As I mentioned in the first part of this article, every laptop is all about the compromises.
Since I will be recommending laptops for students, my main focus will be a compromise between performance and battery life.
Even the best gaming laptop that money can buy with Intel Core i9 and RTX 2080 will be close to useless in the student's backpack, because it lacks battery life necessary to last even for a single lecture.
On the other hand, even the 1500€ Lenovo Thinkpads with over 24 hours of battery life will be easily outperformed by some 350€ laptops in applications from Adobe Suite.
So it is all about balance. And of course the price.
200€ - any laptop with AMD A6 processor and R4 graphics and 8GB DDR4 RAM
At 200€ the only responses that Intel has are Atom and Celeron-N chips. They don't look bad on paper ( up to 2.5 GHz, released very recently, most Atoms have 'x5' in the name indicating that they may have 5 cores ) But even if we forget differences in the architecture, most of those processors have base clock of around 1 GHz Combined with the fact that most Atoms are dual-core units (x5 is just part of the name), we get a clear picture that something is not quite right. Those processors struggle with the most basic tasks such as web browsing with a few tabs opened editing a Word document.
And AMD A6 chips (such as A6-9220) perform good enough for everyday tasks, and their integrated graphics AMD R4 handles esports titles without any problems (in most cases even on medium settings). Combined with 8GB RAM and over 4 hours of battery life, they are significant upgrade over refurbished laptops for 100€ in every category.
So if you are on a tight budget, but only want one device both for taking notes in class and performing tasks at home, 200€ A6 machine is as low as I would go.
Examples include HP 14, HP 15 and Acer Aspire 3
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-14-bw020na-laptop-14-amd-a6-8gb-1tb-hdd-190-with-code-at-tesco-ebay-outlet-3123591
https://allegro.pl/oferta/outlet-hp-15-a12-9700p-6gb-1tb-radeon-r7-win-7525358164
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-15-6-Inch-Notebook-Processor/dp/B074HC9414/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=
350€ - any lapotop with Ryzen 5 and Vega 8 graphics and 8GB RAM
Extremely good value for money, performance on par with most 8th generation Intel Core i5 processors (for the price of a laptop with 8th generation Intel Core i3 processor), and very good integrated graphics (that will run every game on the market on at least on medium details in 720p).
But most importantly this configuration consumes very little power and allows for reasonably long battery life (4-5 hours of moderate use in case of laptops below).
Examples include Lenovo Ideapad 300s, Lenovo Ideapad 720s, Lenovo Thinkpad E585 and Acer Aspire 3
https://allegro.pl/oferta/laptop-lenovo-ip-330s-15arr-8gb-ryzen-5-ssd-128gb-8331473334
https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listing/B07BJ15N8J/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
https://www.amazon.de/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Ryzen-3-6GHz-Windows/dp/B07DY5H8HS/ref=sr_1_12?__mk_pl_PL=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&keywords=2500U&qid=1567351070&rnid=340844031&s=computers&sr=1-12
https://www.notebooksbilliger.de/acer+aspire+3+a315+41+r236?nbb=8f14e4
550€ Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3 (2018) 8/256 GB MX150
I was recommending this laptop last year at the same price, but it turns out that there is nothing better for 550e even this year.
7-8 hours of battery life, USB-C power delivery (allowing you to charge this laptop with portable power bank). The performance is also very good - Intel's 8th generation Intel Core i5 combined with Nvidia's MX150 (that will allow you to play all games on the market, most of them even in 1080p resolution).
https://en.inthebit.it/xiaomi-mi-notebook-air-13-3-i5-8250u-prezzo/
600€ Acer Swift 3 8/256 GB MX150
If you worried about a warranty (which you shouldn't - https://steemit.com/hardware/@hwtrendsetter/claiming-warranty-in-china-actually-not-a-bad-idea ) then, fortunately, this year you are not completely out of options.
For 600€ you can get Acer Swift 3 from a few different stores. You cannot charge it with a power bank, but otherwise, it's very comparable to its Xiaomi competitor (and most importantly readily available from European distribution)
https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/6349197_-swift-3-sf315-52g-59wv-acer.html
https://allegro.pl/oferta/outlet-acer-swift-3-i5-8250-8gb-256ssd-mx150-win10-8241476318
640€ Acer Aspire 5 8/512 GB MX150
If you are worried about storage (which you should - especially if you are a gamer and your internet is relatively slow), for just 40€ more you can get a similar model - Acer Aspire 5 with 512 GB SSD:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07SVJK64X?m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&tag=idealode-am-pk-21&ascsubtag=jE-d3EGcp8lENzOastSZOQ&th=1&psc=1
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/707-53477-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5575410747&toolid=10001&campid=5338345295&customid=&icep_item=153613660200&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229487&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg
700€ Asus Vivobook S510 16/512 GB MX150
If you are worried about both storage and RAM (perhaps your studies have anything to do with virtualization or heavy video editing?) then your best bet will be Asus Vivobook S510 with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage.
Now 700€ it seems a bit too expensive for this performance. At this price you can easily get many gaming laptops with GTX 1050 Ti or RX 560 X and much more powerful H-series processors (with 8 threads and much higher base clock speeds). But there is a catch - those gaming laptops will last maximum 1-2 hours at best, due to their much higher power consumption (even at idle).
So if you are a student, you would probably much rather remain in that '7-hours battery life' territory (and up to 700€ budget) when considering a laptop to carry every day to the class.
https://allegro.pl/oferta/asus-vivobook-s510-fhd-i5-8250u-16g-512g-mx150-w10-8418371658
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/707-53477-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5575410747&toolid=10001&campid=5338345295&customid=&icep_item=401722585034&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229487&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/707-53477-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5575410747&toolid=10001&campid=5338345295&customid=&icep_item=401722585034&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229487&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg
1100€ Lenovo Yoga 730 16/512 GB GTX 1050 4GB
Convertible laptop, with 7 hours of battery life, USB-C charging and gaming graphics card GTX 1050.
So what is the catch? Why don't other laptops with GTX 1050 come anywhere near battery life of Lenovo Yoga 730? The trick is the processor - it's ultra-low voltage model, that consumes very little energy (but isn't anywhere near as powerful as processors found in gaming laptops). It will still get the job done and you can enjoy all video games ever released (most of them even on high details).
https://allegro.pl/oferta/lenovo-yoga-730-15-i7-8550u-16gb-512ssd-gtx1050-8275392493?bi_s=ads&bi_m=listing%3Adesktop%3Aquery&bi_c=NGY4YTdmNzQtOWI4Ni00YmE3LTgwMGYtZDFmYmM4ZTlkYjFhAA&bi_t=ape&referrer=proxy&emission_unit_id=eec826d0-7159-4208-87d5-64d08d32d017
https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_lenovo-yoga-730-2589586.html?uympq=vpqr&rbtc=ide|pf|2589586||p|standard%20feed|&dclid=CNTroeHIt-QCFYHTmgodQnwNfg
1400€ Dell XPS 15 9575 8+4/512 GB Vega M
You cannot have a laptop that ticks all the boxes, but you can have a laptop that ticks most of the boxes.
Dell XPS 15 9575 with Intel Core i7 8705G and Vega M graphics is as close as it gets to a gaming laptop with 8 hours of battery life, that can be charged with a power bank. And it has a touch screen and converts to a tablet.
The processor outperforms even the most powerful laptop-grade Intel Core i7 (7700HQ) from the previous generation. Vega M graphics (manufactured on the same chip as the processor for improved energy efficiency) performs on pair with GTX 1060. It means you can play every game on the market on ultra settings in 1080p resolution and 60+ FPS.
The configuration with 8 GB RAM costs 1400€, but if you want to go up to 16 GB the price increases to 1900€. That is outrageous, but fortunately, the 8 GB variant is most likely all you need. That's because the Vega M onboard comes with 4 GB HBM memory (that's a very fast memory, much faster than even GDDR6, not to mention DDR4 RAM). And many memory-intensive workloads can take advantage of it.
Finally, there is one more thing that makes this laptop worth 1400€ (at least for some people) - Thunderbolt 3 ports. Thanks to them, you can connect an external graphics card. So when Vega M becomes obsolete, you will be able to connect the more recent and more powerful graphics card to it and still enjoy the latest games on ultra settings.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07D4ZYHVJ?m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&tag=idealode-am-pk-21&ascsubtag=n2UHEFIyweH9gz7a4fOpFQ&th=1&psc=1
https://www.saturn.de/de/product/_dell-xps-15-9575-2in1-i7-2437380.html?rbtc=ide%7Cpf%7C2437380%7C%7Cp%7C%7C
https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_dell-xps-15-9575-2in1-i7-2437380.html?uympq=vpqr&rbtc=ide|pf|2437380||p|standard%20feed|&dclid=CJXK2aynt-QCFQbYmgodkJEOBA
