looksin to purchase laptop

[Tuffie]

As I'm soon to run into some free money from the government as such I have been looking to purchase a laptop for use while studying at uni.

Surprisingly I've found my self attracted to one of the new MacBook Pro with the pretty retina display - how ever the 13-inch model I was looking at doesn't allow you the option of dedicated graphics, which is a real deal breaker for me as I want to do a little gaming on the machine and they are also extremely expensive (but from experience this is outweighed by its build quality and ease of solution). I am also worried and when I come home to work on my Windows workstation I will encounter file format issues. The main thing is of course using the office suite between the two computers, will I run into issues here and elsewhere?

I've also been looking at some Windows machines and have liked the look of a few Asus machines particularly being the Asus N56VM and I like the idea of some of the ultrabooks but I'm having trouble finding one with dedicated video..

Also, anyone who studied at uni can your thoughts would be appreciated on the importance of the size of the machine; as I could easily give up and get the 15" MacBook.

 

[Tuffie]

Bumping

 

[Tuffie]

As no one has any comments I'll continue to talk with myself.

I have also been looking at the Samsung Series 9 and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (both of which have similar pricetags to the MacBook), but to be expected with the ultrabooks there is no dedicated video.

I'm a big fan of the X1's 'TrackPoint' being an IBM user from way back ages ago and I'm unsure as to why but I do find the inclusion of a fingerprint reader somewhat appealing.. I'm sure this would fade off after the first use though. I have used one also and overall the whole thing gives off an ergonomic comfort not offered elsewhere and the backlight on the keyboard was extremely pretty.

And the Samsung is just flippin' drop dead gawjuss almost so as to compete with the Apple machine. Price is a slight drawback though.

Would be great to hear what everyone here thinks..

 

[wolfeking]

okay, I can not comment about use at uni, but I will give my experiences from computers in high school.
You really want something that can take a beating and still function. Also, make sure you got a fairly high cell count battery. Also take into account weight and build quality when shopping.

Myself, though apple has amazing build quality, I would run either a T430/530 from Lenovo(IBM), or a Precision M6600 from dell. You could likely get away with a Latitude with dedicated graphics, but of the D630 and M90 that I have used for months, I would always take the Precision M90 (would be even better if it had a G80 GPU in it). The build quality is about the same, but the M90 has better cooling, and more power conservation features. With a 9 cell battery and a SSD with Undervolted GPU and CPU, I get about 2.5 hours out of a 9 cell battery (though I could well over double it with the more power efficient screen and 12 cell battery in the D630).

Guess the TLDR version is, I suggest getting a business class machine for schooling.