<p>I'm still trying to decide what I should get for college this fall. I have somewhere around $1000 I'm going to spend. </p>
<p>The first option was to buy a 16GB iPad 3 for fun and entertainment and a windows laptop under $500 for computing stuff like notes and papers. </p>
<p>The second option was to buy a MacBook Air. I've never actually owned a Mac but I know they are good computers. </p>
<p>What would you suggest? Thanks.</p>
<p>I’d recommend the MacBook Air. You’re not going to get a good laptop for under $500. The build quality is going to be cheap and the components are likely to be bottom-grade in terms of reliability. It really sucks when you need your laptop to do work and it’s just not working/available.</p>
<p>The iPad3, on the other hand, is designed to be used as a secondary device. Sure, it’s beautiful, but it’s not going to be important to things you actually need to do. Plus, fun/entertainment is probably going to be better on the Air anyways because of the larger screen.</p>
<p>These days, I develop mobile apps, and I just have to say that the primary use of an iPad is for those relaxed cases where it’s too burdensome or awkward to grab your laptop. This will rarely be the case in a small dorm room.</p>
<p>In short: get the MacBook Air – it’ll serve you much better in terms of your actual needs.</p>
<p>There are a bunch of laptops called “Ultrabooks” that are very similar to the MacBook Air but are better in some ways. If you really like Mac OSX then you might prefer a MacBook Air but you should consider the alternatives.</p>
<p>Link to example : [Amazon.com:</a> ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 13.3-Inch Ultrabook: Computers & Accessories](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-Prime-UX31A-DB51-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook/dp/B00863L2PK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340808236&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+zenbook+prime]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-Prime-UX31A-DB51-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook/dp/B00863L2PK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340808236&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+zenbook+prime)</p>
<p>The new Dell XPS models are also quite nice.</p>
<p>Sometimes you can get a decent brand new laptop for just under $500 but that doesn’t happen too much.</p>
<p>
Especially if attention is paid over the next couple months with back-to-school sales on the horizon.</p>
<p>If you are considering an Ipad 3 + a notebook computer maybe you should look at Windows 7 or Windows 8 based tablets.
I ended up buying a Lenovo Thinkpad X230t after looking at what it could do.</p>
<p>If you are on a budget of no more than 1000 dollars (meaning you will be getting an 11" air) do NOT get the air. You will grow to hate the screen size and be forced to sell and get a larger screen or purchase a monitor.</p>
<p>Get an iPad 2 (to save money…iPad 3 doesn’t offer enough of a difference) and then buy a nice 15.6" laptop.</p>
<p>Was able to buy 13" MacBook Air 2010 model with 256Gigs SDD ang 2Gigs memory with 3 years AppleCare for $950 shipped from B&H Photo. It also came with Parallels, so able to run Windows on it as well. </p>
<p>We are normally a Windows household, my older daughter converted to MacBook Pro when she was a Junior in College and now perfers the Mac over Windows. So purchased MacBook Air for younger daughter for next fall at UCLA. </p>
<p>I see more and more students converting to Mac’s. If you can afford price difference, I would say pick Mac.</p>
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</p>
<p>The full specs of that machine are as follows:
1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ( AKA Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor SL9400)
2GB RAM
256GB Flash Storage
nVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU
13.3" Glossy Widescreen LED Display ( @ 1440 x 900)
FaceTime Webcam
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
802.11n AirPort Extreme
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard</p>
<p>Overall that machine is fairly outdated especially since the CPU is from late 2008. The only decent components by today’s standards are the 256 GB SSD and the screen.</p>
<p>With that being said the 256 GB SSD in that MacBook Air is much slower than the ones you can get for $200 or less right now (e.g. Samsung 830 series). </p>
<p>ULV Core 2 Duos are basically toys so don’t expect to do real work on them. It will be fine for basic stuff like word processing and web browsing though. The SSD will make the computer seem very responsive.</p>