Laptop: MacBook vs ThinkPad for a banker???

Word for Mac doesn't have VBA and many of the keyboard shortcuts don't work...very frustrating. You could just run windows on your mac whenever you need to use excel but that kind of defeats the purpose.

secondly, Macs are horrible. windows 7 is awesome.

Very true. Although I love my mac, it gets really frustrating. I actually have it in dual boot and only switch to windows for excel. It doesn't defeat the purpose because getting a mac, in my opinion, is one of the best moves i've ever done. No viruses, no problems, runs amazing, and looks great. Only problem is that you have to get used to it in the beginning.

Good to know, so VBA is an absolute no-go on macs?

I have a thinkpad t series and absolutely love it. built like a rock so I have never had a problem. but if you do go with the mac you can always get virtualization software, i think vmware offers a free one that would suffice

It's very easy to do boot camp. All you need is a viable windows cd-key.

Thinkpad... no doubt about it

Don't do it. One of the SAs last year had a Mac and he could barely keep up in modeling training bc of the lack of shortcuts and VBA. They are awesome for personal use but Macs still have a way to go to be accepted in this industry.

Mac's don't have VBA they have similar programing language but not VBA...

From what I know the new office for mac will have VBA

Get the Mac.

I have a macbook and if I need to use excel I just load up parrallels and bam, windows XP.

I get the best of both worlds, I've had my macbook for 4 years now and never had a single problem with it, and to boot I can still sell it on ebay for $550.

THINKPAD T SERIES IF YOU'RE GOING BIG X300

As a former analyst and full on Apple fan, I'll weigh in here.

If you're buying a computer for work, do not get a Mac. Office for Mac is a total disaster - unintuitive interface, terrible keyboard shortcuts, occasional compatibility issues with PCs. You'll pull your hair out.

However, I expect that your bank probably issued you a Windows laptop that you can use when on the road or working at home. If this is the case and you're just buying a computer for non-work use around the house, absolutely buy a Mac. I love mine for web browsing, photos, music, email, web design, etc. If it's not Office, I pretty much prefer to do it on my Mac.

Also, all that said, the ThinkPad is a great laptop - best I've ever owned. Unlike Dells (which are mostly cheap plastic), the ThinkPad is solidly built, and I love the aluminum hinges. Makes the screen movement tight and solid.

Definitely go for the thinkpad if you're using this for business purposes. I use a mac now as much as I love it for games and personal use, it's a disaster for anything business.

Also regarding VBA- I've had some success on it with the mac but I've had some compatibility issues when I transferred some code from a non-mac to the mac.

I have a macbook and I love it. I dont think I'll ever go back to windows. With that being said, Msft Office for Mac is horrible! But it's a really easy fix. You can run parallels which is a virtual OS, but I found that to be too slow. All Macbooks come with Bootcamp which will let you partition your hard drive to where you can have 25GB(or more/less) dedicated for Windows and the rest for your Mac OS X. It's like you have two computers, one runs windows 7 and the other OS X.

Thanks for the input brosefs...as this is primarily a personal computer, I went ahead and got the Mac. As I noted in my first post, I already knew I preferred the Mac and hearing your thoughts confirmed my impression. I will occasionally need to use it for work stuff, but I will probably figure out this Bootcamp business to remedy that issue.

I have a lenovo T500 and I think its great, but honestly the build quality isnt what it used to be from when IBM made it.

Vaio Vaio Vaio

If you're going into a large BB bank, your company will probably issue you a thinkpad.

Office Mac is pretty horrible. I myself installed VMware so I can run Windows and Mac OS. I've tried Bootcamp and Parallels, but VMware runs so much better. You can even allocate how much RAM goes to Windows and how much goes to Mac OS.

MacBook Pro, the smaller one, its a super slick machine

I hear mixed things re VMware/Bootcamp/Parallels, need to figure out which is ideal

rebelcross: my pops has a Vaio, dont really think its that sweet

I have the X300 and it's pretty sick. A pretty trivial but nonetheless striking thing about ThinkPads is the tactile sensation of the keyboard, nothing can beat it. The only problem with the X300 is that the fan is pretty loud. There has to be an updated and better version out by now, I got it over a year ago.

nothing beats the thinkpads keyboards. they are so good to the point that lenovo now makes standalone keyboards for desktops that look and feel the same as on the laptops

^ Yeah, same question. My computer actually has tons of problems right now, so if I need to get a new laptop by training, it'd be good to know right now...

Some advice for those of you about to graduate - get a new laptop while you're still in school and enjoy those education discounts. Load up on cheap student versions of expensive software.

I've sworn by thinkpads and absolutely love them. The biggest differentiators are the keyboard (legendary), design quality (metal hinges, tops & bottoms) and support (fantastic next day service).

Unfortunately, my BB issued me a Dell. It's just painful to use.

My thinkpad x series that I'm typing this on is still going strong for over 3 years.

Got a T410s. More powerful than a MBP (Intel Core i5), higher screen resolution, and lighter. The worst part about MBPs is their screen resolution. I ordered one and tried it for a week before sending it back. WSJ.com looks like shit as I'm used to 1440x900.

And Macs make you look gay.

one of the great things about macs is the lack of viruses. if you run windows on your mac, would that make it easier to get viruses? just curious

what are you people doing to get viruses? ive been running windows since post ms dos (just making a point) and i have maybe had like one virus on my computer and even then i was able to get that remedied. and i used to download a ton of sht in college and click ignore on the expiration notice for norton antivirus every few days. i really think this whole running a windows operating system = getting a crippling virus thing is overblown.

i do have a question on performance tho. performance seems to decrease dramatically over time in computers. not sure if thats just the way they build these things in general (i mean do we really need new hardware instead of lets say getting relevant upgrades every few years? hmm. can you say more corporate revenue generation?) or is it a relative psychological thing in that they always suck versus the new technology that comes out? anyway, do mac users experience a similar decline in performance over a five year period all else (ram, memory, processors, download content) the same?

i have had a thinkpad t series laptop over the last two years and it rocks. i definitely intend to get another one if i ever need to. its not so sexy, but at 2Gs of RAM, it works like a champ for anything i need to do including all multimedia functions. also, i do appreciate the creativity of apple - they have changed the game so many times and made things better for all consumers - but i have had two ipods die on me for no good reason (the apple white screen of death) and so forgive me if my homage to apple is a little moderate. and before you take that as proof to discredit my entire post. i plan to get an iphone b/c its by far the best option out there, but only if they unlock the bloody thing from at&t, because despite their commercials, at&t sucks.

Performance decline is generally software-based. Over time, you accumulate spyware and other fragments of programs in your Windows registry. The best way to prevent this is to very judicious in what programs you install as well as protecting yourself with a good firewall (i.e. Zonealarm). At least once a year, reformat your computer and reinstall everything. It should feel nearly brand new.

The physical component of decline has to do with cooling. Dust accumulates inside your laptop and airflow gets congested. You can open it up and clean it.

Few points:

• Person debating Parallels vs Multi-boot: Multi-boot w/o a doubt. A Virtual Machine or Emulator can never run as smoothly as the native. Since you won't be using your Windows much except for excel, allocate a small chunk of disk space to it.

• WintonHeights: Windows will always be less efficient than Mac. The Mac OS is designed for just one piece of hardware - the MacBook. So it can utilize the hardware resources in the most optimal manner. Windows needs to be able to run on so many machines (Lenovo, Dell, Sony ... ) that it loses efficiency for compatibility.

I'd love to hear more about Bootcamp vs Parallels vs VMware for modeling / using office on a Macbook/Macbook pro...

Thanks venturecapitalista. I'm not using it for "official" work stuff - just practicing modeling in Excel, and I want to simulate "work-like" modeling but supposedly Mac Excel blows. I usually have 2-8 web tabs open while modeling.

No one seems to love VMware; what about Bootcamp vs Parallels for Office/Excel on a Mac?

.

thinkpad x220 - its like 2.9 lbs

The Thinkpad X1 looks pretty good, any opinions ?

Using iMac and Macbook Pro here, DEFINITELY recommend Boot Camp over any VM stuff. If you VM it you still get some of the Mac keyboard functionality which doesn't go well with Windows. In Windows it all works fine though!