Back To School Technology Buyer's Guide
by Zach Throckmorton on August 4, 2011 8:55 PM ESTMonitors
Displays are the one category of computer hardware that I always actively encourage others to spend a lot of money on. They depreciate in value much slower than most other components, the technology does not develop as rapidly as, say, CPUs and GPUs, and they can be re-used over and over, no matter how many times you upgrade specific components or entire systems. The 24" LG MVA panel I spent $500 on in 2007 still looks very nice—the same can't be said of the Intel Core 2 Duo system that cost $600, which is now quite long in the tooth. [Note from Jarred: I wish I could say my Dell 3007WFP was holding up better; I've got issues with image persistence now. It's not unusable by any means, but having images persist for a minute or two after the content is gone worries me for how much longer this LCD will last!]
Another reason why college students in particular should consider spending a substantial chunk of their tech budget on displays is that dual displays can boost productivity. My usual workflow requires two monitors for maximum productivity. Or, if you're not dedicating 100% of your attention to working, you can always watch Hulu, Netflix, or even cable TV (with a tuner card) on a second monitor while you work at a more relaxed pace on the primary monitor. We outline here what type of display you can expect to buy at given price points.
$100 or less
Monitors at the lowest end of the price range are functional. They're not going to win awards, they have limited features, but they get the job done. You can usually find a 19" LCD with a 1440x900 or 1600x900 resolution screen and a standard D-sub input (but neither DVI nor HDMI) on sale for less than $100. The Acer V193WEJb is about as good as you'll find for $100 barring a ridiculously hot deal or clearance.
Around $150
At this price point, you should expect to be able to find LED LCD monitors that are 20" or larger and have 1080p resolution. These monitors should also support DVI as well as D-sub inputs. Viewsonic's VX2250wm-LED and ASUS' VE228H are good examples of good deals at $150 and $145 (after $10 rebate), respectively.
Around $300
$300 is about where displays start diverging between increasingly large (24"+) and increasingly quality panels. VA and IPS panels look nicer than less expensive TN panels for just about every use, and you should look for an MVA or IPS panel if you're thinking about spending $300 on a display. The Viewsonic VP2365wb is a 23", 1080p IPS panel display. It also features a height adjustable stand. If you'd rather have a bigger TN panel, Planar's PX2710MW is about as good as TN panels come, and its screen is 27".
$500 or more
For $500, you can get a gorgeous 24", 1920x1200 resolution IPS panel like the perenially popular Dell UltraSharp U2410 or HP ZR24w. The only real downside to using a 1920x1200 IPS display (aside from the high cost) is that other, lesser monitors will look worse than they did before! If you're able to sit a bit further away from your monitor than typical of most desks (like on a couch), you could also consider using an LED LCD TV for your monitor. If your computer has a DVI out port, you can buy an inexpensive DVI-HDMI converter cable to hook the two together. You'll lose sound, but if you have a speaker system hooked up to your PC, that's no real concern. However, most modern, mid-range to high-end desktops and laptops feature an HDMI out port, so you just need an HDMI cable to connect the computer to the TV. You can expect to find 32" 1080p LED LCD TVs for around $500 or less, such the Vizio XVT323SV and Sony BRAVIA KDL32BX420.
If you don't have space for a nettop or desktop and a monitor or prefer portability to screen real estate, we cover netbooks and laptops on the next few pages.
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The0ne - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
I think the recommendations covers too broad the general view of a college student. Many of these aren't even needed as a good 15" or even a 17" will do just fine. If you want to game, that's a whole different area to pursue with even more accessories to consider. It's not as if you are going to lug around all those equipments with you on campus nor have all the time in the world to do everything.I also vote for the inclusion of a very good bag to lug around books and your accessories!
Fujikoma - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
Given how most students live, I'd recommend a desktop for durability. Most really don't need the extra power and could get by with a laptop, but most aren't careful enough when it comes to long term care. There were three of us in a 12'X12' room (largest on campus) and we shared one desktop (early 90's and two of us couldn't afford one) instead of going to the eng. bldg. With the exception of the music student (Apple fanatic), everyone owned an intel/amd custom build with one atari (800XL) and one commodore (don't remember) thrown in for good measure. Maybe it was because we were all science/eng. majors. The laptop, a friend lent me, didn't help during class. It was much easier taking notes. Of course, playing games during a boring lecture was a bonus, but the laptop really had no value. A laptop really serves a student that goes home regularly and needs to work on their classwork while away. Of course, I don't think graphing calculators should be allowed in any math class prior to differential equations. Same thing with the iPads the local middle school is buying instead of books... it has no place in a school. Call me old fashioned but learning how to solve a problem the hard way with repetition is far better than just entering data and letting a gadget do all the work (our interns (and a few of our engineers) are idiots who have very little comprehension of why things don't work).I have a 17" screen on my laptop, because it's as small as I'll go when I visit family out of state and I need to work on graphics stuff. Otherwise, it's my excessively large tower (very old, but easy to keep cool) with a much better and larger monitor.
andymcca - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
I just bought a Llano machine for $400 after a $50 rebate. It's an HP G6-1b60us, and while historically I've not been an HP fan, I'm impressed. Granted, its based on an A4-3300M (lower end Llano), but the few games I've tried so far (WoW, Starcraft 2) play great with a mix of "ultra" and medium settings. It might be worth mentioning that there are some Llano machines well under $700.I am annoyed at certain retailer, though. We will call it "small center". The sales person was trying to tell me that it might not even launch old games or something. I tried to let him know that integrated no longer means total crap, but I don't think I got through.
Taft12 - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
Oh, you got through. He was using an upselling tactic that usually works on non-tech-savvy customers.weiran - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
If there are "legions" of Android tablet fans, why aren't they buying them?chedrz - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
I started my time at college with a laptop that was a few years old at the time. It lasted one year before it died. Unfortunately it was pre-Centrino, so it really wasn't very portable. After it bit the dust I switched to a desktop and had no problems typing/working with it. My last year or two I also added a netbook so I did have that portability factor. If you're able to manage file storage well with multiple systems, then I'd highly recommend the desktop/netbook combo route. You don't need a lot of processing power while you're sitting in a lecture hall taking notes/web browsing/scrolling through PowerPoint, and then you have the extra power (if needed) back in your room on your desktop.rageguy34 - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
I purchased a 13" macbook pro for my sister to take to college. I live in Texas and she decided to go to college in Minnesota! The main reason I chose the macbook was for the warranty, with the apple care plan she can take it to any apple store and have it repaired since I won't be anywhere near her for support. This way she doesn't have to deal with calling a 1800 number and shipping/receiving her laptop if anything goes wrong.I do a ton of RMAs for work and I wouldn't want my sister to have to go through anything like that.
f4phantom2500 - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
There's a Gateway laptop (model #NV55S04U) on Best Buy's website with an A6 3400M, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and a 15.6" screen for $479.99. There's also an HP laptop (model #g4-1117dx) with an A4 3300M, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD and a 14" screen for $399.99. Both of these look like solid deals (the Gateway moreso, obviously), for budget laptops with a "good enough" CPU and reasonably capable graphics, all things considered.aliasfox - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
I went to school with (what was then) an ultraportable PowerBook G4 - with the exception of the hard drive, I used four seven years (PITA to replace, btw).Definitely an advocate of a laptop for most users.
- Roommate comes back with a girl, you want to be able to scram without having to wonder if you have all your stuff with you
- Notes in class
- Writing papers in the library
These are all things that are much more functional with a full size keyboard and/or somewhat-faster-than-netbook performance.
Most important factors, in my opinion:
- Nice keyboard and external mouse. My PowerBook has a phenomenal keyboard that few laptops match. Thinkpads, MacBooks, and some Dell Latitudes have them, but most consumer level machines don't. This matters a lot when you're trying to write a 20 page research paper in about 12 hours.
- Portability. Not talking about weight, but sheer size - 15" and 17" laptops are just harder to fit into shoulder bags or smaller backpacks, as well as the tiny desks some classrooms have. Also, when you're flying back home for the holidays, that behemoth won't open on the table in coach.
- A reasonable graphics card. No, you don't need a 6970m, but a Sandy Bridge level GPU minimum for when your friends want you to try something. I can't tell you how often I saw people playing slideshows of WoW, SimCity, or some other "low end game" on their Intel 950 graphics...
- External HD - like it or not, college kids will "accumulate" lots of media that will fill up an internal HD. Also good for back up.
- Video outputs - there are TVs in lounges and projectors in classrooms, hooking up your laptop is a good way to watch movies or give presentations. I could output VGA and S-Video, throwing in DVI/HDMI (and the right cables) would cover almost any base.
An external monitor would be nice too (especially considering that PowerBook had a relatively dim 12" XGA display that showed relatively little of the color gamut), but that (as well as speakers) should wait until you understand how you're comfortable setting your room up.
Just my opinion.
indianidle - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
I had expected see a mention about Tablet PCs. Sure they're bigger, heavier and more expensive compared to iPad/Android tablets, but they also faster, more capable and can actually be used for productive work. Looking at future compatibility, Windows 8 will have a good touch interface and you'd be able to run it comfortably on these systems. I also think you should also add SkyDrive (25GB!) to the list of cloud storage options.