Picking out a new laptop for college

[Tykoia]

So I came to the decision of getting a laptop instead of upgrading my current desktop because I'm starting college soon and will need something that's easily portable.

The problem I'm having is, while I can usually find the parts I want to upgrade my PC on sites like newegg, amazon, etc. I'm having a difficult time looking for the right laptop to fit my needs. It all just appears more confusing to me for some reason :/

I'll get to the point now: I'm looking for a reliable laptop with an i7 cpu (preferably 7th gen), at least 12 gb of ram, I'd prefer a hard disk drive over a ssd as my priority is space, and windows 8 or 10. I'll mainly be using it for school, coding/running programs, maybe a little photoshop, video downloading and editing, and running/testing simple games.

I know with those specifications it should be simple for me to find the one I want but with all the different brands and extra things like 2 in 1 (which I think would be pretty cool) and detachable keyboards (which I absolutely despise) I'm having a difficult narrowing my selection down.

Thanks for your time and any suggestions or recommendations are greatly appreciated! Sorry for being so indecisive and happy holidays!

 

[GreyCatz]

What is your budget?

 

[Tykoia]

What is your budget?

I'd like to keep it under $1000 but will consider going over if it's necessary. Also thanks for responding

 

[GreyCatz]

In that case I have 2 candidates:

From newegg US, priced at $780, there's this bargain-deal Dell:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAEYJ6NY0838

It comes with a state-of-the-art CPU (Kaby Lake-R i7) and a very decent IPS panel. RAM and storage are both modest, but RAM can be expanded to 16GBs later on just as you can swap the 256GB SSD for a mechanical HDD. Between the IPS panel and the 2-in-1 design it will be perfect for lecture halls and dorm rooms.

The 8th gen CPU promises a 40 per cent efficiency increase over its predecessor, so coding, rendering and (modest) gaming should be no problem. Weight is 3.72lbs but I haven't been able to find any data on battery life. With a 3-cell 42Whr Li-ion battery my guesstimate is around 6-7 hours of real-life work.

NOTE: There is one odd thing about this Dell, however. It's listed at $780 - down from $1,600! That's a significant drop and a borderline "too good to be true" scenario - so my advice is to contact Coldriver20 Electronics and ask them why it's so heavily discounted.

My other candidate is this MSI gaming laptop, priced at $1,000 on BestBuy:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-1tb-hard-drive-black/5934605.p?skuId=5934605

Quite a departure from the stylish Dell, but it does have a lot going for it - and some drawbacks. It comes with a quad-core Kaby Lake i7 backed by a 2GB GTX 1050 card which will not only handle professional-grade software but also open a wide field of AAA games to consider. 16GBs of RAM and a 1TB HDD.

However: At 5.29lbs it is noticeably heavier than the Dell, and you only get a TN panel. Again, battery life is not listed and I think I know why - it's most likely in the 2-3 hour range, where all gaming laptops land, and that means you have to bring the power cord everywhere you go.

Not so portable, but a very respectable productivity machine that can double as a legitimate gaming rig. If the Dell 'bargain' turns out to be a Dell 'scam', then the MSI remains a serious alternative in my opinion.

Best of luck,
GreyCatz.