<p>Our family has never had Macs. I think most of us have Lenovos at the moment. My younger son decided to take a less expensive netbook overseas last summer and likes having something smaller to bring to class, though he has a real lap top for games, TV watching and serious homework.</p>
<p>My children ground down numerous PCs. We began switching to Macs over a period of years and now EVERY one of us has a Mac laptop ranging in age from 1 month old to 2.5 years old. Kids have IPhones and IPods. Mum intends to win an I-Pad in a contest. (Real contest at my business.) No more PCs for us. Ever.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Once you get to the budget/consumer line of notebooks…there’s a far greater chance something serious will go wrong…such as dead screens, motherboards, video, or other hardware failures in spans of as little as 3-6 months or worse…just after the one year warranty runs out. Add to that the fact service/support on such lines tends to leave much to be desired because the manufacturer has already cut so many corners that it’s not worth their financial while to support the low-end of the computer market. </p>
<p>There’s much more money to be made in the corporate and high-end lines.</p>
<p>Unless their program has specific requirements, either is fine. DD wants a Mac. I will have a very hard time justifying the added cost of a Mac when she won’t specifically need a Mac. We will see when the time comes but it may come down to her paying the difference between the two. One thing Macs have going for them is the longer battery life though.</p>
<p>I am no computer expert. Our thought process in laptop purchases for our college students went along the lines of this: What laptop will get him through four years of being treated less than carefully? Which one will we be least likely to get upset about when it is dropped, spilled on, knocked off the top of the lofted bed, and otherwise treated in a less than respectful manner? </p>
<p>For S1, who is instate, we bought an HP at Costco. Big enough to be sturdy. Cheap enough for our peace of mind. In retrospect, probably too big, as it isn’t as easily portable as he would have liked. It has survived three years of hard use.</p>
<p>S2 is out of state, and so we purchased his much smaller Lenovo through his university, which offers 24/7 IT help, as well as loaner laptops, and a very cheap insurance policy. All of which were WONDERFUL when his backpack and laptop were stolen. He was able to pick up a loaner within hours of reporting the theft, which he used until the original was replaced. Best insurance policy we ever purchased.</p>
<p>We have moved over to the Mac/apple family. Good customer support. Warranty is excellent. Will replace if necessary. Daughter has a MacBook. Husband now has one and I have IPad, iPhone, iPad. No viruses!!! During the month of July/ August, every year, Apple offers really good deals for college students if they purchase a Mac product. Often a free printer and or a free iPod. We have benefitted from really good deals. Before the warranty was over for one of the MacBooks, apple replaced the whole keyboard, looks brand new.</p>
<p>milkandsugar-great tip about the college purchase deals. Most schools have some kind of a contract with Apple and Dell (and others) for discounted prices on computer purchases. Check the technology page of the school website or give the school a call for information. We were able to get our other kids’ computers through those programs and saved a fair amount of money. Also, colleges usually have access to free or very low costs on various operating system upgrades, Microsoft Office products, etc. Our oldest son’s school had free everything for the kids, including virus protection and advised everyone not to buy anything and just download the programs on campus. that was really nice. We also get great discounts on software (Microsoft) through our high school so if you need anything, check with your high school as well. We upgraded some of our computers to Windows 7 and the download to do that was $58.</p>
<p>I concur with checking with college store. The worm got his Apple from store, which came with all the support and free downloads. He was CS major, and is particular</p>
<p>I do not know how he manages to do so, but he goes thru laptops quickly. I have one of his old ones, and it still works well after five years. I suspect he uses his more in a day than I do in a week.</p>
<p>My oldest two got new Dell Inspiron laptops for Christmas. They swear they are the only young adults alive without a Mac or a Smartphone. They may be envious of others, but are functioning just fine, technically.</p>