Atrix for College

[somerussianguy]

Colin, as a college student my self, I can tell you that a smartphone is still only a smartphone! It will not replace a fully functioning Windows computer, even a netbook. I do use it for some college stuff like saving some formulas for a test or quiz, taking photos of the blackboard so I don't have to decipher all that physics diarrhea in class, using my phone as calculator even though it's not as useful as a real scientific calculator, saving homework assignments and notes, and last but not least, cheating on tests by finding answers online (lets not pretend we don't do that). All these things are handy but by no means will they let you do any real work. Can't really use the phone for reports. The equivalents to Microsoft Word & Excel are just not that useful for editing, writing, charts, and other stuff compared to the real thing. For college, your phone will be a nice convenience at best. As far as the laptop dock is concerned, like people have already pointed out, it's a useless & overpriced accessory. It doesn't add much to what you already have on your phone, it's just a big screen with a keyboard and at $300 it's just not worth the cost. If it cost ~$80 - $100 I'd say go for it, but at $300 you might as well buy a real computer, even if it's just a netbook. Cheers, good luck with your decision.

 

[dpperk29#AC]

I am just going to chip in some words of advice.

Through most of college I had either a smartphone of some variety and a laptop. My best recommendation is to leave your phone in your pocket and your laptop turned off during class. You are paying a lot of money to learn during lectures and you don't want to be distracted by things like facebook and skype.Get a regular old spiral bound notebook and take good notes in it. Guard it with your life and you'll be better off IMHO.

Now that I am off that soapbox, I would go ahead and spend the money for a laptop and not a netbook. You will be happier. I had one of the last Thinkpads IBM built before they sold to Lenovo and I used it everyday for 5+ years now. It is tougher than nails and I can still pound out a lengthy paper on it with no problem. Netbooks are great for the mobility, but they lack in performance. Spend the 600-900 bucks and get a good laptop with lots of functionality and you'll be happy.

I would also recommend getting a laptop that can be serviced on the campus you are going to. Call the campus tech support and find out if they do warranty work on any particular brand and then buy that brand. Nothing worse than having to send a computer out for repairs with finals looming.

Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary.

 

[dalvik]

@ dpperk29 very well said! couldn't have put it better myself!