I have been looking at Dell laptops for my son who is in high school. For the same money I can get:

1.) Inspiron 4 core 8th gen Intel I5, 8GB DDR4/1TB HDD or

2.) Latitude 2 core 8th gen Intel I3, 4GB DDR4/500GB HDD

Main use will be MS office and *light* gaming - like occasional Fortnight. I have always had Latitudes at work and had good success with them. I don't know much about the Inspiron line.

To me, the 2 core vs 4 core is the biggest issue. But, for the intended use, I am not sure how much difference any of the above specs make.....


What are yall's thoughts for what would make a better "student" laptop?

Can you post the exact models?

Sure. It's actually these 2:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/inspiron-15-5000/spd/inspiron-15-5570-laptop/FNCWLB3310H

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/latitude-3590/spd/latitude-15-3590-laptop/s059l359015us

I would go for the Inspiron because of the increase in RAM.

Latitudes are business class laptops so the build quality and internal components are better, but an Inspiron should still hold up well.

Both of those have integrated graphics, meaning they aren't going to be very good for any modern gaming.

If it were me, I'd get one with a dedicated video card. Either nVidia or AMD, though my preference is nVidia.

Something like this. It's a 14" which is nice and portable for a student, 1080p display and a graphics card that would handle plenty of modern games, as well as help with any video or graphics programs they may run into in college.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/inspiron-14-7000/spd/inspiron-14-7472-laptop/DNCWA300H

It's a bit more expensive, but in my mind is a much, much better laptop.

Thanks Wildmen03. Yes, I agree. That actually has a SSD in it too. I would like that would be good for the likely abuse it is going to take. This config actually lines up with a "bring your own device" recommended config I found on a TAMU website.

I would strongly lean towards the Latitude line; both the build quality and competent tech support are absolutely worth it. I had a Latitude which lasted for 4+ years during undergrad, switched to a Lenovo Thinkpad for grad school (needed a spec upgrade for architecture work) which has lasted for 6+ years, and just recently purchased another Thinkpad. Meanwhile, most of my friends in school went through 2-3 consumer grade laptops in undergrad alone (including Inspirons). Business class machines are absolutely worth the premium. On both my Latitude and my Thinkpad, I can also vouch for the excellent business class tech support, which I had to use on multiple occasions.

Pricing-wise, something to keep in mind is that both Dell and Lenovo offer substantial discounts for students. I would check into that pricing as it literally saved me around $500 when ordering my previous Thinkpad years ago. Your student may have to check this pricing for you as I know at least Lenovo now requires a student login.

I would also strongly suggest an extended warranty with accidental damage protection along with a subscription fir a cloud backup service such as Crashplan.

Lastly, you may want to check major/degree computer requirements to see if anything specific is required. I was in architecture, so our PC requirements were very pertinent to our ability to work in our classes.

coastalAg said:

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I would go for the Inspiron because of the increase in RAM.

Latitudes are business class laptops so the build quality and internal components are better, but an Inspiron should still hold up well.

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I worked at Dell for many years... 90% of the Latitude models share a motherboard and other system components with an Inspiron model. Same applies to the mobile Precision workstations. Build quality on the mid-range Latitude/Inspiron systems isn't really that different.

I would not want anything with 4gb of RAM. But, I like to multitask and have way too many programs open.

I just bought a Lenovo that seems like a good deal if anyone is interested in getting one too.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-series/Ideapad-720S-14/p/88IP70S0833

I chose the Ideapad 720s Platinum Silver at the bottom with a web price of $1409.99 and then added it to cart.

It has these specs:
Processor: 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U Processor (1.80GHz, up to 4.0GHz with Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64
Display Type: 14.0" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS anti-glare
Memory: 16 GB DDR4 2400MHz
Hard Drive: 512GB Solid State Drive PCIe
Warranty: 1 Year Depot or Carry-in
AC Adapter: 65 watt AC
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT MX150 2GB

Once in cart use the coupon code IDEA720SAVE45

The price adjusted to $775.49 plus tax with free shipping. It seems like a decent deal.

I'd look for something with 8GB of RAM. 4 is the bare minimum to these days to have a functional system. Within a year or two, you'll be adding more RAM.

I'd also recommend a solid state hard drive. The speed of SSDs is nice, but the real benefit for a student will be that it's not going to be prone to damage from moving the computer while a conventional spinning hard drive is still on and spinning. Laptop hard drives fail a lot because of this.

Also, do not buy anything with less than 1080p screen resolution. That Latitude is 768. At least that's my opinion. I'm very surprised that they still make that resolution anymore.

All that being said, I bought a Dell Inspiron for $400 on sale in 2013. It is a core i3 processor, came with 4GB of RAM, and a 768p resolution. Also a 500GB regular hard drive. I used it for 4 years is grad school, and continue to use it periodically at work. The only upgrade I did was add an additional 4GB of RAM (which made a huge difference, especially after the upgrade to Win 10. Right now I'm debating whether or not to upgrade to a SSD or just continue to use it as is since it serves my needs well and the extra speed of a SSD would just be nice. If it had 1080p resolution, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But that 768 is really annoying.

tl;dr
Aim for minimum of 8gb ram, and 1080p resolution screen, and ideally go for a SSD.

Hope that helps.

All, thanks again for the responses and info. I ended up ordering the Inspiron suggested by Wildmen03. The SSD and separate video card were the differentiators for me. I think that machine is a good balance of price and performance after all the research I have done.