Well hey there.
It's my last year of high school, and in September I will be going to university in September, living not on residence, but in an apartment shared by a family friend. It'll be a bit of a travel to get to school every day on the subway (about a half hour there), and was in the market for a laptop for the school year.
I'm not looking for an incredibly powerful laptop, just a mid-range notebook that'll help me do my assignments with ease, take notes in lectures, and play some games (starcraft 2 should be out, and that game.... well, i have to play it.) Anyways, I've been looking around for laptops, and have decided to go with Dell. My parents own a fairly decent desktop computer from them that is pretty well-built, and I've heard nothing but good things about their laptops from friends and whatnot.
I was originally going to go with a MacBook, but since turned down the idea, partly because I don't want the hassle of learning a new OS, plus I really don't think I could fit the role of "hipster with white computer" notion everyone and their mother seems to be these days with their nice looking computers, and what not.
So, I have a bit of cash to spend. Roughly $1,400 (CDN, as all prices will be from here on out) on a laptop, along with a printer. Dell has these laptops;
XPS M1330 and
XPS M1530. Basically, after reading reviews the M1530 is just like a "bigger version of the m1330", sans the option to have an LED screen, which slightly reduces the weight of the laptop.
Now, my question to you guys is, do you think its viable for me to carry around a 15 inch laptop to and from school every day? It's known to be a fairly light laptop, but I'm just worried it will take up a lot of space in my pack every day and don't want it to be a hassle. But therein lies my dilemma. The 1530 contains a more decent videocard than the smaller laptop. Do you think I will be able to carry the 15 incher every day, or have to settle for the smaller laptop and not-as-powerful specs?
It probably would be better if I could see these laptops in person, but for now, internet advice will have to suffice. (Word.)
Thanks.
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This is why I prefer my Air over my previous laptop. 13" and 3lb. Just one of my books weighs more than that.
If you really, really want more power over portability, the m1530 probably isn't going to make your commute a living Hell, but the m1330 is definitely the more portable choice.
Have you considered buying a desktop for gaming and something like an Eee PC to take with you to class? You can probably get a nice desktop and an Eee for about the same price as one of these laptops (maybe less), which would satisfy both your need for portability and your need for gaming.
well i know i'll be having 2 textbooks along with a binder every day, with lunch and the odd paperback/ds/ipod/cell phone.
It's too big to take to class regularly, though.
edit: also I second what lewisham said
not buying a mac to avoid being labeled a "hipster" is pretty stupid
plus os x is like designed to be easy
Seriously. A Macbook would be perfect for you, besides the "has to play SC2" bit which no mid-level laptop, be it a Windows machine or a Mac, will likely be able to do. Everyone uses Macbooks because they are kickass little machines that do everything perfectly while remaining small and portable, not because they're hipsters that want white laptops.
Testing them out at your nearest Best Buy \ Circuit City would probably be a good idea.
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Anyway, I wish you luck on your endeavor to fight the "hipster" trend with your computer. That'll show 'em!
Perhaps not an oxymoron but certainly a very stupid idea, which is what I'd like to think Shogun was trying to articulate. Any decent gaming laptop will have horrible, horrible battery life and be useless for its main purpose, which is to be carried around all day while on campus taking notes. Get a small, light laptop that will run for 5 hours off the battery and save up for a desktop for the dorm.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/26/morgan_stanley_40_of_college_students_plan_to_buy_macs.html
Sure are a lot of hipsters these days I guess.
Yeah, I guess all those Dell XPS machines I see in class are actually off and useless. Totally not taking notes in class
i actually really liked the new OSX from apple, a buddy of mine owns a iMac and it looks really nifty, i jsut don't know, i kinda wanted to stick with a windows based machine, mainly for playing games and stuff. Anyways, I was looking at the ASUS F8Sn laptop. It has a 1.8ghz core 2 duo, 3 gigs of RAM, and a GeForce 9500M GS, 512MB. am i being ignorant in ruling out macs? I am aware of boot camp, but I want this computer to last me a good 4 years, and be able to do at least some gaming. i don't play many games, but i KNOW i will be buying SC 2, along with spore.
Oh come off it. Sure, any laptop can take notes, but I doubt those XPS machines are taking more than an hour or so worth of them before they need either a fresh battery of a wall hookup. Which was clearly my point. I suppose if your schedule is such that you never have to go more than an hour of notes a day you can get a gaming capable laptop for school use, but if you have any blocks of classes or longer individual lectures you're screwed.
In the Asus FA8N's case, the battery life appears to be pretty incredibly mediocre. Idling it can barely break 3 hours, and when being used it drops like a stone to just over an hour (Source). Asus is also a pretty low-end brand of laptops, and this appears to be consistent with the build quality found on the machine you're currently interested in. I'd pass.
If you want to get a Windows machine, that's great, but there's no such thing as a laptop that can game while still maintaining decent battery life. Considering you're buying the laptop for its portability and ability to run off of battery power, I still highly advise you get something small and efficient.
I'd consider this if I were you.
...and this is based on what? I see them last more than an hour. There is one in a three hour film class I take and it runs the entire class without plugging it in. You're not going to get 5+ out of them but it's pretty silly to claim they're useless for long classes. If gaming is something you want to do, something that takes any kind of importance in your computing needs, you should seriously consider a laptop with a dedicated GPU. There is no black or white answer to the question, it's a simple matter of tradeoffs.
You mean dedicated GPU?
However, the m1330 was built to be a more portable machine than the m1530; even though it is quite powerful and has a dedicated GPU, that GPU is pretty low-end and doesn't draw a huge amount of power. If you buy a machine that is built to be powerful enough for more modern games, you are definitely going to see a hit in battery life. From what I remember, the m1530 battery life is somewhere around 2 and a half to 3 hours with the 6 cell battery, and more comparable to the m1330 with the 9 cell battery...but popping a 9 cell battery into an m1530 bumps the weight up to about 7 pounds I think. And that is a really hefty load.
EDIT: the 3.5-4 hour battery life I am getting out of mine is during almost constant use. If I let it sit idle it would probably go for 5-6 hours.
Duh.
Saying "zomg he has an XPS it must be an uber gaming machine" is not accurate at all.
the idea of getting an ee pc does sound intriguing, but i would really just have one laptop to constantly use. thanks for all your input, guys really shed some much needed light on the subject.
(...but those macbooks do look pretty nice.)
Now, to preface all of this, I am a multi-platform user. I own Macs, I built PCs. However, I will be quick to say that I prefer the Mac, by no means am I tunnel-visioned enough to say I would never use a PC or anything.
Anywho, the biggest selling point to me is the size of the Macbook. 13.3" at that slimness is fantastic. I tend to think that anything larger than that defeats the purpose of a laptop. My sister has a 15" Macbook Pro and I can't stand the damn thing. It's just too damn large and I feel like I have a TV tray in front of me whenever I use it.
Beyond the size, I think you really should give OS X a shot. Back in 2003, Panther came out, and from what I read on the internet it was the first real primetime version of OS X, so I decided to give it a try, and holy fuck is it better. Opinions opinions lol, but I just find myself more productive in OS X, and it also seems to be better at multitasking.
Finally, longevity-wise, the Macbook couldn't be a better fit. I'd say that you'll easily own the thing 5+ years. In fact, the aforementioned eMac is the one I still use. Purchased in November of 2003, it's almost on 5 years and it still runs wonderfully like the day I bought it. I upgraded to Tiger but haven't gone to Leopard yet. In fact, the only reason I'll be purchasing a new iMac within the next two months is because I need to use my student discount while I still can.
I'm tempted to say look at the combo drive Macbook, maybe even a refurb, and then stick to a desktop for the majority of your gaming.
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Refurb macs are a very overlooked item. they come with the full 1 year warranty from apple, and you can purchase the standard applecare for them. I looked a few days ago, and they had a refurb Macbook with a core 2 duo, 1GB ram, superdrive, and a 160GB HDD for $1050(this is the canadian store, the american one will likely differ slightly). If I'm looking for a Mac, I'll be looking for a refurb.
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The XPS laptops will play games, for now. But they will not play games in a year or two at the speed the OP wants. Then he's stuck with a heavy laptop that he can't upgrade. I knew someone with an XPS (when they were still all gaming machines), it was a freaking tank. The XPS gaming laptop line is a desktop replacement, and certainly not something for taking to school every day.
The "gaming laptop" is a myth, and is only a road to hurt. You'll buy an expensive, heavy laptop which won't run games as fast as you'd like. The clever money is to get a cheaper laptop that will actually fit on your lap (with a power supply that won't kill a man) and use the money you save to buy a bargain basement desktop that you can play games on at home. Then you can save up for a shiny new graphics card and such as and when you need it.
If you aren't going to get a Macbook, I'd go for a Thinkpad. Those things are built like strong and sturdy, so you know it'll put up wiith the punishment of going to campus.
Oh, and as a lifelong PC user who just got his first mac, do not worry about learning OSX.
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it is very fantastic
I do not regret my purchase one bit
Having said that I think the Dell 1530 with the Intel T8300 chip looks like a pretty good choice as well, it's much cheaper and probably gets almost the exact same performance and battery life as the MacBook Pro. You'd also have the benefit of Dell customer support, which is vastly superior to Apple's. It's just not quite as skinny as the Pro.
Just don't fall into the trap of buying a 17" laptop. I know people who bring massive Asus rigs to school every day and they are all miserable.
I mean I guess the question is, do you want your laptop to disappear into envelopes, or is it enough for it to fit comfortably in a backpack full of books? If the latter is true then I don't see how you could go wrong with this one.
Interesting. That looks like a rather nice laptop, though it's still huge by comparison to the Apple equivalent. If size isn't a big issue, the battery life looks quite okay for a gaming capable laptop, and if you don't decide on a Macbook Pro I'd definitely give the M1530 a look. The review by Notebookreview.com seems rather favourable.