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How much did you know before buying?

How long did you spend learning the Mac you were gonna buy?

  • Jumped in blind and giddy for the latest and greatest, most expensive purchase!

    Votes: 5 10.6%

  • Really familiar and savvy and took time to decide on major investment.

    Votes: 42 89.4%
  • Total voters
    47
vpro

vpro

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
1,195
65
Seems there are many people who jump blindly into buying a latest/greatest gadget around here. Who many of you spent a lot of time learning about something before committing to paying upwards of 3000 dollars for a gadget?

Many people just play games while others are photo / video hobbyists. I've been working with Macs since grade 3. I couldn't afford one until I graduated university. Only recently did I max out the late 2011 17" MacBook Pro.

What is your story?
 
I'm not quite sure how to answer this. I just jumped in and bought it. After looking at the specs. Seriously, how long does it take to do this? A couple of hours after the keynote I knew all the specs, and had compared them with what was available from Sony/Dell/whoever. So I ordered one. Yes I knew it was new. Yes I knew you had to order the RAM upgrade or forget it. Yes I knew you had to order the SSD you wanted or be at very high risk of not being able to upgrade, at least for a while. Yes I knew the battery would probably need replacing after a few years and this would be possible but would cost. Yes I knew that I had to shell out for a TB-Ethernet adaptor (but to be fair I have never used it since the initial transfers). So, I consider that I spent a "lot of time" (a couple of hours) considering it. I wouldn't spend any more time than that deciding to buy a new car or a new house. But I also didn't need a new computer at all and had never used a Mac for 20 years, so perhaps I did just "dive in". What fun!
 
Watched the keynote, viewed YouTube unboxing / reviews, checked with friends and went down to the shop to try out for myself. I would say that it would be as informed a decision as I would ever make for this class of products, as they are certainly not cheap.

Don't regret my purchases do far, though in hindsight, I ended up using less storage for my iPhone and iPad than I thought I would. I should have gone with the 16gb versions (rather than the 32gb and 64gb versions currently own).
 
Did a lot of research into the purchase of my MBP....Already had an iMac, and bought my MBA shortly after that.

I dithered between the 15" top spec MBP and the 17"...I bought the 17" in the end after a long talk with my Apple sales representative...Glad I did too...I use that extra real-estate.
 
Blind-buy for iDevices ...
Checking real reviews / feedback / self-experience for everything else like Macs, headsets, cameras, lenses ...
 
Being that I'm not going to buy a windows based portable and system 76 still uses saeger chassis and they are the nicest non mac I don't have many options.

Desktops I go in cycles, buy a mac pro get frustrated sell it build a hackintosh get frustrated sell it and buy another mac pro..
 
I always research first to make sure I get the right specifications for my needs. Then I'll check reviews to see if there are any major red flags.

Before I first switched to Macs I also made sure there were Mac versions (or comparable programs) for the software I was using.
 
I am a big follower of buying last years model when the new model comes out at a big discount. :D
 
I just get the latest and greatest because it has to be better than the previous model :D (Apple doesn't come out with a new product and say "worse than the last one", it's always "the best one yet" :cool:
 
I followed a few forums to be sure that the software I used most frequently would run on my new Mac. If not natively, then at least efficiently in Bootcamp.

I also researched alternative Mac apps to replace windows apps that I used daily.
 
I waited for over a year to buy my MBP, making totally sure it was something I wanted to spend a significant portion of my expendable savings on ($2400, I was in college at the time).

It's been the purchase I've been most happy with. The waiting meant that I've enjoyed the machine more every day that I've had it. After three years of ownership I still love the thing, and I hope to keep it for another two to three years. When it starts to feel slow, I'll pop in an SSD and it will feel like a new machine for another year.
 
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