How nice of a laptop do I want?

June 9, 2013 4:04 PM

I'm in the market for a new laptop but I don't know what direction I should be going. I'm hoping to go to grad school in two or three years so should I get a really nice laptop that will last me through school or should I get something cheaper for now and get something shiny and new when I start school? All I need a laptop to do right now is surf the web, Skype, and watch Netflix. I have a tablet that I do most of that on but every once in a while I need a real computer for something specific.

I live with my parents right now and just use my mom's desktop or dad's laptop when I need to but I'm moving out in the next few months and figure this is one of the many things I should get sorted out now.
If you have specific models that's great but I will be doing my research when I know what direction to go. I own no apple products but I might be able to be convinced to change that if that is truly the best option.

posted by missriss89 to Computers & Internet (22 answers total)

If you would like the laptop to last you for a while, I really recommend a Mac. I am typing this on my iBook that I bought in 2006. It is beginning to reach its limits, so I do now find some things that I cannot load onto it (but probably could have if I upgraded the RAM and OS) . And much as I understand that things have moved on in Windows world, I have loved the fact that I have never had to fuss with the Mac - everything I plugged into it, or loaded onto it just worked. I had previously had windows laptops and they just didn't seem to last as long. The Mac has been a joy, and great value when you consider how long it has lasted. Personally I prefer not to 'buy and toss' with technology (just upgraded my phone from 2006 one and only because a friend gave me one!). However, the alternative strategy for you could be to buy a Mac now and then sell and upgrade when you go to grad school if you need it - I think Macs hold their value better.
posted by AnnaRat at 4:17 PM on June 9, 2013

I would get a $250 chromebook (the Samsung) now and buy the latest and greatest laptop when you need it in a few years. Computers get better every year - you don't want to be stuck with today's technology in 2015. (My answer would be different if you would use all the features offered by a top of the line 2013 laptop over the next couple of years but that doesn't sound like the case.) I'd save the money to finance a move out on my own.
posted by cessair at 4:25 PM on June 9, 2013 [5 favorites]

Best answer: What are you going to grad school for? If it's something that requires a lot of processing power (or would be helped by it) -- like engineering, comp sci, some math, some econ -- you should get something cheap now and something powerful then. If it's something in the humanities, I bet a two-year-old Mac laptop will serve you almost just as well as a brand new one (and will likely last you through it if well-maintained), so there's very little reason to wait, spending more and suffering with something low-end in the meantime.
posted by supercres at 4:31 PM on June 9, 2013

Just get a Mac. Low end: low end Mac. High end: high end Mac. I use my 2009 MacBook Pro for fairly intense computational mathematics, and I don't know anyone in grad school that can say the same about their circa 2009 non-mac computers. Just make sure you have at least 8 GB RAM.
posted by oceanjesse at 4:47 PM on June 9, 2013

I love my refurbished Dell Outlet machines. They say Scratch & Dent or refurbished, but after having bought maybe 10 or more machines over the last years I haven't seen any signs of use on either of them. With a bit of looking around and some 25% or 30% off coupons which are frequently up on Dell's official outlet site you can get something decent for maybe $300-$400. If all you do is the standard web stuff and a word document now and then, this will do nicely and in a few years you can upgrade without feeling too guilty, having spent only a modest amount. Laptops get banged around a lot and may not last as long as other devices, and then there is of course always the risk of leaving it behind somewhere. Since I am not an apple guy, I would have no clue about the other side of the aisle.
posted by nostrada at 4:51 PM on June 9, 2013

Best answer: Wait until the WWDC keynote tomorrow and revisit options.

Odds are excellent some new Macs will be announced, which will drive the prices of the current models downward especially in the Apple Refurbished store (which should always be your first choice for shopping good deals).

Also if you are registered with your universinty, you can get modest discounts, 10% (hardware) - 20% (accessories), on new Apple gear.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:13 PM on June 9, 2013

Any laptop you get will run those apps/websites you mention no problem. I'd shop mainly on price/display/keyboard etc.
posted by randomkeystrike at 6:39 PM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I would not recommend a Chromebook, the price is appealing but google docs isn't what I would do all my work for gradschool on.

Here's the setup I just recommended to a new college student:

• 13" Macbook air
• 1 TB External Harddrive
• Microsoft Office (torrent it or buy it)
• USB to Ethernet Adapter
• VGA Adapter (for projectors and presentations)
• Get a free 2GB dropbox.com account

So here's the setup, macbook air is super thin and easy to carry, the 1TB drive is for movies, music, etc. (Keep it formatted FAT32 for compatibility with any other computer). Get the free 2GB Dropbox account and put all (ALL) of your school work into the Dropbox directory.

Dropbox literally saved my masters thesis from deletion. It has a lot of nice features including revisions, sharing, and multidevice sync. It's invaluable.
posted by tarpin at 6:47 PM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you don't want to switch to the Mac ecosystem, you probably want a Thinkpad (T or X series). They also hold their value very well (see, e.g., this question). Macs do have great build quality and I like OS X a lot, but if you're already comfortable on a PC there is not necessarily any reason to switch.

(I have a netbook from HP that I love, but it really just barely plays Netflix satisfactorily and I do not necessarily trust it to work in a few more years.)
posted by en forme de poire at 6:49 PM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

en forme de poire is correct; x230 or carbon x1 thinkpads are nice, and you can still get windows 7 installed.
posted by tarpin at 7:01 PM on June 9, 2013

Response by poster: The consensus seems to be buy a Mac now and forget about it later (except for keeping it maintained and upgraded} which makes sense because I assume my disposable income is higher now than it will be when I go back to school where I am definitely not in a field that needs anything powerful. (I hope if I were in a more technical field I'd have a better clue about computers)
Even looking at the Apple refurbished store made my heart and bank account hurt but I don't actually know that I'll be able to afford the latest and greatest in a few years and I can probably swing it now. The thinkpads look to be more about in my price range but I will definitely do some more research to see what will fit my prospective life better now that I know I shouldn't cheap out short term! Thanks!
Also I have a drop box account that I use for a handful of things now and I used Google docs in undergrad to double save everything because I have a pretty rational fear of loosing big projects!
posted by missriss89 at 7:15 PM on June 9, 2013

If you don't need a large screen the 11" Macbook air is great. It can fit into any bag you already have.

Buy refurb from Apple.
posted by cowmix at 7:21 PM on June 9, 2013

Best answer: I'd start looking at used macs then. I'd rather have a used Mac than a new anything else.

And I say this as someone who works in IT, and repairs laptops as a side job. MacBook pros/airs are just built better than almost anything else.

I've had 2 used macs and one brand new one since highschool. I only got the new one because I was having issues with one of the used ones, and apple gave me the entire price of the laptop in store credit to just get a brand new one.

I love my current Mac though. I've had it for two years or so(and its an 09) and have seriously had zero problems. And it's seen all kinds of abuse getting carted around to shows with my band and was dropped and treated like crap by the previous owner. Never skipped a beat, ever.

I like thinkpads as well, but don't touch the edge series or really anything that isn't a T series or X series. And honestly, for $6-800 that a good thinkpad costs new, you could get a recent 13in MacBook Air if you reached to the top of that price range. The 2012 ones regularly come up for $800, and will likely get cheaper when new ones are anounced tomorrow.

Another thing to note is that if you buy a used one cheap that's less than a year old, you can still purchase apple care which is awesome.

But seriously, unless price is the number one concern(or high performance to price ratio) I only recommend macs anymore. And I'd absolutely rather have a used Mac than a new anything else. It's just super nice not having to mess with your laptop, and knowing it will always just keep on truckin.
posted by emptythought at 7:28 PM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm a student with a mac . Macs are amazing machine and they're very well built. However, Macs are expensive. You mention mac prices as a concern. On top of the price, add Applecare (250$), external display adapter ($20), and, if you're getting a sub 17" machine - external monitor, because doing academic work on a 13" screen sucks, and on 11" it's impossible. Maybe possible on a 15".

I also hate taking my workstation apart every day when I go to university, so I have two power adapters, two display adapters (VGA for school, and HDVI permanently attached to my monitor).

In my opinion, getting AppleCare is mandatory when you buy a laptop. Shelling out for Applecare, for display adapters and worse, $80 for a power supply sucks (had to buy a new power supply for my old mac laptop, but I'd probably think about getting a second one anyway after a few months in university).

After six months in university I gave up on OSX and switched to Windows, because working with multiple windows on a mac is horrible (no built-in windows docking, as of a year ago) and the keyboard shortcuts in Mac applications are not cutting it for me.

Anyway, Macbook build quality is amazing, but the sticker price on a Mac does not reflect the real cost that will occur to you as a professional user, if your laptop is your main work machine.
posted by sockpuppetdirect at 1:20 AM on June 10, 2013

Response by poster: I hadn't even thought of getting an external monitor! I don't think I'll mind shelling out for one when school comes- so I feel better about looking at 11" screens now, which I had been trying to avoid because I know how much they suck for reading articles for an extended period of time.
posted by missriss89 at 5:02 AM on June 10, 2013

Yeah, external screens make the value proposition of a tiny laptop much more compelling. Something that's smaller in dimension than a composition book and weighing far less than a textbook that can nevertheless take notes almost silently and compose text easily while in class or at a coffee shop that can still be plugged into a 24" screen for intensive work sessions is a school workflow revolution.

One more note: AppleCare is a good idea for portables as it extends the warranty to 3 years, and if you buy through the education store, the discount on AppleCare is quite significant.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:36 AM on June 10, 2013

Just be sure you do some test typing on the 11" machine's keyboard before you buy. You might prefer the keyboard on the 13" model if your forecast for text input over the next few years is significant. (The bluetooth external keyboard at $70 is also an option for your home workstation if you want to maintain the best portability.)
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:38 AM on June 10, 2013

So word to the wise, I switched to the Mac ecosystem purely because of work and I hate it. It doesn't come naturally to me I'm constantly having to ask someone else how to do something and I'm often hotcornering myself when I don't want to be. If you like macs great. Just really be weary of switching and hating it. It will cut into your joy to drop extra money on something only to end up disliking it.
posted by Carillon at 1:15 PM on June 10, 2013

Another data point - I had a MacBook (high end but not even a MacBook Pro) from 2009, and I finally retired it and moved to a Macbook Air this year (old machine is finally out of AppleCare, got heavy use over 4 years). The 2009 machine would still make a perfectly lovely undergrad student machine but I still haven't figured out equipment inventory issues mumble.

I now use my Air as my primary desktop machine by plugging in an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, and it doesn't break a sweat with fairly intensive computing tasks. (And at the end of the day, work goes home with me. Fun!)

You won't go wrong with a setup like that, assuming you don't mind switching to a Mac / Unix computing environment.

One more aside: the best machine to run Windows on is a Mac, in case that's how you roll.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:05 PM on June 10, 2013

If you're not a gamer, all you really need is a cheap laptop capable of running the latest version of Microsoft Office (wait until you are a student and then buy the student edition).
posted by Jacqueline at 2:43 PM on June 10, 2013

By the way, apple's wireless keyboard and external mice are (a) needlessly expensive (b) highly un-ergonomic (especially the keyboards). Get a cheaper, uglier, but more ergonomic keyboard which has a numpad even if you do get a mac.
posted by sockpuppetdirect at 3:16 PM on June 10, 2013

Best answer: I hadn't even thought of getting an external monitor! I don't think I'll mind shelling out for one when school comes

And to throw even more water on the flames of your worry here, check out how cheap you can get a nice large 1080p monitor at newegg as a refurb. Several friends have had me help them build a cheap desk+laptop/desktop setup and got the cheap newegg refurbs, and my work has ordered refurb newegg acers before. They're great, and if you have any problem with it they just mail you a new one in like 3 days. That, plus one of these and you're ready to rock with a sweet monitor on your desk for $120(and yes, it says mini displayport. Those work with thunderbolt jacks just fine). If you're willing to spend another 50-80 you can get a used apple bluetooth keyboard and magic mouse or magic trackpad+regular PC mouse(the really awesome combo, IMO) on craigslist or ebay.

You can also get legitimate, warranted(by OWC, but still, by an established company that's like 20 years old) macbook power supplies here for under $50. They used to be even cheaper, but such is life i guess. If you look, they even have the brand new ones for $57.

You also don't need to worry about the 11in air having any sort of issue driving an external monitor unless you're doing serious gaming. Even the intel hd3000 on the slightly older ones dealt with it no problem. Anything up to and including video editing and heavy adobe creative suite stuff works fine. You can comfortable use both screens at once if you like(which rules. Music player/chat on the little one, primary work on the big one).
posted by emptythought at 5:26 PM on June 11, 2013