MacBook Pro, Sony or Samsung ? Need new laptop asap

rufydoofyM

Really need some advice please. Have looked at the MacBook 13 inch and oh loves it. Have also looked at the Sony E and S series 15 inch and the Samsung Chronos 700Z5C-S03.

We want at laptop which lasts and one that we can link with a blackberry playbook, Sony ericsson phones and Sony TV.

If we go for the Mac my bro can provide help and support but if we go for windows we will need some sort of support package.

It has to be fairly light and portable and preferably the following,
hdmi
backlit keyboard
cd/DVD/Bluray
i7 processor
Full HD
Decent battery life
Well built and tough

Any help or suggestions welcome. We aren't technical minded but have done some research and really need to make a decision asap. Is there a way to save money with Apple without going for a refurb and is it worth waiting for BH deals ?
Thanks

NiftyDigits

rufydoofyM wrote: »

Really need some advice please. Have looked at the MacBook 13 inch and oh loves it. Have also looked at the Sony E and S series 15 inch and the Samsung Chronos 700Z5C-S03.

We want at laptop which lasts and one that we can link with a blackberry playbook, Sony ericsson phones and Sony TV.

If we go for the Mac my bro can provide help and support but if we go for windows we will need some sort of support package.

It has to be fairly light and portable and preferably the following,
hdmi
backlit keyboard
cd/DVD/Bluray
i7 processor
Full HD
Decent battery life
Well built and tough

Any help or suggestions welcome. We aren't technical minded but have done some research and really need to make a decision asap. Is there a way to save money with Apple without going for a refurb and is it worth waiting for BH deals ?
Thanks

Does the MacBook Pro have a BluRay drive?? Or any kind of optical drive for that matter?
Perhaps the standard ones do have a DVD drive, but the new ones don't.

Certainly no Blu-ray.

In addition, the standard ones don't have Full HD screens.

Handsome90

Agree with the previous poster, the retina versions don't have HD screens.

Have you looked at the Retina MacBook Pro? They don't have optical drives but you can buy a USB one from Amazon.

By the way, in my opinion the 13 inch Retina MacBook doesn't provide value for money compared to the 15 inch.

rufydoofyM

I am sure the MacBook pro has the optical drive and it's the MacBook air that doesn't.
Personally I think they are expensive but oh and brother think differently. If we got a windows laptop I would also be keen to get a netbook of some sort as a back up.
Since our laptop met it's end on Sunday I've felt so lost. I am generally on it upto 8 hrs a day and oh uses it when I'm not.
unfortunately we hadn't done a recent back up and were due to get a portable hard drive

TadleyBaggie

rufydoofyM wrote: »

I am sure the MacBook pro has the optical drive and it's the MacBook air that doesn't.

IN the current MacBook Pro range the "classic" models still have internal optical drives, the Retina models do not. This all could change when next refresh occurs (possibly in late summer).

NiftyDigits

Handsome90 wrote: »

Agree with the previous poster, the retina versions don't have HD screens.

Have you looked at the Retina MacBook Pro? They don't have optical drives but you can buy a USB one from Amazon.

By the way, in my opinion the 13 inch Retina MacBook doesn't provide value for money compared to the 15 inch.

You made a typo there. Of course the Retina screen is capable of Full HD. That is the point of it. It just doesn't have any kind of optical drive.

NiftyDigits

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

IN the current MacBook Pro range the "classic" models still have internal optical drives, the Retina models do not. This all could change when next refresh occurs (possibly in late summer).

Did you click through the link in my original post?

NiftyDigits

rufydoofyM wrote: »

I am sure the MacBook pro has the optical drive and it's the MacBook air that doesn't.
Personally I think they are expensive but oh and brother think differently. If we got a windows laptop I would also be keen to get a netbook of some sort as a back up.
Since our laptop met it's end on Sunday I've felt so lost. I am generally on it upto 8 hrs a day and oh uses it when I'm not.
unfortunately we hadn't done a recent back up and were due to get a portable hard drive

It's the 2012 MacBook Pro that has the DVD optical drive. The new 2013 model has nothing. Click through the link in my earlier post for more info.

You probably haven't lost the data on the 'broken' laptop, as long it isn't the HDD itself that is kaput. You can simply remove the hard drive(easily done by yourself) and place it in an portable hard drive enclosure that will cost £5 or less.

Then you can plug the new external drive into any computer and copy off your data.

What happened and what are the full model number details?

almillar

Little bit of misinformation and out of date stuff in here, let's clear it up.
No Mac has a Blu Ray drive built in. You can use any USB Blu Ray drive.
There's no such thing as a MacBook any more. There's a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro (Retina).
I take it you're looking at either a 13 MacBook Pro or the Retina version. Tradeoff between these two being the price difference, and whether you want the better screen and thinner body or the DVD drive. The Retina also comes with SSD rather than HDD and nothing can be easily upgraded inside it.
It's not official that the 'plain old' MacBook pros will be killed off, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were.
They do have a very strong unibody case, so they're structurally tough, but very easily scratched or marked, so cosmetically fragile.
Also note that there is no discrete graphics on the 13 inch model.
Having said all this, if your 'support guy' is better with Macs, and you do rely on him, you should probably stick with that, so that you can still get help!

rufydoofyM

:)Thanks for all the input. It's the MacBook pro with the optical drive that is being considered but with added software and a portable hard drive and 3yr warranty. My bro recons we will need to spend £1600 to include a memory upgrade.
Does anyone have any thourghts on the Sony or Samsung options ?
Our last laptop was an HP Pavillion, it was 5yrs old and oh bought his fist down on the keyboard during an argument and it now has a big dip inthe keyboard. Damage is centre right. It powers but then asks to select an operating system but doesn't show any to select. It then gives the option to load drivers. We did a set of back up disks when we got it but I think we messed up somewhere !
Really grateful for the help.

System

£1600 is a lot of money imo - do you think that an apple machine is twice as good as the samsung you are looking at? (I just had a google it's £700 at john lewis, so probably cheaper elsewhere)

also what "support" do you need, you're coming from a pc to another pc, surely it would be more support needed if you were moving to ios?
If i was you, I'd go down to john lewis and have a look at the machines in question
also is having bluray really important for something with a 13/15 inch screen? or are you planning on hooking it up to a full hd tv?