 So if there was any laptop that attracted me design-wise and how pretty it looked and just made me want to feel like I wanted to work on my computer, this was it. So second to resources like First Aid, Pathoma, Sketchy, and some good old-fashioned good luck, you can argue that a solid laptop is super critical for success in medical school. So in this video, let's break down some of the best laptops for medical school, as well as some things that you should know before even buying one. At the very end of this video, I'll also give you my number one recommendation for laptop in medical school. And by the way, after this video, if you want to see my full list of laptops that are reviewed along with specs, prices, and things of that sort, there'll be a full blog post linked down below just for you guys. So first, let's start with what you need to know before making my very expensive purchase and that's a good place to start because number one is do not buy a cheap laptop. This was the approach and mistake that I made when I was in medical school because I was on a med school budget, I had med school loans, I still do, and so I thought it was a good idea to buy the cheapest laptop with the largest hard drive space. But unfortunately for me and my wallet, I went through three separate laptops throughout my medical journey. That's simply because those buying laptops that were too cheap and they just didn't last long. And yes, there's plenty of resources and places where you can save money in medical school, but trying to do it on the most important piece of technology that you're going to use every single day is not one of them. And even if you're trying to roll on a budget, let's talk about a few things that you shouldn't compromise in when it comes to price. And to avoid getting too technical in this video, check out the full description down below, but here's a few things that you guys should know about. Number one is that processing speed is so much more important than your hard drive space. Before I used to think that the larger my hard drive, the more successful and better of a laptop I was getting. But I learned a hard way that I was absolutely wrong. Instead, I learned after I've graded to my very last laptop, the one I currently use, I realized that your RAM and your processing speeds matter so much more. You can think of your RAM and your processing speed to be a surrogate of how quickly your computer works. And so as technology advances, you don't want to end up with a slow laptop two years down the line. But on the flip side, even if you have smaller hard drive space on your actual machine, you can use technology and software like Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive to be able to upload your information and material from med school. So when you're looking at the specs in regards to processor, RAM, as well as hard drive, I like to have a processor usually about an Intel i5-i7. Those are pretty common. When you're looking at the size of your RAM, six to eight gigs seems to be a pretty good starting point. The higher obviously is better, but it's not necessarily needed at this point. In regards to your hard drive, a machine that has like 250 gigs should be more than enough because again, you can use those external softwares to upload all those big and bulky pieces of information. So make sure you try to find a machine where you upgrade on the RAM space and the processor and less so on the hard drive. Now, once you have that out of the way, the next thing you need to consider is battery life. The last thing you want to think about after buying a laptop is also thinking about do you need to bring a charger everywhere you go? Well, it may not seem like a big deal. It just requires one instance where you nor anyone around you has a charger compatible to your machine that you feel utterly screwed. So I recommend that whatever laptop you're looking at, including the ones that I recommend in this video, try to look up some honest reviews of how long the battery life is actually lasting for a typical full day of work. My personal preference is to have a minimum of eight to 10 hours of actual usability that includes me like being on the Internet, playing music, playing games. That way I just know that if I do need to get to my next charge, I have plenty of hours until I can actually do so. And then finally, after you've gotten past the performance and the battery life of a machine, you finally want to think about the size and weight. So back when I was in college, I had this really thick HP laptop that was anywhere from like five to seven pounds and on top of it because it didn't have a great battery life. I also had to buy this external pack to kind of keep it elevated, otherwise it overheat. That added an extra two pounds. I was carrying around easily every single day, like eight to 10 pounds just for my laptop. And I was developing back pain at the age of 18 and 19 just because of how long I was lugging this thing around. But today my laptop is only a pound and a half. And on a similar note, back in the day, I was using a 17 inch laptop because I thought bigger screen size is better. But I realized that I really didn't need that extra real estate. And if anything, those number keys were redundant. And so now my current machine is only 13.1 inches. And so that overall helps with the weight of the machine while also keeping it sleek and functional. So now that we've gotten those recommendations of what type of things you need to consider, let's actually talk about the best laptops that are out there for you and medical school. Now for each of these laptops, I'll make sure to definitely highlight things such as performance, weight and size. And I'll also link down more descriptions in case you guys are more interested down below. So let's start with the laptop that probably looks like it's the sponsor for medical students, especially if you imagine yourself being in the lecture looking out, you know you're gonna see a bunch of MacBook Pros. Now this is a laptop that I've never personally owned, but I have definitely worked with it individually when I did research projects and I know it's an absolute machine. And at the making of this video, currently in MacBook Pros, there's a 13.3 inch as well as a 16 inch option. And in terms of the individual processing options, you have two options. So one, if you're considering the 13 inch MacBook Pro, you have a few options including Apple's own M1 chip or an Intel i5 or i7. And if you want the larger MacBook Pro up to 16 inches, then you have options of both an Intel i7 as well as i9. You have the ability to upgrade up to 16 gigs on the 13.3 inch and up to 64 gigs on the 16 inch. But just remember anywhere from eight to 16 gigs of RAM should be more than enough. And in terms of hard drive space, the 13 inches go up to two terabytes and the 16 inches go up to eight. And my biggest test of all is definitely battery life and on a 13 inch can last up to 20 hours, which I can completely validate after using some MacBook Pros. The 16 inches a little bit lower at 11 hours. And so if I had my own personal preference of all those specs and what you actually need for medical school, I would definitely recommend a 13 inch or 13.3 inch MacBook Pro with about eight gigs of RAM as much base as you can truly afford and really trying to max out that processor through an i5 and ideally an i7. But let's move away from the Apple environment and talk about a laptop that I really considered getting in medical school but only lost and it happened to be second place to the one I currently have. And the laptop I'm talking about is the Dell XPS 13. So if there was any laptop that attracted me design-wise and how pretty it looked and just made me want to feel like I wanted to work on my computer, this was it. As mentioned in the name, the XPS 13 is a 13.3 high definition screen with this infinity kind of display. So it just looks like your monitor goes without a real true bezel. It just makes it look perfect. And then in regards to performance, you can go anywhere from an i5 to an i7 which is again exactly what medical students need at about an eight gigs or an upgradeable 16 gigs of RAM. And then when you add 250 gigabytes of hard drive space in addition to eight to 10 hours of actual consistent use on its battery in addition to just being 2.6 pounds, this laptop is definitely worth the money. By no means is that a cheap laptop depending on the version that you end up getting, you can find the cost being anywhere from the high 900s to easily into the 11 to 1200s. But again, investing in a machine that has all of these kind of specs that will last you now as well as many years down the line but also just looks perfect. The Dell XPS 13 is definitely one worth considering. And then finally, I want to talk about the laptop that I ultimately use for this day. And it's probably the one that I would recommend to any medical student who is considering it and that is the HP Spectre 360 series. This is the laptop that I bought my final year of medical school and it hasn't shown any signs of slowing down in order to have any signs of upgrading it because it's working just perfectly for my current use. So here's a few reasons why I love it for medical school and medical students. So weighing just 2.8 pounds, carrying around is super easy. The machine's also freakishly fast with its i7 processor, 16 gigs of RAM, about 250 gigs on its hard drive. And I find that on average, my battery lasts anywhere from about 10 to 12 hours. And then finally, my favorite part is having a two-in-one screen so I can easily flip it and take notes on app like OneNote or just doodle my thoughts. And again, that price is with me upgrading the device so it can handle things that I do like editing videos for this channel or other things in the future. And I love this laptop so much myself that I actually recommended it to my own family members and actually even bought my own brother one of this for Christmas. And even if you're buying this laptop Apple price, if you compare it to other great laptops like the MacBook Pro, I feel like the amount you get from this laptop for the amount of money that you spend is totally worth it. So if you're not too high to the iOS and Apple environment, I would definitely consider this laptop if you're trying to buy yourself a PC. And just as a reminder, all the laptops that I recommended in this video, as well as the blog post will be linked down below for you guys to check out. And just remember that while I love this laptop, if it's still out of your budget, just make sure that you don't make the mistake of buying a super cheap laptop, think you're saving money for later. But those guys are the things that I wish that I knew when I was buying a laptop in medical school along with some of my favorite laptops to consider for medical students. And once again, if you wanna see a full list of devices and laptops for you to consider in medical school, check out the full blog post linked down below. And if you have other related questions like laptop versus tablet or the best tablet, check out some of the blog posts we have down below as well as this video on the best tablets of medical school. But with that being said guys, hopefully you guys enjoyed this video. Drop your comments down below as well as your recommendations on other laptops I should consider reviewing or giving my own personal feedback on. And before you click off, if you did enjoy this content, make sure you hit that like button, smash it again, maybe a third time, maybe a fourth time just in case it didn't work. If you want more content like this one and you found this helpful, support the community, join the community by hitting that subscribe button to get more videos just like this on a weekly basis. But with that being said guys, thank you so much for joining me on my journey. Hopefully that was a little help to you guys on yours. If you enjoyed this video, then you'll probably enjoyed this video as well on the best tablets that you should check out for medical school. But until then, I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace my friends.