Best Laptop for Law School?

[jomolungma]

Used laptops are a great deal.

I agree, they CAN be.  But I felt that the next three years (certainly the next year) was going to be too mission-critical to take my chances.  I've heard just as many bad experiences with used laptops and the like as I have good stories.  If I didn't need the thing to be rock solid (and, admittedly, there is never a guarantee of that, just a greater likelihood) then I would definitely do a refurb or used solution.


As for state taxes, I had the option of sending the laptop to my aunt's house in NJ for less tax.  However, the cost difference would have been offset by the gas and tolls it would have cost me to go get it from her.  Plus, I like the thing to be delivered to me, just a superstition, so I paid slightly more.  Additionally, some (all?) states have this sales tax thing as part of their income tax forms at the end of the year, so if you bypass the state's sales tax upfront you may be liable for it come tax time.  However, if you are just concerned with the cost  today, then there are retailers that don't charge sales tax in all states.  I bought the thing from IBM, which is incorporated in all 50 states, so I was charged tax.  If you bought from J&R in NY, and lived in Minnesota, I'm not so sure you'd be charged sales tax (but, again, you may have to pay that at the end of the year).

Final caveat, this one on service plans - Dell is not offering their accidental damage plan in New York or Florida.  I was told by Dell that this relates to the shipping address the computer was first shipped to, not the address where service is ultimately requested.  The IBM guy freaked me out for a second by claiming the same thing, but then said that it was good in NY.  Just something to be aware of lest you think you are covered when you aren't. (The Dell guy said that, technically, their website should remove the coverage, and fee for it, from your order once you finalize your shipping address in the checkout process.)

[pointdexterish]

New, used, refurbished, whatever - the stability of a computer has very little to do with the relative age of the hardware.

Its all about how the user treats it.  No antivir/antispyware, download alot of software cracks and click on popups?  No matter how new or used your laptop is it will be on death's bed in no time.  Hardware rarely fails, software sitting on top of that hardware on the other hand.. thats where the user interfaces with it and that is where problems happen.

[jomolungma]

Hardware rarely fails, software sitting on top of that hardware on the other hand.. thats where the user interfaces with it and that is where problems happen.

In the 21 years I've been using computers, my computer has never had a hardware problem that was a result of a software issue.  That includes 3 years during college when I used one of my computers as an incubator for viruses and several years working with various flavors of Linux.  I've had software issues that have prevented me from interacting with the computer in the way I would like, but they never caused a hardware failure.

In those same 21 years I have had hardware fail on me several several times.  Whether it's the monitor burning out, the hard drive having faulty sectors, the modem having a short, mice that have stopped functioning, keyboard keys that have broken off, desktop cases becoming misaligned, etc., every year or so it seems like something breaks.  That's why I value a good service plan and a company that provides good service.  Most of my desktop fixes were done by me since the hardware is easily obtainable and simple to work with.  For the laptop, things become a little more complicated and I felt I might need some assistance should something happen.  Also, I don't really want to spend my 1L time tinkering on my laptop.  I'd rather the tech do that while I'm in the other room reading a case or something.

[loudfarting]

Gateway!

[siehead]

this board again? Well, I got my S-series, completely suped up too. This computer has absolutely everything that you need. Portability, nice keyboard, great technology (sonoma processor, x-brite screen, internal optical drive, etc), accidental damage coverage (replaced if "accidentally" broken), and last but most certainly not least, it has style (aesthetically nicer than any other laptop out there excepting perhaps macs depending on your preference).
As mentioned before, the only drawback is the cash money, that's your call, but if you want the best, this would be the way to go.
Heres a link if you are interested.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=uK5NdycF1RtNXmV7w0pHfGgK_vhW9AEyDQM=?CategoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_SSeries&Dept=computers

[ormachea]

This might have been brought up earlier, but does anyone have any concerns about getting a Thinkpad since they were bought out by Lenovo? Isn't there a good chance the quality will suffer?

[jomolungma]

This might have been brought up earlier, but does anyone have any concerns about getting a Thinkpad since they were bought out by Lenovo? Isn't there a good chance the quality will suffer?

I can't remember where I read this, but I'm pretty sure it was on a tech review website.  According to them, the Lenovo switch will not impact manufacturing or service in the short term, and probably not ever.  Lenovo purchased the ThinkPad line with the goal of improving distribution and costs.  That's how they expect to make their money.  Apparently they are just taking over the ThinkPad production lines and service folks, so the switch to Lenovo should be pretty transparent for ThinkPad owners.

All of this is theoretical of course, but let's think about it - the ThinkPad brand has had a best-in-class reputation in the business arena for a while now.  Why would you mess with it?  The thing you'd want to do is find ways to build the ThinkPad brand in the consumer, education and government markets.  The way to do this is by bringing costs down, not by messing with a proven product.  So my feelings are that the Lenovo switch is not that big a deal.  Plus, some pretty major US companies have given some pretty large sums of cash to Lenovo as investments.  I'm sure they feel their money is safe there.

[pointdexterish]

The forums on Thinkpad.com have discussed this - sounds like there are no threats to the quality brand IBM has built up.

[ormachea]

It seems that any product line-oriented attempts to minimize costs to be able to penetrate those markets you talked about have a greater chance of damaging reliability. It's kind of a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it deal" to me.

[billiardballs1701]

So Toshiba has a hot new Tablet-PC out... the Tecra M4 - and it's switchable.

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth shelling out the extra $300-$700 more that a tablet PC runs in comparison to a normal notebook.