What size laptop do you use?

[ANDS!]

Is Lenovo any good? Reliable?

Also what are the disadvatages of Ultrabooks?

I've only ever used Thinkpads. I haven't had a chance to use their Ultrabook, but the U300s have been getting great reviews. Might want to wait for the more affordable refresh that is coming out though.

[romnickhudges]

Hi there, mine is 13" MacBook Pro just like others here. For me it is lightweight and easy to carry wherever you want to go. These days I prefer to use it at home because I've an Ipad 2 which I carry most of the time. Though I find my laptop really amazing because of the overall feature are truly great.

[Xanthan]

I have a 15" Asus K53T laptop. I got it in September, and it's been great. AMD A6 processor, and discreet graphics. I'm a big fan of AMD processors: I find they usually give great performance for the price. (I got mine for $400 on sale at Best Buy.)

I also have a desktop for home (core i5), a Lenovo Ideapad (tablet), an Android smartphone, and an Xbox360. I have enough computing power to run the space shuttle.

[Behavioral]

14" Thinkpad T420 (i7, 8GB RAM, swapped out HDD for SSD). Couldn't be happier with it.

[luce373]

Was your Lenovo a ThinkPad made for business customers? Or was it an IdeaPad?

It was an IdeaPad. Z570 I think? I also use my laptop very heavily for music and video so I wanted something with better speakers and a little more power for the price than the ThinkPads seemed to have. I have heard better things about the reliability of the ThinkPads, though. I guess that's what I get for trying to get the less expensive computer.

[Kelkel]

I have a 14" or 15" Sony Vaio that I've had for four years now... it's not very portable and is very outdated, but we've been through a lot and it's still running decently enough for internet/netflix and word processing.

Sony is like Apple, in that, you're paying mostly for the name, but I got one because I knew it would last (my HP died after a year) and hey, it has!

[DualCitizenIR]

I love the 13 inch screen size on my Toshiba... Build quality isn't all that up there and the contrast on the screen sucks but can't complain as it was $500 with 4GBs of ram. The problem with many 13 inchers is lack of an optical drive, but I haven't had the need for one for the most part, and a usb-powered $40 external one does the job when needed. If and when I upgrade it will hopefully be to an ultrabook of the same screen size.

[Jrock4real]

I've used my 15" MBP since 2006. It has proven to be extremely reliable and durable. While in college, I carried it in my backpack laptop pouch almost every day of the week. Came with Tiger, which I stuck with until last summer. Now runs Snow Leopard. I've been teaching for the past couple years now. I take my laptop to the office most days. At home, I dock it to a 22" monitor with a full size keyboard and trackpad. Three years ago, I upgraded the HD and swapped the broken Superdrive for another one (which is also now broken; I don't bother with it anymore). I have replaced the battery twice in 6 years. RAM is maxed out at 2GB, but I don't see myself getting a new laptop anytime soon. If the Mac Pro is updated, or a new line of MBPs are released, I might consider a new investment. For now, I'll stick with my old faithful. My graduate department is mac friendly, so I shouldn't have worries about getting work done once school begins in the fall.

[Jrock4real]

And there's no way I'll ever buy a 13" MBP. 15" is the sweet spot, and I have no issues with portability. The laptops of the 90s were bricks compared to what we have today. Sometimes, I don't even slip my MBP into its case before throwing it into my backpack, as I would any other textbook. It's that solid.

[StrangeLight]

macbook pro 13" from 2011. it replaced a white macbook 13" from 2007 that was starting to act up, so i gifted it to my parents. for most things, it's fine, but when i'm working with my primary sources, which are all photographs of documents, it would really help to have a bigger screen (or even two separate screens). when i'm writing my dissertation, i'm thinking about getting a few monitors to slave to the laptop. but in general 13" is perfect and i like being able to take my office wherever i go.

[Galahad]

I have a 15'' Dell but I don't take it with me to class. I'm old fashioned and have a love for paper and pen.

[ClemsonJoy]

I've a 17.1" HP. Love HP, 17" is a bit unweildy, but it works well for me being in a field with a lot of digital graphics.

[juilletmercredi]

I could've sworn I commented in this thread but I have a 13.3" MacBook Pro. I do wish the screen was a little bigger, but I'd rather have portability than screen size (plus the 15" was out of my price range. Already the 13.3" was stretching it.) I have an external monitor at home; I currently have a 19" external monitor but I plan to upgrade to a 24" over the summer after I move. I have bad eyesight that has only gotten worse and a large monitor will allow me to enlarge things without losing a considerable amount of screen space. I primarily work at home, so I connect my laptop to an external mouse and keyboard in addition to the monitor and voila, I have a pseudo-desktop.

Before this I had a 14.1" Toshiba Satellite (loved the larger screen, but it was bulky, a little unwieldy and the battery life sucked) and before that, a 13.3" Sony Vaio (would not buy again).

[alleykat]

Mine is an IBM Thinkpad T42 that was bought back in 2005. Seven years and it is still running well. It is so solid and well-built that except for the replaced CD drive, everything is still intact. All of my family members have been using IBM/Lenovo machines too. I will definitely be getting myself another Thinkpad before classes start this Fall, and maybe an external 22-inch monitor to use at home.

[stell4]

I have a 13" HP. I like the small size for carrying around and I do not find the screen to small. It has really great sound which I think is more important than screen size for watching videos on it.

[tocs1]

Humans can and do adjust. I've had someone using an 11" screen for writing papers tell me that it's fine. That doesn't make it optimal. I strongly suggest going with at least a 14" (and make sure it's a real computer, not a weak netbook) if it's going to be the screen you'll be staring at when writing. If an external monitor is an option, then i guess even a 12" netbook would do.

[toasterazzi]

I have a 13" MBP. I had a 12" Powerbook before this. I've messed around w/ other laptops, and I've found that I really do prefer this size. The larger sizes are just unnecessary for me.

[katerific]

I have a 13" HP Folio and I loooove it. It's super light (~3 lb or something) and thin. I do plan on getting a bigger screen I can hook up to when I need to do some serious number crunching/writing, though.

[Alyanumbers]

I've been using a 10.1" netbook as my main computer for two years. It's not ideal, but I really liked having all my work on one machine that I can take everywhere (it weighs slightly over 2 lbs). Now I finally got a desktop, and will start using it regularly in the fall.

[indorichai]

Mine is a ThinkPad E420s, with a 14" screen...I like it because its light and its easy to take with me, but its not too small either. The only think I don't like is the mousepad.

[Gamarino]

I have a 13" Macbook Pro. I upgraded from a 15" Macbook Pro that I've had for four years. It still works, but the screen broke and the tech at the Mac store told me it'd be cheaper to buy a new laptop than to fix the old one. Also, I get all of the cool new features, and it runs faster! If you're a Machead, I totally recommend it. It's also a very manageable size and not super heavy. Additionally, I have an iPad that I can take to class/the library when I need to look something up on the internet. I don't have the separate keyboard, so I don't use it for Word documents.

[romnickhudges]

Mine is 15" and I love it a lot. I avoid 13" laptop because I'm not comfortable with the small screen of it. However, I'm so happy to see so many laptop brands that are performing well.

__________________

BookGator

school textbooks

Edited September 20, 2012 by romnickhudges

[kyjin]

I use a 15.6" Toshiba Satellite. I had a similar one for undergrad that lasted for three and a half years before I started having harddrive issues and decided to replace. My current Toshiba is nearly three years old and works great. It's a powerful machine, though I do wish sometimes it was more portable. When this one goes I'm planning on getting an Ultrabook for the portability in addition to a desktop for a powerful machine for videos, etc.

[victor.s.andrei]

Is Lenovo any good? Reliable?

Also what are the disadvatages of Ultrabooks?

Lenovo makes good ThinkPads. For safety, stick to ThinkPad model series that were carried over from IBM: R, T, and X, for starters.

[virmundi]

I just upgraded a couple of weeks ago to the most recent iteration of the MacBook Air 13". It is far more powerful than my previous 13" MacBook Pro (remarkable given that it weighs half as much and is extremely slender) although with less hard drive room (I have an external hard drive for music, etc. though!).... So far I absolutely love it. It combines a decent size with extreme portability! Since it was basically the same price as the MacBook Pro 13", it was really no contest...!