Lap Top Advise - Which Computer to Buy?
 

I use a Dell Latitude 600 lap top for work and I have a Compaq Presario for home use. I want to get a lap top for writing and occasional web surfing. I really want to separate my work computer from my writing computer.


At present my writing is in MS Word with some graphics. In the future I may want to explore some desktop publishing but that is future out. Right now I think I want a lap top that has the following features:
1) Thin, light weight
2) Reliable
3) Less than $800
4) Wireless capability
5) 20+ gig storage
6) CD Burner
7) Good battery life (3+ hours)

I don't think I am asking for a lot. I will consider Apple, IBM or Dell or any other brand provided it fits the bill. Also, I would like at least a 3yr warranty. Is that too much to ask for? What do you guys think?

Smallest Apple iBook - $1000 shipped, give or take, less if you work for an educational institution in any capacity - but not much.

hmm - I am an adj prof at UNT. That would provide a discount and I could also claim it on my taxes as a deduction for my freelance work. This is starting to get interesting.

Yup. The 3 mac laptops I've helped folks order lately have gotten basically free shipping and 10 or so extra bucks off the price...

Just did some checking, apparently there is a UNT apple store, or at least, the apple website told me that "University Of North Texas has a Custom Apple Store, where an administrator has selected products especially for your needs."

So it may be even cheaper/easier...

I've always had good luck with Dell laptops. I've seen a few good HPs, but I've never had good experience with Compaq, Toshiba or Sony.

The MacBook looks rather nifty.

have we another convert? :D

Allllleeeeluuuia, Alleluia, Alleluia,
Allllllllllllllllleeluuuuuuuuia SmileWavy

I used a Mac when I published for PCA - it was different but I liked it. Never had a virus or unexpected shutdown. It is very possible I will bite the forbidden fruit. Gimme a reason...

No viruses, spyware, etc. And it "just works".

As much of a geek as I am, and as much as I like making $75/hr fixing windows issues, I just *love* sending folks to get a Mac when they ask what computer to buy. Usually the last I hear from them, unless it is a call of "I just *love* this Mac you told me to get"

well, your getting close to having me solidify this in my head - MacBook and furgitaboudit.

What Moses did for me with the Casio digi cam, id10t will do for me with the MacBook. So, what do you know about them as far as the models, features, good to have apps and so forth?

Out of the dozens of computers I've owned, the ONLY one I've never had a problem with is my Sony laptop, and I bought that as a Circuit City demo 2 years ago that had been manhandled and abused.




Knock on wood!

Go with the MacBook.
You'll fall in love with OS X. It's what a modern OS should be.

If you need to run Windows, you can download BootCamp from Apple and run Windows or OS X whenever you want.

In the future, should you need more hard drive space, the MacBook lets you remove and replace the internal hard drive very easily.

I'll second the SONY.

I like the Dell Lattitude notebooks. We have them at work and I have my own they are quite rugged. I believe the "commercial" laptops are made with better quality parts than the "retail" laptops. I use my laptop every day and I also use it for tuning my Megasquirt EFI ECU and have never had a problem. I know several local vendors that stopped carrying Dell Inspiron laptops because of quality issues but they still sell Lattitudes.

I think you'd be doing yourself a favor in getting a Core 2 Duo processor. It's a substantial improvement over prior generation Intel processors and substantially better than anything AMD has out.

Didn't have good luck with a Sony Vaio. Won't buy another one.

Just bought a new HP from Best Buy. They have some great prices on HP's right now. I did a lot of research and the HP gave me the most bang for the buck, especially at Best Buy sale prices.

The current educational special gets you a free iPod Nano with purchase.

If you want you can apply the difference and upgrade to an iPod video.

There's also a $100 printer rebate, you can get an HP printer/scanner/copier for free.

And you can install Parallels so you can run Windows apps if you really want to or install any flavr of Linux if you feel like dic*ing around with it all without reformating or repartioning.

Scott

Basically all Mac laptops are very close in specs.

You have 3 size screens. The 15's and 17's are identical except for screen size.

The MacBook comes with the same processors as the 15 and 17. You get less of a video card but that only matters if you are looking to do intensvie 3d gaming and such.

As far as apps you don't really need to buy a thing. It's all bundled in. You can download The Gimp if you don't want to pay for Photochop.

Take your edu discount and add it back into the box as a free RAM upgrade.

Scott

buy ram from otherworldcomputing.com instead of through the apple store... it's about half the cost, and the quality is very good. I've bought a ton of ram in the last few months, and OWC is the bee's knees.

Talked to a few profs at UNT today. We do have an Apple Store. The only glitch (and it is a very small one) is that I will need to down load Java - I need that for the net courses. It was easy with the my Dell albeit took 27 minutes! I suspect that I will be a non issue with the fruitbook.

I know I'm going to get stoned with apples on this, but we just bought an HP for my daugther at Best Buy...great deal.

Key was that we had all the sw and I got a great mil discount.

Best is the enemy of good enough.

Ernesto DOES suck, btw. Pic to follow. The horror;)

Java runtime? It's already on the box along with Apache, PHP, SQL etc.. etc...

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/java/

Well, I am still in the market for one. Silly question, I do alot with PowerPoint, Word and Excel. Will the MacBook be cool with all these? Do I need to buy the MS Office to run them?

Yes, and did you know about the refurbs that are about 1/3 off and have the same warranty as new?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=D8593B5A&nclm=CertifiedMac

Well it's gone now. but check later.


Or if you go to an Apple store they may have some Christmas returns that they discount. People return Macbooks to upgrade.

I bought Macbooks for me and the Wife for Christmas. A 1000 times better than PC, we couldn't be happier. Bought refurbished at around $850 each. Just looked at the above link. We have the $899 Macbook. It's an extremely fast machine, after researching at a few mac sites went with the regular as opposed to the Pro since there wasn't much difference to justify the added cost.

You need MSFT's Office X.

Load up the MacBook w/ 2GB RAM, buy from the place Bryan mentioned or I've had good luck w/ www.memoryx.net

Buy a refurbished MacBook if you can, saves money, assuming you don't want some unusual configuration.

Get AppleCare, it's worth it on a laptop.

If you have problems, remember Apple services its machines at the Genius Bar of your local Apple Store - make appointment and bring it in, no need to sit on hold to India for hours.

One thing, you might consider waiting until MacWorld (in about a week) to see if Apple goes to 802.11n. If so, would be better to get a MacBook w/ "n".

We ahve a large number of Toshiba's in my office. We have never had a failure, they appear to be bulletproof.

My daughter found the same thing at University. Dell, Acer, Sony, etc all had problems, the Toshiba's just keep on working.

People seem to forget that Microsoft was in the business of writing software for the Apple before it got into Operating Systems.

As for Office on the Mac there was one version that was essentially a port of the PC product and honestly it sucked.

When OSX came along Office on the Mac got a complete rebuild from the ground up and some say that it runs better under OSX than it does under XP.

If you don't want to foot the bill for it up front then go for Openoffice or Staroffice, open source comapatible versions of Word, Excell and Powerpoint.

If your company has a site license for it just ask your IT guy to get you the installer and use your corporate serial number.

Student/Teacher price om Office is $149.95, price good from the Apple store till Jan. 16

"This one very good, has Toshiba guts....you buy."

:D

Me buy, me like lots much.

Dell or IBM laptops.... hard to beat either of them. If you want to "be different" then buy a Chevy.

Go for the Mac. "Once you go Mac you'll never go back".

We run Office on ours and it runs flawlessly - better than on our PC's.

I spent the last two days trying to repair my virus infected pc. I'm going back to mac for my next computer.

One more thing, some of the early MacBooks had a random shutoff problem, was eventually solved w/ a firmware upgrade, mine had this. Seems to run just fine post the firmware upgrade, but might do a bit of research to see which serial number ranges had the problem and make sure you get a later one. If you buy a new one, will be okay, if you buy a refurb one, probably okay, if you buy a private party used one, check it out.

Seems likely that Apple will introduce a smaller notebook w/ a 12" screen soon, if you are looking for that size might wait a bit. My opinion is if you want a super-small "subnote", then IBM/Lenovo (X60), Sony (Vaio), and some other Japanese brands make the best hardware and I'd tolerate Windows to get the 3 lb weight and smaller-than-magazine size.

I have Thinkpad X60 for work and love it's 5+ hour battery life, had Thinkpad T60 and it was an excellent and powerful machine, and use at home an iMac (old PowerPC version) and a MacBook. Very happy w/ all these machines, but would be all-Apple if I could.

Finally, I would think in engineering there are some apps that are Windows-only, so may as well get familiar with Parallels (lets you toggle between Window and Mac OS on your MacBook, w/o rebooting as Apple's Boot Camp requires).

Oh, finally for real this time, I just set up a multi-monitor home office using the X60 with VT Book accessory graphics card to drive three screens - Thinkpad internal LCD, plus two 19" LCD monitors. Multiple monitors is really a sweet thing, so you might want to check if MacBook supports that, if you're inclined to geekdom.

If you are thinking about a Mac (or any other Apple product) - wait one week.

MacWorld, which is Apple's biggest event of the year, is beginning next Tuesday.
Steve Jobs is holding a two hour keynote presentation and it is always fun to watch.

http://homepage.mac.com/drew1/.Pictures/welcome2007.jpg

Mike- Sent you a PM.

- Skip

VM Ware just released thier beta. Free download. Works really well. They have a ton of preconfigured Virtual Machines that you can download.

Another vote for Macs here. I switched all my family to macs and my support calls have gone down to 1-2 a year vs. 1-2 a week. I love my new macbook, but Drew is right, wait a week and see what Apple introduces. They may not touch the notebooks, but if they do you can usually get a really good deal on the previous generation on the specials page.