What type of laptop are you going to use for law school? Forum

AreJay711 · Post by **AreJay711** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:06 am

You guys are going to want big laptops that will allow you to dick around on the internet / gchat / fb chat while keeping your note taking software up.

breadcarp · Post by **breadcarp** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 6:13 pm

I'm a long time windows user and I have a (very large) windows laptop which I'll bring to keep in the apartment. For class though I bought a 13inch macbook pro recently. Coming from windows its a little quirky, but I've come to like it a lot.

I'm subscribed to microsoft's office 365 which gives me 5(?) office licenses and a 1tb cloud drive. Works on mac and windows. Syncing files between the two has been great so far. Also the subscription gets you into the mac office 2016 beta, which is coming along nicely.

Mack.Hambleton · Post by **Mack.Hambleton** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 1:37 am

how does the 13in macbook air still not have a 1080p or better display

JESUS CHRIST

breadcarp · Post by **breadcarp** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 10:11 am

Mack.Hambleton wrote:how does the 13in macbook air still not have a 1080p or better display

JESUS CHRIST

Between the newest macbook and the already thin macbook pro i feel like youd need to have extremely specific reasons to still hold out for the air to update. Personally i think the hardware in the beefier mbp justifies the weight, and with a paper notebook, some assorted files, and even one small book i think the differences approach noise. Ymmv if youre trying to carry it in a purse or youre very small, etc.

Clemenceau · Post by **Clemenceau** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:02 am

Anyone know if any law schools provide microsoft office downloads for students? My ug did but I kinda doubt law schools do

DK21 · Post by **DK21** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:05 am

I'm looking into buying a new mac for law school. Is anyone considering the new macbook? Is it worth getting that over an air or pro?

BrazilBandit · Post by **BrazilBandit** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:06 am

Clemenceau wrote:Anyone know if any law schools provide microsoft office downloads for students? My ug did but I kinda doubt law schools do

I'm not sure, but you can at least use your.edu email for the discounted Office 365 + Onedrive combo...

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msu ... medium=cpc

Clemenceau · Post by **Clemenceau** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:12 am

BrazilBandit wrote:
Clemenceau wrote:Anyone know if any law schools provide microsoft office downloads for students? My ug did but I kinda doubt law schools do
I'm not sure, but you can at least use your.edu email for the discounted Office 365 + Onedrive combo...

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msu ... medium=cpc

Oh cool thanks. 80 bucks for 4 years is quite reasonable.

barbiegurl · Post by **barbiegurl** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 9:00 pm

Indy16 wrote:
Gray wrote:
buckiguy_sucks wrote:
Eladriel wrote:Pen and paper for me.
For in class notes +1, can't focus for shit with a laptop out
+1.
+1

+100
In undergrad we could not have laptops out in most classes, and this saved my very easily distracted ass.

wonka · Post by **wonka** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:27 am

Post removed.

Gray · Post by **Gray** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:32 am

Auxilio · Post by **Auxilio** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:18 pm

mwonka wrote:For those of you planning on getting the Surface, will you have a desktop/second computer at home, too? The surface looks great for note taking but I'm not sure I'd want to write 50 pg briefs on it. . .

I have a bigger laptop which I might bring, or possibly even ship down my desktop. Either way though I will bring my Mechanical Keyboard with me, and maybe just buy the little dock thing for Surface and plug keyboard (and a big monitor?) into it.

rion91 · Post by **rion91** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:30 pm

BrazilBandit wrote:
Clemenceau wrote:Anyone know if any law schools provide microsoft office downloads for students? My ug did but I kinda doubt law schools do
I'm not sure, but you can at least use your.edu email for the discounted Office 365 + Onedrive combo...

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msu ... medium=cpc

Is that the web-based version or the actual software?

BrazilBandit · Post by **BrazilBandit** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:32 pm

rion91 wrote:
BrazilBandit wrote:
Clemenceau wrote:Anyone know if any law schools provide microsoft office downloads for students? My ug did but I kinda doubt law schools do
I'm not sure, but you can at least use your.edu email for the discounted Office 365 + Onedrive combo...

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msu ... medium=cpc
Is that the web-based version or the actual software?

Actual software!

rion91 · Post by **rion91** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 5:12 pm

BrazilBandit wrote:
rion91 wrote:
BrazilBandit wrote:
Clemenceau wrote:Anyone know if any law schools provide microsoft office downloads for students? My ug did but I kinda doubt law schools do
I'm not sure, but you can at least use your.edu email for the discounted Office 365 + Onedrive combo...

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msu ... medium=cpc
Is that the web-based version or the actual software?
Actual software!

Oh that's a really good deal

rinkrat19 · Post by **rinkrat19** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:02 pm

rion91 wrote:
BrazilBandit wrote:
rion91 wrote:
BrazilBandit wrote: I'm not sure, but you can at least use your.edu email for the discounted Office 365 + Onedrive combo...

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msu ... medium=cpc
Is that the web-based version or the actual software?
Actual software!
Oh that's a really good deal

It's a subscription. When you stop paying, you no longer have Office.

ub3r · Post by **ub3r** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:14 pm

Went down to the Microsoft and Apple stores yesterday to actually handle some of the laptops I was considering.

The new Zenbook is nice and small, though the touchpad was just okay. Once you've felt the macbook touchpad, nothing else compares, sadly. The different style of screen surface will also take some getting used to. The keyboard was suitable. As someone who is used to Windows 7, Windows 8 made me feel claustrophobic. It was like everything was fighting for screen space. But I guess Windows 10 this summer will remedy that?

The Surface 3 was way better than I thought. The (somehow not included) keyboard was really comfortable for me to type on, and the stylus pen worked great. Windows 8 still sucks.

Additionally, I don't really get the appeal of OneNote over Word, especially if the device doesn't have a touch screen. I like the organized rigidity of Word and am not a huge fan of the free-wheeling OneNote. But maybe that's just my inexperience. I will say that I think it's dumb you can't open PDFs into OneNote directly. Annotating PDFs with a stylus in OneNote seems like exactly the function I would want to have in law school. I guess you can convert the PDF to word and then copy over to OneNote? But that seems like a step too many. Idk, I'd love for someone to sell me on OneNote, especially for a non-touchscreen device.

IsThisForReal · Post by **IsThisForReal** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:22 pm

mwonka wrote:For those of you planning on getting the Surface, will you have a desktop/second computer at home, too? The surface looks great for note taking but I'm not sure I'd want to write 50 pg briefs on it. . .

I have a Surface 2 and Dell Inspiron 14". Plan to save everything law on the Cloud

tuxedocat · Post by **tuxedocat** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:55 pm

My Macbook from grad school died a couple years ago (RIP) and I've just been riding on my work laptop, so I'm looking forward to getting a new Macbook Air or Pro (not sure yet). I actually would love to keep my work laptop (Thinkpad X1--super light, thin, fast) but if I'm buying myself, I'm going back to Mac. I also have a desktop PC that I'll bring along.

I do empathize with those who get too distracted using a laptop for notes. In grad school I downloaded a program called Freedom that shuts off your network access, and I wouldn't have been able to finish papers or anything without it. There's also a version called Antisocial that's the same thing but only shuts off social networks. Highly recommended.

wonka · Post by **wonka** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:18 pm

Post removed.

usernotfound · Post by **usernotfound** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:28 pm

yot11 wrote:
stoopkid13 wrote:Anyone else holding out to see what happens with the new Skylake processors? Think its worth waiting until right before school in August (or even September)?
Skylake will bring major improvements as the "tock" in the "tick-tock" process, since it is a complete microarchitecture design (rather than just shrinking the transistor size). If you can hold out for it, then yeah wait because this step traditionally brings much better performance at much lower battery cost.

My laptop is pushing 3-4 years and feels like it's getting slower even after reformatting, so I plan to upgrade but I think I'll hold out as well for the new architecture. Hopefully they will be reasonably priced within the first few months after release, but other components also seem to be dropping in price, especially SSD's and 3k/4k screens, so it's probably worth waiting.

applicant4321 · Post by **applicant4321** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:40 pm

I talked to a couple of IT people about whether to do an Air or a Pro and the consensus was that unless your planning on downloading and running intense applications for video/ photo editing or similar things that an Air is really all you need. I personally keep everything I do on a computer pretty simple so I got the 256G Air, and I think I will be good to go.
after apple care and a new case I still paid $1500 for the Air and that is a lot of money to spend on a computer!
I just didn't think going for the Pro would be of any benefit to me and the air is extremely light, great for a backpack.
I think the Apple store tries to sell you on the Pro because lets face it, its fancy! But, I just don't think most people get the full benefit from those computers because they are almost too powerful for what an average user needs, and the people in the store will be honest and tell you these things if you ask their opinion.
However, the 15 inch screen and retina display on the Pro is pretty awesome, you just have to decide if its worth it.

AlwaysLurking · Post by **AlwaysLurking** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 3:20 am

long time pc user currently debating the switch to mac.
I've stuck with pc for so long because i like to lie to myself and pretend I have time for gaming. When I bought my laptop 5 years ago, 1080p and solid graphics cards for under $1000 kept me in the pc camp. Also windows 7 was almost perfect.

Now it seems like everyone is putting out hybrids and windows 8 is annoying, so I'm thinking about switching to mac for that "pure laptop" experience. I hate how overpriced they are in terms of what you actually get under the hood. I also will always associate macs with obscure ports that need a dongle just to connect to anything in the real world. I'm sure that's a pretty outdated stereotype.

I do like the "one stop shop" aspect of the apple experience. As I think someone said earlier, some pc manufacturers have children and monkeys staffing their customer service depts. Also no one except maybe Lenovo comes close to apple's build quality.

Ugh I'm torn...

fisheatbananas · Post by **fisheatbananas** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 3:58 am

I'm actually going to order the lenovo thinkpad x250 tonight. I'll need time to get used to it since I've been using a mac for all my life

rinkrat19 · Post by **rinkrat19** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 4:22 am

AlwaysLurking wrote:long time pc user currently debating the switch to mac.
I've stuck with pc for so long because i like to lie to myself and pretend I have time for gaming. When I bought my laptop 5 years ago, 1080p and solid graphics cards for under $1000 kept me in the pc camp. Also windows 7 was almost perfect.

Now it seems like everyone is putting out hybrids and windows 8 is annoying, so I'm thinking about switching to mac for that "pure laptop" experience. I hate how overpriced they are in terms of what you actually get under the hood. I also will always associate macs with obscure ports that need a dongle just to connect to anything in the real world. I'm sure that's a pretty outdated stereotype.

I do like the "one stop shop" aspect of the apple experience. As I think someone said earlier, some pc manufacturers have children and monkeys staffing their customer service depts. Also no one except maybe Lenovo comes close to apple's build quality.

Ugh I'm torn...

Why switch now when you're just going to get used to using OSX for three years and then have to re-acclimate to Windows when you start working? The real word (aside from some art/design) uses Windows.

You can have a "real laptop experience," whatever that is, on a PC. Just pay a little more (still less than a mac) and get a nice slick ultrabook with a high-res screen and whatever bells and whistles you want. And standard ports. And downgrade rights to Win 7 if you really can't deal with 8.