Laptop size/battery life (for dental school)

[Zubnaya Feya]

Hi everyone,

I have done some searching here but couldn't find a definite answer to my questions. I am looking into buying a new laptop before dental school starts. I will be attending University of Michigan and they do not require you to buy a laptop through them. They only have general requirements (2Gb RAM, Dual-core minimum). I have had my laptop for the past 4 years and it is getting outdated. I don't have a desktop, meaning I use the laptop for everything - movie watching, live streaming, some gaming, and all study related tasks. In undergrad, I never took my laptop to class so the big size (15.6'') wasn't an issue. I like the size of my laptop for at-home purposes and would like to get something similar but am having concerns over how portable it would be for dental school. How frequently do you, dental students, have to use your laptop in the clinics, classrooms, etc? Would a 15-16'' laptop be too big?

Also, again for the purpose of having desktop-like laptop, I would like it to be powerful enough to run photoshop and other power-sucking applications. But usually (within my price range) increasing power means decreasing battery life. Is 4-5-6 hours of battery life essential for dental school purposes?

Thanks a lot! Sorry for a lengthy post.

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[Palmetto914]

The new macs have some of the best battery life and core i5 and i7 processors. Is $2000 out of your price range?

 

[yojimbo53]

LCD's are cheap these days. Get a portable laptop to carry to school, then hook it up to your LCD when you get home. I'm sure any laptop with dual-core would have enough computing power to suit your needs.

 

[Zubnaya Feya]

The new macs have some of the best battery life and core i5 and i7 processors. Is $2000 out of your price range?

2000$ is a lot... I am looking for something in $500-$1000 range.

LCD's are cheap these days. Get a portable laptop to carry to school, then hook it up to your LCD when you get home. I'm sure any laptop with dual-core would have enough computing power to suit your needs.

That is an idea... Are you using such system? Looking at laptops a little, I noticed that portable laptops are usually not that powerful (unless they are expensive). So I was considering more the question of whether a bigger laptop is not a big inconvenience to carry around and use in dental school.

 

[userah]

just buy the 13" macbook pro. 10 hours of battery life, 4 gigs of ram, improved processor and it will work just fine for your photoshopping needs. All for about 1100

on a side note, i never saw the need for giant ass laptops. As yojimbo states, if you want large screen, just get a cheap LCD screen to hook it up to when you're at home. Laptop should be all about portability.

 

[DrReo]

I bought a Mac when I started DS.

I never bring it to class. I'm old school. Straight pencil and paper. A majority of the lecture notes will be power points anyways.

 

[mylilpony]

I bought a Mac when I started DS.

I never bring it to class. I'm old school. Straight pencil and paper. A majority of the lecture notes will be power points anyways.

Do people in your class type on their laptop during the lecture? I want to do that, but I'm nervous that it will make too much sound. So, I'm thinking about buying a super quiet keyboard. What are your thoughts?

 

[dl9006]

.

 

[infernobutterfl]

Do people in your class type on their laptop during the lecture? I want to do that, but I'm nervous that it will make too much sound. So, I'm thinking about buying a super quiet keyboard. What are your thoughts?

don't know which school you are going to, but at my school, you will hear a ton of keyboard punching when the prof says "this will be tested"... its like rain, but with typed keys...😱

 

[Zubnaya Feya]

I decided to go with this model:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2005816

Lenovo, powerful,14'', reasonable battery life and with 250$ off (mother's day discount) and bing cash back it turned out to be under 700$ with free shipping and tax included (I live in WA).

slickdeals has some major awesome deals on pretty much everything (go to forums->hot deals)

Thanks for help everyone!

 

[219122]

Do people in your class type on their laptop during the lecture? I want to do that, but I'm nervous that it will make too much sound. So, I'm thinking about buying a super quiet keyboard. What are your thoughts?

If you get one of those dust covers for the keyboard it will damp the noise as well as protect your laptop from spills/crumbs/ etc. Dual benefits!👍

 

[rvali001]

Hey, I'm having a similar decision to make about getting a lighter laptop. I was wondering if during dental school, do u need a large book bag to carry the books n supplies including the laptop? Or would a small laptop bag be enough?

Sorry for stealing your thread. 😀

 

[DrDientes]

I was also wondering what people thought between a Mac book pro or a pc tablet?

 

[caffeinehigh]

At Colorado every student is required to buy a Macbook Pro 13inch. Everyone takes notes exclusively on their computer except during Anatomy lectures with diagrams.

The rain of keyboard typing is a common occurrence, and quite frankly it doesn't bother me or anybody I know.

Get a 13 inch screen, and something you can backup with ease.

 

[dl9006]

what is the main function of laptops in dental school?

notes? email and internet? dental programs?



would a 13 inch be too small for prolonged note reading?

i was thinking of buying a 13 or 14 inch laptop.



what do you guys think about Ultra-low-voltage(ULV) Core 2 laptops?
are they fast enough? i'm very intrigued by their 10+ hr battery life.

 

[DrDientes]

At Colorado every student is required to buy a Macbook Pro 13inch. Everyone takes notes exclusively on their computer except during Anatomy lectures with diagrams.

The rain of keyboard typing is a common occurrence, and quite frankly it doesn't bother me or anybody I know.

Get a 13 inch screen, and something you can backup with ease.

That is good to know. I was thinking about getting a 13 or 15 inch macbook pro. How are you liking the 13 in? Would you recommend going to a 15 in (the price jump is big?)