My daughter is a HS sophomore. She needs a laptop for a summer camp where they will "explore data analytics, market research, and AI... featuring hands-on training in Excel, data visualization, and predictive modeling". The laptop she needs for camp is pretty basic. I don't want to send her with my laptop.

Since I have to buy her a laptop, I'd like to try to get something that she can take to college. Is it reasonable to expect to be able to buy a laptop today that she can take to college for 4 years? So something that's gonna last her for 6-6.5 years?

If you were in the same boat, what would you buy for your kid?

Thanks

I have a Lenovo T490 that I got in 2020 that is still my go to travel and work laptop. I liked it so much I bought another one for my wife. 6 years later and it's been perfect for its use case.

So yes, you can buy a laptop and reasonably expect to get 6+ years out of it. I personally like the Lenovo ThinkPad line, they're sturdy.

Our last Lenovo lasted 10 years. Decided to get another

I keep hearing conflicting reports about Macs… that they will need a Windows machine. I know that's accurate for STEM majors but not sure about others. And so t know what she wants to do yet.

Was it a ThinkPad, IdeaPad, etc?

combat wombat said:

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Was it a ThinkPad, IdeaPad, etc?

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The new one we got was an IdeaPad Pro.

The one that lasted forever (around 10 years) was a Yoga. NEVER used the "yoga" feature. The damn thing is still barely holding on. Battery is expanding, seams are pulling apart, "kill me....KILL ME!"

The desktop I got my old man 10 years ago was also a lenovo. We just replaced that one as well.

Gnome Sayin said:

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combat wombat said:

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Was it a ThinkPad, IdeaPad, etc?

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The new one we got was an IdeaPad Pro.

The one that lasted forever (around 10 years) was a Yoga. NEVER used the "yoga" feature. The damn thing is still barely holding on. Battery is expanding, seams are pulling apart, "kill me....KILL ME!"

The desktop I got my old man 10 years ago was also a lenovo. We just replaced that one as well.

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I would strongly recommend a Thinkpad T-Series, they're absolute workhorses. I'm on my third right now. The quality is substantially better than the Ideapad line (which are essentially consumer grade). My recommendation would be the Thinkpad T14 or T16 with whatever specs are needed for her program.

Thanks; problem is we have no idea what the specs are going to be. For the summer camp, I think anything will work provided and connects to Wi-Fi and can run Excel and PowerPoint.

Maybe not a bad idea.

I'm curious about the camp that your daughter is attending. I also have a sophomore daughter that is interested in that area.

TCU had a data analytics camp; it's too late to apply for this year but they accept Sophomores-Seniors so she can try for next year.