anjichpa

Sigaba makes a lot of valid points. I'll provide a counterpoint on buying a business-class machine. The reason Dell, Lenovo, etc. value B2B more highly is that their margins are higher catering to enterprise rather than the average consumer. Extended warranties, support and services are also comparatively very high-margin. It's up to you if the extra cost (and often heft for the hardware itself) is worth it.

I recently bought the $250 ($230 right now on Amazon and Newegg) ARM Samsung Chromebook and love it. If you understand the limits of the hardware and software, I think it's the best value in tech right now. I'd say the experience is 80% of the Macbook Air for 20% of the price. You won't fully forget that you're using cheap hardware, but I find the user experience leaps and bounds better than low-end Windows machines. For reference, I have the Chromebook, a Google Nexus 10 tablet that I use with bluetooth mouse and keyboard when needed, a 3 year-old 17 inch desktop-replacement VAIO laptop (still powerful by today's standards even with age), an original 7-inch Kindle Fire, and a self-built desktop (a very nice setup). From a software standpoint, I'm heavily tied into Windows for work with heavy reliance on Excel, Access, and proprietary software that only runs on Windows. Additionally, I'm a pretty heavy user of Google services (Gmail, Drive/Docs, and Google Music All Access). For grad students, the Chromebook should work well if you don't need MS Office (still significantly better than any of the alternatives imo) or other Windows-specific software, and you aren't comfortable working in Linux. Chrubuntu and Crouton are extremely easy to install if you are a Linux fan. It's extremely portable, the OS is extremely lightweight and responsive, and the keyboard and trackpad are great for a device at such a low price. The processor is weak, but for <10 tabs it seems only slightly slower to render pages than my laptop or desktop (both very high-powered processors) as long as you're not on extremely resource intensive sites (very flash-heavy sites or streaming HD video for example). When at home, I use my desktop when I'm stationary and need to get serious work done. If I'm on the couch or on the move, I use the Chromebook heavily. I'll grab it to write a quick email rather than sit at my desktop. My tablet is being used a lot less now that I have the Chromebook. I greatly prefer working in ChromeOS to working in Android. I primarily use my tablet for reading ebooks and RSS feeds. At work, I use the combination of my Vaio laptop and my Chromebook, skewing slightly towards the Vaio. When I start school in the fall, I expect to use the Chromebook very heavily, possibly supplementing its use with my tablet. I see no reason to lug the laptop along.

I can't speak from personal experience, but I know some people use Amtrak and Greyhound to ship things cheaply- might be worth looking into as far as options go.

If you really want to go into the semantics of it, there's no universal definition of what "ultrabook" entails. Intel has a set of guidelines for what constitutes an "ultrabook" that they change with every refresh of their microarchitecture. Not all manufacturers adhere to those guidelines when calling their product an "ultrabook." Further, because Intel's specifications for what's considered an "ultrabook" change from year-to-year, what's called an ultrabook in one generation of models may not be considered an "ultrabook" by Intel's new set of specifications (e.g. Intel's newest specifications require the laptop to have a touchscreen for them to meet Intel's definition of "ultrabook"). You may feel strongly that "ultrabook" is clear enough, but I chose to focus on the different features/components/tradeoffs that I felt were most relevant as I felt there's enough ambiguity in the term- and enough differentiation between products within such classifications- that the simplistic classifications of "ultrabook" and "not an ultrabook" weren't particularly helpful to the OP or anyone else. I'm not sure how the "ultrabook" monitor isn't considered a marketing term.

Yes, they are. Median GMAT scores are widely publicized. To get an idea how your GRE stacks up, Google for GRE/GMAT Concordance Table.

Hey everyone, I'm looking for a roommate for move-in between now and August 1. Shoot me a PM if you're interested, and I'll give details on the apartment, myself, etc.

I can't say the specific laptop/ultrabook that's best for you (though the upcoming Asus Zenbook Infinity looks like my perfect laptop). I will give some advice, though, and answer some of your questions. First, ultrabook is a marketing term. They're all laptops (or notebooks, rather). Generally, ultrabooks are small, lightweight, thin, and have an ultra-low voltage Intel processor (sacrifice processing power for longer battery life). They almost always have solid-state storage rather than a traditional hard disk drive and are typically much more difficult to upgrade or fix yourself. If none of that means anything to you, don't worry. The main thing is that ultrabook vs. laptop doesn't matter outside what will be the best fit for you. Which operating system? I lean towards Windows 7 unless you have a touch screen, but Windows 8 should be perfectly fine as well. Windows 8 has some performance increases, but it also has some relatively radical shifts in design and user interface. Windows 7 will more closely approximate what you're used to having used Windows XP or Windows Vista (7 is basically an improved version of Vista). What else will you need? If your laptop/ultrabook doesn't have a DVD drive, you may want an external drive. Unless you know you need to install software using a DVD, I'd skip ordering one until you know you need it. Most people very rarely/never use their disc drives anymore as downloading software is much more convenient. Boot-up Speed Both Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines are capable of booting very quickly. To boot quickly in Windows 7, hibernate instead of shutting down. Turning your computer back on should take only a few seconds. If you completely shut down the computer, it'll take anywhere from 15 seconds to 2+ minutes depending on Windows version/configuration and the software you have installed. Windows 8 machines more or less only hibernate (they basically changed their classifications to make "shutting down" much quicker) and will boot very quickly. Amount of RAM The amount of RAM you want will most likely depend on the size of your data sets. None of your other usages will benefit from more than 4 GB. If you have some very large data sets, you might benefit from 8 GB. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS Hard Drive vs. Solid-State Drive Your primary storage will be either a hard drive or a solid-state drive. Cheaper laptops almost always have hard drives. Ultrabooks typically have solid-state drives. Hard drives give you significantly more storage space for every dollar spent. Solid-State drives are much faster and provide a better experience. I'd highly recommend a solid-state drive as they have enough storage space for most users (exceptions are if you have a huge movie/music/other media collection) and are much better. Screen Resolution When looking at specs, screen resolution typically comes in at 1366 x 768, 1920 x 1080, or 1600 x 900 on most laptops. Higher resolutions will result in sharper images on the same size screen. On default settings, higher resolution screens will give you more real estate to work with. Other Screen Considerations Your best bet will be seeing the screens in person. If the computer touts an IPS panel (type of display technology), it's likely a very nice looking screen. Different quality panels will effect color accuracy, viewing angles, etc. Keyboard and Trackpad Your keyboard and trackpad can have a deceptively large influence over how much you enjoy using a computer. I'd recommend going in-store to try some out. It's one of the most important considerations for me. Convertible vs. Traditional Laptop Convertibles offer both a tablet and a laptop experience in one. I don't have much experience with them and can't comment too in-depth. The Lenovo Yoga seemed quite nice when I played around with it. The Microsoft Surface was a cool device, but I would never want to use the keyboard cover on a regular basis. Size and Form Factor For similarly priced machines, the size and form factor will involve some tradeoffs. Bigger machines are generally more powerful, less likely to break, and have poorer battery life. Smaller machines generally are less powerful (will probably be most notable for you when working with larger data sets) and have better battery life. Battery Life More power means less battery life and vice versa. Brand (just my impressions/experiences) Acer- Solid price-performance ratio in my experience, though more geared towards the low-end market Asus- Great hardware, poor customer support Dell- Cheap, decent, and the easiest/cheapest to repair or get repaired. Middle of the road quality. HP- Avoid. Their consumer laptops have been downright awful for awhile now. Lenovo- People generally love the Thinkpad line. I'd avoid the Ideapad laptops unless you get a great deal. Samsung- I love their $250 Chromebook, but don't have any experience with their Windows laptops. Sony- Higher-end models are nice, but the price premium is usually not worthwhile. Toshiba- Have done well in the reliability surveys I've seen (though the surveys are dated). In my experience: mediocre build quality, awful glossy keyboards.

I'm a big fan of the $250 Samsung Chromebook. It's fast, lightweight, and has better build quality than any Windows machine I've seen/used sub-$500. If local storage space is a concern, I'd recommend popping in an SD card. Once it's in, you won't need to take it out and won't really notice that it's there. Alternately- Acer, HP, and even Samsung offer Chromebooks with traditional, higher-capacity hard drives. I'd still recommend the Samsung with flash memory, however, as it's quicker. So long as you don't need OS-specific software on the machine, I find the user experience on the cheap Samsung much more satisfying than any cheap Windows laptop. Unless you're tech-savvy- and know the specific software and OS requirements you need- do NOT get a Chromebook if you need specialized software. Chrubuntu should run software available on Linux, but if you know that already, you don't need to read this post.