First mac

harr

Hi
I am in the postion of getting a new laptop with work and have been offered the Sony 15inch vaio sve1513p1ew or if I put 200 euro towards the price I can get a MacBook Pro 13 inch retina md212.
I would love the mac but am nervous as I have all ways used a PC and might find my self lost with the mac,does any have experience with the Mac above ?
Should I keep with the PC and keep my money?
I do have a iPad as well so would I find the change over hard or what are the major differences in the two apart from the OS.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

What line of work are you in. Most jobs won't need a Mac Tbh.

harr

Just some admin work but would be out with clients maybe 2 or 3 days a week so I have use of the office PC as well,I would using it a lot for emails and just some uploading of videos and photos to our website.
I will be using it as my own personal laptop as well so watching movies and the likes,not into gaming that much so that end would make no difference to me.

Sad Professor

Get the Macbook. The 13-inch Retina is a fantastic machine. It'll only cost you 200 and you'll have a computer which you'll enjoy using. You already have an iPad so you should know what to expect. iOS is based on OS X. The main difficulty switchers tend to encounter isn't learning how to use a Mac but rather unlearning Windows.

MacGyver

who would own the machine should you decide to leave work.

Zcott

Getting a mac for €200 is a great plan.

Frank Black

OP,
I've recently switched (about 3months ago) as a longtime windows user to a macbook pro.
Like you I own an ipad which I thought would make the transition easier - unfortunatly it won't be a huge amount of help I'm afraid.

I'm in a slightly different position to yourself in terms of I still use windows everyday in work and the mac is my personel laptop at home, so there hasn't been a clean break from windows - it would probably be easier for you if you switch over completely.

There's certainly a lerning cuvre involved. At the start it's frustrating as even very simple things like opening a usb stick isn't obvious.
The track pad though is great and once you get used to it you will find intuative.

There's plenty of times even now I need the ipad beside me to look up how to do stuff (eg. how do I get sound through hdmi, etc..), but you will get used to it.
It's a very good machine and I reckon you should go for it.
Just my 2 cents anyway.

harr

Thanks for the advice ,I think I will chance the mac so,it will be my laptop even if I leave the job it's a sort of bonus thing they do.
Is the above model mac a good one,because I have a choice of a few different one including

MacBook Pro 13 2.9G. Md102BA

MacBook Pro 13 2.6ghz retina

MacBook Pro 15. 2.3G MD103BA

and the above mentioned MacBook Pro 2.5G MD101BA

Which out of the above list would be the best one to go for,no matter which one i chose it only going to cost the extra 200 quid.

Thanks.

Sad Professor

The 2.3GHz 15-inch is the most expensive of the lot and it has the best graphics and most storage. It's probably what a spec junkie would tell you get. But it's one of the old optical drive models that Apple is in the process of phasing out. I'd go for the 2.6GHz 13-inch Retina. Thinner, lighter, faster and better screen. It has an SSD rather than traditional HDD, so it flies!

You can see the specs here:

http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro

Are you sure it's only going to cost you 200 no matter which you choose? There's a big price difference between some of those models.

harr

Thanks,yes it's only the 200 quid no matter what mac I chose the Windows laptop would cost me nothing but its seems I am getting a good deal with having only to pay the 200 euro from the list above.
I just got the email from HR this morning with the list for me to pick one before end of the week,it just had the model numbers and name with no descriptions of any of the laptops.
I have confirmed with HR about the list and the 200 euro so happy days..

Sad Professor

Btw the model number of the 2.6GHz 13-inch Retina is ME662B/A.

Just in case.

viclemronny

MacGyver wrote: »

who would own the machine should you decide to leave work.

This is what I would be concerned about too. If they want to pay for the whole lot, then they can own it but if you're putting money towards it, I'd see how this is going to work out for you.

Then again, if you're going to stay long term maybe it's irrelevant. Still though, it's worth considering.

Liameter

Frank Black wrote: »

There's certainly a lerning cuvre involved

Or even a learning curve. But OSX has a built-in spell check AND you can come here to ask, if you can't determine how to do something. The answer is often "drag and drop" or "right-click and select".

(In the case of an inserted memory stick, its icon appears on the desktop and/or in the "side bar" of each window.)

See http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/24/switch-101-a-guide-to-using-os-x/

banquo

"How do I x or y?"

Windows community:

OMG ur like retarted u don't even know how to *insert terrifyingly complicated verb here*

Apple community:



In my experience the Apple community, though somewhat zealous, will go so far out of their way to help you. So you don't need to worry really about being stuck for guidance.

Also, I'd second Sad Professor and get the 13" retina Macbook Pro. When you're meeting clients, everything looks so damned good.