After much research and lurking the boards I have finally decided to ask the more experienced members here who have owned several apple machines for advice! 
I have owned a 2011 iMac 21.5 before but passed it down to a family member after moving abroad for my studies. I loved the iMac's reliability and the screen. However, for some unfathomable reason, or lapse in judgement, I opted for a vaio laptop after moving here. I thought that surely all non apple ultrabooks must have caught up by now. That lag tho, what have I done? The only thing this 1500 dollars potato can do efficiently without lagging is microsoft office and surfing the web. As soon as I load a youtube video - forget it. Scrolling up and down a PDF or a website is laggy and arduous. Well, enough of that.
I do enjoy the large screen of the iMac, but since I'll be writing many papers for Uni, I think I'd prefer using a laptop allowing me to move around the appartment freely. I did consider the rMBP 13, but if I'm already going to shell out over 1k, I'd use it on something with power. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means but I do occasionally play the sims 4 & tera online once a week maybe. I also don't think I'd bring a laptop to uni with me everday even if it's a 13 or even 11 inch MBA. However I would bring a laptop with me to the library once or twice a week perhaps to get some real work done.
I also like the idea of having a desktop replacement worthy portable device. However, for the same price, I could get an iMac (2.7ghz model) and an iPad Air 2 to boot. I do have an iPad mini which is great for recording lectures and taking notes but too small for creating any significant content.
Does anybody here, in particular students, have any experience with the iMac & iPad setup for uni work? Those with rMBP 15, do you sometimes feel the screen is not enough? Is it really that much of a drag to carry around?
Thank you for reading!
I have owned a 2011 iMac 21.5 before but passed it down to a family member after moving abroad for my studies. I loved the iMac's reliability and the screen. However, for some unfathomable reason, or lapse in judgement, I opted for a vaio laptop after moving here. I thought that surely all non apple ultrabooks must have caught up by now. That lag tho, what have I done? The only thing this 1500 dollars potato can do efficiently without lagging is microsoft office and surfing the web.
As soon as I load a youtube video - forget it. Scrolling up and down a PDF or a website is laggy and arduous. Well, enough of that. I do enjoy the large screen of the iMac, but since I'll be writing many papers for Uni, I think I'd prefer using a laptop allowing me to move around the appartment freely. I did consider the rMBP 13, but if I'm already going to shell out over 1k, I'd use it on something with power. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means but I do occasionally play the sims 4 & tera online once a week maybe. I also don't think I'd bring a laptop to uni with me everday even if it's a 13 or even 11 inch MBA. However I would bring a laptop with me to the library once or twice a week perhaps to get some real work done.
I also like the idea of having a desktop replacement worthy portable device. However, for the same price, I could get an iMac (2.7ghz model) and an iPad Air 2 to boot. I do have an iPad mini which is great for recording lectures and taking notes but too small for creating any significant content.
Does anybody here, in particular students, have any experience with the iMac & iPad setup for uni work? Those with rMBP 15, do you sometimes feel the screen is not enough? Is it really that much of a drag to carry around?
Thank you for reading!
