<p>See, for me, a computer is a middleman for gaming, surfing, and organizing my life. But at my age, I'm far less interested in having the new Dell XPS bright and flashy x4billion. I want a system that offers useability, portability, and ergonomics.</p>
<p>Gaming? I'll never make my laptop a dedicated gaming maching. That's what a desktop will always be for, as far as I'm concerned. Why pay so much more for a faster mobility chip when you can get the same FPS out of a moderately expensive desktop?</p>
<p>I've tried two heavy and huge and fast laptops. They killed my back. 5.5 lbs or less is starting to sound awful good. :p</p>
<p>To be honest, I also just don't get why people get their undies in a bunch over this anyway. It's a bloody computer, people. You go "type type" and it goes "compute compute" and the bright flashy screen makes pictures go "zoom zoom."</p>
<p>Works for me. Like I said, I have absolutely no stock in seeing any particular company succeed, I just saw serious value in the little extras on the Lenovo and Apples.</p>
<p>Now, if I were more concerned about gaming value or sheer horsepower, well hell, there's no way I'd go with a MacBook Pro or Lenovo.</p>
<p>But since I probably have to use this</a> thing for biz-end stuff, I just can't stand the idea of opening up this beast in front of some suits and starting a presentation. I mean, c'mon Dell, let's try to make the laptop just a bit more gaudy here. I miss my old Inspiron... :(</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses to my original question which was whether MAC or PC would be a better laptop for a communications major at BU. Since we have to buy one new, I thought I would check with those of you who use one or the other at BU. I didn't expect it to evolve into such a technical debate, but I think we got the information we need to help us!!</p>
<p>By the way, consider the discounts on each brand, as well as the warranties and quality of service when things do go wrong.</p>
<p>For example, my grad school offers discounts on some machines beyond the typical manufacturer-set amount. Also, while I would recommend Toshibas to anyone buying one in America and living in Japan, my experience with service in the US was simply dreadful. There, I felt like Dell was better. Lenovo was even better than Dell.</p>
<p>Unless you have a heavy desire to play games, you should look at the MacBooks released today (5/16). The educational pricing is $1049 for 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo (not Core Solo), $1199 for 2.0GHz and $1399 for essentially the same machine with a larger drive but in ipod nano black. The MacBook has a 13" screen - anyone familiar with Apple's screens knows they are gorgeous. I would upgrade the memory for $90 to 1gig and get the 3 year AppleCare warranty - which is excellent - for $183. This model has both firewire and USB so you don't really need to add hard drive space; you can always pick up an external drive. It will also drive a second monitor, so you can get a flat panel for your desk and hook it up with a $17 adaptor. </p>
<p>Like all Apple products, it comes with bluetooth, highspeed wireless, gigabit ethernet, their iLife software, etc. The processor is the same as used in the high-end notebooks - which now start at $1799 but have a 15.4" screen.</p>
<p>This computer of course supports dual or triple booting for other OS's, a feature that will be dramatically improved upon in Apple's next version of OS X - which now may be released before MS's new Vista OS. </p>
<p>The weakness of this laptop, like most and certainly most at price points near $1000, is integrated graphics rather than a higher end graphics board. I obviously have not seen how well it runs games but a notebook like this will never be a high end gaming machine.</p>
<p>Here's another option, I've recommended it to two of my friends for their college laptop, and both love it. The processor is a tiny bit slower (1.66 MHz), but it is dual core so it's not that bad. It comes with a full 1 gig of RAM and also has a 128 MB dedicated graphics card. It has a 15.4 inch screen and a 100 GB hard drive. It's a very good laptop, light weight, and if I were going to get a new laptop for college this would definitely be my top choice. It's also an amazing price for what you're getting.</p>
<p>if ur willing to lay down some extra bucks.. check out the new Apple MacBook..sweet laptop</p>
<p>ive had a apple powerbook g4 for about 2 years..and its been awesome.
i really was skeptical about getting a mac at first but i love it now. i have never had a virus or had reboot my whole system. people worry they wont find the software they need for a mac..but u can find almost everything..ive never had a problem. They are a little bit more expensive but they def look a lot nicer..lol if thats something ur interested in..</p>
<p>i must agree about the new macbook..im sitting on it right now (amazing, came out last wednesday, ordered it thursday, and it arrived on monday)</p>
<p>i dont have one complaint about it... sure its a bit more expensive (came out to about 1500) but its a beautiful machine</p>
