MacBook or MacBook Pro?

hada

Hi All,

Making the move soon to a Mac, as am starting a PhD in September and want something that's light, great on battery life and will last me the four or so years .

What are people's opinions on the MB vs MBP? Obviously I'm well aware of the spec and price difference - but the one thing that makes me query a Macbook vis a vis a MBP would be that it only comes with 2GB RAM as standard. I realise you can upgrade this to 4 GB, which costs 100euro more (for an extra 100 you could just purchase a MBP...which includes a bigger HD, HD camera, better graphics card etc..).

I'll mainly be using the MBP for word processing, internet usage etc - the odd game or two... but is having a laptop running with 2GB RAM in three years time a bad idea? How hard/expensive would it be for me to upgrade it in the future if I just went with a MB?



Also, on a final point, I'll be purchasing the MacBook in an Apple store abroad - can they just install the upgraded RAM on a MB if I asked it there and then, or is this just a thing you can do online?

Sorry for the long windedness of the post - it's a lot of money either way and I need to get it right first time!

Thanks guys!

Willbbz

If you're going to get a Macbook save yourself the $$ on the RAM and pick that up elsewhere and install it yourself when you need it.

Also for gaming even if it's the odd 1 or 2 games it will be dependent on whatever graphics card you get with either the MB or MBP

bonnieprince

Have a macbook pro - love it and have it for the past 4 years.
For what you need it for i would be going for a Macbook, better prices and good spec.

miralize

Its definitely worth spending the next 100-200 or so to get the MBP. You get more solid case, an SD card, the core i5/i7 CPU, thunderbolt.

The MP has a history of discolouration too on the white case. Its probably sorted by now, but just letting you know.

dubmick

bonnieprince wrote: »

Have a macbook pro - love it and have it for the past 4 years.
For what you need it for i would be going for a Macbook, better prices and good spec.

Or even a macbook air (very light)

Eire Go Brach

Make sure to wait. New MacBooks are due out in the next few weeks. Probably this week.

silvine

The Macbook pros are easy to upgrade. You can swap out the RAM and the HDD and get another year or two out of them. That aside the Macbook Airs are fast, light and cheap (for a mac).

hada

Thanks for all the very helpful responses. Getting it stateside at beginning of august so will be purchasing it then.

Oh and as mentioned above - the new MacBooks will have OS Lion I take it as opposed to major hardware upgrade?! That might make the MacBook more attractive if the RAM is upped!

Sad Professor

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

Make sure to wait. New MacBooks are due out in the next few weeks. Probably this week.

It's a bit early for the MacBook Pro, but yeah new Airs are due soon. The Plasticbook is waaay overdue a refresh, which is a reflection of how little Apple care for that model. The Air will replace it eventually.

Anyway, OP, I'd strongly recommend getting the MacBook Pro over the Plasticbook. It's worth it just for the enclosure alone. But even adding on the cost of RAM for the plastic model, it's foolish not to get the Pro.