<p>Our son will be a freshman this year and as a grad gift we wanted to get him a new laptop. He had a Dell but it only lasted a couple of years than crashed. We have good experience with HP but understand that UCSD doesn't sell them, hence should something go wrong he would have a hard time resolving. We have heard SO much about the MAC and were wondering if this is a wise choice to make at this point in time. We are also impressed with the Lenovo (which UCSD sells) so for all you experienced Tritons, which would you recommend?</p>
<p>They are both very good laptops, and will perform very well for all school related needs. Has he ever had a Mac before? It takes a small amount of learning to be able to operate one if you've never owned one, but they are very intuitive and have a lot of cool features like a built in webcam, iChat, movie editing software, etc. It basically comes down to whichever operating system he would prefer, Leopard or Windows.</p>
<p>Personally, I would get the Mac, but that's just me.</p>
<p>The Thinkpad has a great reputation, and Lenovo has managed to maintain that reputation following their acquisition of IBM. Mac of course is well known for superb quality. Honestly, the Thinkpad is going to be higher quality than an HP.</p>
<p>That said, I would add a little to what Kevin said. If it's a surprise and he's never had a mac before or expressed any explicit interest in one then I would <em>not</em> get him one. If he's not a mac person then he will have problems with some of the software he wants to use which will not work on the mac. If he <em>is</em> a mac person, though, by all means get him the macbook.</p>
<p>Edit: Also relevant is his major program. Art students might be better off with a mac, whereas science students might need to run PC-only scientific software. If you think this could make a difference you might contact his department--if he has a major picked--to see if they have a recommendation.</p>
<p>if you do end up going for the mac, i hope you're able to use your son's college affiliation to score you the apple educational discount -- free 8 GB iPod touch with purchase of laptop!</p>
<p>he might already have a preference for Mac vs PC, so you should probably consult him on his preferences. most programs now are compatible with either operating system, and even macs are able to load windows-only programs through some trick (i dunno, i'm a PC fan).</p>
<p>I'll throw my advice in as I JUST bought a mac laptop last week, after never owning a mac computer before. The learning curve is quite small, really. I would not make that a point against getting a mac. </p>
<p>I have read on computer websites that the Lenovo series is not quite as good as it's IBM counterpart in the past. Such problems are quality control. I would guess this is only because IBM was a superior company to get ultra reliable laptops. While you probably will not have an issue, I am just throwing it out there. Macbooks sometimes have problems too, but Apple is pretty darn good with helping you out. They will pretty much replace the laptop in the first year if anything goes wrong and you can extend that service for an extra 2 years for a $200 price. </p>
<p>On another note, it is silly to buy a mac imo if he is going to be running windows programs all the time. If he was a computer engineer, I would not be sure if that would be best and you would need to contact the department. Usually students use their computers just for internet email and chat, and either the Lenovo or macbook would do that for you. Let me tell you though, I'll bet he will be more happy with a macbook and an ipod touch than a lenovo. The apple deal is quite good and I would take advantage of it if I did not already have a ipod touch. </p>
<p>With regards to what KGZ said, perhaps you could bring your son to an apple store and see what he thinks about the macbook. Good luck on this purchase :)</p>
<p>Lenovo laptops are great. Much better than the laptops made under IBM.</p>
<p>It is highly rated by reviewers in numerous PC magazines.</p>
<p>Really appreciate all the advice! It's not a surprise, and we did take him to an Apple store. He liked the mac book alot, but was concerned whether it takes some getting used to. They were trying to sell us on the idea of 1 year tutorial, which wouldn't work if he's down at UCSD! Is it that complicated that one would need this tutorial?? Also, he is majoring under mathematics/applied science. He wants to get involved in research opportunities and possibly switch over towards pre-med. Is one pc bettter suited over another for his interests??</p>
<p>I've worked in a handful of research labs and conclude that while each lab has a preference (mac vs pc vs linux), technology has advanced such that there's generally no problem using a laptop of your own pick. </p>
<p>Note on the Lenovo Thinkpad: I used to work at Pfizer (the world's largest pharmaceutical company or something like that) and they supply all their full-time employees with Thinkpads, upgrading to the newest model every few years. It's probably a good sign that the computer's a reliable one; a company with 100,000+ workers can't be wrong.</p>
<p>yay pfizer and thinkpads :)</p>
<p>i'm thinking of switching to a mac too. my own IBM is over 6 years old. although it's still pretty sturdy, it's really heavy & has no wireless :(</p>
<p>macbook or macbook pro? or air?</p>
<p>^ Yeah I can't decide which mac I want either! I really like the air but I know it has a lot of downsides... it's sooo light though.</p>
<p>If it was me, I'd pick the Thinkpad. With such a math/science heavy major range, youre going to need various programs, which are almost invariably going to be Windows based.</p>
<p>A company with 100,000+ workers definitely can't be wrong. I mean take a look at Enron!</p>