<p>I'm writing this on my MBP, which I've had for a couple weeks now. I'm extremely pleased with it, despite initially not being sure I wanted to switch (if you check the forum archives, you might find a thread I posted months ago on that issue). Because I'm not a gamer, I don't care about those issues. I chose the Pro over just the Macbook because: I didn't like the glossy screen or keyboard on the MB much and I wanted more memory and slightly better use of Photoshop (one of my hobbies is digital photography). I also preferred the 15" to the 13". Switching from PC was a little confusing at first, but it's definitely not that hard. With Apple rebates--not sure if they're still going on--I got a free printer and ipod with the purchase of the MBP. And, most importantly, my sizeable school discount (look up your college in the Apple store) made the price a lot easier to stomach.</p>
<p>If you choose to stay with a PC, I would NOT recommend a Sony, for all the reasons people have given. My friend has a pretty sweet Dell XPS.</p>
<p>You’re trying to choose between the two most overpriced brands for what you get and honestly both of them actually do have problems.</p>
<p>For Vaios you’re just paying for the looks and Mac is all hype. I’ve seen Macbooks that cost literally twice as much as a similar-spec PC falling apart after just a couple of years and they grow more glitchy as they get updated. Even my roommates new macbook pro does glitchy things when he tries to run microsoft office or dual boot vista (which he does need to do to run some programs) and my vista laptop that cost less than half as much almost always ran smoother and had (no joke) almost identical specs, plus I upgraded to Win 7 for free and have yet to encounter any problems.</p>
<p>My advice is to look elsewhere, because those two brands wouldn’t even be on my list if I was in your shoes. I’ve also noticed most of my friends with HPs have a lot of problems, but Dell is usually more solid and they’ve almost always got the best deals of the major brands of computers. When I bought my laptop last year, I went with Dell because I couldn’t find the specs I wanted from any other brand for even close to the same price and it actually still takes some work to find these specs for the same price today with another brand. For $900 I’ve had no hardware issues, it always runs perfectly, it’s performance is nearly identical to my roommates Macbook pro that cost him over 2 grand. No regrets with that purchase!</p>
<p>I have a refurbished HP that I got for under $500. 15.6 inch screen, 320 gig hardrive, 3 gig RAM, and tons of features. I don’t quite see how either of those options are worth it, but given the choice of just those two, I’d pick the Mac for its durability.</p>
<p>Wow. For the price, the performance from those two are AWFUL. A $600 HP would have much better performance. Asus is the way to go. They last forever and are cheap for the performance.</p>
<p>You might have problems with connectivity. In some universities, they dont support Macs at all. And depending on your program, they might even unallow it since its not compatible with programs used.</p>
<p>The only problems you will have is adjusting to the new interface, connectivity, and the number of programs that have been developed for PC. this is especially true for engineering students.</p>
<p>I reccomend a Lenovo IBM ThinkPad. really good, seriously.</p>
<p>Alright, for all the Sony Vaio haters… I bought my Vaio on Black Friday (wasn’t much of a discount since I saw a black version the same as mine online for the same price). My specs are a bit better than yours, it’s white, same screen size, but 3 GB of RAM, and about a 200 GB hard drive, though my processor is an Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.1 GHz.</p>
<p>I have been absolutely amazed at this computer and I love it to death. It is miles and miles above any ridiculous Apple thing that you will buy. And I got it all for $650. Email me or something if you need help finding one for about the third of the price you want to pay… definitely it is not worth to spend more than 1,000 dollars on any computer at all ever. Spec standards change atleast every two years as Moore’s Law applies to the processor speeds and cost-efficiency.</p>
<p>Get the Vaio, just not from wherever you’re getting it now. Also, Windows 7: Ultimate is far better than any Apple software, I can guarantee you that.</p>
<p>Didn’t read any of the posts here, but Id definitely say Macbook Pro. I’ve got one, I’ve got friends with the Vaio, it is a lot worse then I thought when I was looking at laptops a year ago. I absolutely love my macbook, it is easy to convert anything to other formats if you’ve got a class that needs powerpoint or something, and it never gets viruses, never gets slow, and its just freakin stylish! best of everything IMO</p>
<p>im so confused…no one in college needs computers that expensive for what you need computers in college to do. </p>
<p>are you going to do high end gaming in college? then you need the vaio.</p>
<p>are you going to do high end video design/ video editing for a company/ video recording/ high end mixing/ music mixing/ or anything at the professional level? then get a macbook pro</p>
<p>are you going to do neither? then get neither</p>
<p>"im so confused…no one in college needs computers that expensive for what you need computers in college to do. " </p>
<p>Truth! I just don’t get why people buy such expensive stuff (I’m talking about people who have no “real” purpose to buy the higher end item). I know part of it is the branding. I learned in Econ about why advertising/branding weren’t necessarily the best for an economy…</p>
<p>If you are a gamer, you would have a desktop, w/ a 22in monitor, quad core, 4+Gig’s ram and kick ass vid card…skip that laptop! =D </p>
<p><em>What I hate the most about Macs, is that they are selling the SAME hardware specs for WAY more.</em> <strong>Shakes fist angrily</strong></p>
<p>They are leeching money from ignorant, incompetent PC users (not all of them are incompetent…). The only thing I can say that Macs have an advantage over–aesthetics and software, otherwise, you are literally just wasting your money on something that does the SAME THING when you can literally get it for half the price. </p>
<p>The bottom line: You can get a Dell laptop (or equivalent) for $500-700 w/ very good specs! I would stay away from HP, I know multiple friends that have over heating problems.</p>
<p>This is so biased.
I like PCs and Macs. Most PCs my family has had were pieces of crap. My friend’s dell crapped out after 9 months and started falling apart.</p>