looking for a laptop....

shadylane

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i'm thinking of getting an apple laptop that will go along with my freeipod when i get it...i have a couple of questions concerning laptops in general

which brand is the best

whats the difference between mac and windows.

is an apple laptop good?

any good deals on the apple laptop or any other good laptops?
 
IMO if anyone buys a MAC they get it for style, not ease of use. As someone that got one after being on Windows for years, there was was no "ease of use." I mean it worked fine, but it took a lot getting used too. Now, I love the operating system compared to Windows. It works and does was it is suppose to do. My ibook G4 has never frozen, restarted by itself or had any major problems. But remember by getting locked into OS X you are giving up a lot of applications on Windows. But if you can find whatever you need on the Mac platform I am sure you will like it.

Also, you won't find any great deals on macs. Maybe a free printer/memory after rebate on a resellers website. Best thing to do if you can, is get an educational discount.
 
apples are great but you have to ask your self if your willing to pay the price. The lowest you could expect for an apple note book is 1000 and that would prob be like 1.4ghz... if you go to like comp usa you'll see apples don't have as fast of processsors or as much memory as say a toshiba (i have a toshiba i payed 750 for a year and a half ago and still love it and it sinks well with my desktop pc). Also, i'm not used to the apple operating system so i dont' li ke it... no mind that i do know it's a great operating system, i am just so used to windows for the price of an apple it just isn't worth it to me, but is it worth it to you

compair: this apple at 2800$

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1082518999364&skuId=6621774&type=product

or

this toshiba at 1599

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1093468376898&skuId=6851025&type=product

of course this is best buy so you may be able to find each of these computers cheaper somewhere else, but still there is over 1000$ diff and the toshiba has way more power than the apple.

so i'd pick toshiba, but i've never used apple... Note: my ipod works great on my toshiba and my hp computers.
 
[quote name='auralia']apples are great but you have to ask your self if your willing to pay the price. The lowest you could expect for an apple note book is 1000 and that would prob be like 1.4ghz... if you go to like comp usa you'll see apples don't have as fast of processsors or as much memory as say a toshiba (i have a toshiba i payed 750 for a year and a half ago and still love it and it sinks well with my desktop pc). Also, i'm not used to the apple operating system so i dont' li ke it... no mind that i do know it's a great operating system, i am just so used to windows for the price of an apple it just isn't worth it to me, but is it worth it to you

compair: this apple at 2800$

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1082518999364&skuId=6621774&type=product

or

this toshiba at 1599

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1093468376898&skuId=6851025&type=product

of course this is best buy so you may be able to find each of these computers cheaper somewhere else, but still there is over 1000$ diff and the toshiba has way more power than the apple.

so i'd pick toshiba, but i've never used apple... Note: my ipod works great on my toshiba and my hp computers.[/quote]




You cannot compare Apple MHz to PC MHz. Completely different processors. The G4 processor can do more per MHz than the P4 and therefor can get away with a lower raw MHz. Also, feature for feature, Apple Laptops are a great deal. I was at Fry's 2 weeks ago looking at the latest crop of PC laptops. VERY few were under $1k and very few were 1" thick at a reasonable price. That's the part I like to most of my iBook: it's easy to take places.

The only problem for me with Macs is the game department. But, I built my own PC and that solves my problem with the games.

I can't suggest a Mac or PC but I want to make sure that you understand the hardware really isn't overpriced. It's not cheap, but it's not overpriced. Overpriced implies that the price is not worth what you get. An Apple laptop is worth every penny.

It all comes down to what you are more comfortable with, Mac or PC. There's probably an Apple store in your area, go check one out, place with some iBooks or PowerBooks and then go check out a BestBuy or Fry's and play with the PC laptops. You'll find something you'll like.

Amazon.com is my best source for Apple laptops. No sales tax for me in California and the shipping is free. Also, they are usually a few dollars off. You can also check out the refurbs from Apple's website. That's what I ended up getting last year, but my dad got his new from Amazon.com.

That is all
 
thanks all this make sense now...and good idea i will go out and play around with them alittle to get a sense of what i will be buying...

one more question what programs will i be missing out from a PC if i do buy a mac? is there a list somewhere i can check out?
 
The G4 processor can do more per MHz than the P4 and therefor can get away with a lower raw MHz.

In general:

powerPC processors are faster at vector instructions.

x86 processors are faster at integer instructions.

powerPC and x86 are equal at floating point instructions.
 
[quote name='shadylane']one more question what programs will i be missing out from a PC if i do buy a mac? is there a list somewhere i can check out?[/quote]

You won't really be missing out on programs other than the games which usually come out a year later, if ever. Macs have programs that cover all the programs you would find on Windows. You can check out the following

http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/
or
http://www.macupdate.com

These 2 sites track just about every mac program available. The cool thing about Mac OS X is that just about any program that is available for Linux has been ported over to OS X since it is UNIX based.

The thing you'll notice, if you're used to using PCs, is that a lot of the major programs you know and love are available for the Mac. All the Adobe programs, MS Office and Macromedia programs.


Just whatever you do, please don't use Outlook for your e-mail needs if you get a PC laptop. That program is responsible for 99% of the proliferation of computer viruses.


Let us (me) know what you go with or if you have any more questions :)
 
very cool thanks alot guys you have been such a great help and i really appreciate all this info from my fellow CAGs. hopefully i will have a chance to go to compusa and check out a mac tomorrow i'll let you guys know my final decision and if anyone decides to share any stories of their laptops and why they like it please do thanks!
 
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