MacBook or Laptop?

isofa

Garz wrote: »

No

He has asked about the Macbook and not the macbook pro. There is a massive price difference..:p

I know this, as my previous posts have mentioned... I was illustrating a point, that not only can Macs run Windows natively, but also faster than many PCs - as you didn't appear to be aware of this fact, as you thought they ran them slower than PCs in your above post mentioning emulation incorrectly. :rolleyes:

Price wise there isn't that much difference in price between a top end MacBook Black and the base model MacBook Pro either!

Compare a similar spec Macbook with a similar spec PC notebook and compare the speed tests and benchmarks and you'll find the same results. They have the same processors, so you are really looking at build quality, extras (such as the camera and other additions), and software, including the OS and bundled iLife apps.

Garz

isofa.. he stated £800. Dont up the ante by comparing apples with oranges. Indeed the top end black macbook might be nearer the pro, your twisting it like a politician here to your own arguement. I dont have to be convinced, nor am I on a set budget. I bought my wife a Macbook as for the price their spec initially was fantastic and think they are great. Please dont try to score cheap points over others to make yourself look good. Tbh I cba arguing over something like this, im tired and apologise for any post inaccuracies.

If I had £800, i would be plumping for the macbook (not the pro as its almost double).

chaddy7604

I'm delighted to say I posted this using my MacBook Pro

I wouldn't have it any other way

geekgirl

For me it is:

Work life = PC's because that is what they provide
Home life = Macbook pro because that is what I like

They both do what I need them to do perfectly well. I got my macbook pro a bit cheaper cos I got it from the refurb store.

toasterman

I recently switched from a Windows (desktop) to an iMac at home.
If I needed to buy a laptop now for my own use and it was between Vista and OSX, I'd get a Macbook for sure.
Regarding price, if it was between a core2duo vista laptop with 3gb of ram and 120gb hard drive, or a core2duo macbook with 1gb of ram and an 80gb hard drive, I'd still have the Macbook.

Only major problem that buying a Mac has caused me, is that I work in Windows IT Tech Support (and for a company that sells Windows pcs), and when people tell me they don't like Vista, or they don't like Office 2007's new layout, or they question if I'm having a problem with <windows feature abc> at home, I feel the need to tell them I'm using a Mac.
Same when they complain their antivirus software has made their computer very slow.
Or when they tell me that computers are ugly and take up half the space in their living room.
Or when they tell me their brand-new laptop is heavy and only has 1.5hours battery life.

isofa wrote: »

I've had Macs for 15-20 years (as well as PCs) and not one has ever needed a repair. From my point of view they have been the most reliable technology devices I've ever owned, but most of my PCs have done well too! There are plenty of authorised Apple dealers and many, many more independent resellers, I'd say most large towns have them, and 99% offer a mail order service. Also don't forget quality retailers like John Lewis sell and warranty them too.

Now you've been very lucky there.
Seriously though, regards warranty - if you buy a laptop from Dell, HP, Toshiba, or most other manufacturers - IF it develops a fault, and IF it is repairable, I'd say 9 times out of 10, you end up sending it back to the manufacturer via courier.
When I've dealt with returns for electronics devices and HAD to return it to the electronics store - Comet, Currys, etc myself, not only do I have to physically take it down there, it seems to take a lot longer to get a replacement product.

It'll be exactly the same if you buy online from the Apple store. You've still got a warranty, like all new electronic products.
It doesn't matter where you live if you talk to them on the phone, and get a courier to swap it out.

Just make sure you have a backup - like all computer users should have. And backups are the easiest thing in the world on OSX Leopard.

isofa wrote: »

If you can use a computer you can use Windows or Mac OS X, both have similar interfaces, the Macs is cleaner and less cluttered and generally more friendly, stable and secure IMO - it's the underlying technology which is very different.

I think the Mac way of installing/removing software is vastly easier than Windows. You don't get asked questions about .dll files, or have to go through long wizards - most things you just seem to drag to "applications" to install it, and drag it to the trash to remove it.
Hardest thing I'd say is video files - quicktime is funny about some of my wmv files, Frontrow opens a lot of video types but takes a very long time doing it sometimes, VLC is fine sometimes - and other times seems to crash an awful lot, mplayer isn't too bad but the constant resizing between video files is annoying and I seem to lose the scroll bar every now and then.
Windows media player/winamp are easier I think, and not available on OS X.

isofa wrote: »

Install a virtualisation package such as Parallels Desktop and it'll run Windows and windows apps in virtualisation (i.e. in a window whilst Mac OS X is running too) almost the same speed if they were running in a booted Windows system - virtually the same performance - it is virutalisation not emulation. No code has to be converted or emulated, it is executed directly on the Intel processor. This is ideal for running software not available on the Mac for specialists and for people who need both platforms in one box. You can't buy a PC and run Mac OS X, or it's apps, alongside Windows.

I have mixed feelings about Parallels.
Windows XP installs really quickly, but its the only thing that crashes my Mac (intermittently). My 'virtual' Windows XP starts faster than real XP on my Intel first-generation-dual-core pc. When running, it was a bit slow at running Adobe Audition, but other than that - a lot more usable than I was expecting it to be.

That said, I don't really need it now, because I actually prefer a lot of the Mac software. Even Adobe Audition, that I definitely couldn't have lived without (and isn't available on Mac) has been replaced with a £20 bit of Mac software that is good enough in most areas, and in some ways is actually better.

chaddy7604

As a MacBook Pro owner myself toasterman, I found your post to be most informative for anyone who reads it, nice one

isofa

Garz wrote: »

isofa.. he stated £800. Dont up the ante by comparing apples with oranges. Indeed the top end black macbook might be nearer the pro, your twisting it like a politician here to your own arguement.<snip>.

I feel it only fair I respond to this ridiculous post. I'm not scoring cheap points. I'm a well established user of this site and have no need to, nor time to waste, on boosting your, mine, or anyone elses ego - I'm here to help when I have the time. I'm laying out the facts. There are pros and cons to every platform, but most can achieve the same results today. You stated an inaccuracy regarding emulation, and appeared to take offence that you were corrected with a fact.

We had already discussed in length MacBooks earlier. The discussion then moved onto whether you can run Windows software natively or not. This isn't machine specific, it's OS specific on the Intel Mac platform. I then indicated how this could be done, and as an example compared a top end MacBook Pro with other top end PCs for speed comparisons. You'll find discussion threads do this - hence they are called discussions. Many others have mentioned MBPs here too, so what's the problem? This is nothing to do with "comparing Apples with oranges", it's comparing Apples with PCs which is what this thread was about (read the OP). It is also not twisting the argument (I wasn't aware it was an argument but you obviously think differently), it's taking the discussion forward. If you read the comparitive reviews in publications such as MacUser, PC Pro or the vast other range of quality publications on the subject you'll see there is little performance difference between the low end MacBook and top end Black MacBook. If you are a education user, or if a member of your family is, you can get a further discount from Apple, plus use a cashback site for a further 5%.

As this is MSE - the best deals to be had on MacBooks (and dare I mention, MBPs too) can be had on Apple's refurb / outlet shop, and many buy here and get a much higher spec for their money, with a warranty of course, from Apple. The best deals will never be from Comet, but the OP has vouchers...

I've been using both platforms for around 17-20 years, I own 2 of each, I run a company which uses both - so I'm not biased.

Toasterman outlined some excellent points, I guess I have been lucky with the reliability of hardware, I certainly only paid for an expensive AppleCare extended warranty once way back in 1991, never used it, and never had to invoke one again.

I'd recommend buying from John Lewis again, they usually add a further warranty to the product, and if you have any problems, they are very professional and quick to sort things out. In addition some people who have purchased a MacBook to find the spec was superseded a few weeks later, have found Apple allow a free swap out to the latest model. I'm not say it happens all the time, but I know you can be lucky.

For the OPs purposes I'd highly recommend a MacBook.

Bob63

Another Mac fan here. I have a 15" 2.2GHz Macbook Pro with 120GB HDD, 4GB RAM. I just bought my daughter a Macbook 2.2GHz with 120GB HDD, 2GB RAM. These are the fastest machines I have ever used. The MBP has faster graphics but the graphics on the Macbook are no slouch. I certainly wouldn't go back to a PC. I'll be buying my other daughter an iMac in April when the HCI lease on her PC expires.

I use Parallels (very latest version) with both XP and Ubuntu and have had no problems. The latest build is really necessary for Leopard as it does cure quite a few problems. I'm impressed with the speed of XP under Parallels but to be truthful I rarely run it these days - other than for website and software compatibility testing - as MacOS has everything I need.

Mike

toasterman

cheesy.mike wrote: »

Another Mac fan here. I have a 15" 2.2GHz Macbook Pro with 120GB HDD, 4GB RAM. I just bought my daughter a Macbook 2.2GHz with 120GB HDD, 2GB RAM. I'll be buying my other daughter an iMac in April when the HCI lease on her PC expires.

My parents made me buy my computers myself, saving from a paper round :mad:. I'm clearly just jealous.

cheesy.mike wrote: »

I use Parallels (very latest version) with both XP and Ubuntu and have had no problems. The latest build is really necessary for Leopard as it does cure quite a few problems. I'm impressed with the speed of XP under Parallels but to be truthful I rarely run it these days - other than for website and software compatibility testing - as MacOS has everything I need.

Ah. Thanks for that. I'm not sure I'm using the newest version of Parallels, and I AM using Leopard.
I just decided to find Mac versions of software instead though, and I've not been disappointed really. I've still got an old pc if I need it, but I've found mac versions of most things I had on Windows - some better, some not so good.
I'm still not sure about getting rid of Windows completely 'just in case'... but having said that, I haven't even switched my windows box on in months, because its so slow and noisy, and I'm too lazy to replace the fan and reload it.

toasterman

alexjohnson wrote: »

In that sentence is the difference between a Mac user and a (confirmed) PC user! The MB061B/B?? Oh right, the cheaper white MacBook...!

You are right. I've realised in the Mac world, things seem to have names instead of version numbers. It's nice.

alexjohnson wrote: »

As other posters have kind of mentioned, there's no reason not to get the MacBook. It will come with everythign she needs except Office. She can buy MS Office for about £89 (from Amazon). Or she can buy the Office-compatible Apple iWork which is pre-loaded as a trial version.

Or you can buy neither and use Openoffice/Neooffice. It might not have all the bells and whistles and be 100% compatible with very MS Office package, but it is fine for most home users, I would say.