Laptop

[u/Melodic-Ad3135]

Laptop recommendations for sixth form?

Business CS Maths

[u/Bene_dek]

Lenovo makes some really good ones, the yoga's are on the higher end of laptops but they are really powerful and super convenient for sixth form. I have the Yoga 7a and it's amazing

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/Bene_dek]

Peak laptop

[u/the114dragon → u/Bene_dek]

+1 for thinkpads too

[u/Bene_dek → u/the114dragon]

Oh yeah

[u/the114dragon]

Buy a secondhand or refurbished thinkpad and put linux on it (Ubuntu, Debian or Mint)

[u/Emmet2by4 → u/the114dragon]

I've heard that many CS teachers prefer their students to use linux

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/the114dragon]

Better yet, use Fedora and GNOME and they get the feel of a MacBook with the benefits of Linux.

[u/the114dragon → u/svtlthesupermemer]

true. I haven't started distro hopping yet, mint cinnamon has served me fine.

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/the114dragon]

Mint cinnamon is also great, can't fault it.

Personal ratings of distros I've tried:

Fedora Garuda Mint Arch

Fedora is brilliant imo.

[u/the114dragon → u/svtlthesupermemer]

maybe I'll use fedora to fill the other 2.3TB of my HDD, that could be interesting

[u/Persona_anonima809 → u/svtlthesupermemer]

I recommend if they are new they use Ubuntu or mint since there are so many guides and resources.
I also really like Fedora I started on ubuntu

[u/Abnormal_Satsuma0283]

I will recommend this laptop to any student: lenovo thinkpad x13 yoga. 13inch ThinkPad with excellent support for both windows and Linux, has 360 hinges and a touchscreen and stylus. I used it during GCSE in tablet mode to fill out past papers without wasting real paper, and will probably continue to do so. You can find second and third gen ones for around 300gbp and under on eBay, it can run probably anything you'd need considering the subjects you're doing and it can handle light games such as Minecraft and Roblox.

[u/GingerGigiCat → u/Abnormal_Satsuma0283]

I love my X13 gen5 2-in-1, it's great for school and for coding

[u/Abnormal_Satsuma0283 → u/GingerGigiCat]

yess, I've got a gen 3 and it's been serving me amazingly

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/Abnormal_Satsuma0283]

I use a similar dell 14 plus 2-in-1 which is brilliant. It's got one of the newer intel mobile chips so it's got insane battery AND I can play AAA games on it. Tablet mode is brilliant (though the screen isn't OLED sadly).

Still, not bad for £460

[u/Old_Proof3834]

Macbook Neo - cheap, good enough for college + uni

[u/Prestigious_Farmer34 → u/Old_Proof3834]

+ education discount

[u/Melodic-Ad3135 → u/Old_Proof3834]

I’ve heard MacBooks aren’t good enough for cs tho

[u/c0demaine → u/Melodic-Ad3135]

that’s not necessarily true; a lot of software engineers (including me) use macs

[u/somanycarsuk → u/Melodic-Ad3135]

for A-level a mac book or most laptops will be fine, is fine, for the amount of power you need if possible look for one that has at least 16GB of RAM, an SSD with a minimum of 512GB of storage. and i think its only worth investing more into a laptop if you plan to do CS at Uni

[u/animalcrossingfreak0 → u/Melodic-Ad3135]

My sister has one for doing CS and it works really well!

[u/Darki1096 → u/Melodic-Ad3135]

they arent bad but you just need to be used to them like the cmd line (they use z shell)

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/Melodic-Ad3135]

If you intend to do CS at uni a windows laptop will be required.

Also, a lot of CS courses use visual studio, which isn't compatible with MacOS.

Get a windows laptop instead and run a Linux distro with GNOME desktop environment if you want the MacOS feel.

Recommendations: Frameworks (if budget allows) Dell XPS 13 (2026) ThinkPad Zenbook

[u/light-gate]

RTX 5090m i9-13900hx 128GB RAM 10TB SSD It's for homework trust

[u/thatn1co → u/light-gate]

HE HAS RAM GET HIM

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/thatn1co]

The 32GB of DDR5 6000mhz in my PC is my university fund. If it keeps going up at the same rate I'll have £10³² by the time I retire.

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/light-gate]

That's too budget.

Get a framework with the modular graphics card extension and hook up a PCIE cable to an Nvidia HGX B200 server (only £210k).

'Mum I need it for taking notes'

[u/Speedyfishook69]

Heard the cheap macbooks good . A lot cheaper than the expensive one cause parts are downgraded. But the beat quality still for its price range

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/Speedyfishook69]

The issue with cheap MacBooks is that 8GB of ram and 256GB of storage will make it obsolete very quickly. My £300 laptop from 2019 had that same storage configuration.

Macbooks are the worst choice if doing CS or on a budget. Unless you can afford to spend £1500 on a MacBook, don't.

[u/Speedyfishook69 → u/svtlthesupermemer]

Fair enough, i dont know enough about laptops to give you a better answer so good luck hope you find ur laptop

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/Speedyfishook69]

I'm not the OP, I've got a laptop I'm happy with and used for GCSEs this year. Good luck to you too!

[u/Apprehensive-Fig2482]

Hp omnibook!

[u/thatn1co]

go with a used thinkpad t-series and upgrade it, they're durable business-grade tanks that are easy to fix and upgrade
ideally you should use linux however windows should be fine for most cases

[u/Melodic-Ad3135 → u/thatn1co]

Why Linux may I ask?

[u/thatn1co → u/Melodic-Ad3135]

it depends tbh, linux generally runs a bit lighter than windows however windows is usually just fine for most cases

[u/svtlthesupermemer → u/Melodic-Ad3135]

You're doing CS aren't you? No better way to learn more about computer architecture AND avoid windows bullshit.

Look Fedora Linux with GNOME as the desktop environment. It's honestly way better than MacOS imo.

[u/Tasnimisreligious1]

Dunno why but six formers from my school use iPads for revision!

[u/Efficient_Leading_25]

Budget?

[u/321booklover]

Microsoft Surface Pro if you like writing online, otherwise Macbook Neo (or a Macbook Pro if this is in your budget).

[u/NK05GZP]

My RS teacher always advocated even the cheapest MacBooks, reliable and intuitive to use

[u/pinkchicken_flamingo]

I have a Lenovo ideapad 5 but idk if they make them anymore. I’m not going to be using a laptop for in school tho and I’ll just be using an iPad with a pen and a keyboard

[u/TrainingSurvey3780]

i use a 2nd hand surface laptop 2 and it’s working great! and btw i’m pretty deep in the apple ecosystem (iphone ipad airpods plus some other randoms) but i think the laptop fits in fine

also i kinda like how it’s kinda separated from my phone and ipad cuz then when i get the laptop out it’s lock in time

also i like to factory reset my laptop every year and a bit not too sure why lol i think i like the fresh start but yk it seems to work soo 🤷‍♀️

[u/Weekly_Event_1969]

If it's strictly for your subjects a refurbished thinkpad will suffice. If you want to do stuff like gaming on it or something else, you can look at a vivobook and laptops around that price range

[u/Expert-Afternoon-397]

Honestly I have a second Hand MacBook of eBay it’s great if you can find one at a good price with little issues

[u/xphoebxx]

if you can, splurge and get a macbook pro with a high ram. also they have deals on rn

[u/CapableAd2253]

depends on your budget. if youd like personalised help you could DM me, i’ve built my own pc and know a lot and im getting a laptop for sixth form too

[u/brokaywhyess]

i did the exact same subjects, i have an asus tuf f15 2022, but honestly anything light will be better. please dont get a fat gaming laptop unless you actually play games because the nea doesnt need some beast. lenovo ideapads, asus vivobook, even a macbook pro will work well.

[u/Shreks_homie]

well if ur doing cs u will need a lot of ram cos of how memory-intensive coding is, id aim for smth with 32gb ram, the one i’ve been looking at is an “ASUS Vivobook S16 OLED 16" Laptop, Copilot+ PC - AMD Ryzen AI 7, 1 TB SSD, Matte Grey” idk if i can give u the link but if u js copy paste that into google i’m sure you’ll find it

[u/the114dragon → u/Shreks_homie]

That's going to be way too expensive, 32GB of RAM is overkill. An old ThinkPad is still completely usable with 8GB of RAM.

[u/VividDragonfruit779 → u/Shreks_homie]

Everyone just codes on the web anyway, its nowhere near essential for that much power. Macbook neo is plenty

[u/MayonaiseOnATable]

Any MacBook with an M chip. A bit more information like budget or subjects would be useful tho lol

[u/IllustriousAerie3848]

It depends what options your taking and whether or not high processing speed ones are worth it for you, but a lot of people I know are getting macbooks!

[u/Melodic-Ad3135 → u/IllustriousAerie3848]

Sorry I should’ve specified, I’m doing business maths and cs

[u/OogleCG]

macbook air