Hi again,
I was writing my last response as you wrote yours. From your last post and your daughter's issues with Word,
I suggest you get her a pc laptop that is not too expensive and an ipad. You actually started your 1st question with that in mind, having given it a lot of thought.
Check out independent reviews like cnet.com [a little too 'pro' mack,] pcmag.com, etc. Compare prices at various places. Most colleges give decent discounts on pc's - we get so many offers from their college bookstores - and maybe that will help. And I wouldn't go too high price. I learned in our case, that even if you pay to get it as good as you can, it'll still konk out, so I don't plan on doing that again!
She should also be able to use her Microsoft Office on her current pc, either through her cd or putting it on a flash drive and loading it in that way. You can save over $100.00 that way. Or it might automatically transfer when she transferd all her programs from old pc to new one. (I would not pay to have it sone. It's not that hard.
Also, I'm not sure sure if pc's now come with Windows 8. In that case you might get a better deal with a Windows 7 machine.
It took me six months to finally buy my imac in 2010, and then, I was still looking at pc's! So I understand the process you're going through.
Re Air, I know my son will not want to schlep around one more piece of equipment - an external, (and will want a cd/dvd drive) and she'll already have books, etc. to drag around. And that's where an ipad will be great.
So my vote, now that your original thought is still on the table - go for the pc and ipad! Your daughter will be thrilled, and so grateful that you gave so much thought to her gift(s)!
Enjoy! And please let us know your decision! I love the whole thought process thing!
Yikes! I just saw the suggestion of a netbook! I specifically hadn't brought it up, but did to that person over a week ago because he/she did. And given I'm not in that market anymore, I rarely read about them. In 2010, my son needed to start school with something because he hadn't decided what to get. I thought a netbook would be great so we got two of those. I bought top rated and not cheap. They crawled. They couldn't handle too much. Perhaps they have changed significantly. After he got his Mac, he brought the netbook to class and had to use it sometimes. At that time, to use Word, we had to put it on a flash drive and use that as an external. My older son wouldn't bother because it was so slow. But they might be great now.
So maybe add that to your list of considerations. Also, though, the screens are smaller, about the size of an ipad. And I just thought - there are many published 'rumors' out there about the ipad mini making its debut soon at a lower cost!
Message was edited by: appleuser1322
