Which Ubuntu Laptop Should I Get for College?

[jediboaz]

i was cash strapped, and could only afford a lenovo ideapad g560e. few months in, i managed to upgrade the memory to 8GB, and the HDD to 720GB. I took the stupid windows
off and am still running Ubuntu on it. All works well without any problems. Actually works better than the windows that was on it. Its up nearly 16hours a day, and i wouldnt
replace it for anything else.
my 2c.

[mips]

Get a Thinkpad.

[Dlambert]

I like the look of the carbon. But not having 4 phyical cores is a minus. Do they make shells for the Carbon?

[mips]

I like the look of the carbon. But not having 4 phyical cores is a minus.

You are not gonna get 4 cores in any Ultra-Low Power Core CPU.

[Dlambert]

I should note that I'm also looking at the Zareason Strata 7330 : i7 3840Qm (4cores) 16GB Ram, 120GB SSD for about $1600. http://zareason.com/shop/Strata-7330.html

[WinterMadness]

EDIT: I only really read the OP, but here ya go anyway

I cant really recommend System76.

1) My laptop came with a ton of dead pixels and they wouldnt replace it
2) I got my screen fixed because i dropped my laptop, new screen had a ton of dead pixels
3) I could not add more Ram to my laptop because the ram slot was broken when it was given to me, I made a youtube video about it to show System76 and it took them forever to get back to me about it
4) The track pad is... random. Theres no better word for it than that, it will randomly go all over the screen from time to time
5) I often couldnt tell if I was pressing on the laptop or the track pad button (mouse pad buttons)
6) Right now my System76 is dead because I cant replace the AC adapter. They use a strange size that I cant find anywhere, not even universal ones have the size in my experience. The only way I could get it replaced AFAIK is to give system76 more money, which I dont want to do.

Basically, I am anti-System 76 at this point. My experience with the panp7 was so utterly nightmarish that the only thing they could ever do to change my opinion is to give me a new laptop showing that every problem I had was an isolated experience. Until then, its too much to spend on such a low quality laptop.


Have you considered Asus or Zareason (never used them myself...)?

I have my problems with Asus too, but they arent bad enough to warrant a boycott. Ive had extended warranties with Dell on Ubuntu laptops, and they would send people to my house to fix whatever problem I had while I play video games. Cant beat that... You HAVE TO consider the fact that laptops break a lot (so companies that have hardware faults are not good enough even if the specs are good), and are a pain to reassemble. After doing it twice myself, I decided that I dont want to do it anymore lol

though for the record I WOULD consider buying a System76 desktop. Laptops? Count me out.

[Dlambert]

Could I see this video? ^

[WinterMadness]

sure.

Theres actually two videos, one that allows you to see the ram slot and one showing that the ram stick wont stay in, i went out of my way to make sure i covered as many possible situations when inputting the second ram slot so as to not bring up questions about what im doing, so that explains why it isnt a 3 second video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrVulmMxDVo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_S55g1QfEc

Im sure it wouldnt take much to get it fixed, but im not paying for it, and I still need a power plug.

[Dlambert]

sure.

Theres actually two videos, one that allows you to see the ram slot and one showing that the ram stick wont stay in, i went out of my way to make sure i covered as many possible situations when inputting the second ram slot so as to not bring up questions about what im doing, so that explains why it isnt a 3 second video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrVulmMxDVo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_S55g1QfEc

Im sure it wouldnt take much to get it fixed, but im not paying for it, and I still need a power plug.

Thank you.

[Dlambert]

After some thought (and a "show-rooming" trip to BestBuy), I've decided to get an Ultra-book because I like the look and feel. That being said, I've got it down to the Dell and the X1 Carbon from Lenovo.

I'm also looking into a Samsung Ultra-book, because out of the ones I saw yesterday, the Samsung ones were the best built.

But HP's envy Black/Red is to die for..