<p>Anyone have any suggestions for the best type of laptop for a communications major? Does everyone just use MacBooks now? I would really rather not spend that much money but I also don't want to be the only one without one...</p>
<p>Don’t worry about what other people have. Worry about what works best for you.</p>
<p>Not everyone has a Macbook. Don’t spend a fortune on one unless you really want it (and have the money to spare). That’s a really, really bad reason to spend that much money on a computer. </p>
<p>I had a Toshiba Satellite that lasted through four years of college, and it’s still going strong after giving it to my dad. I recently got a Lenovo Ideapad, which is great so far.</p>
<p>If all you’re going to be doing is Internet browsing and word processing, pretty much any new laptops nowadays will work out fine. Try reading some laptop reviews to get an idea of what things are important to you (portability, battery life, touchscreen, ram, processor, etc), and then look for the best deals.</p>
<p>Get what you want. A new laptop should last four years. Divide the cost difference by 1400 to see how many pennies per day difference it is.</p>
<p>How much do you want to spend?</p>
<p>As a Comm major, I think any laptop would do you well.</p>
<p>And now, i’ll put in a shameless plug for my [Lenovo</a> Thinkpad X230](<a href=“Lenovo Official US Site | Laptops, PCs, Tablets & Data Center | Lenovo US”>http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x230/) - lightweight, extremely durable, very capable. It’s essentially a MacBook for half the price.</p>
<p>They also have a 15% back to school special until the 4th. I bought mine at Christmas and got another 15% coupon for a total of about $300 saved. I also paid another $50 for a screen with IPS display (essentially HD) which is absolutely gorgeous. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me!</p>
<p>I agree with all the above: if you plan on using a laptop mainly for internet browsing, office suite (word-, excel-, powerpoint-type programs), storing pictures/videos, and music, then almost any brand new model will pull through 4 years if taken care of properly.</p>
<p>Wife used a Toshiba Satellite all through college. It was cheap and worked well for her major (Philosophy), which meant she had to do a lot of writing on it. Then I bought her a Dell (I foget which model now, but I’m pretty sure it was the cheaper economy model at the time), which is in its 4th year of use now and is just starting to show signs of aging. I bought a behemoth Toshiba Satellite X205 in 2007, which, at the time, was a high end mobile gaming machine, so it was relatively pricey compared to the other models available. I used that machine A LOT for nearly 5 years (including taking it on 2 deployments to Iraq) and it never failed on me. I still have it, though I bought a more protable Lenevo Ideapad for school last year. Basically, most brands offer durable, relatively cheap models that should easily suffice 4 years of collegiate use.</p>
<p>I do notice that about half of students who actually bring computers to campus use Macs/Apple products. The other half is everything else. You wouldn’t be the only one, by far, who is using a non-Apple laptop. Admittedly, however, when we replace my wife’s Dell she’ll be getting a Macbook Air because that’s what she wants . . . and well, she gets what she wants.</p>
<p>I think she want suggestions guys.</p>
<p>I’m getting a HP Envy 17t-j000 with 4th gen intel.
Should be good (and I’ll let you know how it is when it get here).</p>
<p>I went I a little over $1000 after customizing it. I wanted a good want that would last 4 years and have enough power to not make it outdated in 4 years lol. I follow the expression “You get what you pay for.” I think you have to spend a little bit of extra to get what you really want (not in the context of over $1000 but in general). If you’re looking for a good laptop that will last you well beyond 4 years and is quite reliable the Macbooks are the way to go. If you want something that is more designed for gaming, video watching, and a way more powerful computer PCs is the way to go.
All of your basic school stuffs- the notetaking, the presentation, and accessing the internet- can be met with either laptop. You won’t be needing a disc drive unless you want to watch a movie or play a game. I think more people uses Mac because of the way you can connect with your iPhone and iPad so they just get one of those. Others fell for fallacies like the “No virus on Mac” or “It last longer than PC” propaganda although a Mac is a SAFE bet. I would say about half or a slight majority will be using Macs.</p>
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<p>Hard to give suggestions without any parameters, like even a budget.</p>
<p>@Baktrax:
There is your budget right there, under $999.</p>
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<p>There’s under $999, and then there’s under $500, both of which would equally match with the OP’s statement but would, perhaps, have different recommendations. I didn’t want to pay for a Macbook when I got a new computer, but that doesn’t mean I was willing to pay $900 for a computer (or $1000+, like the description of your computer, which perhaps was your recommendation?).</p>
<p>It was a suggestion. Initially it was around $870. I spent about $100 more because the 15t version didn’t have an optical drive. After changing it to 16GB and adding Bluetooth and shipping and tax it got to $1000.</p>
<p>She sounds quite undecided as to budget. :eek:</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the suggestions. I guess I am undecided on a budget because I have no idea what I good price is for a laptop. Yes I would like a good reliable and preferably stylish one but I don’t want to spend $1000. I guess maybe under $500? A lot depends on where I end up going and how much I’m paying for college which I won’t know for a while (rising senior).</p>
<p>Unless you need a computer right now, I would wait it out through your senior year, and see what’s happening with laptops then. They’re putting the Haswell (fourth gen Intel) processors in more laptops also, and that’s supposed to significantly boost battery life (which is huge if you’re going to use them for college!). If you wait, you may have more options for models with the new processor or the computers with the third gen Intel processors might go down in price.</p>
<p>What I did when I was looking at computers was just google laptop reviews, and start looking around to get an idea of what I should be looking for. They have lists of recommendations of laptops for different situations (budget, college student, touchscreen, etc). Take everything they say with a grain of salt, but it can give you a place to start looking (and can give you an idea of what features are most important to you). But having a pricepoint is often the easiest way to start to narrow it down.</p>
<p>Macbooks are literally trash. Everyone has one because everyone owns one. So they follow the crowd. Go with what you like and what you need.</p>
<p>I would take baktrax advice. I started the search early winter of my senior year but I was caught up with 4th gen Intel and newer laptops. I’m glad I waited till late July. </p>
<p>With windows 8.1 coming I would wait till next spring to begin looking.</p>
<p>“Go with what you like and what you need.”</p>
<p>This indeed the dilemna, liking something that is more than you need. Does anyone really need a solid aluminum no-moving-parts 12-hour-battery laptop that costs more? Yet it is the best-selling model.</p>
<p>Once you factor in the fact that the resale value will be insane it ends up costing the same or less tbh.</p>
<p>If you’re really looking to save money, most schools have computer labs/workstations that are open most, if not all, of the time. You can do word processing and other assignments there. However, to me at least, it is more convenient to have a laptop to take notes in class, work wherever I feel like working, take to the coffee shop, etc. The dilemma then becomes which laptop.
Now, as others have said, you should not be basing your decision off of being scared of not having what everybody else has. Personally, I have a Macbook Pro (I’ve had it since junior year of high school) and I love it. I would not give it up for a Windows computer any day. But one of my roommates has an Acer that he ordered online (the kind where you specify how much memory you want, etc.). Now, his computer cost a good deal less than my Macbook Pro and it’s faster and has more memory (he essentially maxed it out). Now, the parts in computers are the same. The only thing that differs is the brand name and exterior design. I got my Macbook Pro because I loved its sleekness and easy-to-use operating system. But I also paid that much more for it. Your choice.</p>