You do not live obese as a student, but at the same time expensive equipment such as a laptop is very necessary for most people. We’ve previously given tips on how torsion works, what you should consider, and here are our specific recommendations for 2021.
PC: less than 7000 kroner
A student PC in this price range must have at least 8 GB of working memory and a minimum of 256 GB of storage space. In addition, it should have decent performance and not a lot of weight. We also believe that the screen should be of the IPS type and that the PC should not have many shortcomings or major deficiencies in terms of construction or functionality. However, we should be able to accept some concessions, given that the price is right.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14IML05
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14IML05: 3995 cr.
Not the heaviest machine in the world, but you shouldn’t expect that either at this price. For the money, you get a student PC with a quad-core processor with good performance. The weight is a decent 1.5kg so you can carry it with you all day too. Nine hours of battery life is also good for the price, and with a 14-inch FullHD (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS display, the visuals are good, too.
However, there are some drawbacks. The design is old and sturdy, and the machine is made of plastic, with wide bezels around the screen. So you should handle this well. It lacks an RJ45 plug for wired network, and it doesn’t have USB-C. You also have to settle for 8 GB of working memory and 256 GB of storage. However, it has a built-in SD card reader, along with three USB-As ports, one USB2 and two USB 3.2. If your budget is 4000 and not a penny, this is a good choice, but if you have a chance to go up in price, you should probably take advantage of it.
Acer Swift 1
Acer Swift 1: CR 5990.
Another good option, but for some money. This yo-yo has been priced its entire life, so if you wait a bit for it to be on display, you can get it for 5,290 NOK. And on at least nine different occasions, it was offered at this price.
This processor has a slightly less powerful processor than the aforementioned IdeaPad, but in return it has twice the storage space and a little less weight (1.3 kilograms). However, the biggest advantage is the battery life, which is a full 17 hours. In addition, here you get a USB-C port.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ALC6
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ALC6: CR 5997.
This is the upgraded variant of the first we mentioned, and with ice in your stomach and a bit of luck, you might be able to get it for five thousand dollars. It has been sold at least before, in the latter half of June 2021.
If you have the money, we recommend looking at this one rather than its cheaper cousin. For the extra money, you get USB-C, a better design, and a significantly better processor. The CPU in this is the Ryzen 55500U, which has six cores and integrated Radeon graphics, which will be suitable for easy gaming.
Samsung Galaxy Book S
Samsung Galaxy Book S: CR 6997.
If light weight is your thing, it’s hard to make a better purchase than that for less than 7,000 kroner. It weighs less than a kilogram and has a 13.3-inch screen. The screen may at least be for some, but you have to sacrifice it to get a computer that weighs less than a can of orange juice.
Samsung’s contribution features a 10th generation Intel Core i5 L16G7 processor that has something as unusual as its five cores. It also has 8GB working memory and 512GB storage. The battery life is 20 hours, and if you still need to charge it during the day, you can do so via one of the two USB-C ports on your computer. This allows you to charge it with your mobile charger, if you have a working charger and you don’t need to bring two charges.
PC: 7,000 to 10,000 kroner
A student computer at this price should be lighter than cheaper computers and quiet with at least 16GB of working memory. Storage space should be at least 500 GB, and the PC should have a good screen and a good set of inputs and outputs.
Acer Swift 3
Acer Swift 3: CR 7995.
Acer doesn’t offer the best PC in its price range, but it’s probably the one that could do the most for the money. The battery life is 18 hours, and in most cases it has everything a student needs. It has good performance, can be expanded to 32 GB of working memory (if you need it) and has a 14-inch FullHD screen. With Intel Xe graphics, you can also play simple or retro games if you wish.
The weight is also not higher than what you can carry from the lecture to the reading room and back: 1.2 kilograms should not frighten anyone. However, the design is a bit “hard”, and we’d prefer it to have more than one USB-C port. The memory card reader also excels in its absence, but it’s still a good buy at this price.
Asus ZenBook 13 OLED
Asus ZenBook 13 OLED: CR 9990.
This costs a little more than the cheapest in its range, but in return gives more of what you want—and less of what you don’t. Weight for example. 1.14 kilograms is the match weight, but the advertised battery life is a full 16 hours.
The biggest feature of this computer is its 13.3-inch FullHD OLED screen. They make it brighter and more beautiful to look at than most other things in the price group. As if that weren’t enough, it offers an octa-core AMD Ryzen 75700U processor, two USB-C ports, and yes, it can be charged via USB-C, with “any USB-C charger”. GB with built-in working memory is soldered and thus cannot be upgraded, but these are also the only negative points we found.
PC for more than 10,000 kroner
If you need more than 10,000 kroner, it is difficult to justify the price based on pure specs. Unless you have special requirements for hardware or build quality, you can usually find an equally good student PC for less than ten thousand dollars.
Of course, there may be circumstances, desires or system requirements that make you have to go up in price, but then you have to be a little careful. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with buying a more expensive computer, but it probably isn’t necessary.
Then we would like to suggest you to put a few krona in some accessories:
extra screen
When working with text, graphics and data that needs to be understood and processed, they are often a bit crammed with a small laptop screen, and therefore we suggest you look at what you have to come up with for an extra screen that you can have at home in dormitories. This is especially true if you also use your computer as an entertainment center and watch or play movies or TV shows.
We’re not getting into any specific proposals for monitors here – there are actually a number of them, in all sorts of possible sizes, price ranges and specifications. Regardless of your budget and needs, we recommend that you first of all look at monitors with IPS panels, as they have better color reproduction and viewing angle than the old technology. OLED is also good, of course, but it can be more expensive and more difficult to find at a reasonable price.
Quran
The touchpad is good for lectures and reading rooms, but too complicated for long-term use. Not only that, but quality can also vary greatly from machine to machine – especially on budget models.
An extra mouse shouldn’t cost much, but we recommend that you treat yourself with something that might be called proper care. A bad mouse can quickly get on your nerves at best – or at worst cause you problems with tendons and joints.
Here are some suggestions in a nutshell:
- Logitech G305: NOK 277. Very good wireless gaming mouse for cheap money. Low weight and long battery life from a single AA battery pull up.
- Logitech MX Master 3: NOK 799. A small wireless animal desk mouse from Logitech, but it’s also very good. It can be used on almost all surfaces, and if you don’t have a free USB port, it can also work over Bluetooth.
- Logitech MX Master 2S: NOK 599. The previous version of the MX Master is still for sale, and it’s still a very capable desktop mouse with most of the same features, but for a few kroner less.
- Logitech G603 Lightspeed: NOK 449. A gaming mouse is heavier than its little brother G305, but it uses two AA batteries which in power saving mode can last up to a year and a half with normal use.
external hard disk
It is said that real men do not hold back, but cry a lot. In short, make sure you back up your files. You simply don’t want to experience data loss without having to backup, whether it’s due to whiskey leaking in your laptop or a cat hitting the delete key. Yes, the undersigned have tested both.
Most people don’t need a large external hard drive for backup: a terabyte or two can be stored for most people. However, think about how to use it. If you will be left only at home and not with you in public transport, a cafe or a place of study, you do not need to buy anything specially protected. However, hard drives can withstand a quick trip to the ground rather poorly, so if you have them with you on a daily basis, you should consider an SSD-based case.
Suggestions:
- Seagate Expansion Plus Portable 2TB: NOK 649. A decent and compact external hard drive with a good capacity. Also available in 1TB and 4TB capacities, which are slightly cheaper and more expensive respectively.
- LaCie Rugged Mini 2TB USB-C: 1080 NOK. It resists more, but it also costs more. Here you pay the same amount for 2TB as others have to pay for 4TB. A popular model among photographers on the go.
- Western Digital My Passport Go 1TB: NOK 1236. A decent external SSD that is among the most affordable of its kind. Not special in any other way.
- Samsung T7 1TB: NOK 1549. An external SSD is more modern and fast, too.
- Corsair Flash Voyager GTX: Kr 666-3276. This is actually a large memory chip that has the performance of an SSD. However, it is smaller than a traditional external hard drive, even if it is small. It’s also ugly, and it’s available in 128, 256, 512, and 1024GB capacities.
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