<p>Hi, I see that there have been many threads on laptops already, so I apologize for putting another out there. After reading through the threads, however, I still need some advice. Thanks for bearing with me :).</p>
<p>I'll be going to Williams (Yay!) next fall and they recommend either a</p>
<p>Dell: Dell Latitude D620
or
Apple: 14" iBook or 12" PowerBook or 15" MacBook Pro</p>
<p>My dad wants to get a Dell because we have a desktop Dell at home that is very reliable, but I have heard that Macs are often less virus prone, more user friendly, lighter weight, better quality, etc. Is this true? What would you recommend?</p>
<p>Apples are less virus prone because there exists a lesser amount of malicious software for Apple than Windows. Why? Easy, 95% of the population uses Windows, so hackers will want to attack Windows machines, not Apples! </p>
<p>More user friendly? Either one can be friendly, I just find Mac OS maddingly simplistic and rigid, whereas Windows I can tweak to almost any fashion.</p>
<p>Lighter weight? Depends on the model, you can find laptops from both Dell and Apple in the ~3 pound range. Just expect a 3 pound Apple laptop to cost much more than a 3 pound Dell. FYI, the Dell Latitude D620 weights roughly 4.3 pounds, pretty damn good.</p>
<p>Quality? Depends, I bought a high end Dell laptop five years ago (over $3300 when I first bought it), and absolutely love it; however, my Dell Inspiron 8000 was part of a spate of defective Dell LCDs that made the rounds through the technical departments because of faulty display flex cables, and I've had my screen replaced once, but that's it. Whenever you buy a Dell laptop (I doubt Apple offers this same service), make sure you get either a Gold/Premium plan, a service option where you can 4 year at-home service, nights and weekends, and 4 years of CompleteCare, protecting your entire laptop from accidental damage (I've seriously heard stories where someone's laptop was almost entirely destroyed, so Dell gave him a new laptop, free of charge thanks to his CompleteCare plan)! I've heard some complaints about hardware quality from people who bought budget Dell laptops, but the enthusiasts who buy maxed-out Dell hardware tend to have very few problems.</p>
<p>So guess what, I'm obviously biased towards Dells. I have one, my friend buys all his computer hardware from Dell, we've both been very happy with our purchases. Contrary to what you've probably heard, Dell's tech support is very good...once you get passed those guys with Indian accents when you call their tech support.</p>
<p>I think after work tommrow I need to make a thread just about choosing Laptops. </p>
<p>But to answer your post now.</p>
<p>but I have heard that Macs are often less virus prone?
They are less Virus prone, and only less Virus prone due to the substatiallty lower userbase.</p>
<p>more user friendly?
If you like ease of use then well yeah, It is better.</p>
<p>lighter weight?
That depends on the model there are windows systems under 2lbs.</p>
<p>better quality?
Apple notebooks arent really the best of quality and cant really compete with Asus or Thinkpads from Lenovo.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, STAY AWAY from Acersa and/or Dell. Acers come 95% defective, and Dell, I heard, wasn't much better. Dell owns Acer, and they use basically the same stuff. But anyway, my recommendation is Apple.</p>
<p>dont buy dell if you are looking for reliability. Latitude 620 cost as much as a Sony or a ThinkPad T model only much worse. If you bought a dell, soon or later it would experience some kind of problem. Its not fun to have your computer sent to dell's ultra ineffecient repair centre and wait for months.</p>
<p>Acer is owned by dell? that's news to me, are you sure you're not thinking of alienware?</p>
<p>Is Asus of high quality, and if so is there any website where I can customize them as I'm able to do with dell/gateway/hp and all the other companies, or am I stuck with an as-is model?</p>
<p>I have two Dells. They've been great with their customer support as well. Just recently I had a problem with an order being dropped off my door (no one signing it; this was the shipping companies problem) and I was able to chat (first time doing this) with a Dell rep. online and they attended to me quickly. Issue solved.</p>
<p>You can get a built-on-Asus. Lots of resellers let you customize your specifications for different Asus models. You can search for different companies that offer this online.</p>
<p>Co-signing with those that have Dells. I had a Dell desktop that basically went to crap but that was because of my own doing, thinking I knew what I was doing when I really didn't and downloading stuff that ultimately slowed down my machine.
Now I have a new Dell laptop and everything so far is superb. The base models aren't terribly expensive but I chose to spend a little bit more for faster processing. What people forget is that the durability of their computers is connected to what they do with (and to) their computers Treat it nicely :)</p>
<p>I would recommend purchasing an Apple computer for college. They are reliable machines. I think its great that a large part of the population does not use apple. this has advantages..as u can see. They have all the compatible software and plus with the new intel macs, u can run windows as a seperate OS. I think now there is no need to be hesitant about getting an Apple computer. its sleek, now affordable (student discounts), less virus prone.. and compatible with anything. think about and good luck with ur decision.</p>
<p>^ No. If you run windows with a mac, even tho it is still a mac, your now open to all windows viruses. If you have to have windows program, then you have no choice. </p>
<p>As for dell, Im on a dell desktop now, its ok, I mean no problems, but nothing to write home about. My mom has a laptop and it has a few problems here and there, nothing world-shattering. It does feel like its a bit cheap tho. </p>
<p>Here is how I think of it, dell is like honda, cheap, its everywhere, gets you from point A to B, and budget priced ( I mean like you're in poverty.)
Apple is like a bmw, its nice, not alot of people have them, has the extras you want but dont need, and always gets you from point A to B but sometimes, it is the point.</p>
<p>i'm going to williams too! anyway, i got the dell latitude that they recommended, with some custom upgrades in memory and such. i don't really know the details, i'm not so good at computers. but i've played around with it a little and it seems good! haha i know this isn't much help. but i hear they have really good tech support at williams for dell.</p>
<p>I just got a 17" Macbook Pro and it's amazing. It can run OSX and Windows! It can even run it at the same time. Check out the macbook vids on youtube and you'll see it's performance. I'm able to play games on windows size easily and it runs games nicely. I'll probably never get another PC/Laptop ever again. I love mac :D</p>
<p>Macs are of superior build quality (titanium casing) and Mac OS X really kicks windows' ass in spyware and viruses (because of the user base), but also because Mac OS X deletes stuff better than Windows, and doesn't have gaping security flaws that Windows is known for. However, Mac overcharges you on every freaking piece of Hardware you buy. Upgrading from 512 to 1 GB of RAM costs $80, which is paying double of what the real cost is. Not that you shouldn't do it, RAM is incredibly important, and well worth the $80 you spend, just that installing it yourself takes 15 minutes and saves $40. I think there are huge advantages to dual booting windows and apple though. </p>
<p>Dell does own Alienware not Acer, and their laptops are excellent deals (especially with coupons, get and use these coupons). Support can be a bit spottier than Apple, and you should not expect the same build quality as a Mac (runs a bit hotter, etc), but you will pay $400-500 less for the same specifications. </p>
<p>Oh, and you might wish to wait a month for new superior processors that run faster, but also drive down the price of existing processors.</p>
<p>Make sure you get **1 GB of RAM<a href="under%20memory">/b</a>. As far as I am concerned, if you are willing to shell $1k+ on a computer, you really, really want to get the extra RAM that allows your computer to multi-task. Not upgrading RAM to 1 GB is a costly mistake.</p>