microsoft pro 4 for uni student

[gemandjule]

DS2 is reading English in Uni so does a lot of essays etc but no complicated graphics/calclations/tables etc for assignments. His laptop has died. It was an old one of ours. Toshiba, at least 6-7 years old, big and clunky but served him well. Anyway he now needs a replacement. He cycles to and from uni so would love something small and light. He has seen this reduced in a sale to £770 including keyboard and has fallen in love! Has i5 processor, 6th generation, 4gb RAM and 128GB hard drive memory. He has been working part time and will top up the extra from the laptop I was prepared to by which was £420, had same processor and RAM memory but 1TB hard drive memory. 15'6" screen so bigger and heavier obviously. I am inclined to let him off with his fancy one as he is young and excited by it, he has been making do for the past 18/12 with a distinctly non trendy laptop, he has earned the difference himself and he uses my old phone so no history of wanting shiny new gadgets! My only slight concern is whether he will get the functionality he needs from it.
Anyone have any advice?

[cdtaylornats]

Same processor and ram are fine.

128GB hard drive seems very low these days. I don't understand why you would pay £350 more for lesser spec.

Perhaps suggest the £420 laptop but with him buying a chromebook for use at uni.

[icyfront]

I have a Surface 3, which I think is the smallest and lowest spec of the Surface range. I bought it because it is much smaller and lighter than my laptop, so easy to carry with me to the library, etc. It has the same size hard drive as the Pro 4, but with USB drives increasing in size, I don’t think that’s a problem. But the Surface 3 seems to be marketed as a companion device, which is how I use it. I transfer what I need to and from my home network (I have a NAS). I wouldn’t want to use it as my only device.

There are a few things that your son probably already knows: It doesn’t have a DVD drive. The screen can only be at two different angles, unlike a laptop screen. The keyboard on my Surface is noticeably narrower than my laptop; I notice that because I’m a touch-typist.

But it is small and light and doesn’t take up much space on a desk/table, which is why I like it so much.

Overall, however, I think cdtaylornats suggestion is a good one. My Surface is currently back with Microsoft because it stopped charging – a replacement is being sent to me – and I don’t think the charger connection is as good on the Surface 3 as it is on my laptop. I think if the replacement Surface 3 ends up with the same problem again, I’d look at getting something like a small Chromebook instead.