The Ideal Law School Laptop Forum

[Silver93]

Anyone have any opinions on the ideal specs for a laptop for law school? Memory? Screen size? PC vs Mac?

[Cavalier]

Something that can run Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2.

[Silver93]

That's a given. Unwritten rule if you will.

[snotrocket]

It has to be reliable. Light weight is nice if you plan to take it to class every day, but that may be at odds with ruggedness. The Lenovo T61 is solid and reasonably priced. If you like Macs, the regular Power Books or whatever seem popular and durable. Basically any midrange current model with built-in wireless will work fine. Get two chargers maybe, if you want to splurge, so you can leave one in your locker (also in case you lose one the day before exams, so you don't have to freak out trying to find a replacement).

[Silver93]

In terms of convenience...is a 15-17 inch screen too large?

[DavidMorales]

So long as it runs on 6+ battery hours, it's black, and has that amazing thinkpad keyboard (to help me type with appropriate speed).

Oh, photoshop editing capabilities a plus.

Yes, i think 14.1 is Max size you'd want to be carrying around.... but maybe that's just me.

[snotrocket]

In terms of convenience...is a 15-17 inch screen too large?

The T61 has a 14.1" wide screen, and it's about as big as I would ever want a laptop to be. Then again, I don't rolly bag it or carry one of these giant Himalayan expedition style packs or a Timbuktu Large Messenger. Still, I don't think even most of the people who are into lugging forty pounds of case books around have laptops any larger than mine. If you got along with a bigger one in college, then you'll probably be fine with it in law school too.

[texas08]

so you can leave one in your locker

locker? your law school has lockers? which law school do you go to?

[snotrocket]

locker? your law school has lockers? which law school do you go to?

The good one.

[DavidMorales]

so you can leave one in your locker

locker? your law school has lockers? which law school do you go to?

Almost all the law school's i've visited have lockers: http://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/ ... Infocenter

[chubbysworld]

Al Macbook is probably the easiest to use, but it's not cheap at $1300. Apple always has sales right before school (buy a computer, get a free iPod).

[Waterman47]

If you can stretch you budget to $1700 dollars or so, I'd recommend a one-two punch of a netbook for taking to school on a daily basis and a unibody macbook for use at home and during finals. The former is light and portable enough that it will significantly lighten the load on your back, and the latter is powerful enough to take care of all your computing needs.

If you don't mind carrying more weight, just get a Macbook.

If you like the netbook-laptop idea but don't like Macs, get a solid HP instead.

I should also mention that my $1700 budget estimate is for two top-of-the-line machines. You can get a good netbook for as little as 300 dollars, and you can obviously get a competent laptop for $700, so you could probably keep the whole cost under $1000 if you needed to.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

I ll be using my one two punch. In the dorm/ at home, ill be using my HP Pavillion and in class Ill be using my Acer Aspire One
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AOA150-1447- ... 698&sr=8-2

[patrickd139]

Al Macbook is probably the easiest to use, but it's not cheap at $1300. Apple always has sales right before school (buy a computer, get a free iPod).

+1

I did this for college. My $1600 Powerbook cost me $1300 after a quick ebay posting. Add in the student discount and it makes a mac almost affordable.

[Aqualibrium]

Like someone else suggested the t61 from lenovo is good. The X61T is also good if you are interested in a tablet.

I just got a fujitsu t2010 for a little under $600; very portable tablet with great battery life. The Fujitsu t4220 and t5010 are also good options for anyone interested in buying a tablet (and more on par in terms of power with normal laptops). The fujitsu refurb store on ebay is a great place to get all three of these computers for a great price...I've actually purchased three computers from them and all came with great warranties and are in new condition.

[JazzOne]

In terms of convenience...is a 15-17 inch screen too large?

I had a 15" MacBook, and I thought the size was perfect. The 17" model is a bit ridiculous, but 15" is large enough to enjoy movies or other multimedia, and the keyboard is full size. The 15" screen is also big enough to juggle a few windows at once, and the Mac OS has these features called "expose" and "spaces" that make it a breeze to work on multiple projects at once.

[Silver93]

Any thoughts on this little number:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8041998788

[zettsscores40]

Whatever you're most comfortable jacking off on.

[Waterman47]

In terms of convenience...is a 15-17 inch screen too large?

Personally, I wouldn't even consider a 17" screen if you're planning to take it to school. IMO, 15" is pushing it as well, but that really depends on your circumstances, mainly whether or not you'll have to walk a lot with it. If you're planning to read at school and leave your books in your locker everyday, laptop weight is much less of a problem. But if you're going to walk to and from school with all your books everyday, I think weight is the most important consideration, especially since law school computing task are quite simple. Even if you drive to and from school, you might have a long walk from the lot to school, so weight still matters. I'd personally go no higher than 14" for law school, because it's totally unnecessary for law school tasks and adds weight. If you're really concerned about watching movies just buy a TV with the money you save from buying a smaller laptop.

As far as Mac v. PC, again keep in mind that law school computing tasks are not at all demanding on a system, so get whatever you like. Won't matter one iota IMO. If you do decide to get a Mac, I'm not sure that a Macbook Pro would be any more useful than a smaller and cheaper 13.3" unibody macbook.

[crystalhawkeye]

Although I've been a PC man my whole life (and will take this PC desktop with me to LS), I'm probably going to go with a Mac laptop. Everyone I know who has a Mac prefers it over the PC they used to have, including many friends in UG who switched over when their PCs bit it after only a year or two. The use I've had with Macs has not been unpleasant, and after only a week or so, I'll probably get used to the slight differences. Given the problems Vista seems to have, including the slugishness I've witnessed firsthand with my Mom's < 1yr. old PC, I don't think I'd want that as my operating system. A professor of mine recently switched to Macs for that reason, as well as all the virii and problems he kept getting with Macs. Also, after you add in the necessary Anti-virus software, an extra battery, and whatever other softwear desired, the price gap closes considerably. PLUS, Macs have longer battery life.

Don't want to sound like those Mac vs. PC commercials, but I'll probably end up getting the former.

[geoffree]

Don't want to sound like those Mac vs. PC commercials, but I'll probably end up getting the former.

Can't stand those commercials. I'm going with a macbook for LS, but these commercials almost make me have second thoughts.

[crystalhawkeye]

Don't want to sound like those Mac vs. PC commercials, but I'll probably end up getting the former.

Can't stand those commercials. I'm going with a macbook for LS, but these commercials almost make me have second thoughts.

Hahaha, yeah no kidding. Those did make me think I'd be buying the more pretentious brand, but hey, they are a lot better.

[JazzOne]

Don't want to sound like those Mac vs. PC commercials, but I'll probably end up getting the former.

Can't stand those commercials. I'm going with a macbook for LS, but these commercials almost make me have second thoughts.

Hahaha, yeah no kidding. Those did make me think I'd be buying the more pretentious brand, but hey, they are a lot better.

Ya, I kind of miss the days before everyone realized they were better.

[hjmarkar]

The Lenovo T61 is solid and reasonably priced.

Very against T series laptops.. I work for IBM and have had a T42/T43/T60p/T61 and still against the machines... The T40s were pretty good but those were manufactured by IBM. Once the thinkpads moved to Lenovo, they stoped putting decent heat syncs on the GPUs causing them to overheat all the time.

My current T60p was sent back to have the heat sync fixed and, although still hot, it doesn't overheat and shutdown anymore. Wait till the next generation T series and hopefully they will be pretty good.

(also, lots of people complain about the weak wireless antennas on the T series, although I dont really notice any problems).

[art vandelay]

locker? your law school has lockers? which law school do you go to?

The good one.

+1

Weird but true.