Decision process laptop

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Florian1234

it's just hide and seek
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Dear all, I'm in a decisions process right now of wether to get a new laptop computer or not and if so which one.

Let me explain where I come from and what the "problem" is.
Being a PhD candidate in History, I mostly work with Word 2007 right now on an Asus Pro61S 17" laptop, running Vista.
I might want to get a smaller laptop, either 13" or 15" to be more mobile with it for, let's say, taking it to the library to work there.
Taken into consideration that I find Asus quite good for what you get, I might stay with them. "Problem" no. 1 here is the screens of Asus: My parents have an Asus, too (no clue which model, but I could ask them tomorrow), where the screen won't let me read properly the e-mail webspace of my university. My Asus model is better in that way.

Circle of "Problems" no. 2 (I don't want you to come up with a Windows vs. Mac war here) - the sirene's of Apple are luring in the background. So I would take a MacBookPro into consideration. But, coming from Windows, I ask myself if the higher price is worth it. I would have to work myself into the OS X interface (though I could use Word for Mac on it and might even have to, since my colleagues mostly use Windows).

Photography wise I work with Lightroom 2 and vuescan at the moment (scanner:coolscan V).



Pehw, I hope I don't bother you with it too much and that you can share your wisdom with me. In the end, I hope, you can take part in my decision process and help me to choose the right thing. Thanks in advance.
 
I use Mac but would not tell you you should. They ate great but not religious objects as some think. For me it's more about form factor and compatabilty. The new Lion OSX does some really cool stuff if you have a few Mac devises to Sync. That said here is one thing I would advise.

Get a Solid State Drive for your HD. It may be smaller in capacity onboard but, external memory is cheap and a smarter way to be safe anyway. I have a new MacBook air 11" with 4gigs ram and 128gigs SSD and the thing is a rocket. I'm sure if you bought a same spec Windows machine it would be also. Someone who is more of a computer person may post behind me and say otherwise. IMO the SSD is fully the way to go for a portable machine.
 
srtiwari said:
For some of us less Tech-savvy, What is an "i8 Air" ??
Click to expand...


iThink ;) it was a Typo. The MBA 11" has an i5 Processor the 13" has an i7 Processor. Both are super fast and powerful for their tiny size. The 11" I have can edit with Aperture3 and rarely slow down even with big 5Dii files.
 
I have a 13" aluminum unibody MacBook (became 13" MacBook Pro later on) from 2008 and used a mid-range 15" HP before that. All I can say is that OS X was a breath of fresh air for me - easy to use but powerful, very stable, with many useful tools built in... BUT not everyone will agree with this praise. Working efficiently on a Mac requires different habits than on a PC. No matter what Apple ads may say, there is a significant learning curve coming from a different OS and workflow. Switching may be beneficial - or it might not be worth the hassle. The choice is more like rangefinder vs SLR than Pepsi vs Coke - different capabilities and ways of working rather than 99.9% equivalent cr*p with different names.

A couple of things to think about:

a) Your essential workflow software - does it have versions/alternatives to be used on a Mac? Do you have to pay extra licence fees? The office stuff is easy but things like statistics, geospatial/GIS (my personal gripe), and especially legacy/custom research software packages, or custom database front-end-kludges (ouch) are another matter.

b) The smaller screens are not so good for prolonged work with text. Your best bet is to get a small, portable laptop (13" or even smaller) and a decent external screen to use at your workplace.

c) Keyboards are not born equal. Mac keyboards are light-touch and short-throw, with almost flat keys. Depending on your typing habits, this may be good or it might be awful. On PC-s, the key spacing, throw etc. varies wildly.

d) The suggestions about getting an SSD drive (or, at least a fast HDD) are good. Drive read/write speed is probably the number one bottleneck for laptop performance.
 
Thanks so far, I think external monitor and keyboard are very useful and consider that, too.

But keep the hints coming. I also will have a look at the shops this week.
 
Yes an Apple is worth the extra and I agree that the Air sounds ideal for your purpose. Apple's Pages will open and save to Word format.
 
Not starting a war, as this is purely personal preference, but I couldn't start to imagine how I lived with windows a few years back. Mac is a pure bliss, nice screen, and everything just works. Its so simple that you'll be confused when you're coming from windows.
 
Get a MB Air 13" or MB Pro 13".
Load it with Office for Mac 2011 and be done with it.
Do get the extended Apple care and the One to One program.
Yes you will be spending more money upfront but it will be greatly rewarded with a better user experience combined with excellent service if needed.
The One to One program will make the transition from PC to Mac very easy and they will also transfer all your data from the windows machine to the Mac.

Personally I prefer the MB Air over the "Pro" the SSD drive, small dimensions and light weight are a great advantage.
Dont' worry about processor speed etc its not important. Do get the machine with the maximum amount of Memory. For storage of lots of data use a external hard drive.
Burning CD/DVD's is a thing of the past, if you really have to. You can share a drive over the network or connect an external one.

After 4 years working for Apple working as a "Genius" I started my own IT support business dedicated to Mac. I can tell you its a poor business decision. No one likes their PC tech and need a new one. But hardly any one needs a Mac tech.... :bang:





Florian1234 said:
Dear all, I'm in a decisions process right now of wether to get a new laptop computer or not and if so which one.

Let me explain where I come from and what the "problem" is.
Being a PhD candidate in History, I mostly work with Word 2007 right now on an Asus Pro61S 17" laptop, running Vista.
I might want to get a smaller laptop, either 13" or 15" to be more mobile with it for, let's say, taking it to the library to work there.
Taken into consideration that I find Asus quite good for what you get, I might stay with them. "Problem" no. 1 here is the screens of Asus: My parents have an Asus, too (no clue which model, but I could ask them tomorrow), where the screen won't let me read properly the e-mail webspace of my university. My Asus model is better in that way.

Circle of "Problems" no. 2 (I don't want you to come up with a Windows vs. Mac war here) - the sirene's of Apple are luring in the background. So I would take a MacBookPro into consideration. But, coming from Windows, I ask myself if the higher price is worth it. I would have to work myself into the OS X interface (though I could use Word for Mac on it and might even have to, since my colleagues mostly use Windows).

Photography wise I work with Lightroom 2 and vuescan at the moment (scanner:coolscan V).



Pehw, I hope I don't bother you with it too much and that you can share your wisdom with me. In the end, I hope, you can take part in my decision process and help me to choose the right thing. Thanks in advance.
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BTW for all your pHD research work check out the software made by www.omnigroup.com . For writing papers use scribner. It will open a new world for you and make you so much more efficient. If needed you can alway's export to MS word.
 
I use a very cheap ASUS EeePC (old version, 9 inches screen, XP) for all my "mobile work", conferences and business-trips to the synchrotron and connect it to an external screen, keyboard (and mouse) anywhere I can. Problem is that a 12" notebook is probably the largest that can be conveniently used on the foldable table of an airplane or in the Shinkansen and so I am quite happy with this small device. I also second the advice of getting a Solid State HD of rather limited space over a large capacity conventional internal HD.
 
Macbook air for ultimate portability, macbook pro for better value and slightly more features.

Yes, mac/osx is worth it. If you're thinking about it, you'll eventually do it.

Just my opinion.
 
Florian1234 said:
Dear all, I'm in a decisions process right now of wether to get a new laptop computer or not and if so which one.

Let me explain where I come from and what the "problem" is.
Being a PhD candidate in History, I mostly work with Word 2007 right now on an Asus Pro61S 17" laptop, running Vista.
I might want to get a smaller laptop, either 13" or 15" to be more mobile with it for, let's say, taking it to the library to work there.
Taken into consideration that I find Asus quite good for what you get, I might stay with them. "Problem" no. 1 here is the screens of Asus: My parents have an Asus, too (no clue which model, but I could ask them tomorrow), where the screen won't let me read properly the e-mail webspace of my university. My Asus model is better in that way.

Circle of "Problems" no. 2 (I don't want you to come up with a Windows vs. Mac war here) - the sirene's of Apple are luring in the background. So I would take a MacBookPro into consideration. But, coming from Windows, I ask myself if the higher price is worth it. I would have to work myself into the OS X interface (though I could use Word for Mac on it and might even have to, since my colleagues mostly use Windows).

Photography wise I work with Lightroom 2 and vuescan at the moment (scanner:coolscan V).



Pehw, I hope I don't bother you with it too much and that you can share your wisdom with me. In the end, I hope, you can take part in my decision process and help me to choose the right thing. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I guess I'll be the dissenting voice here, then. I was in a similar boat as you were in 2006 when I started my PhD and wanted to get a small, portable laptop that would get me through all my research. I had the choice between an IBM and an Apple, and the eventual choice of the IBM was a good idea.

I wrote down a few experiences in comparison in this thread. In short, I went with a 12" X-series Thinkpad and there were a lot of little things that made it worthwhile. I paid probably the same as I would have for an equivalent Apple, but I got more out of it. This includes warranty - 4 years extensible to 5 instead of 3, better worldwide coverage, on-site service (i.e. on my living-room table) instead of send-in -, a better keyboard, easily-interchangeable hardware like batteries, and a lot of little things. Also it is probably more solid in terms of hardware. Read the other thread for more details why I think it is. People praise Apple a lot for hardware quality, but usually it's because they compare them to mediocre PC hardware, not high-end hardware.

I'm thinking of a new laptop now, and I'm considering an Apple, too, but for me they're a distant third-rate contender, if at all, behind a Toughbook and another Thinkpad.

Remember that on a forum like this, all you get is opinions from highly opinionated people, me included. Computer brand discussions in forums are full of Apple-lovers, Apple-haters, Thinkpad-lovers, Windows-haters, most of the discussion and recommendations are emotional and exaggerated. Note also that artsy people are even more opinionated than engineering types. Apple may be a good idea for you, or not, but in the end, it's just a computer.

Contrary what some guys here say, you can think of it without eventually doing it. Just make an informed choice yourself, and limit yourself to the intake of rhapsodizing input; in particular, don't base your hardware purchasing decisions on people's recommendation of software. Whatever computer you think of buying, try and borrow one beforehand and write some five to ten pages on it, which will tell you more about both software and hardware (keyboard, screen) than ten pages of Internet threads about how someone likes this and that. Try things out for as long as you can before buying them.

Now on a completely tangential discussion (just to contradict myself a bit), I wrote my thesis in LyX, which is probably the best scientific document processor available today. (It's available on both platforms anyway.) It manages bibliographies with complex citation systems (which can get tricky in the humanities as you know), handles references and indices well, and the software remains stable and snappy even if your document has 300 pages in several alphabets, with dozens of tables and images, and hundreds of cross-references and bibliography entries and footnotes. And documents look good, too. There is a minimal learning curve in the beginning because there is TeX working in the background, but LyX does a very good job of managing that complexity well for you. Whatever computer you get, this is something I'd seriously recommend trying out (for me it was a life saver). If you have questions about it, send me a PM.
 
Interesting that you mention the Thinkpad series ! I used my X31 from 2003 (I bought it shortly after arriving in Japan) until 3 month ago when it all of a sudden died (my 2 year old son dropped the notebook a couple of times from the table ...). Other than this it was the most rugged piece of PC hardware I have ever used and it was equipped with a IEEE1394 port necessary for my Coolscan 4000ED. :)
 
I use both Mac & PC, both have their pros and cons. For me, the fact the Mac is a UNIX is a big deal, and big advantage. On the other hand, I much prefer C# to Objective-C on the Mac. For laptops, I'm less convinced of the benefits of getting a Mac vs. a PC laptop, as they are a lot more expensive, apart from the Air, which I think is very good value if you compare with PCs. Another advantage of a Mac is you can run Windows if you have to / want to, but PCs cannot run Mac OS without a battle.

I got a Vista laptop and upgraded to Windows 7, it's a big improvement, and Windows 8 beta looks good too. The gap between Mac and Windows I think is still there, but it's getting closed up all the time. The last release of Windows was a genuine improvement on it's predecessor, I'm not sure we can say the same for the Mac.

If you want a Mac, and don't mind the price tag, then go for it, you'll be highly unlikely to regret it. However, take away emotion, and they are far more similar than some would like to think, especially if you're running the same apps like PhotoShop, Lightroom, iTunes, Vuescan, they may as well be the same OS.

rxmd: I don't have a Thinkpad, but I do have a real soft spot for them. IBM (then Lenovo) are one of the very few PC companies that have as distinct a "look" as Apple does. You can spot a Thinkpad from a mile away, and I like the black angular design in this age of bright colours and curves.

Anyway, I think these days, if you spend a decent amount of money, it's hard to get a truly crap computer.
 
rxmd said:
Contrary what some guys here say, you can think of it without eventually doing it. Just make an informed choice yourself, and limit yourself to the intake of rhapsodizing input; in particular, don't base your hardware purchasing decisions on people's recommendation of software.
Click to expand...

Yes, to clarify what I meant when I said "if you're thinking about it, you'll eventually end up doing it" - I mean if you're dissatisfied with windows, or feel that your life would be made easier with a more simple/unified OS, you will eventually end up with apple/OSX anyway. I've found some people are just happy with windows, and don't need/want OSX, whilst others spend a great deal of time wondering if OSX is indeed simpler and easier. If you're the latter, you won't regret buying an apple laptop.
 
Well, the 13" MBAir is far out of range budget wise. If Apple at all then, I would consider a 13" MBPro.
I will have a look at a shop and ask them about Apple and Lenovo and fiddle around with the Mac there.
 
So, what about the Lenovo Thinkpad T410s series? I'm afraid there are a lot of different configurations and their own site has the T410s not listet in the shop configuratro area. :rolleyes:
 
Florian1234 said:
So, what about the Lenovo Thinkpad T410s series? I'm afraid there are a lot of different configurations and their own site has the T410s not listet in the shop configuratro area. :rolleyes:
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I guess the reason for that is that Lenovo has a bit of in-series turnover; the successor to the T410s is the T420s, which is in the webshop. Based on my brother's T400s, it should be a decent machine, powerful, compact and light for a 14" machine, and robust. The T420s should have better battery life (the T410s is worse than either the T400s or T420s in this regard).

If you think of getting a Thinkpad and you're in Germany and you're enrolled as a student, Lenovo usually has university offers through stores like http://www.uni-notebooks.de or http://www.campuspoint.de. You don't really have to buy directly from Lenovo; since the warranty is handled by Lenovo in any case, you should have no problem buying from an academic reseller (or, in fact, a commercial reseller like http://www.notebooksbilliger.de who also have some student offers).
 
rxmd said:
I guess the reason for that is that Lenovo has a bit of in-series turnover; the successor to the T410s is the T420s, which is in the webshop. Based on my brother's T400s, it should be a decent machine, powerful, compact and light for a 14" machine, and robust. The T420s should have better battery life (the T410s is worse than either the T400s or T420s in this regard).

If you think of getting a Thinkpad and you're in Germany and you're enrolled as a student, Lenovo usually has university offers through stores like http://www.uni-notebooks.de or http://www.campuspoint.de. You don't really have to buy directly from Lenovo; since the warranty is handled by Lenovo in any case, you should have no problem buying from an academic reseller (or, in fact, a commercial reseller like http://www.notebooksbilliger.de who also have some student offers).
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, well there's a (the!) campus point shop at my former university in Bremen. That said, the 420s seems to be as well out of budget as MBAir :D What about the T420 without s?

edit: 410s is still available from notebooksbilliger. decent machine in that case?
edit2: T420s with smallest configuration from campuspoint seems doable. So I think I'll ask them about the machine when I'm there the next week.
 
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hi florian-long time no see! i would recommend hp4320-it is i3 processor inside and 13.3inch monitor. i have it and it is nice and sturdy. i use it mainly to make music but i think it would be good for other things too. or add some money and get think pad 13 lenovo with 13inch... they have better graphic card..
 
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