<p>im in high school but im planning to buy a laptop right now. I want one that will be good to use for the rest of high school and college. So, apple? hp? dell? (does apple computers work with princeton networks or something?)</p>
<p>PS I dont know much about computers :/</p>
<p>try the college computers subforum</p>
<p>Apple -- MacBook or MacBook Pro ... excellent computers</p>
<p>in my opinion, at least</p>
<p>Lenovo Thinkpad</p>
<p>I need a well built, compact, strong, stable, comfortable computer. I use my laptop too much, it has to be strong.</p>
<p>Plus I bet in college if you use one, people will think your quite professional. Haha...</p>
<p>macbook pro</p>
<p>I'm using a Lenovo ThinkPad T43 right now... and I think that they're pretty good. However, I'm going to switch to a MacBook Pro when I go to college... mainly for wanting something more... attractive. Either one is fine.</p>
<p>I totally want a macbook pro, but it's soooo expensive....</p>
<p>Go with a Macbook Pro. It's best investment I ever made!</p>
<p>Acer for under $400. Think Wallyworld has one for $340 this month. you can replace it 4 times for the price of a mac. Don't get me wrong, I love Apple but a very low end Acer in 2 years will be more powerful than a high end anything today. So buy an Acer now and plan on replacing it that way you don't have to worry about dropping it now or parts wearing out before you've got your moneys worth.</p>
<p>the acer for under $400 uses a processor that has the around the same speed at Pentium M computers from four years ago.</p>
<p>In any case, I have a macbook pro and I love it.</p>
<p>Also consider getting it through the PU for support and a decent price. They set it up and if something gets messed up, they take care of it. My D is happy with that arrangement (she got the dell they supported).</p>
<p>What does PU stand for?</p>
<p>I like my HP. A total Black Friday computer from Wal-Mart, but runs at 3GB RAM with a Sempron single-core processor and 160GB hard drive with a widescreen. 447 bucks.</p>
<p>Since I run OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, GIMP instead of Photoshop, and basic free software like Firefox, Picasa, iTunes, WMP, Winamp, and such, it's more than efficient for less than 450 dollars. I have four massive games installed, and about 1200 music files, and I still have about 90 GB to spare, and can watch movies on a widescreen at fast speed.</p>
<p>A MacBook would be amazing, but I'd constantly be worried about it getting damaged or stolen. This one...yes, but not half as much.</p>
<p>Go with a Lenovo Thinkpad T400 -- it is the lightest in its class, it has among the best battery life in its class, it has the TrackPoint stick (way better than a touchpad), you can get it with an LED backlight (further reducing its weight and power consumption), and you can fully customize it to your liking. Plus, you can tack on Microsoft OneNote for a mere $30 bucks! (A must-have for writing lecture notes.)</p>
<p>Princeton, to answer the question regarding what PU stands for.</p>
<p>MacBook! Although mine's not pro or anything but it's good, fast and virus-free. Plus, it's gorgeous! :D
Only problem i had was that two days after i forked out >1,000 for the thing, Apple released the new range of MacBook which apparently is better and lighter.</p>
<p>I used Acer (twice the price of my Mac) and Sony Vaio before and my friends pretty much used the rest of the brands. We all conclude that Mac is the best.</p>
<p>Agree with the ThinkPaders above. Great, tough, well-made machine.</p>
<p>"Only problem i had was that two days after i forked out >1,000 for the thing, Apple released the new range of MacBook which apparently is better and lighter."</p>
<p>Oh, that blows, sorry about that.</p>
<p>I'm probably going to get a MacBook. A MacBook Pro is cool, but it's much more expensive. And for college, a regular MacBook is beastly enough (it's pretty beastly to begin with anyway).</p>