macbook pro

Vito111

hi guys,
i am considering purchasing a macbook pro as i will be returning to college in september doing an online course.
people have been telling me that apple are the best laptop to buy, do ye think this is the case, and if so why.

i have a dell dimension 250 now for about 4 yrs. its os is windows vista, do you think it would be worth my while selling this.

Alanstrainor

Vito111 wrote: »

hi guys,
i am considering purchasing a macbook pro as i will be returning to college in september doing an online course.
people have been telling me that apple are the best laptop to buy, do ye think this is the case, and if so why.

i have a dell dimension 250 now for about 4 yrs. its os is windows vista, do you think it would be worth my while selling this.

If you want a mac then by all means get one. But provided your course is not going to a massively powerful machine, you'd get away with spending 500/600 tops. Which would buy you a machine that is more than capable.

Macs are not better than everything else. They have there purpose but they are not the be all and end all.

Overheal

Macs are still susceptible to hardware failure like anything else. They enjoy the stereotype though. I find it sad when a customer comes in and they say things like "I bought this because they arent supposed to break! It's a MAC!" - when in reality they were drawn in to advertisements which labeled Macs are particularly difficult to get viruses from. Non-tech savvy people however don't seem to grasp the difference between software and hardware problems. Take for instance that macbooks used to ship with Nvidia GPUs, along with HPs and Dells. Those batches of chips turned out to be entirely defective, causing all such laptops to fail in a myriad of ways.

The other stereotype is they last longer. Mostly false. The models you see on shelves are the ones packaged with higher-end hardware like Core i5 and i7 processors, and HD6770s and everything else. This is what makes them last longer as opposed to what some people compare them to: $400 laptops with 4GB of Ram and an i3 and Intel HD graphics. You can get a laptop that lasts as long or longer than a Macbook if you match up the specs. One thing I will say they have going for them though is Mag-safe power connectors, which laptops haven't yet copied for whatever reason. Vastly reduces the death rate on Macs simply from this one area of wear and tear on laptop power ports.

On the software side Macs are pretty sleek and they can do some nice things out of the box like edit photo and video, and they support multi-touch and gesture control but they are not as Alanstrainor says, the Alpha and the Omega. I'm by no means saying don't go for it but be sure it's what you want before you dive in for that much money. BTW, you have no equity in your Dimension, you may as well keep it.

Vito111

cheers guys for the advice, your help is much appreciated, in your opinion what would be a good laptop and value for money.

Overheal

Well, a mac is probably a worthwhile investment from time and productivity returned from it. Other picks would be the new HP Pavillions. The Dv6 and Dv7 look sharper than ever, made with aluminum now as opposed to all plastic construction. Makes them a little heavier but they do look the part. Toshiba's aren't too bad either. The L755s are fairly popular. Then you get a mix of things from Dell Gateway and a few others. ASUS is another interesting pick if you can find them. a U52 or K52 would probably work out well.

Vito111

thanks overheal, your knowledge is fantastic and much appreciated, i will let you know how i get on, time to shop around

AlmightyCushion

Overheal wrote: »

One thing I will say they have going for them though is Mag-safe power connectors, which laptops haven't yet copied for whatever reason. Vastly reduces the death rate on Macs simply from this one area of wear and tear on laptop power ports.

On the software side Macs are pretty sleek and they can do some nice things out of the box like edit photo and video, and they support multi-touch and gesture control but they are not as Alanstrainor says, the Alpha and the Omega. I'm by no means saying don't go for it but be sure it's what you want before you dive in for that much money. BTW, you have no equity in your Dimension, you may as well keep it.

Magsafe is probably patented hence why no one has nicked borrowed the design. Touchpads are also great on the Macs as well. I'd love if windows based laptop had touchpads as good, they're close but just not as good. Never was a fan of OSX myself, I think windows 7 is better.


@Vito111 -I'd recommend a laptop with a core a i3 or i5 processor (preferable i5) and 4GBs of ram. You should be able to get a laptop with this spec at a reasonable price. You may need extras like a dedicated graphics card depending on your course and the software you will need though.

As for makes and models, the HP DV6 range are a good buy right now. Good touchpad, nice design and they have lots of different hardware configurations across various price points and competitively priced.

abelard

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Magsafe is probably patented hence why no one has nicked borrowed the design. Touchpads are also great on the Macs as well. I'd love if windows based laptop had touchpads as good, they're close but just not as good. Never was a fan of OSX myself, I think windows 7 is better.


@Vito111 -I'd recommend a laptop with a core a i3 or i5 processor (preferable i5) and 4GBs of ram. You should be able to get a laptop with this spec at a reasonable price. You may need extras like a dedicated graphics card depending on your course and the software you will need though.

As for makes and models, the HP DV6 range are a good buy right now. Good touchpad, nice design and they have lots of different hardware configurations across various price points and competitively priced.

Can you suggest somewhere (either in Ireland or UK) to buy the DV6? I've seen some of the models on saveonlaptops.co.uk but most of them seem to be the last generation intel models or the lower spec sandy bridges. Have you seen any of the better spec ones anywhere?

bscm

I've used a Macbook Pro before but never owned one. I've had a basic Mac now for a few months and I can safely say I am never going back.

It is the most user friendly OS I've ever used (and that's saying something as I've been around dozens of laptops with multiple OS's due to my Dad's previous jobs as a computer technician). You don't have to open multiple folders, search through Control Panel or wait for Search to display results you don't need. Multi-tasking doesn't eat up your performance, I've accidentally had 7 large programs open with no noticeable difference in performance.

Design is brilliant, it's lightweight and is eerily quiet (the disc-drive scared the crap out of me the first time I used it even though it was quieter than my old Dell's fan). Screen resolution is amazing and the speakers are pretty good too.

Gone are the days when everything was "PC-only", I haven't had to insert a single software disc. It automatically recognised and worked with everything I plugged in, including the printer, the modem and my camera. Whereas with every other computer/laptop in the house, we had to manually install software.