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What does the University suggest for incoming students? If the most prevalent laptops among the professors are fruit, you might want to have her join the dark side. 
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Unless it's socketed which most thin and light laptops don't do anymore, I'd probably go with 16GB of ram. Maybe she'll never need it; but if she does buying it now will save a buying a new laptop in 2 or 3 years.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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+1 for the 16GB of RAM.
8GB is fine if you boot up Windows 10 and leave it running and not do anything all day, but given how memory-hungry browsers are nowadays, 16GB buys you a little more future-proofing.
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I had a long search to find a laptop (price and functionality) but I found that ordering direct from HP was the way to go. It took a while because the build literally came from China but it was well worth the wait.
I went with AMD chip, but they have Intel too if you're stuck on that.
Here's the link to the laptop catalog: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/mdp/pavilion-15-344522--1#!&tab=vao[^] .
Quote:
HP Pavilion Laptop 15-eh0097nr
(8)
2B4R7UA#ABA
Part number: 2B4R7UA#ABA ENERGY STAR
Windows 10 Home 64
AMD Ryzen™ 7 processor
AMD Radeon™ Graphics
16 GB memory; 512 GB SSD storage
Tech spec
See all offers
$799.99$699.99
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I second this choice. While I dislike much of the hp bloatware, I really like their recovery features from the BIOS, saved me and my data a few times already. And had no trouble with the HW so far, but for a few minor things after windows updates.
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Rage wrote: While I dislike much of the hp bloatware,
Agreed! Took a few sessions to keep noticing unnecessary stuff and uninstalling, but after you get it all rooted out, it's not a bad laptop (especially considering price).
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I'd second most of these specs, with the exception of the screen size. A 13".3 screen is too small for prolonged typing, but a 15" screen is too heavy to lug around for a full day. The 14" screen is the happy medium.
Even at my advanced age (57), I have no problems working on a screen of that size when on the go. Obviously, at home I connect the laptop to a larger screen.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Nagy Vilmos wrote: NOT Dell, they're a pile of elephant and no one will ever persuade me differently.
Looks like the subliminal ads from the second jab are already kicking in. On a scale from 0 to 10, how is the urge to buy a Surface ?
8Gb is the minimum, since the OS sucks up to 2Gb and browsing (which is the main activity with student laptops) takes about 200Mb per open tab, all the rest is fine.
I would not go for a too thin one, since they need to be a tad robust - student laptops are not sitting on a desk waiting like most work laptops do, they are more than often on the road.
Maybe you have additional requirements for connections (USB B ? C ? ), or whatever can spare you a costly docking station at home.
Fingerprint unlock is quite handy, since the damn thing locks often when you are sitting listening and typing in a course. (No, setting the locking time to more minutes is not an option, unless you want someone to spam the campus if you go for a minute and forget to lock your laptop).
And one or two solid graphics cards to mine bitcoins to pay for the student loans 
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I would actually recommend a Dell, but if the local Dell service contractor sucks then so does Dell. The specs sound good and are close to what I purchase for our company.
Take a look at the Surface Pro (screen size is a little smaller) and Surface Book lines of equipment. Microsoft doesn't overload their equipment with crapware (unless you consider Office crapware  ).
Also, spring for the accidental damage protection - it'll pay for itself.
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I think you should review the minimum RAM requirements (I've got 32 GB for mine, but I suppose 16 GB could be enough).
14" for young people is a very good screen size, in my opinion.
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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Consider adding a Dock to the list.
I have a 13" Dell XPS, but at my desk I have a real keyboard, mouse and 3 monitors, one Portrait orientation.
Staring at a small laptop screen and hunched over a tiny keyboard late at night not a good experience.
Back in her dorm/study area, two screens and a good keyboard would be great.
One should be portrait for reading scholarly papers, and one for writing assignments/videos. The elevated screens help prevent the dreaded "programmer's slouch" and back pain. The larger screen helps prevent the eye strain.
Plus, if she is in a dorm, equipment locks.!!
Also, since she is study languages, really good noise cancelling headphone might be a good splurge.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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Matthew Dennis wrote: Plus, if she is in a dorm, equipment locks.!!
Another idea might be to stick a Bluetooth tracker on each unit (portable, screen, etc.). They are ideal as poor-man's theft tracking devices, but may have some privacy issues.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Ignoring your remark about Dell  :
I can only remark that you need to avoid any computer that still uses SATA style SSDs. Look for a M.2 NVMe SSD. They are many times faster that the older SATA technology, since they do not connect to a serial bus, like SATA. They plug directly into the PCI bus.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Why a PC? Get her a tablet with a touch screen and a detachable keyboard (or attachable depending on how you look at it).
If pigs could fly, just imagine how good their wings would taste!
- Harvey
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I've got a Surface Pro 7 (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) and it's fine for carrying around. One nice thing about it is there's a micro SD slot behind the kickstand, so you can add additional removable storage space (maybe to hold movies?). I occasionally use mine to slice STL files for my 3D printer, when I'm away from my desktop. I got the Typecover, Arc mouse, pen and recently got the Surface headphones (version 1) from Woot for about $100. They're the best headphones I've ever had; I had to get another pair of them for my wife so I could get my pair back. The Typecover's OK for light typing, but nothing more than that. The pen's probably not worth it unless you're doing a lot of drawing; mine spends 99.999% of it's life sitting idle. With the power supply and all the accessories added to the bag I carry it around in, it's still lighter to lug around than the Dell Latitude laptop I've got from work.
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Reading Honey's image converter post in the Weird and Wonderful reminded me of this which I read earlier. The top-ranking HTML editor on Google is an SEO scam | Caspar von Wrede[^]
tl;dr - Bunch of online HTML tools inject SEO links for all sorts of stuff, including themselves.
I'm always cautious of what data I give to online tools. Who knows what else they are doing with it.
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Explains some posts in Site Bugs and Suggestions. And I blamed it on MSFT's latest install. 
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.
modified 8-Jun-21 9:11am.
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Ah. I missed your post of an hour or so ago. I came straight in to the Lounge with a "news flash" from local media.
I hadn't twigged that CP uses Fastly.
Cheers,
Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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We do.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Hi all, whenever I turn on my Dell APS15 laptop I get interference on my DAB radio - I assume it's the wifi adapter that's causing it - any ideas as to how I can fix this ?
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Possibly not: Dell laptop plays havoc with DAB Reception! — Digital Spy[^]
It's worth suspecting the PSU - it's a cheap fix and a cheaper test - they can get noisy when they are dying.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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PSU on the Dell ? it's less than a year old
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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All the more reason to check it - if it's defective it's also under warranty.
MS replaced my Surface Go charger after only a few months ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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