Hi all,

Starting BCL at Brasenose in October - and am ridiculously excited! I am buying a new laptop before I go - the purpose will be mostly studying, word processing, internet, watching movies and some downloading. Need a long battery life and easy to travel with. Pretty standard use. So PC (probably an ultrabook - perhaps Asus?) or Mac (MacBook Air)?

I know this seems like a silly question - and I expect that the short answer is "personal preference." But I'd be really interested in any relevant considerations. I've had PCs and have wanted to change to Mac for a while - but they are more expensive.

Is it true that Macs dominate the uni scene nowadays? Do most students have Macs? Does the oxford law faculty use macs? Any personal experiences regarding reliability, viruses etc?

I'd very much appreciate any advice!! Thanks so much.

Emily

Hey, I'm also headed to Oxford for the BCL, and will be taking a MacBook Air. For what it's worth, I've been using a Mac since I started uni, and the only time it's ever been a problem is when I go to do my tax return (because the government doesn't make the program for Mac). By this I mean that it doesn't really matter whether the law faculty use macs or not, because there are hardly any compatibility issues any more.

I've found my mac to be very reliable, I've never had a virus or any trouble like that. The battery life is awesome - one of my friends from uni was converted to mac simply because I never had to go looking for a powerpoint, while her computer often shut down in the middle of a class. You really can get about 7 hours out of the battery. What's more, a couple of weeks ago I accidentally poured a cup of coffee over my 3.5 year old macbook, turned it upside down, and the next day it was good as gold (not that I'd recommend trying that at home). The coffee incident was the first time it ever crashed (the whole system that is, occasionally Word or Excel might crash, but not very often).

Regarding the uni scene, I don't know what it's like in the UK (I'm from Australia), but there were lots of macs at my uni though perhaps not quite a majority.

I'd only ever buy a mac now, but most of that goes down to personal preference. My boss gave me an Air as a 'have fun in Oxford' present, so my choice was made for me - and I absolutely love the Air - it's really light (like an iPad sandwich), really fast, and I have no complaints. So I don't think you'd regret going with a mac - if you want to change over, there's no real reason not to. But you don't have to - a PC would be just fine too. This blatantly biased Apple propaganda is just to allay any fears you might have about making the switch.

Hi all,

Starting BCL at Brasenose in October - and am ridiculously excited! I am buying a new laptop before I go - the purpose will be mostly studying, word processing, internet, watching movies and some downloading. Need a long battery life and easy to travel with. Pretty standard use. So PC (probably an ultrabook - perhaps Asus?) or Mac (MacBook Air)?

I know this seems like a silly question - and I expect that the short answer is "personal preference." But I'd be really interested in any relevant considerations. I've had PCs and have wanted to change to Mac for a while - but they are more expensive.

Is it true that Macs dominate the uni scene nowadays? Do most students have Macs? Does the oxford law faculty use macs? Any personal experiences regarding reliability, viruses etc?

I'd very much appreciate any advice!! Thanks so much.

Emily

If i was you, i will choose PC, cause the repair service of Mac is sooooo... bad.

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