LF> Cheap Laptop With Requirements

[Atleast6]

Hello,

My sister needs to buy a laptop for school, but the school-provided one is $1,300... That costs more than my gaming desktop. What a joke.

Could someone please suggest me some really cheap windows laptops? p.s. We live in Australia.

School's requirements:
- 8+ hours battery life (the longer the better).
- 5GHz wireless capability (not 2.4GHz)

List I've found:
1- http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops/hp-15-ba017au-15-6-laptop-blue.html
2- http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops/asus-f555uj-xo044t-15-6-laptop.html
3- http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-300-15-6-laptop-1.html
4- http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops/hp-15-ac618tu-15-6-laptop.html
5- http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops/asus-vivobook-f556uv-xo218t-15-6-laptop.html

2 and 4 have IEEE 802.11b/g/n (5GHz).
1, 3 and 5 have IEEE 802.11a/c (Dual 2.4 + 5GHz).

Which seems the best?

Thank you in advance.

 

[captaincharisma]

let me guess? the computer the school was going to give her was an apple macbook lol. if it is just for schoolwork then you should look for a cheap google chromebook

 

[mpc007]

Hmz, the wireless requirement is tricky. a good dual band modem is usually not on top of OEM lists when building a cheaper notebook.

 

[jaguarskx]

let me guess? the computer the school was going to give her was an apple macbook lol. if it is just for schoolwork then you should look for a cheap google chromebook

The OP stated he lives in Australia not the US. The Macbook Pro starts at $1,999 AUD which converts to roughly $1,460 USD. Electronics in Australia is rather expensive.

It would be great if a good one can be found under $600.

$600 AUD will not get you much of a laptop in Australia. The link below to Harvey Normal in Australia lists 4 laptops for under $600 AUD. All the laptops have a quad core Intel Pentium N series CPUs which are part of the their lower end Atom CPUs. Or they have low end quad core AMD APU. All of which are less powerful than a dual core Core i3 CPU.

http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops?price=450-600


You can buy a laptop with a Core i5 CPU starting at $700 AUD though some could have older generation Core i5 CPUs. Most laptops do not have 8 hours of battery life exception for some of the more expensive laptops which is probably going to cost above $1,300 AUD. You are basically looking at battery life generally ranging between 4 to 5 hours. You cannot tell how long the actual battery life will be since looks at specs does not give you that info. It can only be found by testing and it also depends on what you are doing with the laptop. Watching a movie on a laptop will kill battery life a lot faster than than simply using the laptop to type essays.

http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops/core+i5/1015?dir=asc&order=price

 

[Atleast6]

I have updated the OP with 5 laptops I have found. I believe all of them will be able to do the job, but which one do you think is the best? I think the IEEE 802.11a/c ones would be better, but I don't know much about batteries.

 

[jaguarskx]

The first laptop is the weakest so it should be dropped. AMD mobile APUs are pretty weak compared to Intel CPUs even if the APU has 4 cores vs a dual core Intel CPU. The 4th laptop has an older Intel 4th generation CPU. It is still pretty capable but it costs just as much or more than the other laptops with a 6th generation Core i5-6200u CPU that are also a bit more powerful and energy efficient.


The remaining laptops, #2, #3 and #5 all seems to be similar. However, #2 only has 4GB of RAM install compared to 8GB installed on the others., but it also costs $100 AUD less. RAM should be less than $100 AUD and should be easy to install. All have weak dedicated graphics which is good enough to play basic games... if any games are going to be played. Laptop #5 has the best graphics chip while #3 has the weakest of the three. If gamies are not going to be played, then the dedicated graphics chip does not matter.

 

[mpc007]

Links don't work for me? AMDs APUs are not always weaker than Intel counterparts! @Jaguarskx is right when talking about the 'netbook-socs' but when its about Kaveri / Carrizo they are on par with Intel Core i3 and even better when it comes to GFX power.