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Comparison between HP and Apple Laptops?

I know people ask about laptops for uni all the time, so sorry to be another one!

My dad has started asking me what laptops I've been looking at for University in September but if I'm honest I don't have a clue what I need/want. He printed off some paperwork about an HP Elitebook 820 and suggested that to me. So we went to PC World and Curry's to have a look at something similar but they didn't have anything remotely like it.
For me, I would much rather be able to see/feel/play around with the laptop before we buy it and from reading the description on the website I feel 12.5" screen is too small. I'm interested in buying an Apple laptop as they seem to be reliable and well recommended on websites and blogs for uni laptops.
Realistically my criteria is:
- Around a 13/14/15" screen
- Good battery life
- Good speed for browsing the internet/writing an essay/listening to music etc at the same time
- Not a massive fan of Windows 8 at all but a) I'll have to get used to it at some point and b) I've only ever used windows
- I'm hopefully going to be a Law student as well, so that gives an idea as to the sort of work I'll be doing on it

Can someone recommend me an HP or Apple laptop? I don't know what makes one brand or laptop better than others!

Reply 1

Someone's mum

Daughter had a macbook pro. No probs with it in 3 years apart from one minor issue which the local apple store sorted out. Apple also provide teaching in the stores and there are good online forums. You can also buy something that you can back everything up to by wifi automatically. downside is they're not cheap but if you're a student you can get a discount through your Uni. Suggest you go have a look at their site. why do I like apple - because I have had so many. Issues with windows over the years. Oh and daughter also uses ipad with an apple wireless keyboard for note taking which saves lugging the mac around all day.

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Reply 2

AletiaL

Original post by Someone's mum

Ah thank you for the help. I take it she liked her Pro then? And would you recommend the iPad + keyboard option for notetaking or is that just a luxury?

Reply 3

just a dad

Original post by Someone's mum

Good post. My daughter has a MacBook Air, simply because the lighter weight and longer battery life were a bigger deal than the extra power and graphics you get with the pro. And it's cheaper.

Excellent point about the student discount.

Reply 4

Someone's mum

Ipad and apple keyboard is a luxury but really handy for typing notes. We put the keyboard in an origami sleeve and the ipad slots in and makes a mini laptop! Don't forget to get insurance whatever you go for and yes she lives her pro.

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Reply 5

Alfissti

Original post by AletiaL

HP EliteBooks are good laptops, it isn't usual to find them in shops as they are premium business rather than consumer buyer laptops. Generally speaking business grade laptops tend to be better built for stability purposes rather than for outright power but they do come at a price. You might be able to view them at an office supplies shop rather than your usual consumer electric shops though 99% of them will be bought online or through an IT vendor. If you are after a business grade or a very near business grade laptop that are easier to source in UK then look for a Lenovo Thinkpad.

If you will be reading law then there won't be any special software where there might be a case for a mac vs pc debate and generally there won't be any big processor intensive programs you will need to run as it is mostly databases that you will connect to through the web or MS Word and possibly some PowerPoint or PDFs only.

HP or Mac? I generally don't touch HP's consumer range as they aren't that durable. Generally for PCs prefer buying Fujitsu or Lenovo instead.

At the risk of this thread turning into a "What this and that parent provided for their kids thread" I started my eldest out with a Lenovo ThinkPad which was mostly kept at home. I gave her an iPad but no keyboard. She carries both the laptop and iPad around but doesn't use the laptop in lectures. The iPad does hold some of her reference books and textbooks in digital formats which she uses it for cross referencing.

During law lectures it isn't easy to use a laptop productively as lectures do tend to go very fast and usually all over the place as instructors are rarely ever well structured and something sometimes just don't go well when it is in a flow.

Reply 6

totalhijack

MacBook Air 13" or MacBook Pro Retina 13" should be great. Both speedy laptops with SSDs (solid state drives - about 5 times faster than traditional hard drives found in most windows laptops). Retina Pro has better screen, but Air has better battery life (12 hours!). Air is also thinner and lighter, but Pro is by no means heavy.

Another thing to consider is that most Windows laptops need you to buy Office separately now - at around £110, or £60 for a 4 year student licence. Macs come with Apple's version of Office (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) free. Not the best software packages in the world, but if you're just writing essays to print and doing the odd spreadsheet or presentation, you can't go wrong.

Reply 7

James222

HP laptops stop working properly after 2 years either speakers or battery goes to ****
Apple laptops cost as much as 2 HP laptops but hard to get software for macs older than 3 years

Reply 8

OllieDS

Original post by AletiaL

Apple is just generally better.

More modern, lighter, better battery life. Pages/Keynote/Numbers is also incredibly better than Word/Powerpoint/Excel.

Mac OSX is also considerably better than any version of Windows.

Not to mention they're also immune from viruses so you don't lose all your files by opening an e-mail.

Reply 9

Jammy Duel

Original post by OllieDS

Well, everything up to here is rather subjective or just false.

Not to mention they're also immune from viruses so you don't lose all your files by opening an e-mail.
And whoever told you this is lying.

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Reply 10

jameswhughes

Without wanting to go down the Mac/PC debate route, from my experiences I'd say the quality of a MacBook Pro is far superior to anything produced by HP.

If you're willing to spend around £1000 or even more on your laptop, I'd say get the MacBook Pro. If you get a PC instead you can get a fairly decent Windows laptop for half the price, don't waste loads of money on that HP Elitebook.

Reply 11

brilld

Original post by jameswhughes

If your looking at the macbook price range there is also a good HP (Core i5, 13" touchscreen, 9 hour battery (seems to last about that long), 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD) (typing on one currently) - build quality is about as good as a macbook (but it runs windows 8.1 which is a plus and minus)

If you dont mind less storage an SSD is really worth it as it makes a PC way quicker