Laptop help?

[minnie56]

My daughter begins a new job on Monday and has until tomorrow to choose a laptop....ANY help appreciated!

These are her choices:

Macbook Air 13.3" 128 GB
Macbook Pro 15" 2.0 ghz
Lenovo T520
Lenovo X220
Lenovo X1

 

[newdeal]

Get a macbook. I would get either the 13" air or the 13" pro. Depends on her needs really, both are great, the pro has a better screen, better battery life, you can expand the ram and hard drive later if need be. The air is more portable, has a higher screen resolution so more fits on the screen at one time and has the ssd so everything feels faster. Downside of the air is you cant upgrade the ram ever and you could upgrade the ssd but the cost is extremely high. The pro also has ethernet and firewire which may be needed but probobly not. Depends on if you want the better computer (the pro) or more portability (the air).

 

[ccudmore]

A big question is - what will she be doing with it?

A MacBook is all snazzy and trendy, but if her work has specific software that she may need, she may be out of luck with a MacBook. She'd be better off with a Windows laptop.

Also, will the IT department in her new job support a Macbook? Still a lot of places scratch their head if you tell them you're having a problem with a Mac.

 

[minnie56]

I should have clarified..the company provide these laptops and are asking her to choose from the ones listed. So I am assuming they all must meet their requirements?

Really appreciate the help!

 

[corster]

I personally found the Macbook Pro screen to be irritatingly glossy... I couldn't use it in bright areas. It's a great machine but I didn't find it very practical to use in an environment with bright fluorescent lighting such as a typical office - It's what made me switch back to Windows after being a Mac user for 9 years (I wanted a laptop with a bit more oomph than the Macbook Air offered).

I bought a Lenovo T420 (the smaller version of the T520) and I couldn't be happier. Cost me significantly less than an equivalent mac, is built solid (likely better than my old mac), Windows 7 still isn't Mac OS X but I haven't had any major issues. I'd imagine that the T520 would be fairly large to move around though..

Then again, if portability is an issue, either the Macbook Air or the Lenovo X1 would be your best options. If the laptop will be going between home and work or to job sites often, go with one of those two.

Depending on the nature of the work, having used both Windows and Mac in the past year, I suppose my decision would come down to this - anything more creative such as graphics work or video work, i'd probably go with the Mac, and for standard office productivity applications like Word, Excel, etc, the PC wins out (but just barely - Mac really has caught up in this area and is near equal now).

 

[newdeal]

Either of the macs are good, if she finds the screen too glossy on the pro the air has a bit less glare on the screen. If it was me i would get the air.

 

[minnie56]

Thanks everyone! Sounds like Mac is the best choice!

 

[fivebyfive]

The Air.

I have both the Pro and Air...get the Air.

 

[minnie56]

May I ask why the 'Air' over the 'Pro'?

Thanks!!

 

[fivebyfive]

Most importantly Lion (Mac's operating system) runs much smoother/faster on an Air.

Battery life is longer and it's lighter (hence the name). This makes a huge difference when lugging said laptop all over the place.

 

[dis_guy]

For sheer horsepower it's hard to beat the 15 inch Macbook Pro. It's what I have and I love it!

 

[minnie56]

She ordered the Pro--thanks everyone for the great help!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[roxysmum123]

She ordered the Pro--thanks everyone for the great help!!!!!!!!!!!

Good choice

I've had my MacBook for about 2-3 years now and I abuse the heck out of it with all the things I try to get it to do and it's still in tip top shape and the one time it wasn't I just took it to the Mac store and they fixed the problem for me even though it was out of warranty. Always happy with their customer service and for someone as computer inept as myself that's so important.