What Laptop is Right for Your Graduate?

By Joel Craig, NEWS 9 Contributor

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It's that time of year, to purchase a graduation gift for those high school seniors preparing for college.

One of the most popular items for graduating students is a laptop computer. I've talked before about the various processors, memory and such. This time I'll provide insight from my own experience with a graduating student.

First off, drop the idea of Apple's iPad. I think it's a great toy but it isn't for serious school work. The iPad doesn't have a way to connect a keyboard, mouse, flash drive or a printer. Trying to type a research paper on its touch screen just isn't practical.

If your student is going into graphic design, film or video you are going to want to consider an Apple Mac. The Mac offers the most visual products, whether entertainment or a product package, that can be done in the Mac world.

For most everything else I'd go with a PC. Don't get me wrong, Apple's computers are fantastic and people who own them love them, but the majority of the world still runs in Windows. And, a lot of professional programs are only written for PCs. There are Macs that will also run Windows but they can be expensive. My daughter's roommate has a Mac but her parents ended up having to buy a PC because she couldn't do some of her work as the course material was only written to run on a PC. You might want to check with their school for what they recommend.

When going for a PC you can't go by looks. Two laptops may look about the same, but one may be twice as powerful and have twice the memory of the other. For the average course work a laptop with at least a dual core processor, 3 to 4 gigabytes of memory, microphone, speakers, Wi-Fi and built-in webcam should do it. For the more technical disciplines like engineering you'll want to go with a top-of-the-line processor.

In theory, the computer needs to last at least four years. And believe me these computers will see more use than you can imagine. Not just school work but Internet, music, movies and video calls - they'll be on 24-hours a day. I also suggest calling your homeowner's insurance company to obtain a personal articles protection policy for the computer. Most policies will cover theft, mysterious loss and severe physical damage. I pay $30 a year and it came in handy when my daughter slipped and her computer went flying down a stairwell.