Complete laptop noob begging for help on first buy goingback to college

[baggedmazda]

basically laptop specs are foreign to me i am starting school again and need a daily driver to get me through the next few years of abuse.

intel or amd?
4 8 18 gb ram?
gfx probably isn't to much of a issue i am guessing

i am finding stuff just isn't upgrade-able you cant add more ram or a ssd or nvme m.2 drive

dont really want to burn through a stack of money buying one but i dont really have a budget

 

[Zerileous]

So just browsing, word processing and netflix? Doing any stat heavy research etc? Gaming I assume no since you mention not caring about graphics.

Even if it's a flexible budget, try to give us something to work with, you could spend $500 or $5,000 (although I don't see the latter being anywhere near necessary).

Make sure you have an SSD, nvme won't make a huge difference unless you're working with large files routinely.

Look for 16GB ram. 8 is adequate but getting thin, 32 is unnecessary.

Both Intel and AMD have great chips right now, one may have a mobile advantage in battery life, but I haven't had a reason to look at that.

What size screen?

I've always had good luck with Lenovo, personally. I like the Think Pad line are solid. If you plan to take notes in class, something like the Yoga may be helpful. In nursing school professors would let me download their powerpoints before class and we could take notes on a tablet. Not sure if this is fairly standard or not.

I'd aim for a quad core, but you could probably get away with dual.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/yoga/yoga-c-series/Yoga-C930-13IKB/p/88YGC900982 might be a good one as long as you're okay with 10-keyless

 

[habbajabba]

MS surface pro 6.
intel I5, 12.3"
$790 amazon.
Cheap? just get a chromebook. There are a few choices and they're half of what the surface pro costs.