laptops

[UBCstu]

I'm thinking of getting a laptop but dont have much experience with them. If anyone can give me some tips on what the important things to look for in a laptop are and any recommendations on brands, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

[vip_138]

get the white 2.166 Ghz, 13" apple macbook with upgraded ram (2g) with education discount and ad 70$ for a 30g ipod or get a free 4g nano. I just got it a week ago and its amazing. Greatest deal i've ever seen and i'ld totally do it again.

[Jag]

IBM (Lenovo) Thinkpad X60 Tablet

 

A Mac is more of a fashion statement than functional. You can use the money you would have spent on a Mac to buy some fancy jeans and designer clothes if you are that concerned about making a fashion statement.

[Kuantum]

IBM (Lenovo) Thinkpad X60 Tablet

 

A Mac is more of a fashion statement than functional. You can use the money you would have spent on a Mac to buy some fancy jeans and designer clothes if you are that concerned about making a fashion statement.

 

this thing doesn't even have an optical drive...what's up with that? how do you play your dvds without lugging some peripheral around? aside from that though..i think the lenovo laptops are some of the best machines out there right now. very durable, light, and reliable. it is more of a business laptop though, so i don't know if this would be the best option for a med student....providing you want to do more with your laptop than just work

[Jag]

i only used an optical drive on the first day to install programs, after that it sat at home collecting dust. It saves on weight and space having no drives, which is excellent when you have to carry a laptop in your arms or on your back for 40 hours a week for classes.... and then near exam time carry it 40 hours a week for classes and then from one studying place to another in the evening. My laptop is only 3 or 4 pounds or something small like that.

[UWgrad]

Are laptops an absolute requirment? Has the teaching material been fully intergrated so that we would require them in class or is it still an optional item?

[Jag]

its all been moved to an online integrated system now.

[vince99]

Macbooks are awesome. So don't need the extra 1 GB of ram unless you plan on playing some serious games on your labtop.

As far as white vs. black, the black is 100x better looking / a better case.

Definatly worth the extra cash

[Vector]

The light weight will come in handy; I can assure anyone of that. Go for light because even an extra pound or two will feel like a ton of bricks by the end of the day. I used to haul a heavy HP laptop from place to place for years and feel a bazillion times better porting a Lenovo. Mine isn't a tablet and I found it on a good deal for $850.

[moose]

do you need the laptop in class or is it just nice to have? I have a Sony laptop now but the battery only lasts 10 minutes because I've managed to kill it by keeping it constantly plugged in. If necessary, I'll have to buy another.

 

thanks in advance

 

moose

[E-man]

If you use your laptop plugged in all the time you should just remove the battery... The only downfall is if the power goes out you don't have the luxury of an automatic backup power source.

 

As for laptops, I'd recommend either an Apple if you go with a Mac or an Asus or lenovo if you go with a windows based computer... all laptops are manufactured by a few big companies (ie: toshiba just puts in the chip / hard drive into a barebones laptop and calls it their own). Asus is arguably the top of these manufacturers, so if you buy one of theirs you actually know the quality of the product.

[moose]

hello,

 

sorry to ask this again. is my plug in laptop good enough or would i need to have a laptop capable of running on battery power? also my laptop is heavy so i prefer not to carry it around.

 

so the bottom line question is this: if i have access to a computer at home, is that fine or do I have to have one to bring to school/class everyday?

 

thanks in advance.

[Suon]

Your plug in laptop should be fine if it can handle powerpoint. All of the class presentations are in powerpoint and there are plugs in the seats. If you have a desktop at home, you don't *really* need a laptop, but it just makes things more convenient if you want to study; tho a number of people in class got along fine without one. In all honesty, I'm not one to really add new notes or anything like that, so if you arent the type either, then you can probably get along fine without one. The powerpoints that the profs give out are generally pretty good and stand on their own or are good with the paper notes. That said tho, I found it handy in all the PR sessions, and its also terribly useful in the tutorial sessions (for stuff like writing down notes, ammending cases, and pulling up old tutorial answers to use as your own when you get pimped by tutorial leaders...), and its invaluable if youre a library or school studier. I also found that at the start of the year, a fairly large proportion of people went without laptops, with some being so crazy as to actually try to copy notes by hand... but as the year went by, basically everyone had a laptop in front of em.

 

i'd suggest trying block 1 out with just your ****ty laptop to see how it goes and if you get along great, then there's no real reason to drop some cash money on a new one.

 

just wanted to add that if you do get a new laptop, get either a tablet or better yet, a macbook. anything else is garbage. but preferably get a mac cause they dont **** on you.

[moose]

thanks for the great advice, i appreciate it!

[SunE]

just wanted to add that if you do get a new laptop, get either a tablet or better yet, a macbook. anything else is garbage. but preferably get a mac cause they dont **** on you.

 

This coming from the guy who is extremely JEALOUS over my tablet.

[Suon]

i've got 2 words for you:

 

stylomastoid foramen

 

 

 

 

 

and i'm not jealous. you spent alot more than i did, hence your sd card slot. that is all.

[E-man]

people who recommend macs exclusively don't know what they are talking about. I hope you realize that apple does not manufacture these laptops either, and its companies like Asus (who happened to win a contract recently with apple) who do. This goes back to my argument (read my previous post) why Asus is good. Stop listening to mac fanboys.

 

http://www.maconintel.com/news.php?article=162

[umza]

Each and every person that you run into, interact with, do a DRE on will have their own opinion. If you are working so hard now to change their opinions about Macs, what are you going to do about other things you disagree with.

HMMMMMMM;)

 

Live and let live, dude.

[Suon]

my love of macs has more to do with the operating system than it does with the hardware... but i'm sure its fine to be an asus fanboy too.

[umza]

The other fancy thing that I really like about my mac and it's capabilities is the preview function of Grabbing the selection .....spanky, you can take a pic of whatever is on the screen and copy it exactly as it appears.

Works waayyyy better than just copying it....

super cool. don't know of any equivalent function on PCs

[E-man]

my love of macs has more to do with the operating system than it does with the hardware... but i'm sure its fine to be an asus fanboy too.

 

I'm not a fanboy... You all are stating preferences and i'm stating fact.

 

Fact: there are quality windows based laptops and quality mac systems.

 

People should choose a mac if they like the OS, but i personally will stick to windows. People always ***** about windows, but honestly, I have never had ANY issues with system freezes / losing work / inconveniences in my entire life... With windows you can't be an idiot and install the wrong **** so i guess for some people macs would be ideal.

[littlebuster]

my computer is shiny

[moose]

what do you think of this?

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1330?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs

[Jag]

That laptop is maaaaasive. It is more of a desktop replacement than a computer you want to carry around school daily... although two people in my class have that laptop. They are gamers though.

 

edit: Actually I am not sure if that is the same computer anymore. The XPS's my classmates have are like 10 pounds and come with their own backback and the computer glows

[moose]

no this is the new line-up. it weighs in at 3.5lbs with the LED screen upgrade. 3.97lbs if you get the standard version. the laptop was pretty much just released.

 

my main question is the reliability of Dell. I have a Sony and it has worked for 4 years like a charm. Can this be said about Dell as well?