College Laptop

[Qam]

I am currently in the market for a laptop for college. I am going to be a chemistry major, and the college that I will attend does have any recommendations. I am looking for a high-spec, portable laptop, 13 to 14 inch screen size, and in the range of 1500 dollars, but I am will to spend more if it is worth it.

 

The ones that I have found so far are Vaio 13 pro, Macbook pro 13 inch, Acer s7, and samsung ativ 9 plus. As of right now I am leaning to the macbook pro, but I am concerned because I have little to no experience with maverick os, and I have been using windows my entire life. Is switching from windows to mavericks difficult , and how steep is the learning curve. Also how easy would it be to upgrade the macbook pro in terms of ram, and ssd. I know it was possible on the older ones, but I heard the newer are almost impossible, because the ram is soldered in, and such.

 

Also I am buying a smartphone soon, and I really like the android os, and I leaning to the new HTC one M8, but if I get the macbook pro, would it make more sense to get an iphone. I know that was a lot, so thanks for anyone who helps.

[tryphaa]

I would look at the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, or the s7 like you mentioned.

[CtW]

Gigabyte P35K or MSI GS60

Both are well under an inch and both have discrete and powerful graphics and both have matte, 1080p IPS displays

[SuperOwnJK]

Re: Moving from Windows to Mavericks

 

I've used Windows since a child and got a Macbook Air about 6 months ago. Transition was easy. I mainly use my Windows based desktop and flicking between the 2 is easy. Only thing to look out for is the command button (treated as ctrl on mac).

 

So basically don't let changing to Mavericks affect your decision. Just base your decision on hardware specs. 

 

Ps: I genuinely get around 8/10 hours a day out of my MBA. Running office and chrome. 'Instant' wake too.

[shayned1997]

I am currently in the market for a laptop for college. I am going to be a chemistry major, and the college that I will attend does have any recommendations. I am looking for a high-spec, portable laptop, 13 to 14 inch screen size, and in the range of 1500 dollars, but I am will to spend more if it is worth it.

 

The ones that I have found so far are Vaio 13 pro, Macbook pro 13 inch, Acer s7, and samsung ativ 9 plus. As of right now I am leaning to the macbook pro, but I am concerned because I have little to no experience with maverick os, and I have been using windows my entire life. Is switching from windows to mavericks difficult , and how steep is the learning curve. Also how easy would it be to upgrade the macbook pro in terms of ram, and ssd. I know it was possible on the older ones, but I heard the newer are almost impossible, because the ram is soldered in, and such.

 

Also I am buying a smartphone soon, and I really like the android os, and I leaning to the new HTC one M8, but if I get the macbook pro, would it make more sense to get an iphone. I know that was a lot, so thanks for anyone who helps.

I would recomend msi gs60 ghost if you would be fine with a 15.6 inch is a really light and thin laptop

[Ericde95]

OP, I am in the same quandary, but am choosing between the MSI GS60 and Razer Blade 14 inch (recent 2014 version). Take a look at the Razer Blade 14 and see if you like it! Its quite a bit more ($2200) but looks pretty sexy!

[RINZLR]

What about this?: https://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/G1L49AV?HP-ENVY-15t-j100-Quad-Edition-Notebook-PC-with-Windows-7-ENERGY-STAR-

It has a quad core i7, GT 740M 2GB graphics, 8 GB ddr3 memory (2 dimm) and you can add other things if you like (bigger hard drive, more memory, backlit keyboard, etc.). It's 15 inches and very slim. Yeah, it comes with beats audio but you can always remove it and install the default windows audio driver. It doesn't come with an optical drive but you have the option of either getting an external one directly from their site or just get one afterwards and..... it comes with Windows 7 64 bit Hope this helps. If you're still a little sketchy on it, you can check out Lenovo's systems. I've heard their laptops have strong build quality.

[erty176]

Check out lenovo's offerings and if you have a spec requirement that needs to be met, you can customize the specs to as high as you want.

[xox]

Vaio Pro is awesome. Although f I was going to buy a laptop right now, I'd get a Dell XPS 15.

[NickTheMajin]

For the price of a macbook book pro just get a msi gaming laptop or something.

Yeah. Compare a MacBook to something made of plastic, much heavier and much larger running a different operating system.

[NickTheMajin]

So big ,So plastic, wow

http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=6&id=465

Admittedly, I hadn't seen that model. That is nice and is a nice price. However it is a few pounds or so heavier than the MacBook and has a much lower resolution screen. And I can't imagine the 870m is good on the battery. For gaming it's unquestionably better but for a general purpose school laptop, I'd still recommend the mac.