Big difference between Macbooks and Macbook Pros (TRUE Macbook Pros...Apple has kinda hoodwinked some people with the lowest end 13" "Pro" which is really more like a regular Macbook but in the aluminum unibody ). If all your friend is using his MBP for is browsing, chatting, etc., then, honestly, he wouldn't get good value going with an uber powerful laptop either. Gotta wonder why he even bought a MBP in the first place if that's all he does with it. And as far as Apple's laptops are concerned, you're not paying for "elegance". Too many folks through that myth of "paying for aesthetics" around with Apple's products. It's categorically untrue when you really research what you're buying. What you're really paying for is the quality of the build; how long it lasts, how much punishment it can take during travel, how much heat it produces, how long the batter lasts, etc. These are things that HAVE to be taken into consideration when purchasing a laptop, as those are really of vital importance. You alluded to this yourself when you stated that you have to find a comfortable place to use your current laptop due to the vents giving off heat, etc. Too many folks go after "uber power" with a laptop, and then complain about how sucky the battery life is, how hot the thing gets during use, etc. Or they go after "el cheapo" alternatives, and find themselves wanting more power and better build quality, keyboard quality for touch typing, etc. Macbooks don't have those issues save for "power", and Macbook Pros, true MBPs, have enough power for even intensive design and creative tasks on top of not having the heat and battery issues of other manufacturers' laptops. If all you're gonna do with the portable/mobile is chat, browse, etc...then, yeah...MBP isn't a great option. If you want to do more, and do it with great battery life and no fear of "hurting" the thing, then it is.
Well that sounds quite convincing. I am edging closer to Macbook than PC now, I just need something inside my mind to click and give me that little push to make the purchase. ...but you're happy, right? I guess I should go and research the benefits of MBP over regular Macbooks.
If you get a MB Pro, get the Magic Mouse too Its pretty nifty. Oh, and the trackpad on MB Pro's is awesome.
My friend is telling me I wouldn't need Pro, that it's mainly for hardcore editing. All I really use on here is Photoshop.
Again, though, if you're primarily a home user, I'd go with an iMac. 27" model. Deck it out with the i7. More than enough for heavy creative tasks as well as games if you wanna go Windows partition with it. If all you're gonna use your laptop for is surfing the net, maybe watching a youtube vid or two, and office/schoolwork, and NOT do heavy lifting creative/editing tasks, then you don't really need a very powerful laptop at all, whether generic PC manufacturer or Apple branded. You could join that iMac with a good quality laptop for periodic portable use and it'll cost less altogether than a Macbook Pro fully decked out, and it would take less time/effort and have more resale value than a PC tower self build. Don't just look into getting a Macbook Pro or combining a self built tower with a netbook. Look into Apple's desktop options too combined with a netbook or good quality casual usage laptop as well. As far as gaming...again, the iMac can do that in spades. On the go gaming? You've got your iPhone/touch for that. Laptops for PC gaming just aren't great options, tbqh.
Go over to the Apple store or Best Buy and mess around with the laptops. Compare them, feel them, make them more than hyperbole on a web site.
Heavy Photoshop usage? What I mean is, are you just touching up some photos or are you heavily working on them with multiple layers, multiple windows opened at once, etc? If you're just using Photoshop for simple tasks that you can do with pretty much any less intensive/powerful photo editing software, then you don't really need a Macbook Pro or a powerful laptop. You can do simple photo touch ups on a netbook or even your iPhone/touch tbqh (whole bunch of apps on the App Store devoted to that very thing).
Build your own gaming PC. I just did, I kept my budget at about $1000 not including keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. and it's awesome. Blazing fast, plays everything I've thrown at it on highest settings with high frames. I'm enjoying it very much.
Well stuff like this: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=791347&postcount=3 Probably 30 or so layers in that. Also I said I'd bring this up here, a conversation with my sister: I trust she's telling the truth 'cause she's my sister, so... rare occurrence? Something that's since been fixed?
One thing you get with a MBP is customer support. I completely messed up my MBP last week, keyboard was really messed up (shift was acting as volume down, most keys did not work etc.) and then it would not boot. Took it to the Genius Bar, they managed to bring it back to life, KB was still bad so they told me they were sending it to Apple, that it would take 10-11 days. In about 3 days I got a call to go pick it up. Does that happen with a PC?
Heavier photoshop/illustrator usage. MBP it is. The vent issue I've never suffered from. My MBP, from mid '08, still works just like the first day I got it. No overheating, no shut downs. Good thing about the more recent MBP is that it has the dual GPU. Gonna do simple stuff? Shut off the discrete GPU, and us the integrated graphics core. Gonna do more intensive stuff? Turn on the discrete GPU. This is one of the reasons that they cost more than other laptops, on top of the unibody build, etc. No other manufacturer uses that GPU. Now, the question remains: the Photoshop stuff - do you do such things on the go frequently, or is it a more an "at home" thing? If the latter, get an iMac.
We can all start calling each other Mac or PC fanboys, but hell even Bill Gates agrees Macs are great.
I'm fairly sold. Just trying to work out which Macbook is the one for me. My sister thinks that she could manage that kind of thing on Photoshop, and she's got the lowest regular model from 3 years ago.
