His freshman year shouldn't be excel/program heavy, so he should be fine. When he needs a better laptop in 1-2 years, get one then.

No point in buying a shiny new laptop that will be an average laptop by the time he actually needs it

I used an iPad my freshman year, it was fine. I wouldn't recommend it, but it was nbd


Also, unless he gets serious into finance, hold off on a PC until he needs it for 2+ classes. I had a Mac that was wonderful, but I needed a PC for an information systems class. I rented one from the Ellsworth building for like $40 for one semester, and it was all I needed. It was awesome.


Basically, get the most basic chromebook now, worry about a nice laptop later, he might completely change his mind and want to study English literature, or animation, etc. My major changed from engineering to business to German, you never know.