Top Law Schools

Not sure if this is the best thread, but I'm looking for thoughts on the best laptops for Law School. I've been running Mac for years but use PC at work. I've looked at the Surface Book and was wondering if anyone has experience with that or another laptop.

I have an aging Macbook Pro but was considering getting an Air for easier portability, better battery life, etc. Never been a fan of Surface tablets/books (I use them for work) but that's purely subjective (and probably a combination of work discontent and Apple brainwashing ).

I'm also wondering about law students using the Surfacebook. I have a Surface 3 that I love using as a tablet and that should hopefully get me by for in-class note-taking, but I definitely also want a larger/more powerful laptop for school.

I can't speak specifically to a Surfacebook, but I switched to my Surface Pro 3 exclusively this semester, and have literally not opened my heftier laptop since. The only thing I can imagine using it for now is exams (I type a bit faster on a wider keyboard than the Type Cover).

All this sounds pretty good...I'm working on a building a docking station to augment some of the traditional limitations (i.e. two-21'' monitors, wireless keyboard/mouse, studio speakers). Anyone else doing something similar?

lebongenre wrote:I'm also wondering about law students using the Surfacebook. I have a Surface 3 that I love using as a tablet and that should hopefully get me by for in-class note-taking, but I definitely also want a larger/more powerful laptop for school.

Dell XPS 15?

I have a rMBP 15". I wanted a) the screen real estate b) the quad core for some of the molecular modeling work we have to do in lab. Honestly, I ended up getting a Mac Pro to do it, but I still love my 15" machine. Brother has the XPS 15 and it's basically the Windows equivalent. You can even get it with a 4k touchscreen, but the battery is a good deal worse.

James.K.Polk wrote:

lebongenre wrote:I'm also wondering about law students using the Surfacebook. I have a Surface 3 that I love using as a tablet and that should hopefully get me by for in-class note-taking, but I definitely also want a larger/more powerful laptop for school.

Dell XPS 15?

I have a rMBP 15". I wanted a) the screen real estate b) the quad core for some of the molecular modeling work we have to do in lab. Honestly, I ended up getting a Mac Pro to do it, but I still love my 15" machine. Brother has the XPS 15 and it's basically the Windows equivalent. You can even get it with a 4k touchscreen, but the battery is a good deal worse.

This looks great. Thank you!

I use the Surface Book and really love it for law school. Most of the time you can take notes by typing, but every now and then the professor will draw a diagram and it's great for getting that down quickly. The keyboard is well spaced and the keys are easy to press so typing speed is great. Its powerful enough to run a lot of different software.

Initially I had a lot of problems with bugs. I experienced several blue screens of death and other problems. None that a restart didn't fix though. Currently I have display problems, like the screen doesn't display properly when I use Firefox. I think if you use a different browser you shouldn't have this problem.

For law school this is a great laptop. For personal use, I would wait until the next version comes out so that little bugs can be smoothed out first.

Surface Book would be pretty awesome if you can afford/don't mind paying for it. Otherwise I would go with a 13" MBP refurbished from Apple directly.

As long as you have a good, well integrated, cloud storage system, I don't think it matters too much. Have everything saved and synched automatically so you can work on whatever you need, wherever you are, and if your laptop is down.

I'm a desktop guy. Gonna go with a new desktop and a new/refurbished small laptop/netbook (for just note taking really). Wanna get this on the cheap, no fancy bells and whistles.

Box, google drive, or dropbox are critical - regardless of the type of lawsuit you have

Cochran wrote:I'm a desktop guy. Gonna go with a new desktop and a new/refurbished small laptop/netbook (for just note taking really). Wanna get this on the cheap, no fancy bells and whistles.

Pretty much the same. For school, the only laptop you need is one that can take notes reliably - so basically any new laptop at all.

I've been completely fine on a Surface Pro 4 this year after going away from the MacBook I'd had the previous 6 years. Really wasn't sure it would work out, but took the chance and really like it. Some kinks here and there, but the light weight and the tablet mode is pretty cool (I had never had a tablet before).

Haven't had any power issues either, computing wise.

For what it's worth, I've heard that some schools highly recommend against Surface Pros because the software they use for online exams isn't compatible with them, so may be worth it to check with schools to make sure that's not a problem.

I've heard this as well. I happen to go to school without exam software, so it isn't an issue for me, but it is worth it to check. Although I keep my old laptop around for exams anyway, because I find it easier to type more quickly on, so that could be another option.

EzraFitz wrote:I've heard this as well. I happen to go to school without exam software, so it isn't an issue for me, but it is worth it to check. Although I keep my old laptop around for exams anyway, because I find it easier to type more quickly on, so that could be another option.

This guy knows his shit - he stalked a group of teenage girls using some very high technology.

somethingelse55 wrote:

EzraFitz wrote:I've heard this as well. I happen to go to school without exam software, so it isn't an issue for me, but it is worth it to check. Although I keep my old laptop around for exams anyway, because I find it easier to type more quickly on, so that could be another option.

This guy knows his shit - he stalked a group of teenage girls using some very high technology.

EzraFitz wrote:

somethingelse55 wrote:

EzraFitz wrote:I've heard this as well. I happen to go to school without exam software, so it isn't an issue for me, but it is worth it to check. Although I keep my old laptop around for exams anyway, because I find it easier to type more quickly on, so that could be another option.

This guy knows his shit - he stalked a group of teenage girls using some very high technology.

Pretty Little Liars reference for anyone that is unfamiliar.

How important do people feel touch screens are? I got an Asus in 2010 that has been a great machine for undergrad, but I kind of want something with a touch screen to recreate diagrams in class ala MS Surface, but its a pretty hefty expense when the Asus is literally perfect in all other regards (10 hour battery life!!)

You should find out what exam software (if any) your school uses and check the compatibility. For example, my school uses SofTest, their requirements are here: http://support.examsoft.com/link/portal ... un-SofTest (we don't support iPads though).

One other important consideration, at least sometimes SofTest isn't great about supporting new operating systems on day one. When you buy your laptop (or update your operating system) check that the installed version of Windows or OS X is compatible. For example, SofTest didn't support El Capital (OS X 10.11) until about three months after it was officially released by Apple.

Impfac wrote:How important do people feel touch screens are? I got an Asus in 2010 that has been a great machine for undergrad, but I kind of want something with a touch screen to recreate diagrams in class ala MS Surface, but its a pretty hefty expense when the Asus is literally perfect in all other regards (10 hour battery life!!)

Before my surface I had an Acer Aspire touch screen computer that only put me back about 500. It really was useful. It's part of the reason I got a surface, to keep touch compatibility.

Cochran wrote:I'm a desktop guy. Gonna go with a new desktop and a new/refurbished small laptop/netbook (for just note taking really). Wanna get this on the cheap, no fancy bells and whistles.

Same here. I built a new machine last year to edit on and I've finally got it running just right (except now that it's all sorted I have an incredible urge to get in the machine and spruce up the wire management), and I'm planning on replacing my old laptop with something that gets the job done just before school starts. The Surface Book is tempting, though. I have a first-gen Surface that I still use for meetings and writing on the go; they're great little machines.

What percentage of reading is done online in law school? I am under the impression it is still largely print-based but wanted to be sure before I passed on retina display.

twokings wrote:What percentage of reading is done online in law school? I am under the impression it is still largely print-based but wanted to be sure before I passed on retina display.

It depends to some degree on the teacher. But generally (for me at least) apart from the occasional supplemental case or article, everything is in print.