...and it's off to MacLand!

Yes, I am going to New York City for college in about a month, and as such I must get technologically equipped for the challenges of college life. I've spent the last two weeks researching laptops of all different flavors, backgrounds, religions, ethnicity, madraigas, and of course, budgets. And there's one thing I found they all share- they all have their issues. There is no such thing as the perfect laptop. If you want speed, you'll have to sacrifice battery life. If you want battery life, you'll have to sacrifice portability. If you want portability, you'll have to sacrifice speed, etc.
Not to mention the fact that they all run Windows Vista, the bane of cyberspace's existance as far as anyone well informed on the subject is concerned, and the free upgrade to Windows 7 is not only fairly far off, but not exactly promising either. And if you do find a laptop with good memory and processing power, long battery life, and compact form, be prepared to pay through the nose for it in blood (this I have done before, but it had very little to do with money).

So where does one turn when looking for a portable yet powerful laptop without spending a well sized chunk of the life savings they'll be living off of the next four years?

Not Apple, that's for sure.

Even if their laptops are all their cracked up to be, the prices are absolutly outrageous. The specs of a $1500 MacBook Air are less than half that of a $500 PC laptop. The difference? Is the MacBook Air built out of a gold-titanium alloy that can be thrust into space and still be able to check email? Not quite, but it does have a much more sturdy construction and it's operating system is probably more stable. But how much is that worth, really? As long as I don't act like a klutz around my laptop, why do I need an exta inch shaved off my laptop's thickness? Really how much room does that save you?
The answer is , that's not the point. It just looks really cool, and having the world's thinnest laptop is something to boast about.

I wonder if anyone actually falls for that. If anyone actually pays an extra 600 or 800 dollars to have their laptop look nicer.

Anyway, I decided on the MacBook Pro not because of its looks, but because I've finally come to admit that PCs suck. Tremendously. I have suffered greatly at the hands of crashed video editors after an hour of unsaved work, and my odds of doing a good deal of video editing next year are greatly increasing. Plus, the MacBook Pro, unlike the Air, has construction that is sturdier than pretty much any other laptop on the market, and has processing power that is worthy of its price tag. Throw in a light up keyboard, 7 hour battery life, and a FREE Ipod Touch, not to mention a student discount on the whole package, and the ability to boot up in windows if I get tired of Leapord OS X, and I'm sold.

I just hope it lives up to its promises.