Purchase a Laptop for Science at UoM, yay or nay?

[paulsterio]

Well if it helps at Centrecom, they're having this amazing deal

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/Centre_Com_Warehouse&Stores_Sale_Extended.pdf

Toshiba Satellite Pro C850, buy one get one free for $649.

Essentially what you're getting is a pretty good computer, far better than any netbook. I'm willing to go half-half with you on that, so I'll pay $325 and keep one and you pay $325 and keep the other one, how does that sound?

[Russ]

What's wrong with MSY? And don't say the old "bad customer service" or "long queues" - they do sell things for cheaper, so it's the price you pay I guess

Why not? They're absolute atrocious at it and they've been successfully sued for illegal business practices, so I don't see why it's not a valid criticism.

[paulsterio]

Why not? They're absolute atrocious at it and they've been successfully sued for illegal business practices, so I don't see why it's not a valid criticism.

OK I don't know about the illegal business practices, but bad customer service I can live with, like, if I can save $50+ going to them as opposed to another store, I'd be willing to put up with bad customer service for that saving, plus, it's like a one minute drive from Monash Uni, so it's really convenient for me, going at around 2-3PM on a weekday means basically no queues as well.

Btw, what illegal business practices are these? I've never heard of this before! haha D:

[banditkeith]

I use a Tab for Uni. Not a boring ol' iPad though. Using an Asus Transformer Prime. The price is a bit steep but it's amazing to carry around. The one I bought came with the keyboard which you can attach to the tablet and it becomes a hybrid laptop. The keyboard also has it's own power supply thus your battery life is amazing. I can easily get over 12 hours of usage from it.

It also can edit/create Powerpoint, Excel and Word documents along with have .pdf apps that allow you to annotate it.
Also, being a tab, I find it much easier to use as a "notebook" expecially when reading stuff on the trains/trams

EDIT: I'm in Biomed btw. I do still keep pen and paper on me though, for any math-sy stuff.

[paulsterio]

The thing with the Transformer Prime is that if you're spending that much to get it with the keyboard dock (it's around 700, if I remember correctly), then you might as well just get a laptop

[Russ]

Btw, what illegal business practices are these? I've never heard of this before! haha D:

Google "ACCC MSY case" or something similar.

They were basically just lying to customers over warranty iirc

[Gloamglozer]

I use a Tab for Uni. Not a boring ol' iPad though. Using an Asus Transformer Prime. The price is a bit steep but it's amazing to carry around. The one I bought came with the keyboard which you can attach to the tablet and it becomes a hybrid laptop. The keyboard also has it's own power supply thus your battery life is amazing. I can easily get over 12 hours of usage from it.

It also can edit/create Powerpoint, Excel and Word documents along with have .pdf apps that allow you to annotate it.
Also, being a tab, I find it much easier to use as a "notebook" expecially when reading stuff on the trains/trams

EDIT: I'm in Biomed btw. I do still keep pen and paper on me though, for any math-sy stuff.

Isn't the Asus Transformer Prime running on Android?  If so, you need an app to edit create Powerpoint/Word files, yeah?

EDIT:  Like Quickoffice Pro or Polaris?

[Greatness]

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers/hp/pavilion-11-inch-notebook-sku-75684/ is a decent compromise, mostly since it lets you stay away from MSY

I got this notebook a couple of months back and i have to say it is very good for the price. It has the power of a notebook but size of a netbook. I paid $350 for it when they were having a big sale, i think they're like $385 or something now. The processor in this is suppose to be much better than an atom and it is from my experience as we also have an asus eepc in the house. It can run multiple tabs/windows of IE/Chrome, with a couple of word documents and/or pdfs in the background. If you're playing music/itunes simultaneously with the above processes then it will push it to limit of its performance, but still capable of doing it. Also you can upgrade the RAM on this for a small price i think it's $29 or so for a 4gb ram so if yuo chuck that in it will run very well from what i've read.
I think it's a great thing to have for uni very convenient and powerful as it gets the job done very well!

[banditkeith]

I use a Tab for Uni. Not a boring ol' iPad though. Using an Asus Transformer Prime. The price is a bit steep but it's amazing to carry around. The one I bought came with the keyboard which you can attach to the tablet and it becomes a hybrid laptop. The keyboard also has it's own power supply thus your battery life is amazing. I can easily get over 12 hours of usage from it.

It also can edit/create Powerpoint, Excel and Word documents along with have .pdf apps that allow you to annotate it.
Also, being a tab, I find it much easier to use as a "notebook" expecially when reading stuff on the trains/trams

EDIT: I'm in Biomed btw. I do still keep pen and paper on me though, for any math-sy stuff.

Isn't the Asus Transformer Prime running on Android?  If so, you need an app to edit create Powerpoint/Word files, yeah?

EDIT:  Like Quickoffice Pro or Polaris?

Yeah it is on Android but it comes with Polaris installed.
I suppose getting a Laptop would be a more logical thing to do but because I already have one at home, I thought having something else
would be better. I don't know why but reading pdf's on a laptop is just painful...

[VivaTequila]

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers/hp/pavilion-11-inch-notebook-sku-75684/ is a decent compromise, mostly since it lets you stay away from MSY

I got this notebook a couple of months back and i have to say it is very good for the price. It has the power of a notebook but size of a netbook. I paid $350 for it when they were having a big sale, i think they're like $385 or something now. The processor in this is suppose to be much better than an atom and it is from my experience as we also have an asus eepc in the house. It can run multiple tabs/windows of IE/Chrome, with a couple of word documents and/or pdfs in the background. If you're playing music/itunes simultaneously with the above processes then it will push it to limit of its performance, but still capable of doing it. Also you can upgrade the RAM on this for a small price i think it's $29 or so for a 4gb ram so if yuo chuck that in it will run very well from what i've read.
I think it's a great thing to have for uni very convenient and powerful as it gets the job done very well!

Great advice, but I'm a bit worried because I think that the specs on it wouldn't bode well with the one thing I need it for: battery life.

I have a great PC at home for everything I could possibly need a computer to do; all I need is battery life for uni. That's why I'm being such a pedant with selecting a netbook.

Does anyone know where to buy netbooks, anyway? JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith only have a very limited range, and I found a better deal on a better netbook at Myer. That's right, at Myer... I can't find anything good at Harvey Norman either, so what are other retailers?

I've pretty much given up the idea of finding what I want online, because no retailers are likely to stock the netbook. Instead, I've resigned to the fact that I'm going to have to buy from what stores have in stock unless I decide I want to order the netbook blind without testing it out first.

Mavisgibbons and others, do you bring your laptop chargers to uni? Do you find yourself always finding charging points relatively easily? Maybe a compromise on the battery life in exchange for the ease of finding a laptop that meets my expectations would be better, provided bringing a charger isn't too much of a drainer.

[jasrulz63]

I highly recommend the Lenovo Thinkpad series, such as the Edge.

Link

Great battery life and built very well.

I personally use my HP Touchsmart tm2 and love it, laptop that converts to a tablet (turning the screen) that runs Windows 7.

[VivaTequila]

That's out of my budget D: they look really good too...

[paulsterio]

The Pavillion 11inch will have very good battery, it's pretty much a low power laptop.

But OK, I'll shut up after this post, but do not buy a netbook, you will regret it when it takes around 15 seconds for word to load when you already have Chrome open. It will take another 10 seconds for iTunes to start and will take like 5 minutes to boot.

[paulsterio]

Mavisgibbons and others, do you bring your laptop chargers to uni? Do you find yourself always finding charging points relatively easily? Maybe a compromise on the battery life in exchange for the ease of finding a laptop that meets my expectations would be better, provided bringing a charger isn't too much of a drainer.

There are always charging points around at Monash anyway, not sure about Melbourne, but I don't bring my charger, purely based on the fact that I basically don't need to

[Starlight]

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers/hp/pavilion-11-inch-notebook-sku-75684/ is a decent compromise, mostly since it lets you stay away from MSY

I got this notebook a couple of months back and i have to say it is very good for the price. It has the power of a notebook but size of a netbook. I paid $350 for it when they were having a big sale, i think they're like $385 or something now. The processor in this is suppose to be much better than an atom and it is from my experience as we also have an asus eepc in the house. It can run multiple tabs/windows of IE/Chrome, with a couple of word documents and/or pdfs in the background. If you're playing music/itunes simultaneously with the above processes then it will push it to limit of its performance, but still capable of doing it. Also you can upgrade the RAM on this for a small price i think it's $29 or so for a 4gb ram so if yuo chuck that in it will run very well from what i've read.
I think it's a great thing to have for uni very convenient and powerful as it gets the job done very well!

Great advice, but I'm a bit worried because I think that the specs on it wouldn't bode well with the one thing I need it for: battery life.

I have a great PC at home for everything I could possibly need a computer to do; all I need is battery life for uni. That's why I'm being such a pedant with selecting a netbook.

Does anyone know where to buy netbooks, anyway? JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith only have a very limited range, and I found a better deal on a better netbook at Myer. That's right, at Myer... I can't find anything good at Harvey Norman either, so what are other retailers?

I've pretty much given up the idea of finding what I want online, because no retailers are likely to stock the netbook. Instead, I've resigned to the fact that I'm going to have to buy from what stores have in stock unless I decide I want to order the netbook blind without testing it out first.

Mavisgibbons and others, do you bring your laptop chargers to uni? Do you find yourself always finding charging points relatively easily? Maybe a compromise on the battery life in exchange for the ease of finding a laptop that meets my expectations would be better, provided bringing a charger isn't too much of a drainer.

I bring my charger only when i'm at uni for long hours (e.g. 8-9)

Otherwise if I charge my laptop the night before and adjust the brightness at uni, it lasts long.