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Laptop Recommendation for Financial engineering grad student

AmiFinance

Joined
2/2/19
Messages
11
Points
13
My Budget is 1300$ (Max) and here are some other details :-

**Total budget and country of purchase:**

1300$ Max and USA

**Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? Pick or include any that apply.**

I prefer longevity and specifications for money

**How important is weight and thinness to you?**

Somewhat important but not that important

**Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux.**

Windows or Mac

**Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A.**

N/A

**Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run.**

I don't game but I'll be doing coding (python, c++, Matlab, some machine learning stuff ) and using applications like Excel

**If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want?**

N/A

**Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)?**

Reliable build quality and I don't want touch-screen

**additional comments**

Somebody recommended the Lenovo ThinkPad T590 before and it seems like a great option but I wanted to know if I could do better for this price range. One thing that's really important to me is longevity, my friends who use Mac tell me that they've used it for more than 6 years and haven't faced any issues, so a robust laptop is important.
 
Base macbook air should do it. Mfe needs very limited computing power. For big machine learning project ppl usually use cloud service
 
As someone who did MFE with a tiny laptop you should test out coding on a 13" screen. It's not the best experience.

If you're looking for light there are some really light 15" options.

Dell XPS was a good suggestion, look at the Huawei with the built-in graphics card as well. It's a beautiful machine.
 
IntoDarkness said:
dude, americans should never buy huawei. its banned!
Click to expand...
You don't wave candy like this in front of kids and then tell them it's not kosher.

Amazon.com: Huawei MateBook X Pro Signature Edition Thin & Light Laptop, 13.9in 3K Touch, 8th Gen i7-8550U, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GeForce MX150 Space Gray - Mach-W29C (Renewed): Gateway

Buy Huawei MateBook X Pro Signature Edition Thin & Light Laptop, 13.9in 3K Touch, 8th Gen i7-8550U, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GeForce MX150 Space Gray - Mach-W29C (Renewed): Everything Else - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com
 
MRoss said:
As someone who did MFE with a tiny laptop you should test out coding on a 13" screen. It's not the best experience.

If you're looking for light there are some really light 15" options.

Dell XPS was a good suggestion, look at the Huawei with the built-in graphics card as well. It's a beautiful machine.
Click to expand...
Do you also happen to know about Lenovo ThinkPad T 590, Amazon.com: Lenovo ThinkPad T590 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) IPS 250nits Anti-Glare Display - Intel Core i5-8265U Processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB PCIe-NVMe SSD, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: Gateway, with this configuration. Many people have recommended this over the xps
 
Someone sent me a message about the Macbook pro. I put the details here in case more people would like to know.

https://www.costco.com/Apple-MacBook-Pro-13.3"---Intel-Core-i5---8GB-Memory---256GB-SSD---Space-Gray.product.100472378.html

I like Mac, my old iMac lasts about 10 years now. It's running smoothly after I installed an extra memory card for it. This laptop is very pleasant to own, good screen, light weight, long lasting battery life 8+ hour, keyboard layout is pleasant. Processors and memories are enough for me. Overall, it's a good laptop.

btw: Does anyone know how to improve battery life? Is it better keeping it charged while using it? or it doesn't matter whether it's on battery or plugged in for most of the time?
 
Last edited:
Daniel Duffy said:
The button or the laptop? :)
Click to expand...
Ha.

The right shift button.

I'm planning on getting a Lenovo just because of the keyboard. People are so focused on specs they forget how important the keyboard feel is for people clacking away all day.
 
MRoss said:
Ha.

The right shift button.

I'm planning on getting a Lenovo just because of the keyboard. People are so focused on specs they forget how important the keyboard feel is for people clacking away all day.
Click to expand...
I love my Lenovo - very solid, great to work on all day. I got the Yoga Tablet one, which isn't super useful since the table function with handwriting is hesitant.
 
I already have a MacBook Pro, but I am looking into buying a new laptop merely for using C++ I tried Mac for that, but it's hectic, I am looking for a cheaper option since this would be my 3rd laptop (I have 2 MacBooks) best buy has some open box that are reasonable prices, my question is, what should I be on the look for, in terms of memory and all that..any suggestions?
 
I’ve have a MacBook Pro for home and a Razer for school but I don’t recommend either specifically for school. You want something with good battery life, powerful, and pc for financial engineering. I would recommend dell xps or maybe some of the top end Lenovo laptops are pretty nice. Something that turns to a tablet will be helpful as well cause many of the classes just give slides and your suppose to annotate on them. I wish I had one for those classes so maybe a Microsoft surface book or dell xps would be nice.
 
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