we've been investigating for about a month now. and still undecided. her older sister had a dell but the battery didn't last for more than 1/2 hour before having to recharge and then finally had to use it plugged in all the time.

i need suggestions, pro and cons.

thanks in advance

If you are willing to spend a little more than the regular promotional laptops, go to a mac. I am amazed at how much I love mine since switching from a pc. Right now at mac.com if you use the education store (since she is a college student) you get a free Ipod touch or nano with the purchase of a mac book or mac book pro. Downloading to an ipod is sooooo easy! If you are not interested in the free ipod, then look under refurbs and there are a lot of deals there, but they change daily.

I would have to second the Mac. I have been through 3 laptops in the last year (Toshiba, Acer, Toshiba) and they all had different issues after a few months. My DH finally was fed up and bought me a MAC. I love it. It is so easy to use and have not had a problem as of yet. Good luck deciding.

I recently graudated from CSUF (California State University, Fullerton)May 08

A lot of students had mac's at home, not many mac's in my department on campus. If she chooses a mac she will have to learn to convert her files to word before sending them to professors. (there are so many files uploaded to blackboard and also e-mailed)

I have a toshiba. It works great.
DH has an HP it is good too.

I'm sure it's all in how you care for it. Make sure you get the extra warranty though if she will be hard on it. I have seen a few students with cracked laptops and they try and work with that. EEK I would just get another one!
Make sure that she is saving her work on another source in case her laptop is stolen or breaks. I ad to refer back to semsters of work for my BS from previous classes. I have seen a lot of signs on campus for lost laptops.

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You can get Microsoft office for the Mac, so word is right there. No converting etc.

We bought my dd a Dell laptop for Christmas and she absolutely loves it. She uses it all the time - mostly on battery and she hasn't had any problems. We also have a Dell desktop. I don't think we'll ever buy anything but a Dell in the future (and I used to work for IBM!! )

Lisa

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Go for the Mac if you can afford it! I believe that if you purchase one now you get a free iPod Touch with it. ANNNNND College students should qualify for the educational discount.

Apple Store for Education




And as far as compatibility goes, Open Office (which is free) will work on both a Mac or a PC if you don't want to buy Office.

www: OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

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Does she even like Macs? You either love them or hate them (I despise them). You really need to make sure that she likes it before shelling out $$ for it.

Most important is making sure it has a good battery. She's not going to want to carry her cord w/ her everywhere. At least, I don't. And call ahead and make sure macs are compatible w/ the other computers and printers on campus.

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I agree on the Mac also. Both of my teens have one and use it continuously---with absolutely NO battery issues. Also, as stated earlier, Mac is very easy to use with PC based programs now. LOVE Macs!

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Have the courage to be yourself.

We are definitely a Mac family with the Mac Notebook, the I-Mac and the Mac-Mini for me. After all the years of monkeying with problems on Gateways, Dells and Compaqs, we will never go back.

That's what they say....."Once you go Mac ...you never go back!"

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When I was in college, my laptop got stolen from my dorm room.

I wouldn't go for a laptop, too many risk issues and too hard to keep safe...get your daughter an inexpensive desktop instead!

Im debating this issue also so thanks for the post, out of all the college dorms we visited I didnt see 1 desktop computer and also the kids told us they take it to classes.

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These days EVERYONE has a laptop in college. They are like cell phones. So unless you have some super duper system, I doubt that it would get stolen unless she is careless with it. They need a portable system to take to class like ddist said.

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Check with the school to see who you can buy student insurance from (your homeowners probably doesn't cover her stuff at school). For my son, it was $75 for the year and covered everything from damage or theft up to $3000 per incident. He was a photography student and had a wicked expensive digital camera as well as a Mac laptop. It was totally worth the $75. Also they do sell cable locks specifically made for laptops.

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One thing- Word for Macs has been around for years- no need to convert any more. Of course you have to buy it, but we got it for under 100.00. If you choose not to buy it, converting isn't a big deal.

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Music is what feelings sound like._ ~Author Unknown

Thanks for this link- I'm going to try this. I like that it has a draw feature- I don't think Microsoft office has that, at least not the version I have (basic).

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Music is what feelings sound like._ ~Author Unknown

You do not have to buy Word or the Microsoft Office Suite! You can use Open Office. It's FREE and it works just like the Office suite. We recommend it for use it at school for our students that want to word process in .doc format or create "powerpoint" presentations, but can't afford to buy the Microsoft products.


From the www: OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite website:

Education establishments of all levels (primary, secondary, college, university...) find OpenOffice.org 2 meets the needs of both teachers and students. The flexible word processor, powerful spreadsheet, dynamic graphics, database access and more meet all requirements for an office software package.
With an open-source licence, OpenOffice.org 2 can be freely used and distributed with no licence worries.

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A nice lil Macbook would be great!

Mac for sure. A new Mac-book is coming out this fall so you may want wait.

my daughter just got a great TOSHIBA laptop from Best Buy for $399 and she loves it so far!

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