Have a look at the macbook air, they're thin, lightweight and the battery on the 13 inch is phenomenal ~12 hours. However, with more mathematical subjects like what you're doing you would still be better off using pen and paper when writing down equations etc
Definitely bumping silly sausage's recommendation here, MacBook Air's are so prevalent in universities because of their all-round versatility, especially their size/weight, battery life and performance.
TL
R - Buy a MacBook Air, or if you hate Apple buy a Surface Pro 3 / Lenovo Yoga 2 / whatever windows Ultrabook at around the same price. But realistically humans adapt to whatever they are thrown at them so anything would be fine, just make sure you're happy with whatever you're buying.
But if you're looking into the pen and paper side of things, you can always look into a tablet with pen support (most notably the Surface Pro 3 + keyboard cover), and they're essentially in the same price range (MacBook Air / Surface Pro 3)
Some general things you should be looking out for in terms of a computer:
Weight / Size - You're trekking all the way to Kensington on those godawful cramped buses in the morning, and if you're going home a heavy laptop is definitely something you wouldn't want weighing you down (unless you like carrying heavy things because you want them gainz)
13" is a very good mix between portability / viewing, but you really get used to anything you buy
Battery Life - something that you can confidently take off the charge, abuse a whole day at uni and then go home and maybe watch a movie or something. Having solid battery life something you'd grow to appreciate a lot, I mean considering how much people complain about how their phones die so quickly, the same applies with a laptop.
Keyboard - instead of writing you type, but how comfortable is your writing experience? Also, backlit is a plus if you're doing lots of stuff where there's no light source
Touchpad - a terrible touchpad will make you want to throw your computer to a brick wall. Trust me, touchpad is pretty important. Do some simple gestures like two finger scroll and double tap, as well as simply moving the pointer around with your finger.
Apple are the absolute kings at touchpad tracking and gestures, you cannot beat them.
Or you could always just get a mouse.
Screen - tilt the screen back a bit back and forth when you're trying it out. Does it invert colour when you're just a little bit off the *peak* viewing angle? Probably does if it's cheap. Resolution as well (1366x768 grrr) but on 11-13 it shouldn't matter as much.
Performance - everything runs fast these days, as long as you have an SSD. Try doing the things you'd normally do on a laptop when you try them out (like simultaneously running 4 youtube videos whilst BOS-ing and doing your actuarial assignment on LaTeX) to see whether it'll hold. Go for at least 128gb for storage, which you don't really need more of unless you've got your whole *legitimate* movie / music library on your laptop instead of an external hard drive
Recommendations -
I have absolutely zero experience with Windows 8 / buying laptops because I couldn't be bothered researching like a psychopathic maniac to find the "perfect" device which is impossible to attain anyway. Personally I'd strongly consider a MacBook Air 13" even if you have a strong Windows bias / Apple hate because it really is an amazing all-around device that you can always find perennially 10-14% off at dick smith / jb hifi / apple store (if you ask them nicely and tell them you're a future uni student)
"Ultrabooks" (read - MacBook Air-like laptops running Windows) are Intel's / Windows' alternative to said MacBook Air, but most manufacturers haven't had multiple generations of refinement of their products like Apple have. Despite this, it's a developed product market now, and a lot of things you'll buy that is an "Ultrabook" will probably be good, hopefully. *fingers crossed*. Basically every PC manufacturer has their own version of it now, e.g.
Lenovo Yoga 2 / Yoga Pro 2 / Yoga Pro 3 (which have a sad 6 hour battery life - ish)
Samsung ATIV Book 9 / 9 Plus (price though)
Asus UX30 whatever they call it / Zenbooks (oh it looks just like a MacBook Air? No way! Amazing laptops though, if you know where to get them)
Acer Aspire S7 (great... if you can afford it)
HP Spectre 13
Dell XPS 13
and god knows who else
You must also consider whether getting a Surface from Microsoft is something for you. With the SP3, Microsoft have crafted a great device that balances both tablet and laptop duties quite remarkably considering hybrid devices will always come with consequences. If you've watched any tv this summer you've probably noticed those hip Surface ads on TV with music and people poking MacBook Airs because they have no touch screen and trying to break it apart and so on. Off to some pro's and cons...
Pro's -
- It's a tablet! So you can do like, tablety things with it.
- It's light!
- Screen is tablet quality, so very impressive!
- Touch screen!
- It's fast, because microsoft made it and they would never allow their own device to be terrible! (apart from first generation surfaces)
- Pen support! so you can draw all over it (shame there's nowhere to store said pen)
- Windows!!!!!
Cons
- It's a tablet! A 12" one. I dunno about you, but holding the SP3 with one hand is not really a thing
- You need to buy the keyboard dock separately, which is something like $150 or something insanely stupid like that.
- Ports are almost non-existent because it's a tablet
- "Lapability" is questionable (can you use it on your lap by awkwardly propping up the kickstand and stuff??? who knows)
- Windows!!!!! (I kid, but do you like Windows 8? seriously)
Anyway... things to note!
- JB Hi-Fi / some other stores will always do their customary 10/15% off laptops of *insert brand* every like month or so. Who says no to saving money?
- If you're planning to go overseas and are willing to lug around your newly purchased laptop, look into the Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS) to save yourself some GST -
http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page4263.asp
wow this is getting ridiculously long and complex, sorry about that. Get something that makes you happy and you'll be off typing away for uni. you can always DM me if you have any more questions, because clearly I have nothing better to do.
