keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Feb 18, 2009 21:27:15 GMT
I'm not sure how much of a response I'm likely to get as the forums are pretty quiet right now but I'll ask the question anyway. I'm looking to get an Apple laptop. The netbook I 'hacked' is great but I'm suffering with the keyboard being as small as it is and the screen is a limiting factor. Forum Cat, sharrup, I know you're sitting there with *smug mode on* So I have three options to replace it with. Macbook Macbook Pro Macbook Air Whatever I get will complement the beast of a Mac Pro I have sitting under my desk. It's not going to be a main machine but a second computer to be used when I'm sitting downstairs in my comfy chair. As such it'll be used for some general internet surfing, email, music and video playback and will get taken away with me when I'm out and about. I don't travel a huge amount any more so that's a minor part of it. I can see pluses and minuses of all those three and I'm already leaning towards one particular model but I'd like the opinions of people here. I've been into various stores and played with all three laptops.
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Post by HeatherKay on Feb 19, 2009 13:09:30 GMT
Being a pro MacBook Pro user, I'd be mad if I didn't suggest you go for the best you can afford. However, as it will be your second-line Mac, used for the stuff you have outlined, and perhaps as a backup should the worst happen with your desktop, I suspect a MacBook would be plenty good enough.
I discount the Air simply because it's not beefy enough in my opinion. I'd be looking for something that could actually replace my main Mac if push came to shove.
So, a vote for the MacBook from me, but I would advise against skimping on the version you get.
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Post by Forum Cat on Feb 19, 2009 14:06:43 GMT
< Smug mode. There are some nice deals at the refurb store at the moment. Refurb StoreI bought a refurb white MacBook. It is still a little heavier than I would like. Also I would REALLY like to have a backlit keyboard. The machine itself is plenty powerful for my needs. So it it were ME I would go for either the MacBook Air (first choice) or the better of the two MacBooks (which has the backlit keyboard). It is hard to advise as I don't really know how YOU intend to use it.
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pg2114
Senior Member
Beware of the flippers!
Posts: 151
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Post by pg2114 on Feb 19, 2009 15:44:59 GMT
Don't forget you can get a 7% educational discount if you can find a student or teacher to buy it on your behalf Peter.
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Post by wierdostomps on Feb 19, 2009 22:46:06 GMT
From what you say, I'd agree with Heather. The Air is beautiful, but has so many limitations. I use a 17" pro, but you wouldn't want that on your knee downstairs - and it's my main machine, so I use it for graphics, video and everything else. My guess is the Pro is overkill for what you want. On the other hand, you wouldn't be the first person to get an MBP and discover it was powerful enough to replace the "beast of Mac Pro" altogether. It happened to me several generations ago - my TiBook replaced my PowerMac 8500 altogether - just kept the monitor & keyboard upstairs and plugged them in when needed. With a 17" monitor, I don't even need the external monitor, although one of the new ones would be nice.
Tim
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Feb 20, 2009 12:10:24 GMT
OK, here's how my thought process went. Firstly, I was thinking of either the Macbook Pro or the Macbook Air. The Macbook wasn't really on my radar. I was a bit concerned about the Air because I knew the previous model had a lot of overheating issues and I didn't want to suffer that. So I popped into PC World on my way home and had a look. The Air was running a lot cooler than I expected so I had a play with it and in all honesty, it felt a bit slow in performance. This was the 1.6GHz version. I wandered over and had a play with the Macbook Pro which was much much faster and that's to be expected but the problem there was that the physical size of the laptop was just too large for my requirements. For sitting in front of the telly with it on my lap, it seemed enormous. They didn't have a Macbook for me to play with. So a couple of days later I had the opportunity to go to the Apple Store in Lakeside. Sadly I'd forgotten that it's half term and also Blue Peter were holding a mah00sive bring and buy sale at Lakeside so it was absolutely full of brats screaming kids children . I spent about 45 minutes in the store chatting to one of the guys there and playing with different laptops. In the end I decided that the Air isn't suitable because it's just simply not quick enough. I'm used to the speed of the Mac Pro and although the Air isn't a slouch, it's just noticeably slower than what I'm used to and even the 1.86GHz version would frustrate me. So the choice was limited to the Macbook Pro and the Macbook. I spent time with them both and my feelings about the Pro were confirmed. It's just too large for my requirements. So that leaves the Macbook. This is what I've spec'ed up: I've gone with the Apple supplied memory despite what I said in another thread on these fine forums. The difference in price between getting it factory fitted or buying it myself is only about twenty quid now and I'd rather that Apple fit it for me, especially considering that upgrading the memory on the new Unibody Macs isn't as straightforward as it was on the older ones. Having said that, I'm going to get a replacement larger and much faster hard drive and fit that myself. I won't even boot the system from the supplied drive, it will just get put into the box and stored away somewhere. As for discount, well I can get it through the Higher Education store which gives a significantly higher discount than the Further Education store The HE store also gives three years in-store Applecare which can be extended to full telephone/in-store support for a very small fee. I shall include that as well. It'll probably be about three to four weeks until I buy but I'm pretty sure that the important decisions have been made and I'm getting excited already.
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pg2114
Senior Member
Beware of the flippers!
Posts: 151
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Post by pg2114 on Feb 20, 2009 12:18:55 GMT
The difference in price between getting it factory fitted or buying it myself is only about twenty quid now If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for the memory upgrade? I recently bought 2 x 1Gb of RAM for less than £15.00, which works beautifully in my Mac. The HE store also gives three years in-store Applecare which can be extended to full telephone/in-store support for a very small fee. I bought it from the Further Education store, which gave me the 7% off. The poor lady at Apple got extremely confused and gave me the three years of full Applecare free of charge Peter.
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Feb 20, 2009 12:29:42 GMT
4Gb from Crucial is about £60 and to get Apple to supply and fit it works out around £80. Good deal on the Applecare
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Post by Forum Cat on Feb 20, 2009 13:46:46 GMT
Sounds like a cool choice. The only thing that you will miss out on that would matter somewhat to me is Firewire.
The memory price seems fair. Of course buying it from Apple means that it is covered by Apple care for three years too.
Cat
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Post by HeatherKay on Feb 20, 2009 14:01:23 GMT
The only thing that you will miss out on that would matter somewhat to me is Firewire. I understand Apple have finally removed the artificial USB2 hobble they used to favour FireWire on previous models. Which means, you should get the full USB goodness (but I'd still opt for a model with FireWire any day of the week). Interestingly, if funds permit, I'm looking to get a Mac Pro at some point. I've kind of outgrown the laptop versatility, which has served me well for nearly five years. I'll still keep the MBP, as I'm attached to it and it's useful for off-site work if required, but I will transfer the main photo and video work to the tower.
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Feb 20, 2009 14:20:28 GMT
I have one firewire device which is my video camera that's been sitting on the top shelf for the last couple of years without being used. The Mac Pro has it anyway so it's absolutely no loss to me whatsoever.
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Feb 21, 2009 1:16:42 GMT
Frustratingly, I've just read three independent reviews which all say that the screen on the Macbook is far inferior to that on the Macbook Pro. Reviews here, here and here. So now I'm pondering again *sigh*
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Post by HeatherKay on Feb 21, 2009 8:26:19 GMT
So how did they stack up in the Apple Store? I mean, for what you actually want to use the MacBook for, does it matter if the screen appears to be "inferior" to the Pro model? It's probably down to the shared graphics, as opposed to the separate graphics card in the Pro. www.apple.com/uk/macbook/graphics.htmlThat page only serves to confuse me, sadly.
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Feb 21, 2009 10:34:46 GMT
In the sterile, ideal environment of a shop the screen looked perfectly fine. However, the screen on my Dell laptop looks just as perfectly fine when viewed in such an environment but just get slightly away from the correct viewing angle and it's crap.
I've been using the Dell in situations where it's been difficult to get the viewing angle spot on and will be doing the same with the new laptop so that's why I'm concerned. I feel I need another visit to a shop to have a better comparison look.
The shared memory will have nothing to do with it, btw - All that will effect is the actual speed of the graphics redraw as it's always better to use dedicated video ram rather than sharing it with the main system memory.
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Post by Forum Cat on Feb 21, 2009 10:48:17 GMT
The viewing angle on my MB white is very small indeed. One of the major weaknesses with it.
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