Which option for university?

[sweetheartdans]

I will be going to university in the city (Sydney CBD) next year. I will be living at home and commuting (1 hour in total each day). I wanted to make the move from pc to mac and now is the perfect time. I currently have a DELL Desktop that I plan on getting rid of and a DELL Laptop from my high school, which I must return after graduation in Septemeber.

My needs include word processing, email, internet, photos, music/movies, calendar and very few games. Also the only times I need portability
is taking it to uni for group work, library if it is full and for travel. I handwrite my notes most of the time.

I was thinking of getting the Macbook Pro 13" however it will be my only computer and I find I get bad posture from looking down at a laptop for long periods of time. Also I would prefer the 15" however it is too expensive. The laptop would be good for portability and power in one. My only concern is the laptop overheat if I would be using it for long periods of time.

My second option was getting and imac and ipad 2. The imac would be good for typing papers, some games (i.e sims), movies and is more stable than a laptop. I was thinking of getting the ipad 2 to supplement the ipad 2 and use it for note taking (with a stylus), textbooks, organiser, movies, internet and email, photos and some education apps. Also this option is cheaper than getting the mbp 15"

Do I need a laptop to make presentations at university or do I even need one at all if I get an ipad to surf the web, check emails and type (with the imac keyboard)?

Which option would be better for my needs?

answers appreciated

 

[lewis82]

Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 2nd gen: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; fr-fr) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

If I were you I would get a 13" MBP and an external monitor. You get more screen real estate, but can take your computer with you. And while I don't own an iPad, I think it isn't ready to be a laptop replacement yet.

Edit: my MBP only gets real hot when playing COD4, and even then, I can use SMCFanControl to keep the fans spinning, hence cooling the computer. HD video can produce some heat, but nothing dramatic.

 

[And]

Hi, If I were you I would use pen and paper for notes. Buy a macbook pro or air and use that as your sole computer (games, essays, etc); if you can live without the DVD drive get the air. If you really think you need a computer to take notes either of these will work in the lecture room, but the air would be easier. Don't buy two computers when you are about to encounter a few very financially debilitating years. Wait until you go to uni to buy as you will get access to the university apple store and that will get you a cheaper machine. Regards.