude, u literally sorted by tablet computers (as shown in the top left) and ur saying they're "acting" like a tablet is a laptop? That's ur fault that's all that came up.
Austin: Are "School" Laptops a SCAM?
Me: No, just severely under powered in they cannot do basic shit.
Color correction in this video is wild
So the #1 issue I always see with any Macbook in the school space, isn't the upfront cost its the year over year cost especially IF IT BREAKS, unless you have apple care which might not be in your budget year after year. The price to repair an Apple anything is much higher then most Windows computers. What I normally recommend to college students needing a laptop is a 2nd hand business laptop from a year or so ago. A Lenovo Thinkpad E14 with a Ryzen can 4/5500u can be had for 300-400$ depending on how you spec it. It can be easily upgraded and repairs prices are dirt cheap. The Dell Latitude 7410, and Surface Laptop 4's are also solid 2nd hand buys from businesses but repair prices are not as low as the Thinkpads most the time.
My kids’ backpack is larger than yours. Not sure why you felt the need to use a particularly small backpack to judge portability. This isn’t pre-k!
Because your personal requirements are not everyone's.
@@RocketboyX Oh hey Austin. Good comeback. 🤣
One of the main reasons the tuf has such bad battery life is usually using armoury crate, as it is extremely bad, I own a tuf f15 and I got about 3 hrs of battery life out of the box, but with ghealper instead of armoury crate, I now get closer t 11 hrs using microsoft edge
The iPad should have won the last category because he was considering things from other categories when ranking it
I own that exact TUF A15 and I've always been bewildered that it comes base with 8 gb of ram. I upgraded that crud instantly
m1 air in 2024 is crazy. like even for school, having a 100 tabs open for homework, some youtube and all of that. pages, numbers and VS code? the laptop is cooked
why're you lying lmao, I still use my m1 air for school, and I use vs-code and have like 3 different chromes with 10 tabs each for hw. It's completely fine and runs well.
I have one for school its fine
Nah man, apple products are under specced so you spend on upgrades then you can't do a thing to them afterwards, then they have limited lifetime of updates, but Linux can fix that unlike on iOS devices once their iOS is done a few years later you have a slow brick, plain don't invest in apple, just buy used laptops
@@noahsilva-lopez3491 try running multiple docker containers with localstack, one server, one db maybe a redis. you're going to need that for a project now wouldn't you. good luck trying to use android studio or any of the jetbrains IDEs (including pycharm). while that's running in the background caching , reading, writing, clogging up L1, L2 and L3 cache , using up RAM, open up your chrome and come back to this video to comment "wow you were so right, this laptop does suck"
My biggest issue isn’t that there aren’t good laptop options available, it’s that every school my kid has been to now(4 different ones) requires Chromebooks.
I’ve yet to find one that isn’t a complete piece of crap and have basically just resorted to buying a cheap one and replacing it when it breaks for one reason or another (which is usually about a year)
The M1 Air is the best laptop I’ve ever owned. Still powerful, super portable, and, most importantly, I can actually use it on my lap without a significant risk of burning myself. I have a Steam Deck, so gaming performance isn’t important to me in a laptop.
The tuf definitely deserved first place at performance. Suddenly some parts that definitely fall under practicality were involved in the performance score. The performance category isn't about the total package, the totals are about the total package. Performance should be rated on pure performance, just the numbers, the pure power.
What do you even need a laptop for before college? If the school demands you need a thing, they usually provide it since its all tax payer funded.
What school are you going to? Every course along with our assignments are managed in canvas, gradescope, webassign etc. Thats not to mentioned external sites and software that we need, which aside software with specific student access like Solidworks, they make us pay for (which can be a couple hundred more dollars for a class). I go to a large state university as well and they basically cover nothing.
@@mike-024 They specifically said *before* college.
I'm impressed how this guy still sort of "holds up" to the algorithm, but with really goofy or off-brand linus video ideas
When I was in School, I brought my Razer Blade 14 to School everyday instead of using my Schools Chromebook
Don't the students get a laptop from the school that they can use both at school and at home? In Denmark, students in most schools are given a laptop that they can use at school and at home. It is of course on loan, but this applies as long as they go to school, which is from 0 to 10th grade. Each class is one year. However, you do not have to use a 10-year-old laptop in the last school year you go to school, as you get to renew the laptop you borrow every 3-4 years. year, maybe more often, depending on the school you attend. And no, they are by no means gaming PCs, but a laptop that you often also see in office environments. In fact, the ones I'm aware of are the Lenovo with a 14" screen.
no family spends 900 dollars on school equipment
You'd be surprised plus with multiple kids it adds up quick
My M1 Air is about 3 years old a this point and not gonna lie, it's still running great and handles everything I throw at it very nicely. Probably going to keep it for another couple years.
0:36 Amazon ain’t a store tho… 😬
😱
Digital store is still a store
Please tell me what amazon is if it's not a store 🤔
@@examplifyza website…???
Austin did mentioned one very important thing is the weight running around school with a heavy laptop is going to be a pain unless your training to be rock lee. 😅
@@wolfbrave4866 No one, repeat, NO ONE, knows what carrying a heavy laptop is like, until they’ve carried around an HP ZD8000 in college. The thing is easily double the weight and thickness of my Lenovo Legion 5 Slim laptop. The thing also ran a Pentium 4M (this is Netburst, not the better Pentium M), and a Mobility Radeon x600.
M1 Macbook Air is more than perfect for 80% of the students, the 20% is engineering, computer science and high end programming students
Too expensive bruh, and it can't be upgraded, no ports
@@Sykxezn told u, only the 20% would want to increase their ram
@@IamAkhundov an average user should look at a thinkpad t480 not some macbook
But no ports@@IamAkhundov
The thing is that you can find the same hardware capacity for the same price either generation
i think judging the TUF display being too dim in studio lighting on a set was kinda throwing your results off because most students are not gonna be in studio lighting they are just gonna be chilling in class or at home
3:53 as an engineer, I needed to queue the “all around me are familiar faces” bit
Target has laptops. You have tablet chosen as a filter. I always feel like targer never has a fair chance in these type of videos
my dad paid 2700 USD for a "back to school" all-in-one with no gpu at Best Buy.
you can literally get a laptop with an *RTX* series gpu for less than a third of the price of what my dad bought.
I work at Best Buy in the computing section, I can say that some of our laptops we sell are going for a fairly decent price. Although it was shady that the first one they recommended is a Dell XPS LMAO. I would also add the factor of how many people take home Macbooks from Best Buy. One of our top sellers even though it isn;t touch screen or 2-1 featured. People also shame the open box factors of a laptop but I would ALWAYS look in store before buying an open box online. Our systems to make those open box tags really suck :(
I had experience with school laptops and they are just straight hot garbage
Yeah as someone who works at Walmart, don't trust the website, find someone in store who knows laptops if there is one
If your talking about college this will work but for kids no way to expensive for kids
Would be cool to see this style of 'budget laptop' type videos using the manufacture websites (apple, lenovo, dell, etc)
For school you don't need a huge and heavy gaming laptop which will drain the battery as quick as the roadrunner, an expensive, hard to repair and to upgrade Apple or a tablet with a keyboard. IMO the most convenient option is something like that Lenovo (not that model/brand especially). Normal more than enough specs and run under Windows.
bro forgot a ipad has touch and good for taking notes, yet again people not in school forgetting whats it's like to be a student
I used to have a gaming laptop for school. It had a GTX 1650 and 24gb of RAM. My school provided laptops could barely have 3 chrome tabs open without crashing, but my gaming laptop could handle all of the work I'd ever been assigned. I'd recommend getting a cheaper gaming laptop if you can afford to spend a little extra, its 100% worth it.
For 10-12th grade, my primary computer was actually an M1 iPad Air with an ESR keyboard. Against the equipment it gives at school, it was surprisingly amazing. It performed better and did better than other kids that had their own computers. Even for college, an iPad will do everything you need a computer can do, webcam, great battery, good multitask, and unless the laptop it’s better at note taking. I now primarily use a MacBook Pro, but the iPad is still a useful tool for my college note taking, doing math to save paper, and as an extra display for my MacBook.
Really long but there’s my thoughts on being an iPad kid in school.
Austin,, Nine years ago,, 2015,,, you did a video " Is a $170 Chromebook Worth It? "
You seemed to like it at the time,,, and TODAY Chromebooks are still inexpensive $200...300
they have Android 13, desktop chrome browser with extensions,, Linux & 10 years of updates
are you advertising the laptops or the shops where they came from?
It is always ALWAYS better to buy an older or refurbished device that's more powerful and capable rather than a newer device that's slower and has worse specs, as long as it has a warranty and a return policy if it's not in the advertisement condition or there's any issues with it.
iPad is amazing for college level because of its note taking ability. Being able to do homework and take notes and take pictures of the white board and put them in your notes is unreal. It doesn’t do everything a laptop can do, but a laptop certainly can’t do everything an iPad can do. I think the iPad should have done better for practicality, but since this was a laptop video, it never had a proper shot
I think an I-Pad Should have been considered more, as a compliment to have, along with a Laptop or Macbook.
dude showed literally everything but study related tasks. Not that I expected him to, but I find it funny
I think one important factor that you should consider when buying a school laptop is your (or your kid's) attitude towards longevity. Like, if you're gonna have to replace the thing in two years because it's getting handled roughly, you're gonna want a different laptop than one you expect to still be using in five to seven years. Like, my laptop carried me from the start of high school all the way through college, so I'm happy I chose a pretty performant laptop that I handled with care, but I wouldn't just broadly recommend that approach to everybody.
And of course you should always try to take care of your stuff, but it's an inevitability that some things are made to last and some just get you to where you need to be (e.g. just finishing high school) and no further. And that's fine, just watch out you don't end up spending long-term amounts of money on a short-term item, y'know.
Another point for iPad: left the thing on the roof of the car and then hit the highway. When I retrieved it it was mildly damaged but nothing serious. It flew off the roof at 66 mph without a screen protector and there was no damage to the screen.
Getting a used Thinkpad off ebay is much cheaper than new school laptops for the same or better performance
Selection process was too inconsistent and just plain randomly done. No consistency
Another issue with the MacBook that Austin didn’t mention is that most middle and high schools online work websites tend to only be optimized for windows and many colleges only have their corses on windows for similar reasons that being both limitations of macOS as well as the more open nature of windows and it simply being easier to program for at least according to most teachers
I'm throughly confused how Austin didn't see any actual laptops on Target's website. 6 of the top 10 options when I go there are proper laptops and only two are of the same brand.
Ikr. I got so confused when Austin literally showed on screen an HP 2-in-1 Chromebook at 2:21, yet he chose the Ipad and said Target doesn't have any laptops
Edit: Also, I think Target showed him tablets in the laptop section because he chose "Tablet Computers" as a filter and the system considers any tablet that can be used with a keyboard as one (like the Ipad and the Magic Case)
I know for sure that parents do not spend $800-$900 on school supplies, they cheap out on the laptop(and that’s only if the schools don’t provide one), and then they buy school supplies which I can’t imagine costing close to $200
I feel like the majority of these are a tad expensive or odd choices as "back to school" laptops, the Lenovo being more in line with most people's budgets and uses.
One thing I can say about laptops for kids, is to ensure as best you can that the laptop can grow with the kids needs, don't get something that will only run word and powerpoint, have a bit more flexibility to allow for other tasks outside the classroom such as projects, social activities and the ability to be creative. Also teaching your child the responsibility of owning a laptop is important to not have them treat it like a toy that they will break. On the other end of the spectrum, having the most expensive laptop doesn't mean its any better, take the time to do the research and fit the needs of you child to the computer. Also make sure your school network and software needs are compatible to Mac before getting a Mac book. Some school systems will do laptop loaners and laptop school pricing to allow for savings.
Austin's biggest benchmark of testing tech is watching UA-cam on it.
The iPad can run games at 120 FPS, but the games usually default at 30 or 60 fps