Eldest is off to uni and wants a 2 in 1 convertible laptop affair.
She’s been looking at a hp something or other.
Does anyone have any recommendations for such a product. The one she has seen is only 4gb of ram and 128gb storage which looks a bit naff to my eye, plus it’s a Hp which I seem to have an aversion to.
Please help STW.

Has she tried one? I have a yoga convertible laptop and I’ve converted it once. It wasn’t very good…

Why not wait till she starts & see what spec is recommended for the course?
4gb/128gb will be very slow/incapable of anything more than simple word documents.

Wants or needs?

That’s a terrible spec in 2022 and having had many, many laptops in bits over the years I would concur with your aversion to HP. They’re truly hateful things to maintain.

HP’s server division split from its consumer arm to become “HP Enterprise” a few years ago and at the time I thought it odd. A little while later I realised why. In the server world I am of the opinion that there is HPe and there is everything else, they are market leaders. By comparison I’ve yet to see a HP laptop that wasn’t toilet.

Get her a Lenovo. She’ll hate you for it today, but thank you for it in about five years.

I agree with what @Cougar says. Get a decent spec Lenovo though – some of the lower spec ones are garbage. Or a DELL from their outlet store. Decent  spec is minimum 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel i7 (Don’t bother with an AMD despite the attractive price..). Check that the Uni offers an O365 subscription as that will save you a few quid although it’s probably v cheap/free with a .ac.uk email anyway…

Most Uni’s will have Offie 365 and other software. As said 8gb minimum 512gb SSD. Daughter has just got a ASUS TUF Gaming machine which was a third off at around £600ish.

EpicJunior had a Dell2in1 for his uni days.
Small and light for schlepping on campus and commuting by bike, good spec and good battery life to get him through the day, and then USB hub in his room for big screen and keyboard
Dell often have offers, and good customer service
Find out what spec needed, if course requires specialist software you’ll need big RAM and fast processor
Make sure she backs up all her work to one drive w O365, no risk of losing that dissertation if the laptop dies. If she’s not sure how that works watch youtube tutorials.

EpicJuniorII has a Surface Book for school as they’ve been using onenote and o365 to do online coursework since lockdown and the stylus and Ink gets used all the time. This is also small form factor and great battery life (but a bit spendy)

Thanks for the advice guys.
I suspect this is purely want and I’m not aware that she has tried a convertible affair. To my mind it should just be a laptop and not fancy other bits and pieces that are likely to be pants. My opinion seems to be along the same lines as yours with 8gb and 512gb storage and also Lenovo/dell. I will keep eyes open for offers and discount in the coming weeks/months.
Appreciate the advice and also thankful I am not too far away from standard.

Stealth ad. I have something that might be ideal. Pmd you

As above ☝

She should get Office via uni and if not the web version is free online anyway.

A hill I will die on is that OneNote is one of the best things Microsoft ever produced. I have half my life in OneNote and the other in Google Calendar.

Is a massive ‘hard drive’, (alright I know this is SSD nowadays) really a necessity in this day and age? Decent RAM, sure but storage is all online isn’t it? Movies and music are stored this way on your phone, not computer to I’d have thought 128gb was plenty internal.

#flameme

I’m in the same boat but was also thinking of a chrome book, but would it be a pain not being on Microsoft products?

A 512 GB drive isn’t expensive, even SSD, and it’s enough. 256GB get’s eaten up by Windows and Office, and any other software. It’s enough at 512.

8GB will run most stuff even graphic intensive. Daughter went for the ASUS as it has an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti which will help with her ‘animation’ course. This is o’on-top’ of her 2020 Ipad Pro, which she does all her digital drawings on – amazing for that.

SSD size really depends on what additional software you plan on installing. From a cost per GB perspective 512 is about the best value for money currently so no reason not to put that in. You could get away with something smaller in the short term but there is literally no point at all. If you plan on installing lots of applications then you might need a bigger than 512 GB one but they start getting pricey…

Also get something with usb-c or hdmi that you can connect to a decent size monitor and use a keyboard and mouse with.

Is a massive ‘hard drive’, (alright I know this is SSD nowadays) really a necessity in this day and age?

Rather depends on what course specific requirements are. If just MS Office based files, then yes.

If you are doing some video production or engineering CAD stuff it will be a whole lot easier if the assets are available locally…

OP needs to get Uni to provide course specific requirements

To add to what others had said
Always found convertible devices a bit of a gimmick (as are touchscreen imo)
Any one of the big 3 i.e. Hp Lenovo or Dell would be my choice.
You haven’t mentioned what course they are doing but certainly biggest hd as possible. A lot of uni’s quite often have licensing for certain pieces software to allow installs on personal devices.
Personally i would avoid MS Surfaces the accessories can be a a lot more expensive than the brands above.
365 subscription will be a given with their uni login these days (just make sure they migrate it before they leave ;).

I agree that touchscreen is not really great or needed for Windows. I have not used Windows 11 yet but previous versions were painful (for me) to use without a keyboard and mouse.

I addition to having decent memory and SSD I think screen resolution, weight and battery life are important for a student device that will be lugged about and ran off battery quite a lot.

I am surprised that we have got this far and nobody has mentioned getting a MacBook yet. They do student discount and are quite robust so could be ideal plus have the “cool” factor which a student will appreciate.

I that is too expensive or you want a Windows device then the Asus at the link below looks great value.

https://www.ebuyer.com/1419441-asus-zenbook-ux325ea-intel-core-i5-1135g7-2-4ghz-8gb-ddr4-512gb-m-2-nvme-ux325ea-kg386t?utm_source=hotukdeals&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hotukdeals

Is a massive ‘hard drive’, (alright I know this is SSD nowadays) really a necessity in this day and age?

Depends on what you’d call “massive” I suppose. I recently replaced a 120GB SSD in the desktop because it was full. Windows, MS Office and a couple of games will fill that. Storage is cheap, I got a 1TB Samsung EVO for like £100. Time was, that would have cost about the same as a black market kidney.

I am surprised that we have got this far and nobody has mentioned getting a MacBook yet.

So am I, but probably for different reasons.

Spec and HP – I agree with @cougar.

MacBook Air M2? Obviously more expensive but great portability, great performance, and pretty good looks.

If it must be a 2-in-1 then Lenovo or Dell. But it will need a better spec than suggested to get anything but hateful performance out of it a year or two from now.

I’ve never got on with 2-in-1s. But then I’m not a fan of iPads either. Clunky way to use a ‘big’ screen device ime.

Also, make sure she uses whatever educational discounts are available. These can be very worthwhile.

Edit. I saw ASUS mentioned. Never thought of them.

A 512 GB drive isn’t expensive, even SSD, and it’s enough

Are laptops still sold that don’t have SSDs? I’d avoid any of those.

but storage is all online isn’t it?

Mine isn’t. But then I’m a luddite in that respect. Plus is she likely to need fast local storage or access files when not on t’internet?

Get a laptop, whatever suggested above, together with external SSD as backup storage.

If laptop is only 13″ to 14″ then working on them can be a bit cramp. Larger the better of course.

Better still buy another external 24″ monitor (larger the better) with appropriate cable to connect to the laptop, wireless keyboard and mouse. Then plug them up when she works at her accommodation. Much easier and less stressful. She can use both monitors or just the external monitor if she wants.

Also the external SSD can also be used as backup of all her photos whatever from her mobile phone with the right connecting plug. Like using an adapter for Mini USB, USB-C whatever.

I’ve always been a fan of HP, bought my g/f a nice Envy 360 (little expensive for a student), 2 years in, the hinge has detached internally and broken the screen and body, totally unimpressed. I’d be binning it (well using it with an external monitor), if I hadn’t got a 3year warranty as part of the price, just waiting to see if I have to fight their support team to get it repaired.
As a laptop it’s rather lovely, but as a tablet it’s heavy & awkward. I’d suggest a decent standard i5 laptop*, and a proper tablet would be a better buy.

* drill into her the importance of online storage, as losing/breaking your laptop will be less grief, if her work is backed up online. That way, an undersized SSD is less of an issue too.

All of mine, and my wife and I have all had Lenovo or Dell. I would probably go Dell, with the biggest battery option available and at least 8gb ram. The outlet store is pretty good for bargains, but they take a few weeks to arrive sometimes.

buy another external 24″ monitor (larger the better)

None of my kids ever used the external monitor – I think they are used to working on tiny screens, so unless they ask specifically save some cash there

On cloud storage most Unis will provide one drive storage (just be aware this is deleted when they graduate though, so you will need to transfer important stuff somewhere else)

She doesn’t want a two in one. She does want a decent docking station. When Son1 went to uni a few years ago, I sent him off with a used hi spec business Lenovo and a docking station. His friends had never seen a docking station before. Come second year, they all had them. You want fast transition from desk with Keyboard, mouse and display to laptop in the bag and off to lectures. You also want light and, ideally, a leave-at-home power adaptor.

I like the old M1 MacBook Air, the new one is trying too hard to be a MBP. Son1 is currently using a quad i7 Lenovo with 512 SSD and 16GB. It seen him well for the past three years doing some numerical stuff (Matlab). He was running twin 21 inch monitors, but after a flat party (which he did not attend), these were upgraded to a 34” and ultra wide Samsung.

The only benefit I can see of a student having a 2in1 is the physical flexibility of the screen. She will chuck it on the bed and the screen can then conform to whatever it lands on. I had a normal laptop years ago that was well specced for the time but only opened to about 120 deg. Hinge was bust in no time. Next one (15 years old now) opened up to 180 and I still have it in a box somewhere with Linux on for emergencies.

Also for robustness a touch screen is a delicate item. But then modern screens are probably all fine in that respect.

In STW tradition of recommending what you have: I have a pixel slate that pretty much never gets used as a tablet apart from in the kitchen. It’s my second Chromebook and I wouldn’t have anything else for daily tasks. Potentially wrong product for a student though.

Dell often have offers, and good customer service

Dell CS was shockingly bad for us

We jut bought a second lenovo

but storage is all online isn’t it?

Mine isn’t. But then I’m a luddite in that respect. Plus is she likely to need fast local storage or access files when not on t’internet?

I think there’s some misunderstanding here. It’s not either / or, they complement each other.

If you use OneDrive, you can redirect your data folders (Documents, Photos, Desktop etc al) to it. It’ll do it automagically or you can do it selectively. The cloud becomes your primary storage but you have a locally synchronised copy for speed / offline access. Again, this is user-controllable.

The moment you do this, you get rolling saves. Remember the wails of anguish when an application crashes or there’s a power failure and you’ve lost a day’s work? Thing of the past. Hard drive fails and you’ve lost the last five years of your life because you were going to set up a backup next week honest? Who cares, it’s all on enterprise-grade storage, just swap the drive and log back in to your account.

@Cougar. Yes I know. I’m still a fan of local storage/backup.

🤷‍♂️ Do that then.

Point was, there’s no reason you can’t have both unless by “a fan of local storage” what you actually mean is “not a fan of online storage.” Which is understandable, it’s not for everyone. But you asked “is she likely to need fast local storage or access files when not on t’internet?” – it’s a non-question because even if she’s using an online provider she’ll still have local copies.

I do increasingly feel though that folk who are adverse to having a Microsoft / Google / Apple account probably just should be avoiding those platforms altogether. The benefits are huge but if – again, understandably – you don’t trust that vendor sufficiently then there’s always Linux.

One drive etc also do version history so you can recover stuff you have actually deleted yourself by mistake.

She does want a decent docking station

This one ^^^. A decent docking station is very good. I think I will get one too.

With USB-C, docking stations are now no longer brand specific. Our company bought thousands of Lenovo stations then switched to Dell and bought thousands more. When they moved to HP, they did not. Twice bitten, thrice shy.

Having said that, HP do a nice one with built-in speaker. Not cheap and often out of stock but looks the part.

Crikey I have not looked at docking station for so long but now I wan this CalDigit TS4.