Hey everyone!
I need to upgrade my computer to a laptop that I can bring with me when I go to university, to my mum's place but which is also great to use just at home. Today I have a non-portable computer which is extremely frustrating since I am unable to bring it with me, but I have been hesitant to replace it since it has a lot of storage and is really fast. But sadly now I have to get a portable computer due to my life situation.
So, since I have no clue what to get and what is best for me who is visually impared, I decided to ask you guys what you think would be a good computer for someone like me!:)
What I need from a computer:
*Portability
*Fast and a lot of storage (this is important since I store videos, loooong documents, pictures\drawings etc.) I also play Sims on my computer so it needs to be able to play some games. Also I draw with a tablet so it needs to support tablets and drawing programs like Paint Tool SAI.
*VoiceOver and Zoom
*Not too difficult to use since I am no expert when it comes to computers:)
*Writing program: word or something very similar since I write a lot on the computer
Also I need to plug in a seperate keyboard and screen and mouse, so I won't be using the keyboard and screen on the laptop itself that much. The screen on the laptop is therefore not very important to me.
I already have many products from Apple and I like the "logic" and my friend went and got herself a mac and she uses Braile on it which I also might want to use in the future. But if you know of any other good laptops that might suits my needs I am open for suggestions! It's more important for me that the laptop suits my needs rather than what price it is (as long as the price isn't crazy high).
What are your experiences with Mac? Do they last long and how is the accessibility? And do they have enough storage for my use you think?
I apologize in advance if I posted this question in the wrong forum!
Comments
Judging from the list of
Judging from the list of priorities I believe the Mac would be good option. However, bear in mind that you would not get the same experience you have had on a windows machine on the Mac in terms of editing documents and advanced formatting. Also PDF documents are still really difficult to handle on the Mac. Windows 10 is much more improved operating system and there are lots of laptops that beat Mac in portability and speed in less price and more generous package.
Hi,
Hi,
I haven't touched windows in a decade... last windows version I was really good with was XP, so am out of touch with MS win. I've been a mac exclusive user for 10 years or so, and can say that yes the mac works fine for my needs. They're fast! Get what you can afford, as the MacBooks are quite expensive and am not sure what you can afford. You can do word processing with word/pages do your drawings on an iPad and sync them to your mac, use photos app that's built into macOS to work with pics, iMovie to work with videos, etc. Only thing is for games/sims/etc. Your best bet is to somehow get a copy of windows and run it virtually with VM ware fusion, or whatever it's called these days, and go from there. Macs tend to last for a few years or so... My aunt has a mid 2010/2011 machine and the only thing she had to do was to replace the mechanical spinning drive with a SSD. I'd say go for a 15 inch MacBook pro with as much space as you can afford, because once you get your machine, you can't change the hard drive like you could in the old days of macs prior to 2012 or so. I may be wrong, but I don't think so. I have 500 GB storage, but you could always buy external SSD or hard drtives for more storage if you want.
Also, I forgot to mention,
Also, I forgot to mention, the MBP machines are very portable and can be carried in a backpack, so you're set for college/university. I did that with my machines and it worked excellent.
What is best
If you already use windows go with one that has it. Mac is probably nice but to spensive. Just find a labtop that will meet your needs and also with a Mac you will need to learn to use it and learn to use voiceover. From what I read here, voiceover in the mac is not that great. Again if you use windows go for it. I use windows 10 and jaws and I am very happy with it. I do have an iPhone and love it.
I have to say, once again,
I have to say, once again, that in my experience VoiceOver is simple to use. If you learn the basics, using the VO keys, then you can go further from there. I'd say look on here for some stuff on how to use the mac before you dive into it. For me, I dove straight into the mac, with no real instruction and figured how to use it from the early days of VoiceOver way back in 2005 or so. We've come a long way and to say the VoiceOver is horrible, or whatever! is just I have no words. Anyway we're getting off topic. If you're looking to try something other than windows, then go for a mac. You don't have to get the most expensive macbook out there, but I will say that if your looking for a lot of space, you'll have to spend for that. Good luck and go to an apple store and talk to them about hwat your looking for. The best thing I can tell you is to go to te apple store in your area and have a look around and maybe play with a mac for a little while and see if it works for you. It worked fine on my side, it might be different. It's really not that hard to use, and once you get the basic navigation down, you'll be a VO pro in short order.
Thanks!
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts! I will take your advices with me and go to both an Apple Store but also a computer store and listen to what they have to say there as well. Thanks again!!:)
Mac
the mac is exalent fr most things. PDFS are troublesum, and games are almost non-exsistant (their are a salect few that are accessible, and none are on Apple Arkayed, so don't even bother with the free trial,) but if you get third party apps they work okay, not great, for PDFS, and adobe reader on the mac, though it's great on windows, is totally inaccessible on the mac. so if you prioratise games, get windows through Bootcamp, as fusion is sharing resources and is not good for resource intensive games. recording, through,, is an area the mac excells at. Logic is great, protools used to be but the later versions I'm told are inaccessible, and phone support for Logic isn't great if you are a VoiceOver user, but the product manager for logic, David Earl, recensently started on hear and maybe bring that part up will improve things, I haven't posted that stuff yet. their are some parts of the latest version, 10.5, as of this commant, that are not the most accessible, mainly the live loops and sampler, Dave knows about that, as evenced by commants of others on the thread, and he'l try to get those issues fixt. their are third party photos apps, pixalmater comes to mind. haven't tried it yet, but the developer, Smile, has a good track record on VoiceOver accessibility. drawing is a challenge with any screen reader, not just VoiceOver, as it is highly visual. the only thing that is accessible for that is Drawback Draw and Feel on Android phones. but since portibility is your first priorty and if you don't want processor intensive apps, a MacBookAir is your best option. the mac mini, though it's a mogaler desktop, does not have a battery. on the other hand, if you need power and since price is not a big issue, the 16 inch MacBookPro is a fantisic option. get something you can afford though, as the 16 inch MacBookPros can run into the thousins if you spect high. I prised one with all the max speccs, and it was $8000. but keep in mind, that's with an 8tb SSD which is the most expensive part. if you get a one or two tb SSD, it will be substansially cheeper. I just wanted to see how good of a laptop you could get. if I win the loterey, I'm getting maxed out macs, being the 16 inch MacBookPro, and the $%0000 MacPro, but that's whishful thinking. you would get a chepper mac if you buy used, but than it's not the newest innerds. the only way to buy used if you want AppleCare and the limated worenty, is to go to the refeerbished and clearence link on the Apple website, otherwise, no worenty or support is provided to you. their is a new game out that sounds cool, I bought it, but currently it is all in Italian. the developer released an update, and it's going through the mac app store aproveble prcess, and it shoud be here, roughly in about two weeks or so. it's called, beyond the eclips. I on his thread, thretened to get a refund, but they got back to me with the translation news I spoke about earlier in this comment. silver dollar saloon, though it hasn't been updated on years, still works with macos Catalina. change reaction still works too. they are by draconis entertainment. beatstar has issues as eveadenced by a thread on this site. rs games and quent'cs playroom work on the mac with the latter being a web client for anything other than windows. rs games innisicially dodn't work under Catalina, because of the 64 bit apps requirement, but it workw again as of february 1st, 20200, as seen on that developers twitter feed, which is accessible to anyone, weither they have a twitter account or not. a blind ledgend works well. and those are all the mac games I can think of at the moment. good luck in which ever computer you go with,
Daniel
Sims works on Mac.
Hi.
Well if you are playing sims on your mac, the game is available through the Mac appstore, you need to check what system specs you need to run it though. Generally speaking the mac has a bunch of games available to it, either via the store or steam games that are also working on mac.
Storage space is extremely expensive, so better get more than you need because yes, you can upgrade the disk space by a certified store, but apple SSD, because they have a special form factor are expensive as fuckk, so get enough storage in the beginning.
The problem that most people on here have is that most of them didn't work with Windows for a longer time and yet havven't really seen what win 10 is capable for, not everyone, but some of them.
You can get a win 10 laptops for lesser money, even around the 1000 dollar mark you get pritty good business machines that are also light waight, the new honor magic book 14 costs around 600 dollars and beats the new MB Air by a mile regarding performance.
Greetings Moritz.