Question Laptop for Programming and College under $900

Ender15m

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Jan 3, 2017
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Hey! I would love some recommendations on a new laptop. At the moment I am using the Acer Aspire 15 with a Core i5, Geforce 940MX, and 250 GB SSD. I thought it was good, but it's slowly dying and everything on this laptop is getting super super slow. Even writing this question is lagging. On top of that, only running a few programs can make my laptop's fans start working hard and loudly. Gets super hot under a small load too. It is especially slow when using things like Visual Studio and even Spotify which I need. I'm in college right now for software engineering and this laptop is not cutting it. Looking for something as cheap as possible, but because I want something that'll last and work hard and fast, I'm willing to pay under $900. I trust the people on here a lot more than articles stating "These are the best laptops of 2019!" If anyone would not mind giving me some recommendations on some laptops.
Preferences would include:
A longer battery life, as long as possible. Really like keeping my laptop out and I often forget to plug it in. I would like to have the screen brightness up a little bit without having the battery drain in like 3 hours, if possible.
It has to have an SSD, does not have to be more than 500GB.
Windows 10. You kind of have to have it.
A great graphics card is only slightly necessary. It would help run programs and applications, but I don't wanna break the bank on a graphics card solely.
I would love a touch screen, I've seen programmers use touch screens and it just looks handy. I don't need it, but if there is one, I'd take it.
I really just want something that runs fast. I'm a little bit impatient, and I'm sick of everything I do moving slowly on here. Especially when I need to run a program I write. Programming languages include: VB.net, Python, Java, C++. If these and Chrome can just move faster than on this laptop I would be so grateful.
I am a bit of a gamer, do not need a gaming laptop, But I wouldn't mind a laptop that could run a few small games.

Now, I am wondering if a complete factory reset would help my Acer laptop run any faster. If anyone thinks so, I will try it. Would rather save money than buy a new laptop, but I definitely need something.
Thank you!
 
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Sagar_20

Distinguished
If battery life is all you care about, then LG Gram is what you should be looking at. It comes with a huge 72 Whr battery which is a lot more than standard laptops. 30 to 52 WHr

In benchmarks, Lenovo T480 tops the list but it would require you to upgrade from the stock battery.

You cannot have both graphics card and great endurance at the same time, but a Ryzen-5 or MX 150 laptop should be good enough. especially if you want a touchscreen laptop.

HP Envy 15 x360 Touch is what i can recommend, and if touchscreen is not important, then Asus Vivobook S 14" or Acer Swift 3 14" with Nvidia MX 150 would be your best bet.

Acer Aspire 15 isn't that bad. May be you're running out of RAM? or it's overheating? or your windows and graphics drivers are not up to date? A clean windows install would definitely help, but before that you can do one thing. Open run box and type in msconfig and press Enter. Then go to services, hide all microsoft services and disable everything, and then go to startup, and disable everything except for MS Windows. Also run a CCleaner and Malwarebytes anti-malware scan and clean all the problems they find.
 
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