<p>hi everyone so next year i will attend baruch college in nyc (I will live at home and commute everyday). Basically i will have to walk or bike to the train station everyday + train ride + another 25 mins walk. For college i decided i would buy a new laptop and i bought the dv6t quad edition with a awesome 1080p display, i7 and radeon 6770m for games. </p>
<p>The laptop weigh about 5.8 lb and its a 15.6" display. I really like the laptop but i am not sure it its ideal for my situation, like to carry around all day with me. I don't plan on bring it to class as for now because is a distraction, but it might change because i don't really know what college would be like.</p>
<p>So i was considering a lenovo y470 with a 14" inch display and 4.78 lb (i5 and around 150$ dollars less).</p>
<p>My question is from personal experiences how do you think is a 15.6"? do you think its ideal for college life, from a commuter perspective. Are they common in college? and would the 14" make any difference? because if i decide to switch to the 14" i loose some features like the 1080 display, i7, 6gb memory and the good graphic card for gaming but i will gain some great portability that could make my life possibly easier</p>
<p>ah and i don't think i want to go below 13" because it will be it will be too small</p>
<p>I just bought a 13 inch Mac for college this fall, and I think that’s good. I won’t be commuting; I’ll live on campus, but will still carry the laptop around with me, so I want a small one. I’d suggest the 13 inch. 15 isn’t bad, but it seems a little big. I previously had a 17 inch and could not imagine carrying that thing around for college everyday.</p>
<p>I have a 13" that I used for school. I carried it around to all my classes and wouldn’t have wanted anything bigger-- the issue isn’t only the weight for toting it around, but whether it will FIT on those tiny little half-desks most classrooms and lecture halls seem to have.</p>
<p>Now that I am done with school, when I can save up I intend to upgrade to a bigger screen, probably a 16in or similar. That one will sit on a REAL desk at home and will only rarely be taken anywhere, so a bigger size is better. But I tell you what, I’ve had no problem with the 13in the last four years. I wouldn’t turn down another one.</p>
<p>13" Macbooks strike me as the ideal laptop for students who bring their computer to class. Macbooks tend to be smaller and lighter than PCs with the same technical specifications. (Coincidentally, most of my friends who bring their computers to class actually have Macbooks. My PC friends tend to leave their laptop at home.)</p>
<p>I have a laptop with a 15" screen and a larger-than-standard battery. (I get ~6 hours of battery life vs the standard 2.) The laptop is heavy and bulky enough by itself that I would not carry it to class every day. The larger battery protrudes from the computer and makes it even bulkier.</p>
<p>My 2 cents: if you want to take your laptop to class, get one that you can easily slip into your backpack. The dimensions of my laptop bug me more than its weight. A Macbook would literally occupy only half of the volume of my current laptop!</p>
<p>Don’t bring your laptop to class; writing in notebooks is a far better way to memorize information, plus you won’t be tempted to check facebook every five minutes.</p>
<p>The 1 lb difference between your two choices is going to make almost no difference in weight, to be honest, and 1.8 inches isn’t going to make a huge difference in volume. Unless the bigger laptop has a massive battery or something (and even that isn’t a big deal), I really don’t see this as a mobility issue. Personally, I’d go with the 15.8", but having another $150 in your pocket might make more sense depending on the cost of your books.</p>
<p>I have a 17.3" display that, at a bit over 8lbs, is kind of cumbersome, but when I stick it in my backpack its not a big problem to get around with it.</p>
<p>I only have to bike uphill (200ft climb) every day, and I decided to go with a 10.1" netbook. That thing weighs only slightly more than 2lb, and it’s really one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.</p>
<p>I just keep a desktop at home for the stuff that the netbook doesn’t do well. However, having >10hr battery life and being able to carry it everywhere has served me much better than comfort or power ever has.</p>
<p>In my opinion, if you’re not willing to go with under 13", then there isn’t much point in buying another laptop. You might as well use your 15". However, if you are willing to spend, I suggest a 13" because 14" may roughly be the same and it’s difficult to get one which is light. Some 13" ones that I know come without the DVD drive, which might be better as it’ll make it lighter and you’ll prob not need it anyway.</p>
<p>I have a 13" MBP right now, but I have decided to buy the 15" for college. Considering that I’m not going to be bringing my cinema display to college, I want something larger for schoolwork and movies/tv. Not to mention the high resolution screen…</p>
<p>13" fits very comfortably on my lap, but the screen just isn’t big enough (for me)</p>
<p>I currently have a 15.4 inch Dell Studio 15. I lugged it around with me all last year and it was a pain. Like a previous poster mentioned, the little swing out desks that are common in big lecture halls really aren’t big enough to accommodate larger laptops. It was always a balancing act keeping the Studio on the desk and it was uncomfortable. I’m getting ready to buy a 13" Macbook Pro for this next year and I’m hoping it will be more portable. I’d say since you’ll be commuting, the smaller, the better. 13 or 14 inch laptops sound like they’d work well for you as long as you’re not set on a big screen.</p>
<p>^That’s what my sister just got and she had to find a case for it so she could take it on an airplane for work. It was hell. We did eventually find something but it took a long time and it was not cheap.</p>