Laptop For High School Senior?

My daughter, Katie, is a Junior this year and has maintained a GPA of 3.75 or higher and has been on A/B Honor Roll every 9 weeks. Her old Toshiba laptop is finally on it's last legs and I want to surprise her with a new laptop at the end of the school year. She deserves it. I'm thinking about a MacBook but am open to other suggestions. Any ideas? Suggestions? I want a really GOOD one for her.

 

Ive had my macbook since I was a senior in high school, now im a senior in College. I love my mac and it will be able to do everything and more.

 

go mac and never look back when i win the lottery i'm getting one for everyone i know.
seriously the mac will take her to college and beyond:^:

 

If she has never used a Mac it might take some getting used to, I went from PC to Mac and I still have issues sometimes but as far as maintenance goes the Mac is top of the line. Kids are usually quicker to learn too so I am sure she will love it.

 

Get a Mac. No viruses ever. Security upgrades and all. I remember having a pc. I never noticed one security update.

 

ugh, i hate to break up this "nerd" fest, but macs will die with steve jobs :mrgreen:

Get her a laptop that actually matters! :mrgreen:

and yes im serious. :Cheers:

 

wooo im 19 posts away from 8k posts...at this rate, i think by june i will get there :mrgreen:

 

I hate Macs!

 

macs look nice, less viruses but are expensive for no good reason.
PCs give you greater variety but some have crappy hardware and are prone to breaking like HPs and certain Dells.
I'd get a PC laptop like a newer Dell, but also get an extended warranty plan to cover the repairs when it breaks, because it will most likely break within 3 yrs. Sorry I don't have a better answer there.

 

I bought a new laptop last year, and my best friend kept trying to convince me to buy a Mac. He said they are the best! THE BEST! But it was too out of my price range. Way too expensive for me, so I bought a Toshiba. He said I was dumb. Then the day after I bought my Toshiba, the screen on his Mac just stopped working. Just blank. His Mac was only a year and a half old. So he brought it to the Mac store, and they charged him $350 to fix it. That was almost what I paid for my Toshiba... Which won't cost $350 to fix if it breaks. So much for Macs never breaking!

I have had two HPs, both broke within a year and couldn't be fixed. I would avoid HPs like the plague!

I've been very happy with my Toshiba.

 

I have Toshiba Satellites for my laptops.. good machines, good price, no issues, and compatible with anything that she would find herself doing in college.

On the flipside, depending on what she's going to school for..Web design, art, anything design related, the macs would be the preference.

 

I have learned/used macs for all of my photography/video stuff. They are great for that.

 

My macbook pro's motherboard went out. It was under protection still. I took it to the store and they shipped it, got it fix and got it back to me within the week. No charge.

I believe the security side of mac software really sold me. 3 years and nothing negative has effected my laptop. Does windows have automatic security updates or do you still have to buy that mcAfee thing?

Bootcamp is pretty awesome too. I partitioned just enough of my hard drive to run windows for games.

 

I've had a Toshiba forever(it has 2000 on it)...it did finally stop being reliable last year....some of the keys don't respond anymore ...now we have a Dell Inspiron,no complaints

 

I also have a Toshiba Satellite. I love it. I've had it for four years now and it's super reliable.

And I get Norton free through comcast. McAffee stinks.

 

I don't like macs! I love my Sony Vaio. It hasn't caused a problem for me so far. HP is a good brand, ASUS, ACER, and Toshiba are all good.

I personally only owned HP laptops and this Vaio. Decent brands imo.

 

I love my mac.... I work on both PCs and the apples but to be honest I can't stand PCs. Everything on an apple is more simple to use, easy to understand, and it doesn't take you 500+ clicks to get something to work. Plus-no viruses. EVER.

As far as choosing I would def go with the mac... if she is used to the PC you can always boot camp it so its half apple half pc as well thats how my dad has his apple and he loves it. They are a bit more expensive but totally worth it. I've had this one for about 4 years and my G4 I had for about 3 before i finally upgraded to this one :3 i'm in the process of saving for a desktop one so the fiance and I have an nice computer to work with... he bought himself a PC laptop (like a new dell) and it's already had a ton of work done on it... basically he paid for an apple iwth the repairs to his dumb pc (piece of crap lolz)...


yea, so... I'd vote mac. not to mention this is coming STRAIGHT from a college student they are great for students! mine is basically connected to me and all my professors let us take notes and even tape them on our comps

 

They just released the new generation of Macbook's so she will be getting the best of the best that will last her forever. I use to always have PC's but since I got my Mac I havnt looked back. Granted she will probably hate it for the first week untill she figures out the operating system, but after that she will love it. I see way more Macs on UT's campus then I do PCs.

 

even if she got one of the $999 white older ones (thats what i'm using) it works great! plus if she has a school ID you can get a student discount and get a free printer/iPod OR like $150s off of the computer.. i ended up only paying around $800 for mine and it's the best piece of machine i've ever bought