Macbook 13 vs Dell Studio XPS 13 vs Lenovo T400

by skteep May 11, 2009 2:48PM PDT

Hi, I'm going away for university this fall to study chemical engineering and will be picking up a laptop this summer, but I would like to get a head start on picking my laptop.

I've sort of settled on one of: 13" aluminum macbook, Dell Studio XPS 13, or the Lenovo T400. They are all at similar price points and similar specs. I have never owned a mac but have heard many good things about them.

Any advice would be greatly aprreciated.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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What does your Uni Suggest?

by TimWoodChip Intel staff May 11, 2009 3:23PM PDT

SKTEEP, check with the Engineering department and find out what they recommend. You will want to buy what your professors and classmates use. If the department has no recommendations then make sure you go kick the tires of all three and think about the cost of the applications you will need to buy as well like office not just the sticker price. In addition, check battery life and weight; the Lenovo and Dell will have good battery life. Not sure how good Mac battery life is. I use a Lenovo for work and own a Dell XPS for personal use, both OEMs make good notebooks. Hope some of this helps.

TimWoodChip
#tomorrow
==========
Disclosure: TimWoodChip is an Intel employee and aspirational sponsor of tomorrow.

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macbook is out

by skteep May 12, 2009 8:04AM PDT

Thanks, I looked into the universities computer labs' online and in the engineering department they are all running windows, so I guess the macbook is out. So what do you guys think of the Studio XPS 13 and Lenovo T400?

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I will try not to confuse

by imanym Jul 20, 2009 1:50PM PDT

I am not a chem major, but I do have some advice. I have been a PC owner for my entire life. I strongly suggest the IBM Lenovo over the DELL, definitely. The IBM Lenovo has a shell and system design only comparable to the Mac. I own a PC and a Mac. I use my Mac in order to test multiple client software environments and need to be able to easily shift to multiple environments(I can do this and do with my pc by using VM Ware and the Vista's Aero, AWESOME). As the other post suggest you can do this with fusion, but if you have no real interest in using the Mac OS then there is no real need to pay the Mac premium to just own the Mac when you will be using these environments most of the time (Windows). Thinkpads are Lenovo's business line of laptops and they are built nice (not as pretty as the Mac or the Dell but what it lacks in looks it definitely makes up in design, keyboard feel, layout and performance. My personal opinion is the IBM. Do not be fooled by the Mac it is sleek, but its shell does add some weight and takes some screen size from you as the Mac is 13.3 ibm 14.1 they weigh a tad less.
Hope this helped good luck,

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I would go with the Windows option

by orlbuckeye May 11, 2009 9:39PM PDT

for your major. There is more tecnical software compatible & available with windows then with the Mac OS.

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I do ChemE

by crmldp Jul 17, 2009 10:30AM PDT

I'm in my third year of chemical engineering and I use a 13" macbook. For the (few, so far anyway) Windows only programs (such as the AspenONE Suite, and Polymath because I wanted to run the same program as my classmates, though there are alternatives to this one) I just run XP on Fusion. Check out the IT department at your uni - I was able to get both vmware Fusion and XP for free (that is, using a license owned by the university). Not to brag, but my macbook runs any aspen sim faster than most of my classmates' windows boxes. Also, about 20% of my classmates use a mac, it's not just me.
I'd say go for the macbook.

Macbook 13 vs Dell Studio XPS 13 vs Lenovo T400

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