What type of laptop are you going to use for law school? Forum

[KMart]

Pen and paper for me for in the class, but for everything else I'm upgrading my Macbook Pro to the new Mac that recently came out. My current one is about 5 years old and has just been through too much. It's really on it's last legs and I don't think it would make it through 3 years, so I figured I might as well upgrade now. My mom got the new Mac for Christmas and I seriously never realized how light they are becoming; I guess I haven't lifted one in awhile.

I'd imagine that would make it through the next 3 years.

I have an iPad but I don't use it often for school-related work. It's possible, but I find it too difficult to do hand-written notes. Maybe if I had a keyboard it'd be possible. Maybe I'll try it this quarter of UG. My job people use tablets for remote access and seem to love it, I don't have one so I can't speak beyond that. My .02 about the tablet debate.

[rinkrat19]

Lately as a 3L, I've witnessed some Mac people running into "real world" situations where they can't do something. My trial techniques class is taught at a law firm and we're using TrialMax (PC-only trial presentation software), and in clinic, a classmate couldn't do the required doc review because the disk of e-discovery we got from the prosecutors required a PC to open and run.

Obviously these are specific situations that won't apply to everyone, but I think they're kind of indicative of life after law school. You may very well be forced to use a PC when you start working. It's not a completely terrible idea to get to know how to use them properly before then. And there are some very nice PC ultrabooks and convertibles.

I have a Surface 2 and although I love it, I would NOT use it on exams (we don't use Examsoft so I would technically be able to). I have a 15" HP laptop that I carry to class 90% of the time. Anything that slows down your typing is bad for a 1L exam. Small keyboards, tablet keyboards, tiny screens, etc.

[curlietop86]

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[stoopkid13]

Anyone else holding out to see what happens with the new Skylake processors? Think its worth waiting until right before school in August (or even September)?

[misskatejd]

Pen and paper for me.

For in class notes +1, can't focus for shit with a laptop out

+1.

same, and my laptop is HUGE, would be super awkward to take up that much room at my seat

[FuturePanhandler]

Was hoping to get through LS with my Macbook Pro (early 2011 model), but it's just running so slow. Would like to try to sell it and get something new. Anybody have any experience selling a used Macbook Pro and have any idea what I would be able to get for mine?

[rinkrat19]

same, and my laptop is HUGE, would be super awkward to take up that much room at my seat

FWIW, my backup laptop is a massive 17"er and I have carried it to class. Literally nobody gives a shit.

[altf4]

My current laptop will be 2.5 years old when I start this fall, and I don't want to have to rely on a PC lasting 5 1/2 years, no matter how awesome its condition is right now. I'll probably give this to a sibling and buy a new one.

What do you think are the most important factors to consider when buying a new laptop?

For me personally, it'll be 1) portability (weight and then size), 2) specs (good memory, enough disk space, preferably SSD) 3) battery life, and 4) price.

Actually looking at the LG Gram:
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/lg ... 40/537932/

Or maybe go for the 15" for extra battery life.

[RubyRod]

Was hoping to get through LS with my Macbook Pro (early 2011 model), but it's just running so slow. Would like to try to sell it and get something new. Anybody have any experience selling a used Macbook Pro and have any idea what I would be able to get for mine?

I have a macbook pro from 2008 that only really started slowing down this year. I did get a new media card, and a new hard drive right before my warranty ran out though (2010). My advice, keep it unless you can find someone who will give you a good chunk of money for it, which is highly doubtful. Trading in your laptop will get you next to no money and MBPs are really great machines. Take it to a local shop, NOT APPLE, but the awesome computer store with apple specialists. The one in my town call themselves Mac Gurus. My computer just needs a ram upgrade and then a software upgrade. If you're running Maverick, you may just be asking too much of an old ram. The store here will replace it and upgrade all the software for $100.

At any rate the lack of $$ you will get from a trade in, a lot of people have opted to keep the Mac as a second computer. Dump the entire contents of it onto an external hard drive, not time machine, do that too but what I'm saying is, delete it all from the machine itself, and then run it like the laptop is your monitor and the hard drive is your tower. Go in and dump out all the crap files that hide in the Library and downloads folders. Get rid of any excess user profiles. Also if you just wipe it and upgrade the RAM, only keep law school stuff on the actual computer it will probably speed up immensely.

[misskatejd]

Any idea whether macs or PCs are better at running the programs law schools use for testing? I remember reading about peoples' horror stories of their PC crashing mid-test. I have a couple year old PC, but I will spend $$$ for that not to happen to me! Anyone have any insight???

[Auxilio]

If I did not have a laptop already I would 100% jump on the just announced Surface 3.

[Gray]

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[RubyRod]

Any idea whether macs or PCs are better at running the programs law schools use for testing? I remember reading about peoples' horror stories of their PC crashing mid-test. I have a couple year old PC, but I will spend $$$ for that not to happen to me! Anyone have any insight???

Ask in the "ask a law student" forum.

[FuturePanhandler]

Was hoping to get through LS with my Macbook Pro (early 2011 model), but it's just running so slow. Would like to try to sell it and get something new. Anybody have any experience selling a used Macbook Pro and have any idea what I would be able to get for mine?

I have a macbook pro from 2008 that only really started slowing down this year. I did get a new media card, and a new hard drive right before my warranty ran out though (2010). My advice, keep it unless you can find someone who will give you a good chunk of money for it, which is highly doubtful. Trading in your laptop will get you next to no money and MBPs are really great machines. Take it to a local shop, NOT APPLE, but the awesome computer store with apple specialists. The one in my town call themselves Mac Gurus. My computer just needs a ram upgrade and then a software upgrade. If you're running Maverick, you may just be asking too much of an old ram. The store here will replace it and upgrade all the software for $100.

At any rate the lack of $$ you will get from a trade in, a lot of people have opted to keep the Mac as a second computer. Dump the entire contents of it onto an external hard drive, not time machine, do that too but what I'm saying is, delete it all from the machine itself, and then run it like the laptop is your monitor and the hard drive is your tower. Go in and dump out all the crap files that hide in the Library and downloads folders. Get rid of any excess user profiles. Also if you just wipe it and upgrade the RAM, only keep law school stuff on the actual computer it will probably speed up immensely.

It's just weird because it's been used pretty lightly, and the hard drive only ~2/5ths full. Sometimes when I pull up just a normal word document, it takes 10 minutes just for it to open up because it freezes up and what not. I can't afford to deal with that crap on a law school exam.

[rinkrat19]

Any idea whether macs or PCs are better at running the programs law schools use for testing? I remember reading about peoples' horror stories of their PC crashing mid-test. I have a couple year old PC, but I will spend $$$ for that not to happen to me! Anyone have any insight???

As long as your laptop meets the specs required for the software (which are pretty minimal from what I've seen), they're both fine. If you have a laptop that is prone to crashing, then it might crash. A few schools don't even use testing software (e.g. NU) and you can write your exam in whatever as long as you upload it in Word doc format. (In that case, as long as you have autosave going and it's just a crash and not a catastrophic hardware failure, all you lose is the time it takes to reboot.)

[BrazilBandit]

Was hoping to get through LS with my Macbook Pro (early 2011 model), but it's just running so slow. Would like to try to sell it and get something new. Anybody have any experience selling a used Macbook Pro and have any idea what I would be able to get for mine?

I have a macbook pro from 2008 that only really started slowing down this year. I did get a new media card, and a new hard drive right before my warranty ran out though (2010). My advice, keep it unless you can find someone who will give you a good chunk of money for it, which is highly doubtful. Trading in your laptop will get you next to no money and MBPs are really great machines. Take it to a local shop, NOT APPLE, but the awesome computer store with apple specialists. The one in my town call themselves Mac Gurus. My computer just needs a ram upgrade and then a software upgrade. If you're running Maverick, you may just be asking too much of an old ram. The store here will replace it and upgrade all the software for $100.

At any rate the lack of $$ you will get from a trade in, a lot of people have opted to keep the Mac as a second computer. Dump the entire contents of it onto an external hard drive, not time machine, do that too but what I'm saying is, delete it all from the machine itself, and then run it like the laptop is your monitor and the hard drive is your tower. Go in and dump out all the crap files that hide in the Library and downloads folders. Get rid of any excess user profiles. Also if you just wipe it and upgrade the RAM, only keep law school stuff on the actual computer it will probably speed up immensely.

It's just weird because it's been used pretty lightly, and the hard drive only ~2/5ths full. Sometimes when I pull up just a normal word document, it takes 10 minutes just for it to open up because it freezes up and what not. I can't afford to deal with that crap on a law school exam.

Go ahead and upgrade to a Solid State Drive (SSD) and add more RAM. It will be a new computer for under $300

[Stevoman]

The type of laptop you use doesn't really matter any more. All the good note-taking software, Microsoft Word, and ExamSoft are all available on both platforms.

My advice that all of you are going to ignore: (1) Use Microsoft OneNote; (2) Set it up to sync with OneDrive so that your notes are backed up and available online.

[commandercup]

The type of laptop you use doesn't really matter any more. All the good note-taking software, Microsoft Word, and ExamSoft are all available on both platforms.

My advice that all of you are going to ignore: (1) Use Microsoft OneNote; (2) Set it up to sync with OneDrive so that your notes are backed up and available online.

+1 OneNote + OneDrive is great. There are even apps for iOS and Android so you can access your notes on the go. Oh and there's even an online version.

[Auxilio]

Also want to emphasize how great onenote is. Plus, not sure how necessary it is in law school, but there is the amazing feature that if you record through onenote as you take notes, it will track the audio time with when you type. So if a couple lines of notes are unclear, you can just relisten to that exact audio.

[RubyRod]

Also want to emphasize how great onenote is. Plus, not sure how necessary it is in law school, but there is the amazing feature that if you record through onenote as you take notes, it will track the audio time with when you type. So if a couple lines of notes are unclear, you can just relisten to that exact audio.

Word for Mac also does this in the note taking setting.

[ub3r]

Is onenote a stylus thing or can I use it with just a keyboard?

[White Dwarf]

I have an Acer V5 that's a bit over a year old. I'm just going to swap my hard-drive for a new SSD this summer, and hope that gets me through the next 3+ years.

[RubyRod]

Is onenote a stylus thing or can I use it with just a keyboard?

Looks like both, also looks to be designed for a touch friendly user experience. Not sure how that translates to a non-touch screen macbook, air or pro. Windows computers all seem to have touch enabled screens these days.

[yot11]

Anyone else holding out to see what happens with the new Skylake processors? Think its worth waiting until right before school in August (or even September)?

Skylake will bring major improvements as the "tock" in the "tick-tock" process, since it is a complete microarchitecture design (rather than just shrinking the transistor size). If you can hold out for it, then yeah wait because this step traditionally brings much better performance at much lower battery cost.

[pylon]

Yale: http://www.law.yale.edu/about/incomingStudents.htm

"The majority of student laptops at YLS are Apple MacBook Airs or MacBook Pros."