Hey guys, so a little update on my life, I've graduated high school and am going to college in Rhode Island for architecture. I am getting a new laptop probably Monday, the 7th. I've narrowed it down to three laptops and want your input. In case you do recommend a laptop to me, I don't want a Macbook and I need it to be really powerful so I can use all of the programs that I need, while also not being $3,000.
1. Dell XPS 15 - $1,974.99
This laptop I'm a bit iffy on just because I haven't done a lot of research on it. Its a nice price, I just don't know if its an actual good laptop or not. It has a Core i7, 1 TB SSD, and 16 GB of memory.
2. Lenovo ThinkPad P50 - $2,505.60
So I know that ThinkPad's are really good for architecture and a lot of people that I have seen around campuses use these. The price is pretty high, and with some accessories, I'd be getting really close to the $3,000 mark and I wasn't planning on paying that much for a laptop. But I do get an Intel Xeon processor with 32 GB of memory and 512 GB SSD.
3. Microsoft Surface Book - $2,034.05
I'm leaning towards this laptop the most because it is really nice looking, and is 25% off on Amazon so I'm saving $700. This laptop is also a tablet and has a pen which is a staple in the Surface lineup but I think I would really use it in architecture for drawing and taking notes. The only thing that worries me with buying this laptop is that there are a lot of bad reviews saying how shitty the laptop is but they are all from a year or so ago, and some recent reviews say that the laptop works really well and they don't have any complaints. I would be getting a Core i7, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB of memory, and NVIDIA GeForce graphics.
Those are the laptops that I'm looking to get, so I'd like to know your opinion on them and which one you think is best for architecture in college. Just a reminder, I'm most likely getting the laptop this coming Monday, the 8th.