Which is the best laptop for computer science students on a budget?

Question

I've been building PCs for years so I know my way around hardware but now that I'm actually starting my CS degree at state next month I realized my massive gaming tower isn't exactly gonna fit on those tiny lecture hall desks lol. I'm honestly so hyped to get started with the curriculum but I'm hit with a wall because I've never actually had to shop for a laptop that needs to be both cheap and powerful enough for some of the heavier stuff like running Docker containers or maybe some local virtualization.

I've got about $750 max to spend because I had to drop a ton on textbooks and dorm stuff already. I was looking at some refurbished ThinkPads because I know the keyboards are legendary for long coding sessions but then I saw some newer Vivobooks and now I'm just second guessing everything. I need something that won't die after two hours of compiling code and ideally has:

at least 16gb of ram (8 is just not enough anymore for dev work)

a decent screen because my eyes already hurt from staring at VS Code all night

light enough to carry across campus without breaking my back

Since I'm used to just upgrading my desktop parts whenever I want its weirdly stressful picking one machine that has to do it all for the next four years. Is it better to go for a used M1 MacBook Air even though it's older or should I stick with a brand new Ryzen 7 Windows machine for the compatibility? What do you guys think is the best bang for buck right now for a student?

Nasen Geeey · Accepted Answer

I honestly couldnt be happier with my decision to go refurbished. I grabbed a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 3 Ryzen 7 6850U 16GB RAM for under $650 and its been perfect.

Handles Docker and VMs like a total champ.

Keyboard is a dream for those long late night coding marathons.

Weighs almost nothing in my bag. It actually works way better than any cheap new plastic laptop Ive tried.

ihzdtrpxrj · Answer

Building on the earlier suggestion, im gonna politely disagree about those older ThinkPads... honestly, the screen quality on a ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED Ryzen 7 7730U 16GB 512GB makes a huge difference for late night coding. Ive been super satisfied with mine. If you need something more repairable, the HP EliteBook 845 G9 Ryzen 7 6850U 16GB handles local virtualization like a total champ and stays way cooler than the Mac.

WilliamSaurn · Answer

Since you are already a hardware guy, you know that thermal throttling and screen real estate are gonna be your biggest enemies in a tiny lecture hall. If you can hunt down a used Apple MacBook Air M1 13-inch 16GB RAM 256GB SSD, honestly go for it. Even though it is a few years old, the battery life is basically magic. You can compile code all day and barely hit 50 percent. Plus, having a Unix-based OS natively makes your life way easier when you start messing with shell scripts and backend stuff. If you prefer staying with Windows for better native compatibility with x86 Docker containers, check these out:

Acer Swift Go 14 Intel Core i7-1355U 16GB RAM 512GB SSD: The 1440p OLED screen is incredible for text clarity. Your eyes will definitely thank you during those midnight debugging sessions. It is super light so you wont feel like you are lugging a brick across campus.

ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED Ryzen 7 7840HS 16GB RAM 512GB SSD: This one is a beast for the price. That Ryzen chip has plenty of cores for local virtualization and the 16GB RAM is snappy, though usually not upgradable later. Honestly, the M1 is the best for portability and battery, but if you want the best screen for the money, the Acer or Asus win. Just make sure whatever you pick has a decent port selection because dealing with dongles on those tiny fold-out desks is a total nightmare. Let me know if you want the specific benchmark scores on those CPUs tho.