13.3 in laptops with core2

[Inspector Jihad]

i was looking around and only ran across the macbook and the vaio c and sz series. both the vaios are more expensive than the macbook for similar configurations. who else makes 13.3 in laptops?

 

[TheStu]

You can check newegg, I am fairly certain Asus and HP both make a 13.3" machine. Dell is also coming out with a 13.3" in the XPS1330. Why is 13.3 so important to you, why not 12 or 14? For whatever reason, most manufacturers can put more kit into their 14" machines than into 13".

I personally really like my macbook, it feels really solid, gets decent battery life, and the screen is nice. Also the trackpad adn keyboard kick a$$.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

i think the 13 is a good size. i find my sisters 12 in ibook too small and my 14 in toshiba is good and light, but something a little smaller would be a perfect fit in a bookbag.

 

[zig3695]

yeah my dell 1501 with a ws 15" is just huge. i was used to a standard 14" screen on my t40, and overall that laptop seemed half the size. but also twice as flimsy, i really like how rigid this dell is.

 

[TheStu]

What exactly are you looking for the laptop to do? How important is gaming for example? How much multi-tasking are you planning on doing? Also, you realize that if you prefer Windows, you are better off getting a Windows machine instead of the MacBook. The MacBook is a great Windows machine, don't get me wrong, and the drivers are just about perfect, but you don't get a copy of Windows when you order the MacBook, so you will have to provide your own.

 

[gus6464]

Macbooks are nice. Have had mine for over a year now and it runs like a champ. I would suggest you go for the base model and upgrade the ram to 2gb. You will have a very fast machine at a decent price.

 

[Looney]

Macbooks are decent... but the Sony's will be much lighter than the Macbook. Also, i believe they have better GPUs. And they definitely have better display than the Macbooks.

But for the price, Macbooks are pretty damn good. I just wished it was a pound or two lighter (or even a 12" widescreen).

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Looney
Macbooks are decent... but the Sony's will be much lighter than the Macbook. Also, i believe they have better GPUs. And they definitely have better display than the Macbooks.

But for the price, Macbooks are pretty damn good. I just wished it was a pound or two lighter (or even a 12" widescreen).

You are right, the Vaio competitor to the macBook (size wise) is lighter, and does have a better graphics card... but it is about $500 more than the MacBook. The screen issue is debateable, I think that the screen on the MacBook is stellar, and I have seen the Sony SZ Series screen... it is nice too.

I like the looks of the SZ, and I was considering it before I pulled the trigger on my macbook... but it is just too expensive. And especially now, you can get a MacBook, an ipod, and an iphone, for less than the SZ (up to $199 mail in rebate on ipods if you buy a mac)

 

[bklyn1028]

If I might jump into this, please....my daughter has a 12" mac, and loves it, but her school requires a windows based laptop, so..........she would like a 12" if possible, 13 would work, has to be light, and I know there are a ton out there, however, this is my main concern VISTA...how stable is it now??...Lenovo still has XP pro available.....

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: bklyn1028
If I might jump into this, please....my daughter has a 12" mac, and loves it, but her school requires a windows based laptop, so..........she would like a 12" if possible, 13 would work, has to be light, and I know there are a ton out there, however, this is my main concern VISTA...how stable is it now??...Lenovo still has XP pro available.....

I have Vista on my 13.3 MacBook and it runs fairly well. I am probably not the best person to talk to since I use OS X primarily, but aside from not being able to connect to one wireless network, Vista has worked well.

I hate when schools put down a requirement like that. It is one thing to say that the student has to have a computer, or a laptop specifically, but when you say "it has to run Windows" that just gets annoying. How about "we highly recommend you get a windows laptop. However, should you choose not to, you may not be eligible to receive any of the special perks that the rest of our students receive (free software, reduced cost software, tech support, etc.) and are therefore on your own." I do know that some schools do use a VPN-type connection for their students to log in with, and it could be that they only want Windows machines on there, even though VPN can be accessed via Linux and OS X.

The 13.3 MacBook is about the same weight, maybe a little lighter than the 12" iBook, and I would say the same for the 12" PowerBook (I have used both). And all the new ones can run windows.

 

[bklyn1028]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: bklyn1028
If I might jump into this, please....my daughter has a 12" mac, and loves it, but her school requires a windows based laptop, so..........she would like a 12" if possible, 13 would work, has to be light, and I know there are a ton out there, however, this is my main concern VISTA...how stable is it now??...Lenovo still has XP pro available.....

I have Vista on my 13.3 MacBook and it runs fairly well. I am probably not the best person to talk to since I use OS X primarily, but aside from not being able to connect to one wireless network, Vista has worked well.

I hate when schools put down a requirement like that. It is one thing to say that the student has to have a computer, or a laptop specifically, but when you say "it has to run Windows" that just gets annoying. How about "we highly recommend you get a windows laptop. However, should you choose not to, you may not be eligible to receive any of the special perks that the rest of our students receive (free software, reduced cost software, tech support, etc.) and are therefore on your own." I do know that some schools do use a VPN-type connection for their students to log in with, and it could be that they only want Windows machines on there, even though VPN can be accessed via Linux and OS X.

The 13.3 MacBook is about the same weight, maybe a little lighter than the 12" iBook, and I would say the same for the 12" PowerBook (I have used both). And all the new ones can run windows.

 

[bklyn1028]

Originally posted by: bklyn1028

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: bklyn1028
If I might jump into this, please....my daughter has a 12" mac, and loves it, but her school requires a windows based laptop, so..........she would like a 12" if possible, 13 would work, has to be light, and I know there are a ton out there, however, this is my main concern VISTA...how stable is it now??...Lenovo still has XP pro available.....

I have Vista on my 13.3 MacBook and it runs fairly well. I am probably not the best person to talk to since I use OS X primarily, but aside from not being able to connect to one wireless network, Vista has worked well.

I hate when schools put down a requirement like that. It is one thing to say that the student has to have a computer, or a laptop specifically, but when you say "it has to run Windows" that just gets annoying. How about "we highly recommend you get a windows laptop. However, should you choose not to, you may not be eligible to receive any of the special perks that the rest of our students receive (free software, reduced cost software, tech support, etc.) and are therefore on your own." I do know that some schools do use a VPN-type connection for their students to log in with, and it could be that they only want Windows machines on there, even though VPN can be accessed via Linux and OS X.

The 13.3 MacBook is about the same weight, maybe a little lighter than the 12" iBook, and I would say the same for the 12" PowerBook (I have used both). And all the new ones can run windows.

could I load XP Pro on her macbook?

 

[TheStu]

[/quote]
could I load XP Pro on her macbook?

[/quote]

Absolutely. And you can have it installed either natively (using Boot Camp to split the drive) or virtually (using VMWare Fusion or Parallels to install it within OS X) I for example have Vista installed natively, but i can virtualize that native install, the advantage being that all my settings are there, along with my files and whatnot, keeps me from having to maintain two identical windows setups. I also just installed XP Pro in a virtual environment on my machine (literally just installed it... got done with drivers about an hour ago) but that was a proof of concept thing to verify that the disk that i had would work with the key that i have.

 

[bklyn1028]

Originally posted by: TheStu

could I load XP Pro on her macbook?

[/quote]

Absolutely. And you can have it installed either natively (using Boot Camp to split the drive) or virtually (using VMWare Fusion or Parallels to install it within OS X) I for example have Vista installed natively, but i can virtualize that native install, the advantage being that all my settings are there, along with my files and whatnot, keeps me from having to maintain two identical windows setups. I also just installed XP Pro in a virtual environment on my machine (literally just installed it... got done with drivers about an hour ago) but that was a proof of concept thing to verify that the disk that i had would work with the key that i have.[/quote]

newegg has a sony sz360 on sale for a nominal (lol) $1999, but it seems to have everything she would need or want.......her school requires a min of 1.5 ghz processor(this is med school, she she might be doing intensive stuff)

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: bklyn1028

Originally posted by: TheStu

could I load XP Pro on her macbook?

Absolutely. And you can have it installed either natively (using Boot Camp to split the drive) or virtually (using VMWare Fusion or Parallels to install it within OS X) I for example have Vista installed natively, but i can virtualize that native install, the advantage being that all my settings are there, along with my files and whatnot, keeps me from having to maintain two identical windows setups. I also just installed XP Pro in a virtual environment on my machine (literally just installed it... got done with drivers about an hour ago) but that was a proof of concept thing to verify that the disk that i had would work with the key that i have.[/quote]

newegg has a sony sz360 on sale for a nominal (lol) $1999, but it seems to have everything she would need or want.......her school requires a min of 1.5 ghz processor(this is med school, she she might be doing intensive stuff)[/quote]

Unless she is planning on doing much gaming, then that SZ is overkill. Since you can get a fully specced BlackBook with AppleCare for less than that... you may want to rethink that choice. Plus, comparing the trackpad on the SZ to the MacBook is like well... comparing apples to oranges. Completely different worlds, and usually if a person is getting a laptop, they may actually care about the trackpad.

 

[gus6464]

Sony trackpads tend to be small and have an awkward feel to them. Macbook trackpad blows them out of the water IMO. I also prefer macbook keyboard compared to sonys. Now when comparing thinkpad and macbook keyboard I would take the thinkpad.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: gus6464
Sony trackpads tend to be small and have an awkward feel to them. Macbook trackpad blows them out of the water IMO. I also prefer macbook keyboard compared to sonys. Now when comparing thinkpad and macbook keyboard I would take the thinkpad.

never have used a Thinkpad keyboard for much time at all, so I don't have a good point of comparison. Let me just say that I'll still be using my MacBook keyboard long after the machine calls it quits... i'll mod newer versions into the old shell if they change the keyboard on me. Plus I found out it is USB based, so once I can figure out the pinout, I can hook my old macbook keyboard up to any machine

 

[UncleWai]

ASUS W7S with Santa Rosa platform and gf8400 gs.
512MB onboard ram though, that kinda sucks

 

[A5]

Originally posted by: bklyn1028

Originally posted by: TheStu

could I load XP Pro on her macbook?

Absolutely. And you can have it installed either natively (using Boot Camp to split the drive) or virtually (using VMWare Fusion or Parallels to install it within OS X) I for example have Vista installed natively, but i can virtualize that native install, the advantage being that all my settings are there, along with my files and whatnot, keeps me from having to maintain two identical windows setups. I also just installed XP Pro in a virtual environment on my machine (literally just installed it... got done with drivers about an hour ago) but that was a proof of concept thing to verify that the disk that i had would work with the key that i have.[/quote]

newegg has a sony sz360 on sale for a nominal (lol) $1999, but it seems to have everything she would need or want.......her school requires a min of 1.5 ghz processor(this is med school, she she might be doing intensive stuff)[/quote]

Just install XP on the Macbook, and it will be fine. There's plenty of guides out there on how to do it, and it's a lot cheaper than a new notebook...