WEBVTT

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If there's one thing we know about school

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here at Linus Media Group,

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it's that things should be left until the very last second.

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So here is a laptop roundup for back to school

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that is dropping days before school starts.

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Speaking of at the last minute,

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and you can use offer code Linus

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to get 25% off at the link below.

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So our first category for our top five sort of here

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is the budget machine.

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Being a student is pretty much synonymous

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with not having disposable income,

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or at least not having any leftover

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after your shopping cart's full of ramen noodles

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and your binge drinking.

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So what's the best way then to get something

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that is functional enough on the cheap?

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You might think that you want a Chromebook, but you don't.

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Yes, 90% or even 95% of the time, it'll work fine.

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But that other five to 10%,

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well, let's just say that no one is gonna be clamoring

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to be in a study group with you.

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Like having to use the online version of Microsoft Office

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or MATLAB is functional for the most part,

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but in the end, you'll have wasted a lot of time

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just getting to where everyone else started.

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So with that out of the way,

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let's talk about what you should look for.

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To get the best value,

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we can't be too picky about the exact model,

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but eight gigs of RAM,

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and an SSD are both musts these days.

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And as for the CPU, well, per core performance

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hasn't changed much in the last couple of years.

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So any dual core is gonna do us pretty nicely,

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but power efficiency has.

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So look for a sixth or seventh generation Intel on sale.

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We ended up finding a Dell Inspiron 15.6 inch

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that met our requirements for 95 bucks off at Best Buy.

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That's under $300.

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So if we were to grab that,

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and slap this $35 SSD in it, we're sitting pretty.

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If you've got a bit more to spend though,

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we'd recommend the Surface Go.

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It's super small,

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and unlike previous cost down surfaces like the RT,

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it runs full fat Windows 10 for when you need it.

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Now, it isn't the fastest little laptop or the cheapest,

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but for $600, including their touch cover keyboard,

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the Surface Go is hard to beat.

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It's got an excellent screen.

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It's got a touchscreen.

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It's got solid battery life,

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and it's got a pretty good little keyboard on it,

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with little, of course, being the operative word.

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So it's got everything a student needs.

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And if you grab an optional stylus for it,

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it is fantastic for taking notes in tablet mode.

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The next step up from there is to go from the small

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and portable Surface Go to the slightly larger,

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but also very portable LG Gram.

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With a great IPS display for watching movies,

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a decent amount of power coming from its quad core processor,

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and heaps of battery life,

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you can leave your power brick at home

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without worrying about locating a plug later on in the day.

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The socking lightness of the Gram

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will also have your back thanking you

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for not getting that gaming laptop.

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Though with that said, if you are a hardcore gamer,

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and you can't rely on a secondary cheap desktop

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for your fix, we do still have some options for you here.

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First up then is the Acer Nitro 5.

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Coming in at $800,

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this guy packs some serious punch.

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With a four core Core i5 that goes up to four gigahertz

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and a GTX 1050 TI,

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this thing can handle basically any game on the market,

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as long as you don't expect to crank up the in-game settings.

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Alongside this one is also the Dell G3,

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which has pretty much the same specs,

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but it'll cost a bit more with the benefit being

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that you don't have to go to meetings

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carrying around the flashier Nitro 5.

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Which is probably enough to sell this thing

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to a lot of people.

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Finally, if the 1050 TI doesn't quite have the grunt

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that you're looking for,

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then the GTX 1060 and the Predator Helios 300

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is available for not much more than those two.

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All three of these devices are highly recommended,

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assuming though that you don't mind trading

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some battery life for performance.

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Now, everything up until now

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has had its nice little niche carved out for it.

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But what if you're looking for the all-rounder laptop?

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Power, portability, battery life, and style?

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Well, my friend, then you are looking for the Dell XPS 15.

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With a quad-core CPU, a GTX 1050,

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one of the best keyboards in the biz,

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not to mention an awesome screen,

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the XPS 15 is maybe the most laptop-y laptop ever.

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Like there isn't a whole lot that you can point at

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and say is really special.

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There's nothing special about it

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unless you opt for the two-in-one version.

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But everything that it does, it does to near perfection.

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That is, as long as you don't need to be on

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lots of conference calls,

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because the webcam kind of looks up your nose.

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So that's it for what's in front of me.

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But in response, before you say,

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but Linus, the only way to get laid in college

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is with an Apple logo.

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First of all, that's not entirely correct,

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but if you have to have an Apple laptop,

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we will still tell you which one's the best one to pick.

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In our opinion.

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Frankly, you're an idiot if you buy the MacBook Air

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before it gets its rumored refresh,

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because it currently rocks a fifth gen processor

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when almost everything else on the market

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has moved on to eighth gen.

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The MacBook isn't too bad,

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but it is still a processor generation behind.

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And as for the MacBook Pro,

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well, the one without the touch bar is behind the times,

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meaning that if you must have a Mac,

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we're gonna recommend the MacBook Pro 13 inch.

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With an eighth gen Intel chip,

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it's got the best touch pad around

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and it's got a great screen,

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though we are still annoyed that you're paying

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that much money for a laptop without a touchscreen.

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I personally find that a touchscreen

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makes a much bigger difference than you might expect.

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Use offer code LTT to get 10% off your first purchase.

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So thanks for watching guys.

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If this video sucked, you know what to do,

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but if it was awesome, get subscribed,

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hit that like button or check out the link

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to where to buy the stuff we featured

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in the video description.

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Also linked down there is our merch store,

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which has cool shirts like this one

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and our community forum, which you should totally join.