well, as the title says, I have a 64gb iPad Air and an HP laptop I bought around the beginning of high school. It works alright, it’s a little nicked up, slightly slow but tolerable, but the battery lasts maybe an hour and a half or so, not really sure because I hardly use it. The thing is that it is kind of annoying to use when conducting research, like for a paper. It’s not so good at opening 10 tabs anymore. Otherwise, it’s decent and I upgraded it to windows 8.
Im really conflicted as to weather I should buy a new laptop or not. Nothing is really appealing to me except a MacBook Pro. Nothing repulses me more than the price! I am looking at ones on eBay that are a few years old that are in the 1k range or slightly below to save money. I have money saved up but I am going to an expensive school so I’m not really sure I’d like to spend my money on that right now.
But, I don’t want my performance to be hindered by my laptop, because it isn’t exactly efficient. But now, I am always using my iPad for things, and would personally just like to use my iPad for everything, because I like its convenience. I even have this keyboard that makes my iPad become a laptop, in style.
When I toured the campus, EVERY student seemed to have a Macbook laptop, particularly in the business school. This sounds childish, but I feel like I’d be secretly annoyed and jealous. I’d buy one in a second if I was comfortable with it, but it’s a third of my savings for my expenses…
Also, the business school online stated that a windows would be ideal, and they cannot guarantee all programs will work with Mac. However like I said, all of the students had macs in the business school. I know there’s that program that runs two OS, but doesn’t that seem like a hassle?
Thanks for any advice!
Don’t buy a Mac just because everyone has one. I assure you, many students have PCs and many students probably have much less expensive laptops. All of them are doing just fine. Some students probably don’t even have a computer at all and live.
I would recommend you wait until after school has started. Your performance will not be hindered by an older laptop. You are much more in charge of how efficient you are than your computer. You also have the option of using computer labs or computers in the library, if you feel like your laptop doesn’t have enough processing power. Give it some more time to get an idea of what you really need. Look at less expensive options, if money is a big factor, and if you’re really set on a Mac, then perhaps you could get a part-time job to save up some more money to lessen the financial blow a little. It’s not urgent that you get one now. Wait a bit and see how things go. You may decide later to get a Mac or you may not, but as you know, this isn’t an inconsequential sum of money. Don’t rush into it just because you’re jealous of other students.
Don’t worry about being judged for what computer you have. I concur that your best bet is probably to wait until after you start to think about getting something else. You’ll figure out what works for you in terms of computing power and portability once you get into your classes. What you have at this point will get the job done. If you really need something with more power, that’s what the university computer labs are there for.
Often, you can also often get some pretty good deals on computers around November-December with holiday sales or with the outgoing models as companies introduce the newest version.
@baktrax @nanotechnology thank you for the advice! I will hold off for now and wait until I see what I need in the fall.