<p>Are laptops crucial for college? If yes, which brand of laptops are better, Dell or Hp. Any other suggestions are appreciated.</p>
<p>Depends on the person. Do you need a computer to study? Do you like to have your computer with you in a classroom? Do you like the idea of having a computer with you outside of your dorm?</p>
<p>If the answer either of the last two questions was yes, I would honestly consider getting one. If no, then a desktop would be highly preferred. Laptops are portable. That is their one and only benefit. It is a great benefit and can be extremely helpful in many situations. However, laptops also have a tendency to overheat and be less reliable than PC's. Even if they don't overheat and you happen to have good luck on the reliability front, they are much more expensive to buy and to repair.</p>
<p>I wouldn't go to college without a computer....laptop seems to be more convenient even if it may have some durability issues although I have a Dell and it has worked fine for me so far</p>
<p>I don't even go to high school without my laptop. If I ever forgot it one day I would be screwed. On that note, personally I am a mac person and am loyal to my old (I hate intel macs) company. If you are looking for windows comps though, I would suggest a tablet. A lot of my friends have these and they are so nice. The screen flips over so your laptop becomes just like a notebook. There is a program that comes with it too so you can take notes with the stylus. It's the best for students imh.</p>
<p><em>cough</em> get an Apple <em>cough</em></p>
<p>imo* (10 char)</p>
<p>Get a MacBook. You won't regret it</p>
<p>With so many Mac supporters here, I have to fulfill my internal desire to disagree with the majority. So here's my argument. Mac's suck. They're overpriced, GUI is supposed to be "streamlined" but it ends up being annoying when you can't figure out how to cut and paste because of the one button mouse, upgrades/repair services are ridiculously overpriced, and they can't do games well.</p>
<p>Every reason why a Mac is good has a equally good if not better windows counterpart. Want reliability? Get an IBM or a Toshiba. Want a streamlined interface? Windows XP is easy enough to use.</p>
<p>I like Windows.</p>
<p>I've had my Toshiba for a little over half a year and I'm very happy with it. I'm sure it will work wonders for college.</p>
<p>Re: the copy and paste on a Mac...just hit ctrl and the mouse button at the same time. not hard.</p>
<p>I bought my first Mac when I came to college and have NO regrets.</p>
<p>meh, i have a Gateway tablet and i like it a lot...i bought it with a core 2 duo 2.00 ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 HDD, *<strong><em>and its a tablet!</em></strong> ( i love that i can write on it...) ~~~ I'd recommend it highly (Gateway CX210X btw)</p>
<p>Plus, my friend's dad works at Microsoft so I'm getting 2 copies of Vista ultimate and office 2007 ultimate tomorrow. </p>
<p>Great Success!</p>
<p>P.S: side-note: this is mi 300th post, so i am no longer a "junior member"! Yes! I have graduated to the lowly Member status.</p>
<p>Wow I have seen this sort of thread like everywhere recently. Anyways, I recommend a Dell because they are reliable and cheap (at least compared to other companies like HP etc)</p>
<p>laptops are pretty much essential...i take mine with me to almost all my classes (except dance, for obvious reasons) and take notes on it, which is way better...plus, you can surf the net and go on facebook during boring lectures ;)</p>
<p>You use apple+c and apple+v for copy paste. Yeah get a mac. they're awesome.</p>
<p>Also you can get a mouse with two buttons just like a PC.</p>
<p>[/recent mac convert]</p>
<p>Laptops are great, just mind the security issues when you have one.</p>
<p>I've had both Dell and HP/IBM at work and at home. They were all great machines.</p>
<p>Recently I bought a HP Pavillion dv6000 at Circuit City for home, it's a great machine at a great price, especially for a student. I'm going to get my D one when she goes this Fall. Make sure you get good virus software and keep it up to date. You are going to have to depend on it.</p>
<p>don't buy macs... Overhyped (just like the ipod), expensive, slow, annoying</p>
<p>it's not about teh brandname.</p>
<p>it's about what's in the laptop as in hardware</p>
<p>get a least a 1 gig of CPU </p>
<p>30 Gig of harddrive space</p>
<p>128 Meg of RAM (though 256 nowdays is considered the lowest you should go, but RAM on ebay is only 10-30 bucks.)</p>
<p>and wireless card or internet connection which most new laptops will have already.</p>
<p>Overhyped=maybe, but when you can back it up, I say it's just good marketing</p>
<p>Expensive=almost every summer they have a special deal for off-to-college students, up to a 20% discount on most products for college students, and they last longer than any PC I've ever seen</p>
<p>Slow=were you using an old one (10+years)? all computers get 'slow' over time. mine's faster than any of my friend's HP, Dell, Toshiba, etc computers.</p>
<p>Annoying=how? why? mine's great</p>