Best Laptops For College: Macbook
(This post was written by one of the founders of this site, Eric Boma)
If you’re reading this post, you’re probably shopping for good college laptops. As a graduating senior at a private university, I’ve gone through my share of laptops over the years. In fact, freshman year of college alone, I went through two laptops. I’ve learned a lot what makes the best laptops for college.
Getting back to my freshman year, both of those laptops were HPs, and the second had a fatal crash promptly around the same time the very next year. During the crash of my second HP, it was around midterms at my university, so I was pressed for time to finish downloading articles and finishing research papers.
The year prior, my father had offered me a Mac book as present. Yet, I was stubborn about not wanting to make the switch from a PC to a Mac, and I declined. After my first HP crashed, my dad made the offer again, which I declined. Again. However, after the second hard drive crash, I wasn’t offered a choice. Instead of supplying me with a new PC, my dad sent me a Macbook.
Since it was midterm week, I had no choice but force myself to acclimate to the Macbook quickly. I needed to learn how to use the Apple laptop, and I needed results from it with pressing deadlines. Surprisingly, the switch was fairly simple. In fact, it was probably the easiest college laptop transition I had ever made.
The difference between a Mac and a PC interface is that the Mac is practically designed for a younger market. Apple understands what college students want most in any electronic regardless of use – availability and speed. Macbooks ask permission before installing anything onto the hard drive, so students know exactly what they have installed without having to wonder what programs are hidden in the background.
They’re also easy to search with the Spotlight feature, which is faster and more precise than any search function on a PC. The Spotlight even goes through Word documents, photo keywords, and browser history – talk about thorough!
Finally, Macbooks are made for speed. They have lightning fast processing and internet browsing, as well as media players that make it more enjoyable to watch a movie from iTunes rather than on a movie screen. Overall, I simply couldn’t have made it through college without my Macbook. In my opinion, they are the best laptop for college students. My only regret is that I did not make the switch sooner.
Apple computers are worth every penny of their price tag, and they’re specifically designed for young people like me. I know that I’ll be sticking with Macbooks far into the future past graduation!
Question for our readers:
What do you think is the best laptop for a college student and why?
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Tags: Apple, apple laptop, Best Laptop For College Students, best laptops, Best Laptops For College, college laptop, hp, Laptops, Mac, Macbook, RAM
Tags: Apple, apple laptop, Best Laptop For College Students, best laptops, Best Laptops For College, college laptop, hp, Laptops, Mac, Macbook, RAM
Posted on: February 14, 2010
Filed under: Best College Laptops
5 Comments
catharineg
September 12th, 2010 at 11:54 am
My twin girls are freshman at a private college in Florida and we recently went through this same dilemma. They received laptops as part of their scholarship, so were able to choose between a PC and Mac. After much consideration and inquiries from friends and family, they chose Macs and haven’t been disappointed. The transition from using only PCs previously to the Mac has been very smooth. I agree that the “Mac interface is designed for a younger market.”
Stefanz
September 13th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Nice post there,i need to buy a laptop for myself this year because I’m starting with my college year,so i was in thinking what to buy,apple though have the best laptops but they are kind of expensive for me,so i guess I’d had to go for a standard laptop,i hope ill get apple in the incoming years,because i really want it,not just for college,i want it to use home or when I’m on a vacation.So,keep on with the good work.
Stacey
September 13th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Having your own personal laptop especially when you get to college is certainly a need. Laptops are actually very hit or miss, I have had 3 laptops on which two of them are dell and they completely died after more than a year of usage, then my last laptop I bought was an Eee pc of Asus which works well for me and have been using it for 2 years now. Although the Mac is an efficient laptop, I think it is way too expensive for its price and not all college students can afford it. I think laptops are really hit or miss and it also depends on the user, if you are planning to install a lot of programs and the like then a plain laptop would not last a long time, and if you are lax user, meaning you just download stuff or any update your laptop needs without checking what it is. Then it is highly likely that you may get a virus which may affect your hard drive and cause it to fail sooner than you think. While the Mac laptop seems great, for someone that has a budget I think a regular Asus or Lenovo laptop would suffice as long as the user takes good care of it.
Jason G
September 14th, 2010 at 2:37 am
I’m very much a fan of Macs myself, but just to play devil’s advocate I’ve got to say that any newer PC laptop running Windows 7 is going to be a lot more reliable than a WindowsXP generation laptop from an adware/malware perspective. It will probably still be cheaper than a Mac as well, but Mac’s still have two significant advantages out of the box: no need for anti-virus software and Time Machine backup software built into the OS. Protecting your valuable data is a piece of cake on a Mac- just plug in an external usb drive and it will automatically walk you through the whole process.
Monia
September 14th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Whether used at home to complete assignments or used at school to take notes or both, a personal laptop computer is an essential tool for a college student. Best laptop for a college student is one that allows them to run multiple applications simultaneously, has a fast processor, includes software they need and is small, handy and portable. However, since most students are on a tight budget, the perfect laptop is also one that is affordable. HP laptops, such as HP Pavilion Notebooks, meet all of the above criteria and even for $500, one can find a basic laptop computer.
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