My daughter is off to Uni, which is the best option for her, a laptop for approx £500 and have some money left or a Mac then have no money left?

Did you really post that?

Cheaper with online backup (google drive/dropbox etc) do when it gets beer spilt on it or nicked it’s cheap to replace.

Save the extra cash for beer and student riots.

Unless sh’e off to do one of them fancy artsy things where they actually use macs for design

“open source” or “proprietary”. hmm.

ok, WinTel is not exactly “open source” but it sure ain’t proprietary 😉

or, to use another analogy: cheap MP3 player vs expensive iPod?

Does she have a view ? If she’ll take care of the machine then MacBook, if it’s going to get bashed around at Uni then cheaper laptop.

2 adults, 3 kids (at or finished Uni) – all on MacBooks except me as I don’t use a laptop since I got an iPad.

also if shes going to be doing some serious work (proper typing etc) would suggest laptop and spend the extra on a screen and keyboard. Makes life much nicer and might prevent some early RSI injuries.

I love my mac and use it 8-12 hours a day, I’ll probably be buying a couple more before the end of the year too.

That said, they’re a total rip-off.

If you “need” either the OS or the smallness of the MBA, then I reckon it can be (just about) justified. It’s also much easier to justify when somebody else is paying.

Does she have a preference? What does she know?

macbook air!

Mac – They keep you dry when it rains…

Did you know that you can buy via Apple telesales?
Doing this you can gain access to discounts and promotions, currently in the process of doing this for my better half. She wants a MacBook Pro for her OU work.
The discounts and promo’s are only available to students

Check me out!

Macbook and the hdmi cable to connect it to the 56″ plasma screen that all students have in their flat…

Nice computer, big screen… Just add the bluetooth keyboard and mouse…

Student discount on the mac too.

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop/technology/computing/123177519_acer_aspire_one_d270_intel_atom_processor_n2600_1gb320gb_101_black_netbook.html?med=aff&esrc=cj&AID=1546795

+ larger screen + keyboard + extra gig of ram (add £100 to the price for all the accessories)

edit: And I’m a dyed in the wool apple fanboi

@drinking. A couple of points to add.

The Macs are more expensive but you get much better quality hardware (fact is laptop manufacturers have to compete on price so if they can cheapen something and get away with it they will, that comes back to bite you).

The way a Mac works is simply superior, in terms of interaction with the machine, the software, reliability etc

The “danger” is that one you experience one mac product and see how well they work together you’ll want more. Thats how it was in our family and over 5 years we’ve shifted totally away from Microsoft devices.

If you do go the Apple route, make sure to go through their education store or ring them up.

You will get 15-20% off, £70 itunes/app store voucher and 3 years Applecare thrown in.

Then you can joooooooooin uuuuussssssss!

@drinking. A couple of points to add.

The Macs are more expensive but you get much better quality hardware (fact is laptop manufacturers have to compete on price so if they can cheapen something and get away with it they will, that comes back to bite you).

The way a Mac works is simply superior, in terms of interaction with the machine, the software, reliability etc

The “danger” is that one you experience one mac product and see how well they work together you’ll want more. Thats how it was in our family and over 5 years we’ve shifted totally away from Microsoft devices.

Mostly true, but I’m currently on my 4th logic board on my 6 month old MBA which isn’t great.

It would be worth checking what the uni / course requirements are, because there are still some apps (e.g. Minitab) which need windows to run them – yes you can use parallels or bootcamp or similar, but unless she knows what she is doing, it can be harder to setup than it should be (e.g. Bluetooth mice need an additional driver in parallels etc).

If she did go for a mac, I’d go with a MBP.

jambalaya – Member

@drinking. A couple of points to add.

The Macs are more expensive but you get much better quality hardware (fact is laptop manufacturers have to compete on price so if they can cheapen something and get away with it they will, that comes back to bite you).

Simply untrue.

Simply untrue.

Which bit?

The OP isn’t getting a MBP for £500, unless it is secondhand.

Which bit?

Everything after the word “but”.

My MB is essentially unusable now, no longer supported and not really all that old. Battery failed twice. Totally.

My PC laptop bought not long after for about €280 new was far more reliable.

no longer supported

How old is it then?

We use G5 towers (nearly 9 years old) and they have only just got to the ‘no longer supported’ stage. But they do still work…

We’re doing samples of one?

How old is it then?

Significantly newer than 9years old!

I’ve got a first generation Intel Macbook and it’s still going strong, bit tatty but everything works on it. I bought it second hand in 2008 for £500.

So why is it not supported? What model/spec is it and what OS/software are you trying to install?

ericemel – Member

Which bit?

The quality is no better (and in some cases much worse) than other equivalently priced PCs.

– The hinge on my white Macbook has broken twice
– the front palm rest and screen surround on this machine has also cracked numerous times (design fault which should have been recalled)
– the chargers don’t have proper strain relief (to look cool) so the cables keep fraying
– the GPU keeps going wrong on my dad’s new MBP resulting in garbled screen display
– the touchpad keeps losing its click on my wifes MB
– the caps lock light on my mum’s MB only works approx 50% of the time
– the backlit keyboard works intermittently on my work MBP
– charging light is intermittent on all our machines

And that’s just off the top of my head. Probably a bigger sample set than most since my family has used Apple stuff since the Classic (what a great machine that was!)

Getting back on topic… I had a Thinkpad for uni and it’s been brilliant. Kept going while I watched all my mates Dells etc fall to bits and slow down. Still using it seven years later so I would suggest getting one of those, plus they’re better than macs anyway!

By not supported, I mean no longer upgradeable to the latest feature OS.

In terms of timescale, if I’d bought it at the start of a 4year Masters course, the batteries would have topped themselves completely during the 2nd and 3rd year exams and project/dissertation, and would no longer be upgradeable to the newest OS during the final year exams.

So as long as you don’t mind a few trips to the Apple store to have it fixed, it lasted just long enough to do a degree course, before being discarded on the heap.

Gaffer tape the magsafe connector on (really do not want that coming out since the battery holds about 1sec charge on good day, 0s on a bad day), and it does run the latest Linux OS very well though, even if Apple don’t give a hoot any more.

edit: as above – my money would now go on a Thinkpad. Would never spend money on Dell for personal use.

By not supported, I mean no longer upgradeable to the latest feature OS.

Yes I know – so what model/spec do you have?

The quality is no better (and in some cases much worse) than other equivalently priced PCs.

– The hinge on my white Macbook has broken twice
– the front palm rest and screen surround on this machine has also cracked numerous times (design fault which should have been recalled)
– the chargers don’t have proper strain relief (to look cool) so the cables keep fraying
– the GPU keeps going wrong on my dad’s new MBP resulting in garbled screen display
– the touchpad keeps losing its click on my wifes MB
– the caps lock light on my mum’s MB only works approx 50% of the time
– the backlit keyboard works intermittently on my work MBP
– charging light is intermittent on all our machines

And that’s just off the top of my head. Probably a bigger sample set than most since my family has used Apple stuff since the Classic (what a great machine that was!)

Why do ya’ll keep buying apples?

If you have no specific reason to use a particular OS or hardware go for the cheapest one. I can confirm that windows/os x/linux are all pretty much of a muchness.

By not supported, I mean no longer upgradeable to the latest feature OS.

Since when has ‘no longer supported’ been the same as ‘won’t run the latest os’? 😆

refurbished Mac for £719?
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FC969B/A

Black one, bought new in spring 2008, so just over 4years old when Apple decided it was no longer good enough for their OS.
Might whip out the HDD and sell it. I’m sure someone will pay good money.

I’ve recently got a Mac book pro – underwhelmed. It’s a nice laptop, no better or worse than the windows laptop it replaced. Lot more expensive though (fortuntely it wasnt me who paid for this)

Black one, bought new in spring 2008,

Are you sure you bought a Mac? That sounds like a much older G4 machine to me.

Why do people need the latest OS? Do the same people upgrade their groupset every time a new one is released?

Mac air, cheapest, smallest model is all she’ll need for uni. It also happens to be absolutely amazing. Any potential draw backs pale in to insignificance after only minutes of ownership. Plus she will love you forever.

New features too on newer OS.
101% real genuine Intel Mac (Core2Duo iirc).
It’ll run the latest Linux distros and probably even w8, with all the bling turned on.

Why do people need the latest OS? Do the same people upgrade their groupset every time a new one is released?

never really understood that myself tbh.

Yeah I switched from whatever the last OSX was to the whatever the newest one is and made no change to my life!