Modern Warfare

Con:

The cumbersome Toshiba has become the topic of many jokes—and rightly so.

I can’t fathom how many times classmates around me have complained about broken screens, lost files, overheating, missing keys, poor battery life or the most feared: a total Toshiba breakdown.

Nothing is scarier than trying to turn on your laptop, only to realize that it has reached the point of no return. Dropped too many times and flooded with too much liquid, the time has come to take the dreaded trek to the tech.

One of my personal favorite Toshiba stories: a classmate of mine was taking her broken Toshiba up to the tech. While climbing the infinite ARC stairs, her laptop started smoking. A couple of steps later, it caught on fire. If you were unsure of the Toshiba jokes before, I hope this refocuses you on the issue at hand– these laptops are safety hazards.

I understand the issue of Macs and their compatibility with Hockaday software. But frankly, we don’t use half of the software on our laptops anyways. My Mac laptop at home works so much more smoothly and has a much better battery life than either school laptop I’ve owned; its chic appeal is just a bonus. Additionally, it doesn’t burn my legs every time I try and do homework in bed.  

I agree that our Toshibas go through a lot and I applaud their durability. However, shouldn’t you want to treat your laptop right?

– Elie

Pro:

Ladies, level with me. How well do you actually treat your laptop? Just today, I attempted to balance mine on my locker door while packing up my backpack and, shockingly, I was unsuccessful.

My laptop fell to the ground in a moment of potential catastrophe. But, just like the other 1,000 times I had dropped/slammed/spilled-on/mistreatedit, when I opened up the lid, my Toshiba came off standby like nothing had happened. Perhaps it was a little worse for the wear but still functioning.

That in itself is truly a miracle, one that should neutralize any complaints we have against the computers before we even address the fact that Toshiba is the only computer company who can offer an on-campus staff.

I love the Genius Bar at the Apple Store as much as the next girl, but imagine the already arduous trek up three flights of LLARC stairs being swapped for a commute to the nearest off campus Apple Store only to wait in line for a savvy employee who may or may not be able to fix your computer depending on your warranty.

Plus, programs we use daily, like Logger Pro and Microsoft, are much better suited for PCs because that’s the system they were designed for.

So before you complain to someone how $2,000 could buy you a Macbook Air that’s as thin as paper, or tweet how your “computer lost everything you’ve ever worked on, no thanks to the new folder redirection policy, am I right? #ugh,” sit down. Because let’s get real, Toshibas just aren’t that bad.

So you can keep your iTunes, your iCloud and your new IOS 6 maps, and I’ll stick to synchronization and the occasional blue screen, because Toshiba’s consistency and durability beats Apples’ allure any day of the school week.

– Molly