so i can be trendy and surf the net at the schools coffee shop!


Anyway, Im interested in getting a laptop that can pretty much run photoshop decently. It doesnt need to be able to handle modern games, ill stick with my desktop for that.

What I dont need is some crazy $3000 laptop. I dont really have a budget, but I guess around $800 is a good place to aim.

(also, I dont care if its a mac or a pc. either one works for me.)

Spend a little more than 200 more and buy a macbook in October after the refresh.

Keep an eye on Dell, and wait until they have a swank deal then go with it.

Dell is in the midst of a fraud case and many orders are being pushed back. I would recommend staying away from them at least until the smoke clears.

This is something I saw while lurking around newegg once. Seems to be decent.

Other than that, I'd go with what Yecti said about the Macbook.

macbook

macbook

macbook

macbook

not macbook

macbook

Something that doesn't require a cooling pad.

So the macbook then.

Stay away from Dell and Acer. Their laptops are having serious issues right now. I would recommend Toshiba or HP. They both have well priced laptops and are reliable and durable.

I do like the prices that HP at toshiba have, but Im just not sure which one would work well for me. I know that the macbook can run photoshop and all those fancy programs well, im just not sure what the PC equivalent would be.

i hear toshiba has decent quality screens for color rendering.

They also make good tablets if you wanted one. But anyways, macbook.

A tablet isn't a bad idea. It's gonna cost a little bit more, but if your doing art things on it, a tablet will be pretty nice.

Macbook or Thinkpad.

Would someone mind explaining to me why a macbook is somehow better than similar laptops?

Yeah, wtf, how about some sources for these accusations?

I mean, for me, the lack of a right mouse button on the touchpad alone is enough to drive me up the wall.

Well, I don't know what everybody else is thinking, but here are my reasons as they relate directly to mb.

1- He has the worst PC luck ever (as evidenced not only by numerous threads on Massassi, but numerous phone calls and text messages I've received / placed to help him with these problems). Macs are more stable because Apple controls the hardware 100%, so there's a lower likelihood that he'll have problems.

2- He's doing creative work for school and presumably for his job that would be suitably accomplished on either a mac or a pc, but for my reasoning here see reason 1.

3- Windows Vista runs better on a macbook than it does on a lot of notebooks available. Parallels is often available now via schools at a substantial discount, as is Vista itself.

4- The reasons he's listed don't specify that it needs any functionality beyond that of a perpetual magazine, but inferring as I have already the macbook is more than capable. Plus the things I've seen with Leopard in our lab... It's really cool.

As for the no right mouse button. I wholeheartedly agree. I absolutely hate the touchpad on the macbook. But it's a dream to use when you have a laptop mouse, which I carry around with me all the time anyways. They're reliable, fast, quiet, relatively light, long battery life and fast again.

a macbook.

macbooks can run windows.

considering the overall build quality and the performance characteristics, you'd end up spending more money on an "equivalent" machine from dell or another manufacturer. also, you wouldn't be able to run osx, which is better for just about everything other than games (for both performance and quantity reasons.

What about software development on Macs? What sorts of IDEs can be used. There's no VS.NET for Mac. Although, yes, I can boot up Windows for all my .NET needs (or go with Mono).

OSX comes with an IDE (Xcode, it's built on GCC), that works very well for C++, Java, C, Perl, and AppleScript.

I used it for all my java writing, it was the most intuitive IDE I've used.

And with VMWare Fusion / Parallels, you don't need to reboot to get into your boot camp partition, either, you can run it within OSX with the coherence mode, making using windows programs very seamless.

Eclipse...

but for .NET crap you're probably better off with mono

Seriously? The touchpad on the macbook is one of my favorite features. It's bigger than any touchpad I've seen. Plus the 2 finger scrolling anywhere on the touchpad is the best thing ever. And if you need to right click just put 2 fingers on the touchpad and click.

Once you get used to it you'll wonder why others aren't made like that...

Probably because it's insanely annoying?

My touchpad on my current laptop has the right side set for horizontal scrolling (and will continue scrolling when you hit the bottom as long as you leave your finger down), and the same on the bottom edge. Makes much more sense.

And right clicking requiring 2 fingers and a thumb? So much for any sort of accuracy and cramps too.

I can get a laptop almost identical to the low-end macbook for $100 less at Lenovo. (The Lenovo actually has a 14" screen instead of 13").

I've never seen anything in OSX that has ever impressed me, nothing that Vista doesn't already have. And I've heard plenty of horror stories about macbooks.

Just my opinion, but everyone here seems to rave about macbooks, but when I compare them to similar products, I just don't see why.

When theres areas designated for scrolling, I always end up on them unintentionally. I can't scroll on themacbook unintentionally, as I need two fingers. There's also Fn-click for a right click.

Though I have no idea why they just don't have two mouse buttons there nowadays, since OSX sadly requires right-click (no more click-and-hold for context menus :()

MacBook

I must admit, having to Fn-click does my nut in but aside from that my PowerBook is the best purchase I've ever made.

You just have to try it, it's much nicer than it sounds i guess.

I, and cool matty I'm sure, has also tried it. Having to function click, instead of just a normal right click, is a pain in the butt. I have used other laptops that have the two fingers scrolling as well, it is not just for Mac's.

Yectis got a decent idea of why im kind of leaning towards a macbook.

1. I do have quite possibly the worst luck in the world when it comes to computers. Not usually my computer, but yea... The laptop however wouldnt replace my desktop, it would just be additional to my desktop.

2. I do want the laptop to be able to handle some design work so I can be productive when im on campus. Im not going to be playing games on it, but being able to handle Cinema 4d for basic work would be nice.


3. Dont need vista, but i hop between OSes every day anyway. At home I have vista, but at school we're on OSX all the time.

4. I really just want something thats going to be at least decent quality. Im not just going to buy a $300 laptop cause its cheap. And as much as i hate apples pricing, something tells me that getting a macbook might be worth it in the long run. Im not getting a mac just to have a mac, it just seems like the right choice.

And the no right click thing. Give it up, youre just nit pickign now. ctrl click isnt very hard. One button mice? Pay $5 and get a 2 button mouse. I guess its all personal preference, but a one button trackpad isnt something thats going to stop me from buying a mac.

I haven't even met a mac user that still control clicks. Especially since, like NoESC said, you can have it so you just put two fingers on the trackpad and click, and that is equivalent to a right click. After a day it becomes a non-issue and I doubt you would notice it.

I use a desktop mostly at school and they only have single button mouses there... so i got used to that.

I don't consider it a nitpick, I consider it a massive slap of arrogance against it's customers from Apple. It's just one of those things Apple refuses to admit they were wrong about, and it shows, every single day. >.>

And I'm not saying macbook isn't a bad choice, I'm just saying that when faced with another laptop with:

A. Good build reputation
B. Same price
C. Same specs

that I wasn't seeing why other laptops were somehow massively inferior. To be honest, I still don't think that's been answered, either.

I would like to say that Apple does have discounts for students. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Actually, you're wrong there. The Mighty Mouse arrived with fanfare of Apple admitting that two buttons were needed. It's only one button still because many long-time apple users are used to it still. But the fact that they built the right click logic into the OS shows that they simply didn't want to follow suit with their hardware.