I'm going to college in 3 months and I've been told that a lot of the software needed for engineering school isn't compatible with OSX so I can't use my macbook and I really don't feel like dragging my gaming rig into a dorm room so I need a new laptop.
I don't plan on gaming on this thing, I'll basically just use it for word processing, running whatever programs i need for engineering and listening to music.
I know I want the following things
-Quad core processor, preferably sandy bridge
-Small form factor. I like the macbook for 3 reasons and 1 is that it's small and easily portable. I don't care about weight, but I want to have something no more than 15in
- LOOONNNGGGG battery life, as in 6-8 hours while sitting idle with the brightness turned down. another thing i like about the mac is the battery lasts forever
- cool/quiet, pretty self explanatory
- solid construction
Things I would like
-Metal finish
- backlit keyboard
- multi touch gesturing (third and final reason why i like the mac)
- good sound card (idc about speakers, I wear headphones anyway)
- good screen
The main computers I've been looking at were the
Dell XPS 15z (though not a quad core and I've heard bad things about construction, battery life, screen)
Dell XPS 15 (hardware and price are fantastic but it's a beast and battery is still an issue.)
Alienware 14x (hardware is fantastic, smaller size, hot as hell though and battery life isn't great)
HP dv6tq (hardware is great, price is great, no backlit keyboard, poor battery life)
HP Envy 14 beats (beats for some reason is 100 bucks cheaper with the quad core, size is great, metal, but heard battery life is poor for it's size and processors aren't sandy bridge)
You may be thinking "just dual boot windows on your mbp" but the hardware has already failed on that thing once and I'm not at all impressed by the POS dual core. It's 2 years old already and I'd like to get something new and top of the line to last me 4 years, and because I won't be gaming on it i think that's possible.
Any comments or suggestions are more than welcome. I have a lot of time to make the purchase so I'm doing all the research i can.
I don't plan on gaming on this thing, I'll basically just use it for word processing, running whatever programs i need for engineering and listening to music.
I know I want the following things
-Quad core processor, preferably sandy bridge
-Small form factor. I like the macbook for 3 reasons and 1 is that it's small and easily portable. I don't care about weight, but I want to have something no more than 15in
- LOOONNNGGGG battery life, as in 6-8 hours while sitting idle with the brightness turned down. another thing i like about the mac is the battery lasts forever
- cool/quiet, pretty self explanatory
- solid construction
Things I would like
-Metal finish
- backlit keyboard
- multi touch gesturing (third and final reason why i like the mac)
- good sound card (idc about speakers, I wear headphones anyway)
- good screen
The main computers I've been looking at were the
Dell XPS 15z (though not a quad core and I've heard bad things about construction, battery life, screen)
Dell XPS 15 (hardware and price are fantastic but it's a beast and battery is still an issue.)
Alienware 14x (hardware is fantastic, smaller size, hot as hell though and battery life isn't great)
HP dv6tq (hardware is great, price is great, no backlit keyboard, poor battery life)
HP Envy 14 beats (beats for some reason is 100 bucks cheaper with the quad core, size is great, metal, but heard battery life is poor for it's size and processors aren't sandy bridge)
You may be thinking "just dual boot windows on your mbp" but the hardware has already failed on that thing once and I'm not at all impressed by the POS dual core. It's 2 years old already and I'd like to get something new and top of the line to last me 4 years, and because I won't be gaming on it i think that's possible.
Any comments or suggestions are more than welcome. I have a lot of time to make the purchase so I'm doing all the research i can.