Help find a laptop for school?

Dreadraven

Member
Jul 13, 2002
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Ok guys, truth be told, I was told by my girlfriend to find her a laptop for around ~1200 for school. Honestly, I have no idea where to begin, as I'm a desktop guy. So hopefully you guys can help me out...

This is NOT a gaming computer, so it doesn't have to be super fast, but rather it must be super stable and have a long battery life.
The ~1200 also must include MS Office and a printer...

Thanks a lot guys!
 

Commodus

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2004
9,215
6,820
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12" iBook? That's $949 US in stock configuration. Office for Mac 2004 is $150 for the educational version, and there's currently a mail-in rebate offer to take $50 off that price. You can also get a $100 mail-in rebate if you buy a printer at the same time as the iBook, and a $200 rebate if you buy an iPod or iPod mini at the same time. In short... as a student, your girlfriend will be able to get tons of free or discounted stuff if she doesn't mind cutting out UPC codes from the packaging and dilligently filling out multiple forms to be mailed together.

The iBook's a good student laptop. You can expect a lot of battery life (4.5 to 5 hours is not unrealistic), and you rarely have to turn it off - just close the lid and it goes to sleep, open the lid and it wakes up right away. The only real catch is that it might take a bit of getting used to the OS... but that doesn't take long, and in return you don't have to fret about spyware or viruses.

Edit: to find out about the deals, go to the online Apple store (linked from their main page) and click "education" under the More Stores section on the right. Pretty much all the promos in question are linked from there, and you can see PDF versions of the mail-in forms from there to check the terms of the deal.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,450
126
Eh, I wouldn't get a Mac for college. Even if she isn't a technology major, you just know that at least ONE of her classes is going to require her to use some specialized application that's only available on Windows. Dell is offering free printers and wireless cards with their whole Inspiron line right now, so you might want to check those out. Just make sure to get the upgraded battery, and she should be all set.

Oh, and wait until she gets to college before getting a copy of Office. They'll probably have an academic version available that is a lot cheaper than anything that Dell would offer.
 

BlingBlingArsch

Golden Member
May 10, 2005
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MSI S260, but its ur problem to find a shop selling it. This is one of the best deals if ur looking for a 12" notebook with the latest features (p-m or turion, bluetooth, wireless lan, dvd burner, glare screen) and a sweet design + look and feel. 1,8kg, battery life is about 4hours. from a 50 pages long thread the only troublemaker seems to be the fan. ppl dont call it noisy but it starts whenever temps rise over 45° and ppl want a bios from MSI so they can have control about the fan. So i guess the fan is audible but not too loud.
heres some pictures, maybe u can post some pics of u gf too so we can see if it fits to her....lol sry, just kidding.

and of course theres no printer included, u got to buy that seperately. price ranges from 50-200. Canon Pixma Series offers good quality and low use of color and stuff, recommended.
Canon PIXMA iP2000 ? 50,--
Canon PIXMA iP3000 ? 74,--
Canon PIXMA iP4000 ? 94,49

another good printer would be the canon PIXMA iP4000R, cuz it is a WLAN printer, so even while printing she can be mobile, but for 170$ here in europe i guess its outa her budget.

pics of the s260
http://www.notebookcheck.com/images/sto...otebooks/MSI/MegabookS260/tastatur.jpg
http://www.notebookcheck.com/images/sto...tebooks/MSI/MegabookS260/von_links.jpg
http://www.notebookcheck.com/images/sto...ebooks/MSI/MegabookS260/von_rechts.jpg
http://www.notebookcheck.com/images/sto...ebooks/MSI/MegabookS260/zugeklappt.jpg
http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=159&t=71018&img=1&p=1
and in black, but the black isnt as sexy as the white one, looks more like plastic.
http://www.vidilab.com/uploads/vijesti/S270_popup.jpg
http://uploads.bardiir.de/2005042216274523834.jpg

ps: pricing for the S260 is about 1100-1200 Eur here in germany.
 

Commodus

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2004
9,215
6,820
136
Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Eh, I wouldn't get a Mac for college. Even if she isn't a technology major, you just know that at least ONE of her classes is going to require her to use some specialized application that's only available on Windows. Dell is offering free printers and wireless cards with their whole Inspiron line right now, so you might want to check those out. Just make sure to get the upgraded battery, and she should be all set.

Oh, and wait until she gets to college before getting a copy of Office. They'll probably have an academic version available that is a lot cheaper than anything that Dell would offer.

Be careful about over-generalizing. If she's a student in English, history, poli-sci, and so forth, she's not going to need any specialized apps. The branches that do are typically engineering and science-related, and even then there's no guarantee. If you're primarily using Office, you'll be fine.

You don't necessarily need to be attending courses at the moment you buy, either. In many cases, they just need to see proof of enrollment for the current or upcoming term. That includes Apple; in fact, their online store lets you buy edu if you have the student number and a regular Apple Store account.
 

esun

Platinum Member
Nov 12, 2001
2,214
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Although I won't say necessarily that an iBook the best option, I wouldn't exclude it for the reasons given by ultimatebob. Commodus is right in that you can certainly get along just fine in almost any class with a Mac. Further, in my experience, even in science / engineering there is no need for a PC. Rarely will it be necessary for you to purchase your own software (can you imagine an engineering course that required you to have a personal copy of, say, Matlab?).
 

omissible

Member
Aug 21, 2004
57
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Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Eh, I wouldn't get a Mac for college. Even if she isn't a technology major, you just know that at least ONE of her classes is going to require her to use some specialized application that's only available on Windows.

Strange. I was in a technical major, and had two classes that required either A) a Mac B) Linux or C) Cygwin and many ritual sacrifices.

Check your college's technology requirements before you buy anything.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,450
126
Heh... When I was in college I had a Management teacher that required us to use an old DOS app for a project simulation. I also had a few programming classes where the software included in the book was Windows only. Sure... you could usually download a Mac equivalent for it, but good luck getting the professor to help you with THAT if you run into problems :(
 

tokamak

Golden Member
Nov 26, 1999
1,072
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A very large percentage of laptop users at my school have Macs, from what I've seen in the library, etc. A good friend of mine, who is a physics/bio major, uses a Mac - you'd be surprised how many of the technical apps are out for Macs now. I personally don't believe you get as much for your money with a Mac, but if your girlfriend isn't really into computers, and wants something easy to use and stylish, it might be the right choice.

Also, as mentioned before, wait until you get to college to buy Office. My school sells it for $15 to students.