<p>From the perspective of a college student who is currently using a laptop around campus, what is a good portability vs performance point?</p>
<p>I know plenty about computers and I know what's important for performance and what is a good deal or not, but I've always built desktops and never a laptop, so I've never had to consider portability and never looked at anything less than the best bang for the buck in performance alone.</p>
<p>I have been shopping laptops so I have a feel for what seems like a good deal, but I'm not sure where the portability justifies a significant lack of performance or vis-versa. My budget is probably around 1000-1300 dollars.</p>
<p>So far I've gotten very mixed results asking this question elsewhere, so I'm really looking forward to hearing from some college students who have been using a laptop and can tell me what they wish they did differently.</p>
<p>I am not a college student yet but as a fellow computer aficionado I can say that your budget could definitely handle a laptop with the best of both worlds. Where in your search have you encountered an element of performance being sacrificed for portability? (other than the obviously smaller lcd screen)</p>
<p>My S bought a heavier laptop that is almost a portable desktop. In the spring of his sophomore year, he also bought a featherweight 3 pound laptop that he likes to use to take to class while leaving his heavier laptop home. He finds this the best of all worlds.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what your question is--the featherweight he bought doesn't have a lot of bells & whistles but he likes that it IS light and he can read electronic texts on it.</p>
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My S bought a heavier laptop that is almost a portable desktop. In the spring of his sophomore year, he also bought a featherweight 3 pound laptop that he likes to use to take to class while leaving his heavier laptop home. He finds this the best of all worlds.
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A better way of doing this might be to have a desktop and a really small laptop, unless you occasionally need a more powerful laptop.</p>
<p>Actually, his system works very well for him, since he does lug the larger laptop for study sessions and the like; harder to take a desktop anywhere. Engineers tend to need more power, I think.</p>
<p>buy a 13-14 inch laptop and it will just be enough for everything. i know that macbooks and some lenovo models are really light, there might be more models of vaio and toshiba too.</p>
<p>I recommend the Dell XPS M1330 for portability and functionality. It's a little over four pounds and can be very nicely configured and you can stuff in pretty nice processors. It's not for gaming or other applications where a high-powered graphics card is required.</p>
<p>I myself am pretty experienced with PCs, but I got a Mac laptop (Macbook Pro) for college though. Aside from the Mac experience, I enjoy having a laptop because I can take it to my a cappella rehearsals, where I can play back arrangements for my members and I can record rehearsal. I like using it to take into practice rooms so I can record myself and use it for better practice. I type significantly faster than I write (about 120 wpm), so if I didn't make the reading for a class and I need to take notes, I can do that while the teacher is talking at a kajillion miles per hour. I also prefer to work on the floor and get distracted while sitting at a desk, which is also possible with a laptop. I can also take my laptop with me into the cafe, where I work better than in my room (a low din around me helps me concentrate more than a silent room). So really, which is better going to help you study and play; no portability or ultimate portability?</p>
<p>I'd say the performance thing becomes a problem longterm. Laptops aren't customizable. Desktops are. Desktops can last you as long as your case holds up. If they don't break, laptops can be easily outpaced by the technology.</p>
<p>As for specific laptops...I'm not really up on the latest Macbook, which is within your price range. (Don't forget to check on student discounts). I think they improved the graphics card, but if you want to do any gaming you will likely find it underpowered. On the other hand, the only OS that Microsoft is now allowing vendors to sell is Vista, which is crap, but I think it's possible for you to still buy a laptop out there with XP, you'll just have to do a little searching.</p>
<p>For the record, I find my five lb laptop to be extremely portable. Not a problem in the least. Any lighter and I feel like it would break.</p>
<p>not end of story, lol. buy it and prepare for one of the hottest running laptops with one of the failing nvidia cards( if you get discrete).Also, getting 4 gigs is useless, because 32-bit vista only reads 3.</p>
<p>I'd second the desktop with thin/light notebook choice. </p>
<p>Technically, I haven't trial'd it yet in college (less than two months away. <em>gasp.</em>), but that's the system I'm using at home and it fares me quite well. I'll probably get a Cube PC (like a Shuttle XPC) if I end up needing a desktop at college. Which'll probably only be for gaming... (if you need to run something CPU-intensive, might as well do it on the school computers, right?)</p>
<p>Edit: Oh, and desktops can be configured on the cheap now... For what it's worth, if I hadn't sprung for a tablet, I would've gone for a netbook (say, Asus EEE, Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind, etc.) instead of something as large as what I have now and then blasted the rest of my savings on a nice desktop. There was a deal a while back for a 24" LCD for some 200usd...</p>
<p>if you want a computer that's pretty fast and very portable, go lenovo. but if you are a hardcore gamer, then this is not really the computer for you.</p>
<p>Stay away from the Dell xps1330!!!!! The nVidia is defective and will burn out the motherboard. It happened to us within 8 weeks of owning one. It wasn't even being used as a gaming laptop so there wasn't any reason for the issue other than the defect in the nVidia 8400GS. This laptop runs very warm. It's a shame too because this could have been a great laptop. The size and weight are perfect. Do not get any laptop with nVidia--especially the 8400GS.</p>
<p>You can get the Dell XPS M1330 laptop with Intel integrated graphics which is what I have. I would agree with nysmile at this time: don't buy anything with nVidia discrete video cards. At the moment, this includes all MacBook Pros. I had a look around the Dell website and didn't see any laptops with ADI discrete graphics. Though I didn't look at every system option.</p>
<p>The new Dell Studio laptop line is looking pretty nice, especially the 17" model. It has the new ATI Radeon HD 3650 GPU, which according to benchmarks is faster than the nVidia 8600GT (plus it doesn't have any defects to speak of).</p>