Technology Recommendations

[musicmage09]

I apologize if this thread exists anywhere else, but I was wondering if others are looking into buying a new laptop for grad school. I am in much need of an upgrade. I would like something that is light, has a great screen resolution, and a decent graphics card. I am not the biggest fan of Apple products, but the Macbook Pro does have the Retina screen and is fairly light. I would probably install Windows 8 on it.

 

What about you guys? Any recommendations?

[fullofpink]

Honestly, don't get Windows 8 unless you have a touchscreen. 

[musicmage09]

Honestly, don't get Windows 8 unless you have a touchscreen. 

I really do not mind it.

[fullofpink]

I'm definitely going with Windows 8 and a touchscreen laptop (unsure of which one just yet, and waiting a bit before picking it out) because I want this laptop to last me at least 5 years - my average run for laptop use IS about 5 years - and in 5 years I'm positive that so many OS will completely make the switch. If you are ok with a touchpad reliant machine for a long term investment, especially with the new OS, then I think you already have it figured out

[peternewman89]

I'm not sure exactly what direction I want to go just yet; I have a 3 year old Macbook Pro that's basically working just fine, and will get most of its pep back with a full cleaning and installing an SSD.  At the same time, I'm not sure how it will hold up through my 5 years of school, and I'd really rather avoid any major technological changes while I'm in school if they can be at all avoided.  What I'd really like to do is make my Mac my home computer and have another system, preferably something more akin to a tablet, that I take with me and dock at my carrel.  

 

I've been endlessly debating whether to go for a full-on Core system (Thinkpad Helix or something like that) or a slightly cheaper and not as good core system (Surface Pro), or to go for a cheaper Atom setup that will mostly work for now, will save me money, give me good batter life but will become obsolete and may or may not work well with the stats programs I'll have to use.  At this point I'm leaning towards the 1st choice, waiting for any more new products that might come out of the electronics show in Taiwan this week.  I really want something with the convertible form factor, so that I can do serious work  sitting down but can also use the machine as a tablet when I'm just sitting around, doing reading or whatnot.  Add in a digital pen and it's an incredibly useful all-around device.

[Arrowfletch]

I've never had a laptop last more than 3 years (I have really, really bad luck even with good systems), but I refuse to go for a tablet as my main computer.  I pretty much despise completely touchscreen based devices, though I do have a Nook Color that is more transportable than my laptop, cheap, and handles email and documents just fine if I really need it to.  I just cringe at the thought of trying to run all the programs I might need on a tablet, and I like to take my work with me.  A real touchscreen laptop might be nice, as opposed to a tablet with a keyboard attached, but I've never been willing to foot the cost.  

 

As it is, I'm currently doing fine with an Asus brand laptop running Windows 7, about 2 years old so far.  Asus generally seems to be a good choice for a full laptop--not the priciest, but good quality with a range of options depending on what you need.  It's no MacBook, but personally I don't think those are all they're cracked up to be (also virtually anything else is cheaper). I wholeheartedly agree with a previous poster that I would not touch Windows 8 unless you have a touchscreen based device; it was built with touchscreens in mind, and pretty much just makes your computer look like a phone (I personally would rather the other way around).

[ANDS!]

Dear god. . . every time I see someone with a Windows 8 touchscreen laptop I wonder if they're someones kid or they're just busy waiting for their friend to finish.  If you want a laptop that will last, you're best looking at Apple, Lenovo (T series) or perhaps Samsung (Series 9).

[zapster]

what min laptop config would you suggest to comfortably run matlab....and anyone with matlab experience on windows vs apple ios ?

[TeaGirl]

My old Acer Aspire (still running Fortran and Matlab simulations and working okay) will be having its 5th birthday in just a month. It's a core2duo with 3GB of RAM and it runs Windows 7, and even some graphics heavy software like AutoCAD fine. Still, I just a got a new laptop for starting school in a couple of months, a Samsung series 7 chronos with a touchscreen and Windows 8. It's not an ultrabook so it's heavier than those. It's got a good graphics card, i7 core, a self bought and installed SSD, and 8GB of RAM. It boots up in 5 seconds tops and loads everything super fast (that would be the SSD). I love it but it's overkill for the vast majority of people.

 

Windows 8 is okay I guess. It has a learning curve and if you haven't used it before expect to spend around a month googling how to do basic stuff. It's inconsistent and you've got different places where you change options rather than everything being in the control panel like before. It needed a lot of cleaning up and uninstalling apps, and changing the default application before it stopped irritating me.

If I had to choose again, I'd go without the touchscreen. The only actual use I've had for it, is telling a friend or a relative "Look! Woooooo! I can use touch!" In 2 months, I have not once found a use for it. The touch/mouse are simply more convenient.

 

@musicmage09 It depends on what you mean by graphics card. Do you want to play games or just internet/office/movies? If you're just looking to watch movies etc, I'd recommend an ultrabook with a good screen resolution. Samsung is pretty great. I know someone with a 15" series 9 and it runs great, is very light, and looks amazing. I've had great experiences with Acer (some friends have too). Lenovo Thinkpads are a good choice as well, but they're not exactly light unless you're getting something like the X1 carbon.

 

I'd stay away from a tablet as a main computing machine. They're good for portability and browsing internet or email, but you can't install any actual non-app software on there. If you must, check out something like the Lenovo Yoga.

[michigan girl]

I would love to purchase a Android tablet (the Samsung ones are really nice) when I can afford the service (you will still need a carrier for the wireless Internet). It would be nice to have a small computer that fits inside my purse to check email, maps, and the Internet. It's a neat organizer that supplements a laptop/desktop.

 

My laptop of four years has survived me well throughout graduate school. I recommend online storage cloud systems (Skydrive, Dropbox, Box.net) and/or external hard drive to save old files so that the laptop's memory doesn't become slow over time. Please (I cannot stress this enough) invest in a good antivirus system!! Since I switched to an excellent antivirus program, I haven't had viruses or malware in nearly three years. In my home office, I have a 20" wide-screen external monitor where I hook my laptop for larger view and external wireless keyboard and mouse for extra usability (laptop keys are too flimsy for my hands) on my desk. So, my laptop works as a desktop (when I am at home).

 

Lastly, I also recommend a laptop cooling pad. It really does prevent your laptop from overheating after hours of long use.

Edited June 9, 2013 by michigan girl

[Swagato]

I've increasingly come to the conclusion that if you're going to be doing a lot of PDF reading, a tablet device is probably a good thing to have. It's fine reading PDFs on my Air when I'm working at the desk, but gets a little inconvenient if in bed (particularly when my SO is sleeping right next). Plus, eye strain is probably an issue.

 

Anyway, I'll add an iPad Mini sometime around first semester. I appreciated the "look" of e-Ink, but the Kindle is a slow and clunky dinosaur compared to operating the Mini, so there it goes. 

[MAME5150]

I can dig that notion of a tablet being key for PDF reading. 

 

I tried that for a while, but for my work flow it wasn't optimal. Maybe it's just my style of reading, but I frequently will find that reading one article quickly turns into reading 3 or 4 simultaneously. I just never got comfortable doing that on a tablet. 

[Swagato]

But you can read several articles simultaneously on a tablet device, surely? Or is it more a question of keeping track of annotations etc. I just end up printing out articles that I conclude are going to require further reading or will feature in my writing. The rest (i.e. generalist/background reading articles) can stay in digital form. 

[Zrome]

I have an old 2011 13" MBP which works great (and will work even better with Mavericks) and will do all necessary. For lectures, I will be using notability on my iPad for note-taking and evernote for audio recording. 

 

Here are some good apps:

iPad: PDF Expert or Goodreader for note taking on PDF's. Evernote for typing notes and recording audio and syncing to laptop. Pages for on the go work processing, numbers for on the go excel, iStudiez Pro for being on top of school work

Mac (I haven't used windows in the last 5 years or so): Evernote, iStudiez Pro, iWork or Office (I prefer iWork)

[danieleWrites]

Uh. Why would you put a Microsoft OS on Apple hardware? Apple hardware is specifically designed to work with the Mac OS. While Apple hardware is inferior to PC hardware (generally speaking: less memory, less power, more money), the Mac hardware/software combo is pretty solid, which makes it such a powerful force in the market. Not to mention Apple hardware is not fully compatible with Windows. If you're not a power user, I would totally recommend against it. Quick test: open up the registry and understand what you see. If you want Windows 8, do not buy Apple products because you cannot get an Apple machine with anything but an Apple OS. If you want Windows 8, you have dozens of PC manufacturers to choose from, so you'll have to figure out your hardware needs and choose one accordingly. My rule of thumb: you can never have too much RAM.

 

Screens are cake. You can dock pretty much any laptop into a better screen and, if you shop wisely, you can dock several types of tablets into a different screen. My $89 Android does a mini-HDMI thing. What's not cake are video cards, audio cards, RAM, and so on. If you need to work with graphics or audio (and I bet you will), you should prioritize these cards and the RAM over screen. Yeah, the Retinal screen is a big hoohah, but what good is it if you spend most of your time frustrated with a computer that can't handle your work?

 

Figure out your computing needs and get the hardware accordingly. The work I do requires that I have about 7 applications, four of them resource heavy, open at the same time. I dock my laptop so I can use a large monitor so I can work with more of the applications at one time without having to switch between windows. The Macbook Air can't handle the load gracefully, though OSX would rock it. I don't need a powerful video card, but I do need a lot of RAM. I picked my laptop based on screen size and the amount of RAM that it came with and could be upgraded to. My gamer buddy uses Alienware (Dell) because it comes with the graphics cards he needs. He uses a Linux machine for his LAN parties and schoolwork.

[Zrome]

what min laptop config would you suggest to comfortably run matlab....and anyone with matlab experience on windows vs apple ios ?

Depends on your needs. Matlab is a very powerful so if you are going to be programming optimization algorithms and GUIs for robotic hardware (what I do) then you will likely need something more powerful. On my MBP 2011 13" i7 ivy with 8GB DDR2, I was easily using 2.5-3GB RAM in running an optimization program plotting over 3 million points to generate the best path possible. 

 

If you are an UG student, you will likely be responsible for small-scale projects. Even one of the lowest end models available in the market can do this. In fact, MatLab cloud will be able to do this. 

[Sorawit]

I have been using Windows 8 since day one on my HP Windows 7 machine (thus no touch screen) and am still loving it. The learning curve is definitely there but I think Win8 runs smoother and looks simpler. 

 

For a new laptop, I think if you have a budget for MBP but don't wanna go Apple route, you can definitely get something equally powerful from any other PC manufacturers. At the price you'll pay, I wouldn't worry about graphic performance if you're looking for a work/casual gaming/entertainment machine. 

[1Q84]

 you can never have too much RAM.

 

This is basically all you need to know. 

 

Make sure the laptop you're getting has expansion slots and then fill them with as much as you can reasonably afford. I'll second a preference for SSD as well. Jumping up from 2GB RAM to 8GB has been a most enjoyable experience.

 

ETA: I love my iPad mini. Reading on it is a breeze and I get no eyestrain at all. Something about the choppiness of Kindles and such really turn me off. It feels far more "artificial" to me than a regular ol' LCD. 

Edited June 24, 2013 by 1Q84

[Swagato]

Well, then. I spent the past few days reading up on the various Kindles, the new Kobo Aura HD e-reader, etc. etc. Ultimately the iPad or the iPad Mini wins, since the Kobo apparently handles PDFs poorly, and the Kindle is...clunky. Too bad. I sort of wished for e-Ink. It's really much better to read on than the standard iPad display...

[Maleficent999]

I'd like to bump up this thread for the 2014 cycle. I've got a 2008 Macbook that definitely won't get me through grad school. I'm not sure if I should keep it at home and get a tablet to take with me to school or if I should invest in an entirely new laptop. My Macbook crawls. I've got all of my files on an external hard-drive and it still can't run iMovie without freezing. I've done my best to clean it up myself but if I decide to keep it I'll probably have to have someone else look at it. I know it won't be able to run SPSS or other statistical software very easily so if I got a tablet I'd need it to be able to install and run software from outside of the app store. I like the idea of the Lenovo Yoga but it's a bit rich for my blood right now. I have time before I start school so I could save. Any thoughts? The work I'll be doing is largely reading, PDFs, I'd like the ability to download and read/annotate textbooks, process Word/Excel/Etc documents, print from the device, take notes, and craft papers. Any thoughts or advice from my techies out there?

[pears]

If you're klutzy, like to drink coffee/water/etc. near your laptop, or both, don't get a MacBook Pro. I learned the hard way that they are extremely sensitive to water damage, i.e., I paid $409 (initially quoted at $884) because I spilled about a tablespoon's worth of water on mine. Even though I immediately shut it off, flipped it upside down, wiped it up, opened up the jewel case, and let it dry in front of a warm fire, everything except my HD — thank goodness for that, though — was fried.

 

Also, they're pretty limited in terms of software if you run a Mac OS. I don't mind working on ESRI/ArcGIS stuff in a lab, but it does wear thin after a while.

[Maleficent999]

If you're klutzy, like to drink coffee/water/etc. near your laptop, or both, don't get a MacBook Pro. I learned the hard way that they are extremely sensitive to water damage, i.e., I paid $409 (initially quoted at $884) because I spilled about a tablespoon's worth of water on mine. Even though I immediately shut it off, flipped it upside down, wiped it up, opened up the jewel case, and let it dry in front of a warm fire, everything except my HD — thank goodness for that, though — was fried.

 

Also, they're pretty limited in terms of software if you run a Mac OS. I don't mind working on ESRI/ArcGIS stuff in a lab, but it does wear thin after a while.

I think if I can make my laptop last long enough for anything where I'd need a laptop (like a big project or something, I don't know) it'd work for me to just get a tablet for the convenience. My main concern is finding a tablet on which I can run statistical software.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Maleficent999

[danieleWrites]

I've got a Dell tablet that runs Windows 8.1 Pro with the full productivity suite. I got University 360 for 4 years for 80 bucks (student discount at the Microsucks store!) The Dell hardware is pretty meh in terms of larger tablet/smaller laptop power. Still, I started and manage an Access database on the thing. Excel works very well. I got a bluetooth keyboard to go with and one of these days I'll check in to using a bluetooth mouse, to see if that's possible. The OS can handle it, it's the OS you find on a desktop, but I don't want to buy a mouse that I can't use. The tablet is a touch screen and the big deal with the touch screen is that it doesn't work as efficiently for me as a mouse does. I have the stylus, but I haven't figured out how to make the stylus work the way the mouse does.

Some tablets can do productivity and some can't. It starts with the hardware and kind of ends there to. Does it have the computing power to run the application along with everything else that has to run in the background? Is the application compatible with the OS? Can you use the tablet's user interface to interact with the application in a way that you find workable? Learning new peripherals can be a pain.

I like the tablet a lot. I can tote it with me oh so easily (laptops weigh a ton after that tablet) and the battery lasts a lot longer. There are some things I can't don on a tablet because the screen isn't large enough, but I rarely do those things away from my desk at home. About the only nice thing I have to say about MicroSucks' new subscription model with their productivity suite is that the subscription comes with what they call web apps. I can use any program on any computer via the cloud (even Access). Freeaky.

I just checked. I can run SPSS on my tablet (even though it says desktop only) because I have the hardware and the software capabilities. I only upgraded to the tablet because it had the desktop OS on it, not RT. I haven't found anything that says you can run SPSS on iPad (iOS not OSx) or Android, but I haven't looked that hard. Most productivity software aimed at the tablet market has business in mind.

[Maleficent999]

After talking with my resident techie (my boyfriend) I think I might look into something like the Lenovo Yoga. It IS more expensive than I'd like but he had the point that it would be a pain to try to write papers on a tablet and my laptop now is basically toast. A laptop/tablet hybrid might be my best option if I end up liking the way it feels. I want to make sure its not too bulky.

[Maleficent999]

Edit: I checked out the HP Split x2 today and also a Sony hybrid...I think I really like the split x2. I'm going to start pricing them out and saving.