To Apple or not to Apple

C

corban

New member
Firstly ill say sorry if this is in the wrong place or if this is not approved of!

I believe this to be the right place to ask this as well i dont see the point asking in an apple forum, and hopefully here i will get honest answers from ppl.

Only just started using this forum to post on a week or 2 ago but i have pasted this to another forum as well i hope thats within rules as id like as much input as possible.

Well ive managed to scrape together some money , and im starting a course which will lead onto a degree next year in English and History as such im looking for a laptop.

The basics are ive never owned an apple pc of any kind (had original and 3gs iphones but not sure they count) and i need something to work on while studying in classes/outside of them and some work at home.

I am and always have been a pc user and gamer done some overclocking and am tinkering with some watercooling etc.

The basics i need to know really are do you think a macbook air will be powerful enough for me to work on with some browsing and maybe some music, and or is the macbook pro portable enough to lug around on a daily basis.

Im leaning towards the 13 inch pro and unless i find some amazing deal it seems itll prolly be an older model and probably second hand.

Or should i steer clear and just get some clunky laptop new or something.

I realise this is a pretty subjective question but im quite unbiased either way , i love the look of the apple products and know they are easy to use , and i really just need this for working on , essays etc for the next 4 years + i dont need it to be able to play the latest games or anything like that and im fairly certain i have enough flash drives and external hdds for storing things on.

Any input appreciated.
 
corban said:
Firstly ill say sorry if this is in the wrong place or if this is not approved of!

I believe this to be the right place to ask this as well i dont see the point asking in an apple forum, and hopefully here i will get honest answers from ppl.

Only just started using this forum to post on a week or 2 ago but i have pasted this to another forum as well i hope thats within rules as id like as much input as possible.

Well ive managed to scrape together some money , and im starting a course which will lead onto a degree next year in English and History as such im looking for a laptop.

The basics are ive never owned an apple pc of any kind (had original and 3gs iphones but not sure they count) and i need something to work on while studying in classes/outside of them and some work at home.

I am and always have been a pc user and gamer done some overclocking and am tinkering with some watercooling etc.

The basics i need to know really are do you think a macbook air will be powerful enough for me to work on with some browsing and maybe some music, and or is the macbook pro portable enough to lug around on a daily basis.

Im leaning towards the 13 inch pro and unless i find some amazing deal it seems itll prolly be an older model and probably second hand.

Or should i steer clear and just get some clunky laptop new or something.

I realise this is a pretty subjective question but im quite unbiased either way , i love the look of the apple products and know they are easy to use , and i really just need this for working on , essays etc for the next 4 years + i dont need it to be able to play the latest games or anything like that and im fairly certain i have enough flash drives and external hdds for storing things on.

Any input appreciated.
Click to expand...

Personally i'd get a non apple laptop as i am not keen on the os. However i know you get the word documents free on the Apples but as i am aware most Universities rely on excel / word for work. What is your price range?
 
I'd say don't even bother with a laptop. Get an Asus Transformer, even the 16GB version will be enough for storing mere text files.

Not like you need a wod or ram and a fast processor
 
i used a macbook pro 13" at uni for a year, and it was a dream, the 10 hour battery life, the clear screen, the solid aluminium, for the daily bumps, it was spot on for everything, while still being lightweight, and easy to type on, and the battery life can be extended for those long lectures and typing up notes and late night essays
smile.gif


the air is a good laptop too, but if i had to recomend one, id recomend the pro, the disk drive is handy, the bigger hard drive is usefull, and the os runs perfectly on the pro
smile.gif


ive actually been to uni

and i have actually used a macbook pro, and i can say its brilliant, its your choise, but thats my input
smile.gif
 
Coming from someone who is generally against Apple products, I would say that if you want to just browse, create word docs and want it to just work, with good battery life I think that the macbook pro would be ideal (if the cost isn't a big deciding factor) and the build quality is pretty nice.
 
Bear in mind you will be paying close to/nearly/above £1000 for something than can be done on a £300 laptop.

Also repairing macbooks are considerably more frustrating than with anything else and the parts are very expensive.

I'd recommend something along the lines of an affordable samsung laptop (they seem to be well made from what we've worked with in the shop) and also good value

Failing that dell usually have really good deals on all year round.

Macs do have some good software built in but for the price id find it hard to recommend along with the learning curve, it would end up being unproductive
wink.gif
get one when there isnt work to be done!
tongue.gif
 
Thanks for the input everyone , been very useful am currently looking at second hand macbook pros at around the 500/600 mark and have a SSD i can put in it. Have looked pretty long for a laptop that isnt apple also but i just cant find one with a nice slimline design and good battery life that isnt 600+. Tho i would happy take suggestions
smile.gif
 
i purchased a macbook pro 13'' a few months ago for the exact purpose of uni, and have also slammed a 120gb SSD in there so its rapid(7 sec boot time). i have to say allthough it looks amazing and is great to type on and just generally amazing to use i cant justify the price tag. fortunately for me i managed to get 40% off mine brand new which makes it feel alright. for you how ever, with student discount your looking for a price around 880, what youve got to think is what could i get for that much are more importantly, would i be happy with it(nothing worse than settling for a product and then 2 weeks later wishing youd got the other option).

another angle i like to look at it is although macbook are some what almost 3 times the price, they also hold there value for i would say 3 times as much, i can see that if you pruchase a laptop for a 3 year uni course you may well get a return of around 400-450 for that laptop by the end of it, which isnt too bad, as for a laptop after 3 years is barely worth the plastics its in.

just my thoughts,

toejam
 
ToeJam said:
i purchased a macbook pro 13'' a few months ago for the exact purpose of uni, and have also slammed a 120gb SSD in there so its rapid(7 sec boot time). i have to say allthough it looks amazing and is great to type on and just generally amazing to use i cant justify the price tag. fortunately for me i managed to get 40% off mine brand new which makes it feel alright. for you how ever, with student discount your looking for a price around 880, what youve got to think is what could i get for that much are more importantly, would i be happy with it(nothing worse than settling for a product and then 2 weeks later wishing youd got the other option).

another angle i like to look at it is although macbook are some what almost 3 times the price, they also hold there value for i would say 3 times as much, i can see that if you pruchase a laptop for a 3 year uni course you may well get a return of around 400-450 for that laptop by the end of it, which isnt too bad, as for a laptop after 3 years is barely worth the plastics its in.

just my thoughts,

toejam
Click to expand...

These are generally the same thoughts ive had if im honest , and i think atm im looking for a decent condition second hand macbook pro 13 inch ill try and be patient and get the one thats right for me, have bid on a couple already but they are mostly chance bids at low prices near the end of auctions maybe ill snag a cheap one that way.

Thanks for your thoughts
 
mrapoc said:
Bear in mind you will be paying close to/nearly/above £1000 for something than can be done on a £300 laptop.

Also repairing macbooks are considerably more frustrating than with anything else and the parts are very expensive.

I'd recommend something along the lines of an affordable samsung laptop (they seem to be well made from what we've worked with in the shop) and also good value

Failing that dell usually have really good deals on all year round.

Macs do have some good software built in but for the price id find it hard to recommend along with the learning curve, it would end up being unproductive
wink.gif
get one when there isnt work to be done!
tongue.gif
Click to expand...

I agree that a Mac will set you back a fair bit, but it's quality over quantity. I had no problems with my Mac, apart from when my partners brother hit the MacBook and broke the disc drive. I replaced for like £30-£40, and it was quite easily done. The Mac never ever crashed (unless in Windows), and I do not recommend Samsung.

I don't know whether I posted it here, but the trouble I had with them. 1 key worn down within a few months, and I asked them for a replacement, after like 10 phone calls and 5 emails later, I received nothing but useless replies. They wouldn't even replace 1 letter on a keyboard. The laptop was like 3 months old and was top of the range back then. So much for warranty hey? Apparently they do not cover 'wear and tear', poor build quality if it wears in less than 2 months... they apparently cover things like batteries and... well that was about it.

Do not get Samsung (as my experience is bad).

If you want to look cool and know you have a well made piece of gold, get a Mac. Otherwise a decent laptop £400-600 will be plenty!
 
OSX is not that hard to learn, i got my first imac a few weeks ago and within a few days it felt like i been using it for years.

As Lollipop has mentioned, you could always partition your hard drive and install windows using bootcamp if you need to use any Windows based application.

On the go, I'd prefer a Macbook's over a laptop because they are so responsive, battery life is awesome and the OS is a joy to use.

One thing to note is that you can replace the SSD in the new MBA but they are very expensive to upgrade, in the old ones they were soldered to the board so you were stuck with whatever the built-in storage was.

MBP's come with 2.5" drives so if you buy a new one or a used one you will be able to upgrade the SSD to a higher capacity if it already has one or upgrade to a higher capacity hard drive for more storage space when needed for much less.

MBP's roughly weigh 2.5KG, if don't mind carrying this weight around, a MBP would the best way to go imo
 
Luger718 said:
i think you could have 2 drives in a MBP if you remove the CD drive
Click to expand...

You can get adapters that are the same shape/interface as a nromal laptop disk drive that just slot into the disk drives place with the 2.5 inch drive inside, there about £25 or so iirc when i found one for my mate.
 
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