Best Laptops for college?

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Terpskins99 said:
As long as you can recognize your own handwriting, then who cares?

Med students use the tablet primarily to fill in their syllabus/pdf with handwritten notes.
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I am definitely looking into doing this in the near future. :)
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True, but actually when I heard that I thought of my friend's laptop where it converts handwriting to text...idk I thought of that. That is when bad handwriting sucks.
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I do not think that it truly matters. One that functions well. I have a 2006 HP Pavillion dv6000 widescreen. It works perfectly. :)
 
jefgreen said:
I am looking into buying a Lenovo laptop.

Which line should I be looking at?

Thinkpads?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=7788AB0C7D5942A3BAF7850043686BA4

 That is one for 700 bucks.

Is that any good?
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Definitely start even at the lower end of the upper T series.

The specs look fine, outside of the fact that the drive isn't a DVD Burner. I don't know if you can fleabay one for cheap and throw it in. I would never go without a DVD Burner.

Bluetoof may or may not be a problem. I don't have it on mine, gf has it on hers. I can sync her laptop with our phones, for instance, but has been pointless. There could be instances you'd want to use it, like swapping small info, but overall, not needed. I can't say this will work for you, BUT if your platform is one that's used with models that do have bluetoof, you can actually buy the internal module for very cheap off fleabay and plug it in yourself. My laptop (an Acer) is one of those models. I think it runs like $25. There's always the USB route, but it really doesn't matter.

As far as the operating system goes, unless you're able to Vista downgrade, I'd opt for an upcharge to the Pro editions. I did that with both of our Acers using XP Pro. No bundled software. Just XP pro.
 
jefgreen said:
I am looking into buying a Lenovo laptop.

Which line should I be looking at?

Thinkpads?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=7788AB0C7D5942A3BAF7850043686BA4

 That is one for 700 bucks.

Is that any good?
Click to expand...

It's good...but even at that price range you should be able to get 2-3 GB of RAM, not 1 GB. Vista is a memory hog and doesn't run well without at least 2 GB (3-4 GB preferred). If you're running XP 1 GB of RAM should be fine. Also you probably won't be able to do much gaming with that integrated Intel GFX card, but I don't know whether or not this is a concern to you :).
 
That was what I was saying about buying the lower model and simply buying an upgrade on the RAM chip. I don't think you need the upgraded wireless card, just increase the RAM to 2-4 GB depending on your preference.

BTW, I ran Vista for about a year perfectly on 1GB of RAM by shutting down all of those programs that always run on start-up that I never use. I upgraded to 1.5 after my dad got an extra 1GB stick and I realized my crap computer was fitted with two 512s. I replaced one of the 512s with a 1GB and now I have 1.5 GB. I don't see much difference in functioning unless I occasionally run an old computer game.

I just do my gaming with my desktop and I hardly use my laptop now. But since I'm going to college, what should I do with the desktop? Leave it at home for my sister.
 
DLi said:
That was what I was saying about buying the lower model and simply buying an upgrade on the RAM chip. I don't think you need the upgraded wireless card, just increase the RAM to 2-4 GB depending on your preference.

BTW, I ran Vista for about a year perfectly on 1GB of RAM by shutting down all of those programs that always run on start-up that I never use. I upgraded to 1.5 after my dad got an extra 1GB stick and I realized my crap computer was fitted with two 512s. I replaced one of the 512s with a 1GB and now I have 1.5 GB. I don't see much difference in functioning unless I occasionally run an old computer game.

I just do my gaming with my desktop and I hardly use my laptop now. But since I'm going to college, what should I do with the desktop? Leave it at home for my sister.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with upgrading the RAM, that's a very good idea, and there are some very good deals on RAM. I think it's harder to upgrade on a laptop than a desktop...but then again I have never done it on a laptop so I don't know. 2-4 GB is probably optimal, although like you said you can get by on less. :thumbup:

About the desktop...I'm just going to leave mine at home I think ;)
 
jefgreen said:
I am looking into buying a Lenovo laptop.

Which line should I be looking at?

Thinkpads?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=7788AB0C7D5942A3BAF7850043686BA4

 That is one for 700 bucks.

Is that any good?
Click to expand...

I started with the SL400 as my base model ($499)

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=3D30F7A2971B44DB9D15A7051B04CC0E

Then used the rest of my budget to increase the RAM to 3 Gigs and put a better processor in it. Try playing around with customizing that one.
 
back to the tablet pc's (never have used one)

is there a huge difference between getting a tablet pc or just getting a regular laptop and getting a regular external usb tablet? :confused:
 
The difference is you'd have a useful computer that didn't cost you an unnecessarily huge amount of money and you'd have the tablet functionality.
 
Silverman780 said:
back to the tablet pc's (never have used one)

is there a huge difference between getting a tablet pc or just getting a regular laptop and getting a regular external usb tablet? :confused:
Click to expand...

It is much easier to "write" on screen than on an external usb pad.
 
Does anyone have a recommendation for a tablet laptop? I'm seriously considering getting one after sitting in on a few lectures and seeing the benefits.

So far it seems these models are well liked:

HP Pavilion tx2500z

Lenovo Think Pad x200

Lenonvo Think Pad x61t

*I didn't realize this was the high-school forum. Sorry. Advice is good anyway. Maybe I'll repost this is allo...
 
Last edited:
n3opologist, there is a tech forum on SDN. I'm sure they'd be really helpful, too.
 
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