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My wife is looking for a new laptop or MacBook. 100% to be used for her Ph.D. research. Last time she needed that, was during the Covid period and her desktop device was powerful enough to run everything. But now she needs a portable machine.
On her behalf:
I have no clue. Someone here who can help?Quote:
Which laptop for study; switching between programs (Zotero, Obsidian, university libraries). AMD 5 or 3? And 8 GB or 16 GB RAM? Or Apple equivalent?
Menno
If those things don’t run on Mac, don’t get a Mac.
Otherwise they look like cataloging / annotation databases - so just aim for 16GB to support a few apps open at a time. Doesn’t sound like she is number crunching or needing CUDA type capability.
We've always had Macbooks in the family, but wife and son have now switched over to Chromebooks, which are very widely usedin education.
I think Macbook pricing has become absurd.
If she needs the functionality of a laptop then I'd just get a decent Windows laptop now for a third of the price.
I was having a chat with a customer who’s daughter was going to Uni and insisted on having a MacBook like her friends, she put her foot down and bought a decent spec windows machine instead because of cost and after a month or so the daughter admitted it was more than good enough, and she was using it for photography editing. I think probably the gap that was there in the past between the two has narrowed, whereas the price gap has widened.
Nothing there is very power hungry so it really comes down to if she wants something portable and also has a desktop to use still or it's her main machine or she docks it to a bigger screen and keyboard at home?Quote:
Originally Posted by thieuster
Here is the size difference between a 13" and 14" frame:
https://i.imgur.com/VILnyCJ.jpg
So she might want to go with light and portable for out and about and then have a dock, keyboard and monitor at home for when she's writing up.
A thinkpad will have a good keyboard for typing all day and there are various onsale. The other option is something from Dell from the outlet. It depends what screen size she is comfortable with.
With the exception of battery life - the Macbooks runs rings around most Laptops unless you get into the high-end (I use a thinkpad Z13 that in some configurations can match a macbook's battery life) and even then there are only a few that do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonM
Edit: Made it clearer I am talking about battery life not performance.
Here we go again. A Macbook Air, starting at £1,150,or a Macbook Pro, starting at £1,700 being compared to 'most laptops unless you get into the high-end.' Macbooks are high-end and high-priced. A similarly priced or considerably cheaper laptop will easily match a Macbook in terms of overall performance. I use Apple for everything (iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple Watch) except computing as they simply don't represent value. Most people don't need blisteringly fast processors or high-end graphics unless they're doing CAD, video/picture editing or manipulating huge databases etc. for a living.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alansmithee
Anyway, back to the OPs question. I think you need to have a better understanding of the requirements. A few months ago a friend asked me for a recommendation for a laptop to suit his needs and so I recommended two that cost ~£500 and did everything and more than he'd specified. A month later after buying one he's on the phone to tell me he can't connect 2 additional monitors as he can with his work laptop. Mate, you never mentioned that this was a requirement - the USB C port didn't support video out.
My sons just gone through a levels and four years of uni with a MacBook Air (128gb storage, 4Gb ram). It’s now six years old and still excellent.
I’ve just bought a seven year old MacBook Air off my other son (as a spare) and after wiping and reinstalling operating system I’m impressed at how quick it still is.
They maybe more expensive but do tend to last longer.
I thought macbooks were better on power and battery life than windows machines? Certainly used to be.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alansmithee
They do - read the comment I'm replying to.Quote:
Originally Posted by blackal
OP - on the information you have given us - this might be a good shout:
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/p/lapto...m_campaign=BAU
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Thanks for all the input! My wife has read all comments (dunno if it's good to unleash a watch-collecting wife on this forum...) and I think she can go ahead with all the answers! It's going to be a 16 Gb machine. No numbers crunching.
Anyone to comment on the AMD processor?
AMD processor will be fine for what she wants.Quote:
Originally Posted by thieuster
If you do go down the Windows route, make sure you buy sometihing with Windows 11 Professional rather than Home. No one should be using an operating system without native drive encryption in this day and age.
Chromebooks are great for light users, school kids and old people, I would not recommend for a PhD student because Universities in the main are heavy Microsoft environments and you can find that software you need does not work and also because they will be given office and a 1tb of storage for free... Also a faff sharing drafts with peers and supervisors.Quote:
Originally Posted by bowie
For a voluntary role I've been issued a chromebook, battery last ages I can get a day of use out of it and one of the three programmes I was issued it for is a Google docs so works great, however one of the other programmes doesn't work great on it and so it clouds my opinion.
I'd say with a windows or apple product if it were my money.
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Get a refurbished MacBook Air with Apple Silicon M2 or M1) from Apple. You get a nice discount and a full warranty.
For an unbalanced view. I love my MacBook Pro but its downfall I find is the MAC version of MS Office is way behind the Windows version. Therefore I have a Samsung Laptop just to do those tasks I can’t with the Mac.
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I work in IT at a Uni. Our standard issue is a HP laptop with 256gb hd and 16gb memory. Small hd? Yes because staff and students get 1tb of One Drive free. Saving stuff to a laptop is stupid these days but yet every week people tell us about their lost data etc that they didnt put on a Cloud. Adobe req 16gb minimum. Most of our staff are using standard Win 10. Macbooks get requested esp with media types but come with their own issues eg which dongle for which purpose eg Usb c to hdmi or ethernet. Other people specify eg gaming laptops then complain that the fans are noisy. If she is doing a Ph.D. do the University not supply a device? Mine does.
Also Microsoft 365 is free as a staff member or student. This includes Teams and can be downloaded from office.com once you have set up mfa. Not all unis do mfa (multifactor authentication). I can only speak for the one I work at. Other places may offer more or less.
I refuse to carry anything other than a macbook pro.
I have a twin 3090 ryzen based windows/linux workstation at home but my macbook goes everywhere with me (I travel a lot) . I use it for everything. Entertainment , personal , email and web and I can composite 4k shots for feature films on it .
I’ve owned 3 in 20 years . All of them were given away fully working and still capable of doing what most people require. Batteries were replaced by myself .
The single reason I’ll take a macbook
is that they have never let me down . PC laptops even high end within a couple of years something is always broken or they start to become unreliable .
I’ve carried macbooks in desert , jungle , up mountains , down rivers , in arctic tundra … never let me down . That’s enough for me , similarly I will only carrry an iphone .
Yes its expensive ( mine is something like £4.5k) and you can get better bang for your buck but if you need something reliable as well buy a macbook
If she’s doing a PhD then once registered she’s qualify for the education discount.
While the general comments on Macs vs Windows on this thread have been interesting, this is the most pertinent point. It's all about the applications.Quote:
Originally Posted by stooo
We're not located in the UK and she's not doing the PhD at a Dutch university; she attends a Parisian Ecole PolyTechnique. But both my sons are attending Dutch universities; perhaps that's a lead for her to find a proper laptop.Quote:
Originally Posted by joe narvey
I must say that I'm always happy to get so much response again. My wife is now at the stage of: "Can't you ask your buddies on TZ-UK for proper advice?"
My M1 work Air doesn’t need me to take the power cable & charger into the office when I go, it’s that good with battery usage.Quote:
Originally Posted by blackal
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My M2 Air lasts most of the day on battery.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mj2k
I appreciate you stated new, but I'd suggest a refurbished ThinkPad i5, 16GB, 512 SSD.
Will be as good as new
I specced it up as above, and it's £216.
Save the cash, help the environment etc
You don't need to spend £4.5k to solve this problem!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325547972...mis&media=COPY
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Zotero and Obsidian both run on Mac, so I’d be looking at an M1 or M2 MacBook Air.Quote:
Originally Posted by thieuster
We’ve got both in the household and they’re quick and battery lasts ages. Apple’’s take is that Apple Silicon running 8GB ram is the same as a Windows equivalent running 16GB.
You can pick up some bargain used M1’s on the bay.
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I would assume that for a phd - there is a fair amount of typing involved.
Unless a mac is used with a secondary keyboard - I'd suggest that your average touch-typist would not enjoy typing on a macbook.
A decent Lenovo is best for keyboard reliability and action, I think.
I'd ask your wife to try a macbook for speed typing before you shell out.
I have both. The Lenovo ThinkPad keyboards are excellent - like the IBM ThinkPad predecessors. However my M2 MacBook Pro keyboard is also excellent and I would have no problem typing a thesis on it. They are significantly improved from the previous generation of keyboards which has a mushy action and were unreliable.Quote:
Originally Posted by blackal
Ah-hah! I haven't tried the latest macbooks, so will take your recommendation.Quote:
Originally Posted by jwillans
I think my latest Lenovo is 2019 vintage and would say that the keyboard rivals previous units from Lenovo and the original IBMs