Try your college alumni association. They sometimes have deals with companies for computer purchases.

Have been unhappy with my Dell laptop. Dies a lot and then needs to be restarted.

found the Lenovo link...

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/landingpage/promotions/weekly-sale/lenovo-laptops/

U530 or flex 3 would be some I would consider.... touch screen, i7, 8gb ram. Its not static drive though

Anonymous wrote:OK...for those of us who don't just happen to have $1,000+ sitting around for a Mac anything...

How about some realistic, "it will last through high school options" in the $300-$600 range incl. software! ! ! Something high value (and expensive does NOT mean high value to me. ) Who has educational discounts for either the computer or software?

If you look at material and component costs, it is clear that there are no decent laptops at the $300 price point: a good screen is $80; solid keyboard is 30; trackpad, 20; CPU 30 (low end); memory, 50; Motherboard, $40; case, $40; Batteries, $30; total: $320. and this allows no profit (these are approximate OEM costs; I would have to pay about 2x for it) ..now you can get it cheaper, but there is a huge sacrifice in quality.

At $500, you can get an acceptable, but slow lap top.

To get something comparable (in quality) to a MacBook Air or MacBook, you would have to pay as much if not more than the Apple product. Apple makes more per computer not because they charge more, but because the manage the supply chain better, keeping the costs down (they buy a lot of what they buy reducing the component costs). There are no low-end Apple products.

-- someone who is always looking for the sweet spot in price vs performance on computes.

Anonymous wrote:OK...for those of us who don't just happen to have $1,000+ sitting around for a Mac anything...

How about some realistic, "it will last through high school options" in the $300-$600 range incl. software! ! ! Something high value (and expensive does NOT mean high value to me. ) Who has educational discounts for either the computer or software?

i was previous PP about macs. you probably not get anything decent for 300. $500 ish possibly but it is not going to be the lightest and decently spec-ed machine. Try a lenovo as they are quite value for money. if possible, try to find one with a static drive. the performance far outweighs the cons and it also less likely to crash because there are no more moving parts that can be damage when a kid hits the laptop aginst hard objects or drops his backpack

OK...for those of us who don't just happen to have $1,000+ sitting around for a Mac anything...

How about some realistic, "it will last through high school options" in the $300-$600 range incl. software! ! ! Something high value (and expensive does NOT mean high value to me. ) Who has educational discounts for either the computer or software?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dell xps is great. The only thing like most people comment is the upgrade paths. On my Mac air, you are fine without upgrading. On the xps, my 7 month old machine is prompted to download patches nearly daily. But having done all that, I can't even move to Windows 10! Some error number is preventing me from upgrading. So I am sure it will be obsolete soon.

Thanks for recommending it!

you are welcome.... I would stick with Macs.... not because of the coolness factor but just from the support perspective. my "great" pretty laptop is fast going downhill unfortunately.

Anonymous wrote:Dell xps is great. The only thing like most people comment is the upgrade paths. On my Mac air, you are fine without upgrading. On the xps, my 7 month old machine is prompted to download patches nearly daily. But having done all that, I can't even move to Windows 10! Some error number is preventing me from upgrading. So I am sure it will be obsolete soon.

Thanks for recommending it!

used a macbook pro for 9 years with no issues. had to replace the battery 2x. added all the ram possible when i bought it. miss that machine with the metal keys.

Dell xps is great. The only thing like most people comment is the upgrade paths. On my Mac air, you are fine without upgrading. On the xps, my 7 month old machine is prompted to download patches nearly daily. But having done all that, I can't even move to Windows 10! Some error number is preventing me from upgrading. So I am sure it will be obsolete soon.

Anonymous wrote:Mac. We tried to go back to Microsoft last year and really regretted it. The boot times, the software updates, firewalls, spam, syware, too slow etc... We still have one linked to my husband's office and it collects dust unless he needs to his own work. Everyone avoids it.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter's 15th birthday is coming up and it's about that time where she needs her own laptop. The shared desktop is no longer an option, especially when I need to work from homes.

Which one would you recommend? How much should I spend? I'm hoping this purchase would last through her college years.

I prefer Macs to Dells for several reasons. Macs hold up better. Dells die after a few years. Keys fall off, hard drive drives or just gets too sluggish to keep up with technology, etc.

Macs have more to offer if you are into multimedia. Kids these days are into YouTube and other media and macs are great for video editing, music, etc. Well worth the investment in my opinion. Also if the kid has an iPhone then the mac makes the most sense.

And no it won't last through college but will get her through High School. She will want to get a newer faster model in college.

Not if she gets a Mac. I am on my 6th year with my same MacBook Pro and have no desires to even look at upgrading. It's just as fast as the day I bought it, still runs the latest and most up to date OS, and has never once let me down. And this is coming from a person who used to always get a new computer every year or two and has all the other latest tech toys. But I can say without a doubt that my MacBook Pro and my 6 year old iMac are my best computing purchases ever made. I might have spent more on them up front but I would have replaced my HPs 3 times during this period and wasted much more money and dealt with tons of frustration. I will never go back to Windows or HP again.

My DD who only uses the computer for homework, Internet research, Skype, etc. has a MacBook Air. I just bought her one for the start of senior year with extra RAM and memory in the hopes that it will last at least the first half of college. For a sophomore, I would just buy the base model Air and plan on replacing it as a graduation present. You can sometimes find one on sale for $799. She had PCs when she was younger and never got more than 1 year out of them before they died.

My DS (freshman) is more into gaming and has a Lenovo laptop designed for that. He actually likes doing his HW on Google apps and we also have a shared Chromebook for that.

Mac for sure. In our house the Dells, HPs, etc. last 2-3 years before crapping out for some stupid reason even after taking good care of them. The MacBooks are lasting twice that if not more, and Apple Care is far superior to other tech help when we have had (seldom) issues.

Anonymous wrote:Mac. We tried to go back to Microsoft last year and really regretted it. The boot times, the software updates, firewalls, spam, syware, too slow etc... We still have one linked to my husband's office and it collects dust unless he needs to his own work. Everyone avoids it.

We are an Apple family, but my son insisted in the Microsoft Surface. He likes to game, so this computer is better than Mac for that. It is super light (lighter than Macbook Air) also has a touch screen which detaches from the keyboard to become a tablet. He uses the pen to do his math problems...almost completely paperless in school. I still love my Apple, but he seems very happy with the Surface.

Mac. We tried to go back to Microsoft last year and really regretted it. The boot times, the software updates, firewalls, spam, syware, too slow etc... We still have one linked to my husband's office and it collects dust unless he needs to his own work. Everyone avoids it.