How would you rank these computers (best to worst)?

[nugget]

I need to buy a computer for grad school very soon as I currently do not have one. I'm not sure what to buy but have narrowed down my search to 6 computers. I am looking for a good quality light weight computer that has a durable build at the cheapest price possible. The computer will be used mainly for the internet and microsoft office. I'd prefer to get something that's either 3 lbs or as close to this weight as possible (absolute maximum of 4 lbs).

 

In what order would you rank these computers from best to worst, based on my needs described above?

 

(I added a 13.3 inch model to the list just in case it would be worth the compromise, but I find it starts to get a little small at that size).

 

If I have overlooked another good model that you know about, feel free to add it to your list or pm me about it.

 

Thanks!!!

 

1.http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_577_1044&item_id=057829

 

2. http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_577_1044&item_id=054812

 

3. http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_577_1044&item_id=058072

 

4. http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7935946&CatId=4935

 

5. http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t431s/#techspecs

 

6. http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/ASUS-VivoBook-S400CA-Touchscreen-Notebook/productID.277807700

Edited August 6, 2013 by jenste

[fuzzylogician]

Out of those options I'd definitely choose the Lenovo T431s. I've owned one IBM and one Lenovo T-series machine which I've had for a total of 9 years, and liked them a lot. I just recently bought myself a new computer and I was leaning towards a Lenovo similar to the T431s you linked to, but was eventually persuaded to buy a macbook air this time. The price I paid was actually lower than that of the Lenovo I was looking at, and everyone around me swears that they're so much better than Windows machines. Despite all the hype, though, I'm not head over heels in love with my macbook air - it's just a computer like all others and it's not anything extraordinary. The one thing I have to give it that beats the Lenovo by a mile  is how light it is. It also has better battery power. Anyway, out of the choices you have, I'd say the T-series is better than all the others since it's the line that Lenovo took over from IBM, as opposed to starting on their own. The touchscreen machine looks like somewhat of a risk as a main work computer; the other Asus may be a good choice but I don't know too much about it. 

[Eigen]

IMO, those are all more expensive than a refurbished 13" or 11.6" Macbook Air. 

 

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD223LL/A/refurbished-macbook-air-17ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5 is a year up from what I use, and mine works fine for all my writing, reading, and general office work. Only thing I don't use it for is molecular modeling. 

 

You can get a bigger HD version (128gb) for $799. That's the size I have, and I'm not close to full, although I do have an external HD for videos, etc. 

 

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD231LL/A/refurbished-macbook-air-18ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5 is out of stock atm, but is the 13" starting at $849 for a 128gb HD. 

 

My wife and I both use our 11" for grad school- I supplement with a PC desktop for modeling, and she uses it exclusively.

[nugget]

IMO, those are all more expensive than a refurbished 13" or 11.6" Macbook Air. 

 

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD223LL/A/refurbished-macbook-air-17ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5 is a year up from what I use, and mine works fine for all my writing, reading, and general office work. Only thing I don't use it for is molecular modeling. 

 

You can get a bigger HD version (128gb) for $799. That's the size I have, and I'm not close to full, although I do have an external HD for videos, etc. 

 

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD231LL/A/refurbished-macbook-air-18ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5 is out of stock atm, but is the 13" starting at $849 for a 128gb HD. 

 

My wife and I both use our 11" for grad school- I supplement with a PC desktop for modeling, and she uses it exclusively.

 

In Canada, computers and electronics are a lot more expensive than in the US. We definitely get ripped off here when it comes to electronics. I wish I could cross the border and buy a compter but I don't have time to do that and I'd have to pay a lot in duty fees anyway. 

 

I haven't considered an 11 inch since I won't have access to a desktop or a second computer to do my work and an 11 inch is just too small. I considered a 13 inch, but it's a tad on the small side. When I go up to 15.6 inches the computers start to get too heavy. So 14 inches seems to be the best compomise.

Edited August 6, 2013 by jenste

[Eigen]

Personally, having had both larger (14, 15 & 17" laptops) and the smaller, I find that there's not a whole lot of difference. 

 

I can keep two documents up at a time on the 11" screen, and have written long review articles on it. 

 

That said, if you need extra screen real estate, it's usually a much better idea to get a smaller laptop, and an external monitor. 

 

The difference between 11, 13 & 14" really isn't all that big, imo, but it's a huge jump from those to a nice 24" widescreen for work. 

 

I personally have two on my desk at work- a 20" 4:3 LCD and a 19" widescreen turned portrait, that I use for documents I'm reading/working from. 

[Eigen]

Also note that Apple prices are the same in the US and Canada- I just double checked on the Apple.ca store. 

[nugget]

Sounds like you have a computer you are happy with that works for you. Glad to hear it. Personally I am going to stick with one that's 14 inches because it works best for me and the personal circumstances that I am in.

 

Personally, having had both larger (14, 15 & 17" laptops) and the smaller, I find that there's not a whole lot of difference. 

 

I can keep two documents up at a time on the 11" screen, and have written long review articles on it. 

 

That said, if you need extra screen real estate, it's usually a much better idea to get a smaller laptop, and an external monitor. 

 

The difference between 11, 13 & 14" really isn't all that big, imo, but it's a huge jump from those to a nice 24" widescreen for work. 

 

I personally have two on my desk at work- a 20" 4:3 LCD and a 19" widescreen turned portrait, that I use for documents I'm reading/working from. 

[Eigen]

So, you included a 13" model on your list, asked for advice about other comparable models, but didn't really want other opinions?

 

Definitely confused. None of your posts until this last one indicate a definite minimum on screen size, especially given as one of the options I suggested is exactly the same screen size as one in your original post (3 of them, actually). 

 

Given that price was mentioned as one of your primary concerns (and screen size wasn't), I thought the suggestion of a smaller (and cheaper) 11" with an external monitor was quite a good suggestion, especially coupled with the recommendation that it works very well for myself and several other grad students. I'm sorry you didn't feel the same. 

 

You don't have to take my suggestions, but the snark seems unnecessary. 

[TakeruK]

I also used to think that pricing in Canada (especially for Apple) is a lot higher than the US, but I just looked up Apple Education pricing on the Canadian website and it's exactly the same as the US as far as I can tell! Here is the link: http://store.apple.com/ca_edu_108250/mac/family/macbook-pro

 

You can compare this with the US version: http://store.apple.com/us_edu_487334/mac/family/macbook-pro

 

(Just using Macbook Pro as an example, you can click on the tabs at the top to see the various other models). I also know this is the same thing as Eigen said a few posts above, but here is the "proof" I guess.

[nugget]

I chose five 14 inch models and added one more that was 13.3 inches, stating it was only on the list just in case the specs of that computer were worth compromising for the smaller screen size.

 

I guess I should have also emphasized that I would only consider a 13.3 if the others were bad options and if the smaller computer was the clear winner of the six on the list. That is exactly what I was thinking but it didn't get into that much detail in my post. 

 

No snark was intended. I just didn't want to turn this into a debate about which screen size I should get and instead focus on ranking the computers based on the preferences I mentioned. 

[Eigen]

Understood. 

 

That said, it's worth noting that while most of your options are '14-inch' screens, the measurements seem to vary. 14" is a "class" of screen sizes. 

 

Widths of the laptops (and hence, screens) varies from 12.8" (MBA) to 13.3" while height varies from 8.0" (Asus) to 9.3". If you haven't played with these in person (and you may have), the difference between a 13.3" diagonal screen and a 14" diagonal screen is ~0.35" horizontally and ~0.12" vertically, at a standard 16:9 widescreen display. In other words, I wouldn't sweat the difference too much. 

 

That said, one other really important factor to consider rather than screen size, is screen resolution, as that's more directly linked to how much you can fit on your screen. 5 of your options are all 1366x768, while the T431 is 1600x900, and the MBA 13" is 1400x900. 

 

That means of all your options, the T431 will completely display two documents side by side. It also means that you practically have more screen real estate (pixels) on both the MBA and the T431 relative to all the others. Screen size will effect (to some degree) how small things are, but differences in the order of ~1/3rd inch won't be that visible. Screen resolution will effect how much stuff you can see at one time, and I've found that to be much, much more important. 

 

I'd also suggest considering what aspect ratio you find to be most comfortable. 16:9 and 16:10 are the two resolutions you'll most consistently run into as widescreens. 

 

Personally, I find doing any word processing on 16:9 to be much more painful than 16:10, as you can fit far less vertical text on the screen at a given width (zoom). I find I constantly have to scroll up or down to read an entire paragraph, and that ends up being more of a daily frustration. 

 

I'd really encourage you (if you haven't) to go to a store that has several different models you're interested in, and spend some time working with them, to see how the size measures up. Try different every day tasks, at the distance you'll normally be from your screen, and see what's too big and what's too small. 

[baktrax]

Of the options you listed, I would go with #1 (the lenovo ideapad u410 ultrabook), but I'm biased because that's the computer that I got =D

 

I got mine from costco for $699, but I don't know if you would have that option coming from Canada. I'm happy with it so far, but I've only been using it for a couple of months. With regards to screen size, my previous computer was a 15.4" and the change to a 14" wasn't particularly drastic for me (but I tend to adjust to computers very quickly). I wanted something lighter than my old computer (which was 6lbs when I weighed it), and I definitely do feel the difference when I'm carrying this one around. With regards to screen resolution, I really don't notice the difference between this computer and Apple's retina display unless I'm comparing them side-by-side.

 

To be honest, they all look fine and will be more than enough for what your doing. Get whichever model you like the best and you can afford.

[Eigen]

Resolution isn't just about looks, though- it's about real estate. That said, none of the computers mentioned here are retina screens, so that's not really a factor. 

 

I'll second Fuzzy's rec for the T431 of the ones you listed. Looks like a very solid computer. 

 

And when you're thinking about using this a lot for years, a little bit more can be worth it. 

[baktrax]

 

 

Resolution isn't just about looks, though- it's about real estate.

 

But if all you're going to do is browse the internet and word processing, does it really matter?

[Eigen]

Depends on what you do. 

 

But I find for writing, screen real estate is king, up to a point. 

 

Being able to fit two pages side by side for editing layouts, or being able to open an old version on one half of the screen, and your new edits on the other. 

 

Or data on one half, and writeup on the other. 

 

Or two papers you're comparing. 

 

Or a huge data set. 

[baktrax]

 

Depends on what you do. 

 

But I find for writing, screen real estate is king, up to a point. 

 

Being able to fit two pages side by side for editing layouts, or being able to open an old version on one half of the screen, and your new edits on the other. 

 

Or data on one half, and writeup on the other. 

 

Or two papers you're comparing. 

 

Or a huge data set. 

 

If this is all OP is doing, then the above computers should be fine. I do all of the above on a regular basis and have never had a problem at all. Windows makes it easy to lock screens in common positions (don't know if Mac does this as well), and I've found that the new Office is actually a lot easier to use side-by-side after using 2007 for years (I have no idea if the change would have been as significant going from 2010 to 2013). I've also done having a huge data set open on side of the screen and a manuscript on the other, as well as having graphing software or lab equipment software on one side of the screen and excel or word on the other side. I've never personally had an issue doing any of these things with this screen resolution, but I suppose YMMV.

[Eigen]

The difference would mainly be the T431, with a 1600x900 resolution, imo. 

[nugget]

Thanks for all the good feedback. I've narrowed it down to 1 and 5. I think the best thing to do it to check out the two computers and pick out the one I like the most.  

 

In response to the comments above, my masters degree actually isn't a thesis based program so I'll mostly be writing essays, reading papers and creating power point presentations with the laptop (if that makes any difference).

[lyrehc]

I love Lenovo products.  I used to think I wanted a mac until I bought a Lenovo.  Their keyboard is the best to type on of any computer I've ever used.  And their customer service is absolutely outstanding.