<p>My older college boys have the Macbook Pros with their aluminum bodies and they sure seem sturdy. I see a lot of macbooks on the college campuses. My daughter doesn't need a super powerful machine. I am mostly interested in it not breaking or getting stolen. The bottom line Macbook pro is $1,099. Should I consider any other brand?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>We have had been happy so far with Mac book pro cases under heavy use conditions. There was a time when the Mac books (not pros) had case issues (@ 3 years ago?), but I have heard this is no longer true. Backpacks with appropriate padding or protective cases can help minimize risk. As far as getting stolen, look into student insurance which is relatively reasonable and can have a $25 deductible. I always wonder what happens to the premium once you make a claim though… I don’t know if the Macs are more likely to be targeted for theft. Good luck.</p>
<p>Nope, don’t consider any other brand. Apple gives you everything - hardware, operating system, software, retail sales and support - in one well-integrated package.</p>
<p>I agree. We gave our son a new MacBook when he entered college in 2006. He used it hard on a daily basis for over 3 years before the hard drive died. This included 6 months in Africa, where he used very questionable power sources, and the white case turned a dusty brown. He brought the dead MacBook into an Apple Store, and they replaced the hard drive, cleaned the case and replaced the keyboard, all for $75. That was 2 years ago and the laptop is still running great, even though all 4 corners are now cracked and chipped.</p>
<p>We bought our daughter a MacBook Pro when she entered college in 2009. The aluminum case looks really tough and durable. It is only 1.5 years old, but looks brand-new and has had nary a problem so far.</p>
<p>Apple offers an educational discount of $50-$150, depending on model, and they also usually offer a back-to-school special in the late Spring/early Summer. The special includes 100% rebates on certain printers and iPods, when purchased with a computer.</p>
<p>DS has a MacBook Pro…his second. The first was six years old and had been to college, London, Spain, Vienna, Munich, Amsterdam, and all around the United States on a tour. It traveled in a backpack. That’s why he got the second one.</p>
<p>If you decide you don’t won’t a Mac, you can get a laptop from one of the leading laptop manufacturers and get a 4 year damage coverage for it which would cover it against accidental damage. This might be less expensive than the Mac and would be ‘more durable’ (in that it can get fixed for no cost if broken). </p>
<p>There are thousands and thousands of business people traveling with their PC laptops all the time without unduly breaking them.</p>
<p>Student here.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go for anything but the Macbook pro. I’ve had mine for two years and though I haven’t dropped it or anything, it has sustained zero damage and has never stopped working. The aluminum case makes it extremely sturdy, something which just can’t be matched by plastic. The white Macbook is great, but I don’t think I’d carry it around campus for 4 years. </p>
<p>A huge bonus to any apple laptop is the magnetic charger. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tripped over the cable, and been saved by the fact that it harmlessly pops out. No matter how careful you are… tripping over the cable is inevitable.</p>
<p>Will a PC laptop fall apart in college? Probably not. But as someone mentioned, with Apple you get a well made product bundled with everything else you’ll need.</p>
<p>Even if you get a Macbook, they’re not invincible so see if they have the accidental breakage coverage available or get it from an independent insurer. Sturdy case or not, liquid can be spilled on them, the displays can break if knocked off the desk or bed, etc. </p>
<p>Any of these can, of course, be stolen. A laptop lock can be used with them to discourage theft since it’d be easier to steal the roomie’s or neighbor’s unsecured laptop but the locks will only work if the student actually uses it. My kids used theirs most of the time I think - or at least one of them did. Somehow their Dell PCs survived all 4 years of college and then some although one of them in year 4 had the hinges (a weak area on that model laptop) replaced under the warranty.</p>
<p>Ditto on the MacBook Pro. My son’s is going on 4 years now, and has traveled in his backpack across the country and back. If you can wait until summer, you can get a student deal with a free printer and ipod, as mentioned by ALF. We purchased the dorm insurance recommended by some parents on CC, which covers accidental breakage.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that I have a fairly old Dell from my office that I feel would survive a fall off a 10-story building. <em>However</em>, it’s r-e-a-l-l-y heavy. We are PC at home but have/will send our kids off to school with Macs (there have been threads on CC about buying a laptop through the school, which seems like a good idea–some discount, plus free IT support). And you probably know this, but while I’m not a big fan of extra warranties, it was recommended I buy the Apple Care (??) package when I bought DS#1 his Mac. We’ve used it twice–they pretty much re-built his machine from the ground up at no cost. <em>Really</em> a good idea for these college kids.</p>
<p>SquareTrade, a large third-party warranty company, released a study on the frequency of failure in various brands of laptops. While a lot of failures in laptops trend along specific laptop lines, you can definitely see some brands tend to be better than others: [laptop-reliability-1109</a> | SquareTrade Warranties](<a href=“http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/]laptop-reliability-1109”>http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/)</p>
<p>Also, as one limited example, I’ve got a Dell laptop that’s about eight years old now and still plugging along (recently reinstalled Windows and maxed out the RAM on it). My brother’s gone through two different Apple laptops, one with a power brick that started smoking, and the other which has experienced multiple component failures (hard drive, motherboard, and monitor).</p>
<p>Personally, I’d go with one of the “reliable” brands off of SquareTrade, buy their 3 year full coverage warranty, and still probably save a few bucks off the Apple price.</p>
<p>My son is really hard on stuff. If you want a PC, I recommend Lenovo. Mac are fine too.</p>
<p>We’re a MacBook Pro family and they have served our kids well over the years.</p>
<p>I think that the backpack that you get is also quite important. My MacBook Pro is in a custom backpack for the MacBook Pro. Same with my son’s. They’re made by SwissGear. If you get good protection and don’t overload the backpack, then any laptop should survive the reasonably harsh environment.</p>
<p>I think that there are several factors which make MacBook Pros good in the college environment. One of them is the power adapter. As was already mentioned, it’s magnetic so it can prevent a disaster if you trip over the cord. The other thing which I think is really wonderful is that the power adapter has been consistent for many, many years. So I can use the power adapter from our oldest MPB with our newest. This means that you can use the adapter from someone else with a MBP if yours isn’t handy.</p>
<p>On our Dell and HP laptops, the adapters are all different (except for the Dell 4000 and 4100 which used the same adapter). I’ve purchased several additional MBP power adapters and I leave one in the office and a few at home so we don’t have to carry power adapters around with us. They have theirs on campus and at home - they only need to bring the laptop itself.</p>
<p>Macs are fine for those who like the OS. Never in our family- H and S are generally anti Apple. I think people need some good Windows based laptop suggestions. Good and bad durability choices. btw- S, getting his comp sci degree along with the math one this spring (plus a gamer), favors a desktop and only recently “inherited” a laptop from home.</p>
<p>The laptop world is in a state of flux at the moment (outside of Apple) as the other major OEMs are working on updating their systems for Sandy Bridge. The inclusion of decent integrated graphics on-die has made doing laptops a bit more complicated.</p>
<p>Students can survive/thrive without the benfits of Sandy Bridge- people who have experience with Windows based laptops please help out. The Mac/Windows decision should be based on which is best for the student’s major- check your college website for details (graphics intense majors may have Mac recommended while engineering may have Windows needs). There is another thread (in the cafe?) about someone’s bad experience with a Toshiba laptop warranty.</p>
<p>the next level of “sturdy”:
[Rugged</a> Laptops - Official Panasonic Toughbook Rugged Computers](<a href=“http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/laptop-computers.asp]Rugged”>http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/laptop-computers.asp)</p>
<p>(you can search for “toughbook” on youtube - there are some neat videos…)</p>
<p>A little more history on Sandy Bridge: Intel shipped performance desktop chips in January and there were a few Sandy Bridge laptops. For some reason, adoption wasn’t fast by the computer manufacturers. Intel announced a chipset defect in early February which meant that they had to recall motherboards for systems and laptops. My replacement motherboard was just shipped from Newegg and I should receive it later this week - I then have to pull out the old motherboard, put in the new one and ship the old one back.</p>
<p>For laptops, there wasn’t a fix - laptops were just supposed to be returned for a refund. OEMs discontinued their Nehalem-based laptops (the Sony VAIO Z is a good example) or ramped them down in anticipation of their new Sandy Bridge models coming out and those had to be delayed for Intel to implement the chipset fix and then get the motherboard makers to crank up production.</p>
<p>Toshiba Tablet PC. Very sturdy.</p>