<p>Hey all,
Basically, I have no idea what laptop to get for college. I’ve done some research and know about all the Macbook Pros and the HP Pavilions etc, but I was wondering if anybody here has a reccomendation for a really good laptop? Macbooks, Dells, HPs, Sonys? Any really good ones for around $500? I know next to nothing about them so any information would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>smg or not?</p>
<p>Do you prefer Mac or PC? What do you need the laptop for?</p>
<p>For $500, there really are not good laptops that I know of. You need to go up to the 800s to get into the big boys ;)</p>
<p>If you buy a Mac, it will really last you the 4 years. Plus, they give you a free iPod Touch with it. True that if you go to SMG maybe you want to go for a PC to have good excel and everything, in that case Lenovo. And ONLY Lenovo, all other PC’s by the 3rd week will give you errors. There are tones of good Lenovo’s out there.</p>
<p>Nickel: I suppose I’d prefer a Mac, but really, I don’t know which would be better. I’m nmot looking to do anything super specific with it. I need it because I’m a freshman entering in Fall 2010 in CAS, so I was wondering what laptop would be wise to get…
Chkw94: What laptop models in the $800s would you recommend? Would you advise not to invest in a $500 laptop?
Alectricity: I’m in CAS</p>
<p>oh in that case it’s a toss up. from what i see on campus, most people have macs unless they’re in smg and even then a mac is becoming more and more compatible with the windows operating system. macs almost never get any viruses so there’s a general consensus that they’re a little bit more bug free. i have a windows computer and its an ASUS, haven’t had any problems with it yet and it’s been a year. i bought my computer for 600 dollars and i’m kind of a die hard pc user so yeah. there’s my 2 cents</p>
<p>I really think it depends on luck too. I have an HP Pavillion. Coupled with a sale, it was fairly inexpensive for everything it came with by laptop standards. It’s been wonderful for me. After a 14 months, I still love it and don’t regret the decision at all.</p>
<p>I have an HP and I love it. I think it was around $600-700 because it was refurnished.</p>
<p>If you care at all about getting your money’s worth, avoid Macs. You’re paying for style, not functionality.</p>
<p>You can get a fine PC for ~$600. A better one will run about $800-$1000. And you can get a PC that will outperform any Mac for a few hundred dollars less than the price of a Mac.</p>
<p>Is it really that important to buy a PC if you are in SMG?</p>
<p>it’s not all that important but if you’re an incoming freshman, you will have group projects with 5 or 6 other people. more than likely, you’ll have to send powerpoint presentations and data to team members and from personal experience, some slides and things can get jumbled from mac to pc or pc to mac. it’s fixable, but takes more time to work with when you’re on a deadline and people have things to do.</p>
<p>Alectricity: Thanks for the info! Quite a few of my former classmates got themselves Macs, so whenever I ask them about this, I get a one sided answer. </p>
<p>Lauren: I’ve been looking into Pavilions. Would you mind telling me how much you paid for yours? They seem to be another reliable one that a lot of students prefer.</p>
<p>Nickel: Do you have a Pavilion too? Also, did you buy your laptop in your freshman year?</p>
<p>I bought my laptop second semester of Freshman year after my Dell died. The plastic that hooked my screen to the keyboard broke off and it made my screen black all the time. =/ I replaced the plastic but it broke again because I had to replace the hinges first. Anyway, it was a disaster and it taught me never to buy Dell again. I replaced the charger twice on that laptop too. It was a disaster. I have an HP G60 right now. It works really well. I haven’t had anything major happen to it except that I dropped a book on my keyboard and it made one of my keys pop out. I replaced the plastic under the key and it was good as new. 
I’m starting my Junior year and Wesley (my laptop) has never failed me. I also got him refurnished so it was cheaper.</p>
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<p>V_V did you REALLY name your laptop…</p>
<p>Yeah, it asks you what you want to name your computer when you first get it. Didn’t you name yours? My laptop is Wesley and my desktop is Vega. It makes it easier to search for computers on the same network when they have actual names. My dad named his laptop after himself.</p>
<p>I really don’t remember the exact price! It’s been awhile, sorry! I know it was an awesome sale at the time. I shopped around for good features at a good price in general. I ended up getting it at Best Buy because I wanted to see it in person first too and found the sale. </p>
<p>It’s a dv5 1235 dx HP Pavillion. Big screen but easy to carry around too. Nice features, memory, etc. There’s a rather large battery though. I’ve grown to like it since it kinda props it up too and has longer life, but I guess that could be a con. I really love it.</p>