OK talk me out of buying a Macbook pro....
Discussion
It’s about time I replaced my ageing Dell inspiron laptop (it’s nearly 7 years old now!) and I am seriously thinking of buying a Mac book. These days I mostly use the laptop for email surfing etc but also a fair bit of Photoshop work (both digital painting and photo editing). I also have a digital video camera that I want to use more as since I got it 4years ago I have yet to own a PC that can easily import and edit the movie files. I don’t want to make the next LOR just actually do something with the footage I have. From what I understand a Mac is just what I need, fast, reliable, lightweight (I fly every week for work and only take hand luggage)and comes out the box with most of the software I need.
While I'm no IT guru, I have had various PC's for the last 10 years and I'm pretty ok with setting up networks, firewall, problem solving etc, I have written websites, built machines, formatted and installed windows many times and I use some pretty serious hardware at work for 3D modelling and design, but, I have never ever owned a Mac and I don’t think I have ever used one for more than 10 mins other than in the apple shop at blue water!
What am I letting myself in for? Or should I just go buy another Dell and be done with?
While I'm no IT guru, I have had various PC's for the last 10 years and I'm pretty ok with setting up networks, firewall, problem solving etc, I have written websites, built machines, formatted and installed windows many times and I use some pretty serious hardware at work for 3D modelling and design, but, I have never ever owned a Mac and I don’t think I have ever used one for more than 10 mins other than in the apple shop at blue water!
What am I letting myself in for? Or should I just go buy another Dell and be done with?
I wrote a bit of a review of mine a few months back so I'll try to dig that up but from the sound of it you won't look back if you get one.
On the digital camera thing, I remember my brother being shocked when I just plugged hif digicam into my MBP and without pausing for breath it started iMovie and asked questions bout out new project, no drivers no conflicts just true plug n' play.
I previously said:
Have owned the iBook 14", the Powebeook 15' G4 and now I have a 15" MacBookPro 2.16 Intel Core Duo.
All of the computers have been fantastic BUT....
There are some niggling issues Apple don't seem to be able to fix, generally they don't tend to cause useability problems, more cosmetic. e.g. My PowerBook screen curved slightly at the edges, 3 years later my MBPro does the same. When they have paid so much attention to designing a beautiful and very resiliant case, why not fix this?
They run hot. Not as hot as the napalm Dells but hot all the same. If you're working at something heavy say video editing they are too hot to have direct on your lap.
The MacBookPro had some logic board issues which mine suffered from when it first arrived, i.e. it kept crashing like a Windows machine.... fixed now courtesey of AppleCare.
Other than that it doesn't seem quite as stable as my PowerBook G4 did, but that was legendary, I once went 2 months without a shutdown, just sleeping all the time, which is a function you will love instantly, imagine a computer that takes 3 secs to wake from sleep, no more of that hibernation! It's is something I don't think you can go back to. So slightly less stable than a G4 but still very very stable.
The upsides, which very much outweigh the downsides...
It's fast this intel thing, v. fast. Couple that with all the Mac standard apps, OS-X which is superb, the very good build quality, the superb 15" screen, virtualisation via Paralles of PC OS's, Boot-Camp if you want it and we're talking a very capable computer. The MacBook also get rave reviews but I'd go for the MBPro everytime.
Contrary to suggestions above, don't by a new issue machine. The update they are talking about is to put the Core 2 Duo chips in the MacBookPro. I don't think it's necessary, they're fast enough already. Wait until they announce them, then buy a 2.16 or 2.33 Core Duo which by then will have been out almost a year and have a lot of bugs ironed out.
My 2 penneth.
On the digital camera thing, I remember my brother being shocked when I just plugged hif digicam into my MBP and without pausing for breath it started iMovie and asked questions bout out new project, no drivers no conflicts just true plug n' play.
I previously said:
Have owned the iBook 14", the Powebeook 15' G4 and now I have a 15" MacBookPro 2.16 Intel Core Duo.
All of the computers have been fantastic BUT....
There are some niggling issues Apple don't seem to be able to fix, generally they don't tend to cause useability problems, more cosmetic. e.g. My PowerBook screen curved slightly at the edges, 3 years later my MBPro does the same. When they have paid so much attention to designing a beautiful and very resiliant case, why not fix this?
They run hot. Not as hot as the napalm Dells but hot all the same. If you're working at something heavy say video editing they are too hot to have direct on your lap.
The MacBookPro had some logic board issues which mine suffered from when it first arrived, i.e. it kept crashing like a Windows machine.... fixed now courtesey of AppleCare.
Other than that it doesn't seem quite as stable as my PowerBook G4 did, but that was legendary, I once went 2 months without a shutdown, just sleeping all the time, which is a function you will love instantly, imagine a computer that takes 3 secs to wake from sleep, no more of that hibernation! It's is something I don't think you can go back to. So slightly less stable than a G4 but still very very stable.
The upsides, which very much outweigh the downsides...
It's fast this intel thing, v. fast. Couple that with all the Mac standard apps, OS-X which is superb, the very good build quality, the superb 15" screen, virtualisation via Paralles of PC OS's, Boot-Camp if you want it and we're talking a very capable computer. The MacBook also get rave reviews but I'd go for the MBPro everytime.
Contrary to suggestions above, don't by a new issue machine. The update they are talking about is to put the Core 2 Duo chips in the MacBookPro. I don't think it's necessary, they're fast enough already. Wait until they announce them, then buy a 2.16 or 2.33 Core Duo which by then will have been out almost a year and have a lot of bugs ironed out.
My 2 penneth.
Agree with most of Olf's post, but the Core 2 Duo chips went in in November last year, I think, so should be pretty stable. Certainly, mine has been so far.
I replaced my Vaio with a Macbook Pro (15" Core 2 Duo 2.16, 2GB) and it's fine. I use Windows pretty much all the time (Windows systems are my business) but I've found myself using OSX for most of the things you describe, e.g. surfing, email, etc.
The only real negative I have is that it's not as good under bootcamp running Vista as I'd hoped, but it's OK, and from what you say that's not an issue for you anyway.
I replaced my Vaio with a Macbook Pro (15" Core 2 Duo 2.16, 2GB) and it's fine. I use Windows pretty much all the time (Windows systems are my business) but I've found myself using OSX for most of the things you describe, e.g. surfing, email, etc.
The only real negative I have is that it's not as good under bootcamp running Vista as I'd hoped, but it's OK, and from what you say that's not an issue for you anyway.
Thanks for the replies 
One of the few advantages of working away from home all the time is duty free shopping at Stansted, they have a MBP, the base model (which I think is fine for me as the 17" is too big to fit in my case and I dont want to spend £400 more on an extra 1Gb ram and more Graphics memory), for £1149 instead of £1349, given that Apple prices seem pretty constant nationwide, £200 off is not to be sniffed at!
Is the extra £250 or so for the Apple care worth it?
One of the few advantages of working away from home all the time is duty free shopping at Stansted, they have a MBP, the base model (which I think is fine for me as the 17" is too big to fit in my case and I dont want to spend £400 more on an extra 1Gb ram and more Graphics memory), for £1149 instead of £1349, given that Apple prices seem pretty constant nationwide, £200 off is not to be sniffed at!
Is the extra £250 or so for the Apple care worth it?
olf said:
jamieboy said:
The only real negative I have is that it's not as good under bootcamp running Vista as I'd hoped, but it's OK, and from what you say that's not an issue for you anyway.
You need to get paralles. It rules.I'm hoping they'll resolve the bootcamp issues for 10.5 - the 1.2 beta fixes most of them, whereas there were still some show-stoppers in 1.1.2, so it's definitely getting better and it's still a beta so can't complain too loudly.
prelude4ws said:
£1149 instead of £1349, given that Apple prices seem pretty constant nationwide, £200 off is not to be sniffed at!
Is the extra £250 or so for the Apple care worth it?
I bought mine from John Lewis because they offer 2 years warranty as standard, so for me the £250 would be for a third year warranty and I reckon in three years time I'd rather have £250 in my pocket towards a replacement. Is the extra £250 or so for the Apple care worth it?
In my case, I claim the VAT back so JL price was as competitive as any, but I guess the duty free price plus Apple care would take you to £50 more than JL and give you a third year peace of mind, so it's probably not a bad deal.
jamieboy said:
prelude4ws said:
£1149 instead of £1349, given that Apple prices seem pretty constant nationwide, £200 off is not to be sniffed at!
Is the extra £250 or so for the Apple care worth it?
I bought mine from John Lewis because they offer 2 years warranty as standard, so for me the £250 would be for a third year warranty and I reckon in three years time I'd rather have £250 in my pocket towards a replacement. Is the extra £250 or so for the Apple care worth it?
In my case, I claim the VAT back so JL price was as competitive as any, but I guess the duty free price plus Apple care would take you to £50 more than JL and give you a third year peace of mind, so it's probably not a bad deal.
That’s just what I was thinking, but I'm not sure how necessary the Apple care is. I've always worked on the basis with PC's that if they survive the first 3 months or so with no problems it will probably go for years before parts need replacing and by then the replacements will probably be a lot cheaper. However I'm beginning to think this may not be the case with a Mac?
prelude4ws said:
That’s just what I was thinking, but I'm not sure how necessary the Apple care is. I've always worked on the basis with PC's that if they survive the first 3 months or so with no problems it will probably go for years before parts need replacing and by then the replacements will probably be a lot cheaper. However I'm beginning to think this may not be the case with a Mac?
Well, our G5 iMac needed a new logic board and inverter board after 1 year and 51 weeks...fortunately we bought it from John Lewis as well. 
I've got no links to them at all, I just think that for Apple stuff where pretty much everyone has to charge the same their extra free year's warranty puts them ahead. There's some good savings to be made on the Apple refurbished store (http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjec
not sure if that link will work, but you go to the store and on the RHS of the page there's a link to clearnace and refurbished products.
CH
not sure if that link will work, but you go to the store and on the RHS of the page there's a link to clearnace and refurbished products.
CH
I'm not going to talk you out of it because I did it a couple of months ago and I'm very happy with my 15 inch MBP. I did go for the quicker processor and 2GB of RAM. I wish I'd gone for a bigger HD now though as 120GB with BootCamp is not that big.
It is not the lightest laptop, but that is because of the aluminium casing. Don't go for the 17". It's just too big.
It is not the lightest laptop, but that is because of the aluminium casing. Don't go for the 17". It's just too big.
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