<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I know there's another post about computers, but I wanted specific opinions on laptops for undergrad business at UCI. I'm an incoming freshman at UCI coming in as a Business Information Management major. I'm planning to also minor in digital art.</p>
<p>I was leaning towards MAC, but I want another opinion.</p>
<p>For digital art, a Mac is best. Also, don’t forget Macs can run Windows. So if you need some sort of specialized Windows program for your major (ask your school), it will run on the Mac.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>People who want to do professional art would pretty much NEED a laptop with an IPS panel LCD display. Mac laptops do not offer that type of display.</p>
<p>This article explains why IPS panel LCD displays are more suitable for art:
<a href=“http://www.dailygadgets.net/1588/laptop-guide-advantages-of-ips-display-laptops-and-where-to-find-them/[/url]”>http://www.dailygadgets.net/1588/laptop-guide-advantages-of-ips-display-laptops-and-where-to-find-them/</a></p>
<p>Edit:
There are also new ultrabooks coming out with IPS panel display ( the new ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A comes to mind).</p>
<p>Review: <a href=“http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/asus_zenbook_prime_ux31a.aspx[/url]”>ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A Review | Ultrabook Reviews | Laptop Mag;
<p>@del_psi, will this work for my business major? i’m only minoring in art.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If the business department at your school uses Windows based programs for business work then it would be fine.</p>
<p>You can’t get anymore businessy than a Thinkpad. Living in Silicon Valley, I always see business people pulling out Thinkpads. </p>
<p>If you want an IPS display, the new Sony S I believe has them. </p>
<p>Sent from my HTC Glacier using CC</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah, it’ll run on a Mac if you’d like to work with a Windows emulator or a Windows partition, which would leave you running a horrible OS on a machine with subpar specs. I know nearly a dozen people with Macs and all have attempted using an emulator before finally just setting up a partition, and their computers are still incredibly slow.</p>
<p>I’d recommend, if you do end up getting a mac, is to set up a partition with Windows XP in case you ever need it. It’ll be a bit of a hard drive hog, but at least XP is a relatively light (esp compared to Windows 7!) OS and most things won’t actually require Windows 7. A partition takes some time to set up and it’s possible to completely destroy your computer if you don’t know what you’re doing, so I’d recommend finding a computer geek friend and having them help, but this way, if you realize you need it sometime during the semester, it’s already there.</p>
<p>I’m a Ubuntu, personally, although I can only get away with it because I have a Windows partition and I go to a school where every school computer, minus a couple of special snowflakes, run Ubuntu.</p>
<p>
Waiting to get my new computer this Summer to install 12.04LTS.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>off-topic: Install Compiz ([Compiz</a> - Debian Wiki](<a href=“http://wiki.debian.org/Compiz]Compiz”>Compiz - Debian Wiki)). It’s wonderful for managing your GUI.</p>
<p>
I’ve done so on my previous Ubuntu 9.04 a few years back after stumbling upon it in a youtube video. Will get all the bells and whistles on 12.04.</p>
<p>The new MacBook Pro Retina is the first Mac laptop to offer an IPS screen so if that’s within your budget you may consider it as well.</p>
<p>@del_psi the macbook pro w retina was tempting, but out of my budget. do you know specific specs that would be important in a biz/comp sci laptop?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You should state a budget so we can find some laptops that can fit your needs.</p>
<p>You may want to check with your main (major) department and see if they REQUIRE a specific type of computer/laptop.</p>
<p>Most new laptops would be fine for undergraduate level business or computer science.</p>
<p>As for specs I would say a 2nd gen standard voltage Core i3 CPU would be more than enough for your needs. RAM is generally user upgradable so it’s not a big deal if a laptop only comes with 2 GB of RAM since in most cases you can upgrade it yourself.
You can buy a laptop that comes with a HDD and replace it with an SSD if you want.</p>
<p>Normally I would recommend business class machines like the lenovo Thinkpad line (generally very durable) but there are other alternatives.</p>
<p>If you plan to do heavy art type of work you would want a faster CPU and maybe GPU but if you are just minoring in art you may not need the extra power. If you have the budget for a higher CPU / GPU you can choice it so you can do more intensive stuff faster if you choose to do so.</p>
<p>If you want a real tablet PC within your budget , you can buy a Fujitsu LifeBook T901 from Newegg.com for under $1300.</p>
<p>The lenovo X series tablets are like a jack of all trades but master of none.</p>
<p>The Fujitsu T901 is mainly built as a convertible tablet PC so it’s much easier to write on it.</p>
<p>Note: look up digitizer performance for tablet PCs</p>