<p>Any brand suggestions..I've never had a computer at home</p>
<p>Sent from my SPH-M910 using CC App</p>
<p>I’ve had my Toshiba laptop for a year and a half now, and have yet to have any serious problems with it. I would strongly advise against HP, as the several HP laptops I’ve seen all died after about a year due to problems with their cooling systems.</p>
<p>a dell would be great and so would mac. however the macbooks tend to be a bit heavy on the pricing.</p>
<p>Let’s set some priorities before people weigh in on what kind of computer (laptop) you should get.</p>
<p>How much money do you have to spend? Knowing what your budget is will greatly reduce irrelevant recommendations. </p>
<p>Needs vs. wants: Any laptop/desktop computer needs to do three things. It must be able to send and receive e-mail, browse the web and have word processing software to write papers. Everything else is a “want” and will cost extra. By this definition, a ten year old laptop running Windows XP or Apple’s Leopard with a decent battery and AC adaptor will work. Pretty, light weight, multi-core processor, lots of storage space and memory? No, not even close.</p>
<p>Do you have a major in mind? Does that major use specialized software? Does that software run under a particular operating system (Windows or Apple OS)? Computer labs will have that covered. If your future career has you chained to a desk staring at a networked Dell, then having an Apple Macbook does not buy you any “cred” during a job interview. If you’re in an Apple dominated industry, having Windows under your belt buys you nothing.</p>
<p>Lots of great deals are coming on Black Friday. Virtually any on sale laptop will handle your basic needs, </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I highly doubt any college uses specialized mac software in their classes. Go with a durable LT that isn’t slow, you really don’t need a super powerful laptop to run microsoft word and internet browsers. Lenovo makes very durable units that are fast enough and relatively cheap. </p>
<p>oh and don’t get an apple</p>
<p>^ It depends on your field of study, you can’t generalize like that. I have design classes where we work on adobe software - which yes, will work on a PC but can become unreliable if you don’t have enough to back it up. I also have many classes in recording studios where everything in the room is a mac. So for my school/program, a mac was essential, at least in upper level courses. I had a PC freshman year and it was a real pain always having to go by computer lab hours when doing projects.</p>
<p>Speaking of PCs - My HP laptop did have MAJOR cooling system problems, and my screen ended up cutting out because the insides actually melted - and I used a separate outer fan most of the time. Granted it didn’t fail completely until 4 years after I had it, but it was still an issue, and when making an investment I would like something to last longer then that.</p>
<p>By sophomore year any specialized major will likely have software that causes serious productivity drop if run in a weakling computer… Also, weaker current computers (read, the Black Friday $300 laptop specials) may not run even run today’s Word and the like satisfactorily enough (open a few web sites, email, and Word and the like…</p>
<p>Also, the notion of a laptop lasting 4 years (in a demanding environment) may need to be re-examined especially if you use the laptop for things like engineering, design, media, and the like.</p>
<p>If you have Apple store nearby and around $1000 to spend, I recommend checking out the MacBook Air.</p>
<p>It really depends on what you need it for. I STRONGLY recommend a laptop.</p>
<p>Samsung,Lenovo,Asus,Mac are all good value laptops.
I would avoide HP,Toshiba,Dell - they may be price tempting,but often have hardware issues.</p>
<p>For college you should look at 3 factors :
Price - make it between 500-1000$
OS - operating system. Windows if you write a lot or doe presentations, Apple if you like it simple & easy
Size & weight - it should be 13" or 15", and be relatively light.</p>
<p>Also if you are moving far away from home,your laptop should have a webcam.</p>
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<p>I have a Black Friday laptop and it in no way fits your description. I had the laptop hooked up to a projector and I had Word, Spotify, and several Chrome tabs open, and there was no slow-down to speak of. The processor was also locked at 800 MHz because I set Windows to “Power Saver” mode. </p>
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<p>Absolutely. Unless your major requires the use of demanding applications, such as AutoCAD, pretty much any laptop sold in a retail store today is fine.</p>
<p>I’ve had my Toshiba Satellite since freshman year, and I love it. No major problems whatsoever.</p>
<p>I think Acer company is best company for freshman in college…You can buy it because it has a lot of features rather then others…</p>
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<p>I’m going to being a freshman next year as well, and I was wondering which is the better route to go. </p>
<p>I’m going into engineering at Penn State, and I was thinking of getting a cheaper notebook or even netbook for my first two years. From what I understand, the first two years aren’t major-specific, and I figure there’s no reason to go out and buy a laptop upwards of $1,000 when I’m not even sure what I will need later on.</p>
<p>Would I be handcuffing myself too much with a netbook or a cheap laptop? Is it worth waiting until my junior year to buy a more expensive laptop?</p>
<p>Technerds @ anandtech would suggest the lenovo t420. If you’re doing artsy fartsy stuff then get a macbook. But for engineers and techy’s that aren’t gaming and want a stable system, the lenovo t420 seems to make the cut.</p>
<p>As someone that has spent a lot of time using a lot of OSes, I can tell you that Photoshop on Windows works just as well as Photoshop on OS X does. There is no “artsy fartsy” program that is Mac exclusive - but some artists are really fond of OS X’s color management. However, most laptops don’t come with a screen good enough for that argument to hold anyway. That, and it… really isn’t a big deal. </p>
<p>So what it comes down to is simple preference and maybe gaming if you’re into that - Windows still beats OS X for games, but you can run Windows on a Mac… but that costs a lot more and sorta defeats the purpose of having a Mac. Most of the gamers these days go about their business on an xbox or ps3 anyway (unless they like Nintendo games! Like me…)</p>
<p>I don’t have anything against getting a nice fancy laptop. My first college laptop was a PowerBook G4 that cost $2000 and it still works (and looks) great. If I had $2000 to blow I’d happily go get a nice 15" MacBook Pro with an antiglare screen, and enjoy the heck out of it. </p>
<p>So just buy whatever it is you want :)</p>
<p>[BTW, comsci/engineering nerds can like Macs just as much, having a proper shell is pretty sweet!]</p>
<p>All Dell’s and HP’s nowadays are pretty good in performance and cooling. Asus and Toshiba are also pretty good. I highly suggest trying out the laptop at Best Buy because some laptops have real issues like poor screen quality and bending chassis. Read online reviews for overheating issues and other things.</p>
<p>Just don’t buy a $300 piece of crap from Walmart or Best Buy because those laptops are purposely weakened in performance. They put in weak decade-old processors in modern looking laptops because uninformed consumers buy them.</p>
<p>I’m on an HP right now. Spent $800 on it and it runs fine. No overheating, 4 hrs battery life, solid chassis, and I can even run Battlefield 3 on low-medium settings.</p>
<p>^ Good points, but when you’re trying to squeeze as much into a budget as possible you will sacrifice SOMETHING. I remember helping my friend get a nice laptop - I found the cheapest i5 laptop I could (given slickdeals/fatwallet/etc) and it ended up being plenty fast and stable, and functional… but it had a crappy keyboard (yay… gateway!)</p>
<p>So that can happen. <em>Shrug</em></p>
<p>For any freshmen going to college next year, I’d advise waiting until this summer because the new Ivy Bridge processors are coming out in the spring and the new AMD Radeon cards are supposed to come out soon as well.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone I’ll do more research in the summer but now I can’t decide mac or PC </p>
<p>Sent from my SPH-M910 using CC App</p>
<p>If you can afford it, 15" MacBook Pro FTW. </p>
<p>-from an Apple homer</p>