<p>Please Offer Your Opinion. What would be a good laptop and printer to buy for college?</p>
<p>It would help to know what you want to use it for. General computing (internet and word documents)? Media heavy? Gaming?</p>
<p>Overall, there are two ways I would go with the laptop. 1) Macbook 2) lenovo. Most programs are made for both windows and mac now so software really isn't an issue for macs. The macbooks run very well and are now actually a pretty good value. The macbook pro's are higher priced with not a great jump in performance. So go macbook if you like apple.</p>
<p>If you want windows, go with lenovo. The Thinkpad T61 is a great value. Lenovo also still offers XP Pro when ordering if you want to avoid vista. That's my take on the computer.</p>
<p>In regards to the printer, it also depends on what you want. Do you want the printer/scanner/copier? Do you mind if it is big? Do you just want something that prints?</p>
<p>For the printer/scanner/copier route, I'd go with the cheapest. All the companies are overcharging for ink (thats basically their business plan, hook you and overcharge the essentials like ink) so if you find one that accepts generic ink without the printer cartridge chips, i'd go with it. I haven't found one yet though. So, if you go that route, just buy the cheapest one you can find. Maybe the Canon MP470. I think I saw one for like $70 somewhere. It's a pretty good deal when other similar ones are $150+.</p>
<p>Even for a general printer it is difficult to find one that accepts the generic no-chip printer cartridges. So I would go with a cheap printer. The lexmark z1300 can be found for $30 and I believe it is a smaller printer.</p>
<p>So, that's my take on everything.</p>
<p>For a computer, u might wanna get a macbook, its small, light and very good. Besides, windows xp runs very well on a mac, using boot camp. Do NOT use vista. I also heard, though im not sure, that there's an offer which runs through june to september. It's a free iPod with a mac. Plus, theres an apple discount for students which is quite good.
In terms of appeal,
1) Mac OS X > Windows XP
2) Macbook(Nice and smoooooth) > Thinkpad(Black and boring)
3) Macs are much more stable. </p>
<p>For printers, get a good color printer. I know a lot of people who had to print out slides for college and they had problem looking at diagrams when it was in black and white. Cannon is good. Their cartridges aren't that expensive too. </p>
<p>Good luck! Hope this helped.</p>
<p>what is wrong with vista? why does everyone, i mean EVERYONE, have such a problem with it?</p>
<p>I like Vista, but I strongly recommend disabling document indexing (eats hard drive use + battery life + resources- unless you're searching every 5 seconds it's not worth it), and I recommend gearing down to Vista Basic (Aero just uses a lot of power on notebooks). That reduces resource use significantly. I would also suggest 2GB or 4GB of RAM, which most notebooks come with now.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend also buying Vista 64 Bit edition if you get 4GB of RAM as Vista standard (X32) will not be able to address it fully.</p>
<p>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is using Vista Ultimate for the laptops sold this summer, and I have a Vista Ultimate desktop that I love at home (custom build).</p>
<p>Mac OS is always an option. I prefer Windows myself but many college students prefer the interface of OS X and the low hassle, hard to get viruses, etc.</p>
<p>ThinkPads are black and the design hasn't changed in years, but I've beaten the CRAP out of a ten year old one and it is still alive and kicking. Those notebooks take a LOT of abuse without suffering at all. I've put this notebook in the back of an empty pickup and driven 4 hours, a couple scratches but zero damage. I'm going to be getting one myself.</p>
<p>Printer, get a good ($100+) printer, HP or Canon. Anything under $100 is sold on the razor-blade model- cheap printer, impossibly expensive ink. More expensive printers are sold with reasonably priced ink. Most people who would go through the hassle of buying a printer for their dorm will be doing more than occasional printing on it, so buying a printer that is cheaper than the ink it comes with (sadly true with many $50 printers) is not worth it.</p>
<p>EDIT: I have an HP Photosmart 6 ink printer (D7460) that has been printing quite a bit (including ink heavy photos) for 4 months and it has yet to go below 100% (it's probably at 90%, but whatever). The ink is cheaper for it and if you use a lot of one color it can save you $$$.</p>
<p>I'd definitely get a Lenovo Thinkpad, particularly the T61: <a href="http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=19C791A03AF24034A0011B825513BCED%5B/url%5D">http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=19C791A03AF24034A0011B825513BCED</a>
They are very durable and will last you for many years. I'd recommend against Macbooks as they are pricey and OS X isn't that great; from my personal experience, the glitz wears off very quickly.</p>
<p>Get a laser printer, unless you need color, which you usually don't in a college program.</p>
<p>You should look into a printer/scanner/copier. I have one. It is one of the best things I have received as a birthday present. If my friend has lost a form, I make a copy and give it to him. If I want to scan in part of a book and view it on my computer, I can do that. If I need to print out a 35 page lab, I can do that. I have no complaints.</p>
<p>Laser is good because you don't have to constantly replace the ink, but the starting price was $600 for HP. </p>
<p>Inkjets are significantly cheaper, but the ink costs $20-$30/40 for a cartridge....</p>
<p>I have an inkjet. :)</p>
<p>You can easily find a $25 printer in Wal-mart. There's no need to blow your budget. I have Lexmark Z1300 that I got for $27, I've had it for two years, it works fine and prints quickly.
Most colleges have multiple scanners in their computer labs, there's no need to buy one unless you plan to do extensive scanning...which is highly unlikely.</p>
<p>I'm a mac lover and strongly suggest the macbook. Like already mentioned they are less likely to get viruses, are light weight, small, and easy to use. </p>
<p>Apple offers fantastic student specials! I got the bundle deal: my macbook, with a free ipod nano, and $100 rebate on the printer of my choice (I got the HP three-in-one). The printer ended up being free!! Plus I got a $10 or $20 rebate on Microsoft Office.</p>
<p>I would strongly recommend checking your local apple store for the current student special or by going to their website.</p>
<p>Oh yeah...I believe its Office Max that has an ink cartridge refill station thats much cheaper then buying a new cartridge each time.</p>
<p>Don't get a Mac, I can attest that they're quite horrible from personal experience. Go with a Thinkpad - it might not look good, but it's rock solid and will last you for years. As for the printer, definitely get a Printer/Scanner/Copier. I'd recommend an HP PSC, I have one that cost ~$200 and it does EVERYTHING. It has both a single page and sheet fed scanner, can be attached directly to a network, both with a wire and wirelessly, has a web interface for that, and allows for direct saving of scanned images to a flash drive you plug into it. You probably don't need all those features, but for ~$100, you can get a decent HP PSC.</p>