Laptop in China

Laptop in China

by slainte8787 Nov 27, 2009 5:35AM PST

Hey, moving to Shanghai for at least a year and my parents are buying me a new laptop before I go.
Used to own a Dell Inspiron which served me well for about four and a half years and then was overrun by viruses.
I want to get a laptop that
A) is lightweight
B) has decent battery life and good memory
C) has a camera and microphone built in

Those are pretty much my requirements. My parents are okay with spending anything less than $2,000 though I know they'd prefer to spend less than $1,000.
After China this computer is going to be used as a student computer because I'm going to law school so no crazy fancy graphics cards or media production things are needed.

I've been steered towards the new 13" MacBook Pro by most of my friends but I've heard from some of my "tech-ier" friends that I can get pretty much the same thing for less from lesser known brand-names.

If anyone can help me out with some suggestions I'd be grateful. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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At the top of this forum.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 27, 2009 5:55AM PST

Is the laptop pickers.

HOWEVER how will you feel about no warranty? Almost every maker will not honor the warranty unless you ship it back to the country you bought it in.

I've lost count of the sad stories.
Bob

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13" MacBook Pro vs. Sony Vaio CW

by slainte8787 Nov 27, 2009 12:36PM PST

I'm not too worried about the warranty because I'll be returning to the US eventually.

So I've narrowed my decision down to the 13" MacBook Pro (lighter, longer battery life, few to no virus problems) and the Sony Vaio CW (better specs: more memory and better performance capacity).

I definitely think this might come down to a personal preference decision but I wanted to see if anyone out there had any comments.

Do you have a Vaio CW? Do you like it? Have you ever used Skype on it?
Does the MacBook Pro require a lot of maintenance?

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by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 27, 2009 1:20PM PST

I use a variety of machines. Dad has a Vaio which is fine. As to maintenance on the Apple, I consider them to be about 10 percent of what effort I put into the PC. Nice machine to just use. Sorry, not a big skype user as current telco plans means we don't need it.
Bob

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re: R. Proffitt

by slainte8787 Nov 27, 2009 2:27PM PST

Thanks! Still not sure which way I'll go but feel a bit better about making the decision now.

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Skype/MBP 13

by dlinux Nov 27, 2009 10:01PM PST

Skype video calls work great on the Mac; haven't ever used a Sony (except in the store), so I can't say about it. I did look at them in the stores when I was buying my MacBook Pro, but I decided on the Apple because of the design/features/software (you can do sooo much more with OS X than Windows).

I haven't had to do a single thing to maintain my MacBook Pro, unless you count installing the occasional update and keeping it shiny with the cleaning cloth! As for the speed, I found that both the Sony and the MacBook Pro (both were lower end display computers in the store) were equally fast despite the Sony's superior (on paper) specs. So, it just came down to the features and software both machines had, and I decided on the 2.53GHz MBP 13.

Anyway, I guess you should go to the Best Buy or somewhere similar and try both of them out.

Good luck

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used as a student computer

by jonah jones Nov 27, 2009 3:19PM PST

because I'm going to law school

you think a 13" screen will be enough?

i do very little "technical/official" work, but when i do, it's always on the 17" monitor

jonah "my eyes aren't as young as they used to be" jones

,.

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Re: young eyes

by slainte8787 Nov 27, 2009 4:05PM PST

I think 13" will be ok. Still have 20/20 thank goodness. Plus those 17" are always so heavy! On top of books it's like you're carrying a couple of dumbbells.

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(NT) :-) enjoy! (the laptop and China)

by jonah jones Nov 27, 2009 5:02PM PST

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