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Is a MacBook Pro really worth the money?
- Thread starter josueg942
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ViciousShadow21
macrumors 68020
I think in some cases it is.
What do you think?
i think those of us that have bought it think that it is worth the money. and the ppl that didnt buy it dont think its worth the money. simple as that. so far, for me, it has been worth every penny.
DeSnousa
macrumors 68000
...and I'm in the catagory that thinks its expensive 😉
In all seriouness I think its worth every cent, my iBook has lasted 5 years and is still in great condition albiet a bit slow. On the other hand all my friends 1 year old laptops with similar specs as the Pro are nearly in the bin with so many issues.
In all seriouness I think its worth every cent, my iBook has lasted 5 years and is still in great condition albiet a bit slow. On the other hand all my friends 1 year old laptops with similar specs as the Pro are nearly in the bin with so many issues.
Like I said, I think it's worth the money, I'm only doing this to see what other people think.... cos sometimes I do have doubts of my MBP because there are PCs with the same or better specs for lower.... but I'm convinced my MBP is futureproof and more advanced then them. Most PCs don't come with Bluetooth and MBPs do! And I use Bluetooth alot!!!🙂
voyagerd
macrumors 65816
It's certainly worth the money for its performance, size, versatility, and features. Until I get a Mac Pro, it's acting as my main computer, sitting on top my G5. It's great for gaming! I'm sure the new MBP is even better. The Nvidia chipset lets you overclock the cpu which makes me want.
iLog.Genius
macrumors 601
You know what, I love my MacBook Pro but it's definitely not worth the price tag. I consider myself a tech savvy guy so people who say OS X is this and that, Windows doesn't do this, looks like that, I pretty much laugh at because the annoyances that you find in Windows can be taken care of and you can probably find a similar annoyance with OS X. With that said, I purchased my MacBook Pro because I planned on doing specific tasks that can be done just as well if not better than on a Windows machine. I don't consider money a problem, but the truth is, you can find a computer with similar specs for the same price or even cheaper.
Ultimately, if you put money down for any Apple product and at the end it did what you need it to do and then some, then there's no doubt it's worth the money because that's what you paid for. But in terms of dollars spent vs. specs, not a chance - it often comes down to customers paying because it's Apple (let's be honest here, this is a factor) and the way it looks (not even arguable, Apple has the best looking hardware).
I guess at the end, the question whether if it's really worth it comes down to the customer. If a customer needs to spend $5000 on a computer and it doesn't give the user problem, then that would still be "worth it".
Ultimately, if you put money down for any Apple product and at the end it did what you need it to do and then some, then there's no doubt it's worth the money because that's what you paid for. But in terms of dollars spent vs. specs, not a chance - it often comes down to customers paying because it's Apple (let's be honest here, this is a factor) and the way it looks (not even arguable, Apple has the best looking hardware).
I guess at the end, the question whether if it's really worth it comes down to the customer. If a customer needs to spend $5000 on a computer and it doesn't give the user problem, then that would still be "worth it".
ViciousShadow21
macrumors 68020
in the end we all buy products because we think they are worth the price. im going to go out on a limb here and say that nobody buys a computer if they dont think its worth the price. its not like we are indulging ourselves with a $10 ice cream cone every once and a while. its an important purchase and if you buy a computer that is not worth the price, you are either very rich or very dumb.
Wow m8, somehow you have opened my eyes.
I haven't had any problems with my MBP and it does everything I need it/want it to do, so hence for that I value and it's worth the money for me xD
I have to say as I've only been using the Macbook line for just over a year, it's looking good so far but time will tell. I have used everything from Windows 3.1 to Vista and I can look back and see the hassles, the wipe/reinstall, the viruses, and every other issue over nearly 20 years and know I just wanted to try something different.
The upfront costs of the Apple products is not overlooked and frankly a bit pricey but to me it's tough to say "is it worth it" until I have a few years with these products to see if I run into similar situations. So far I've been lucky, zero hardware or software issues on 3 different machines. If this continues over the next few years they I will be saying yes, well worth the price. Right now that's still tough to answer. Short term if feels like they are overpriced, but if I have no hardware issues, no viruses and wipes/reinstalls to keep this machine running like new then it will be worth it, and then some.
The older I get the more clear the statement "You can always make more money, but once time has passed you by you can never get it back."
When I was 20 something and broke that seemed silly, I had all the time in the world and no money to blow on "overpriced" items. Now well into my 30's that' makes perfect sense and is so very true. If I could have a dollar for every hour of frustration I've spent fixing my machine or a family members "PC" I could have likely paid cash for this new UMBP. 🙂
The upfront costs of the Apple products is not overlooked and frankly a bit pricey but to me it's tough to say "is it worth it" until I have a few years with these products to see if I run into similar situations. So far I've been lucky, zero hardware or software issues on 3 different machines. If this continues over the next few years they I will be saying yes, well worth the price. Right now that's still tough to answer. Short term if feels like they are overpriced, but if I have no hardware issues, no viruses and wipes/reinstalls to keep this machine running like new then it will be worth it, and then some.
The older I get the more clear the statement "You can always make more money, but once time has passed you by you can never get it back."
When I was 20 something and broke that seemed silly, I had all the time in the world and no money to blow on "overpriced" items. Now well into my 30's that' makes perfect sense and is so very true. If I could have a dollar for every hour of frustration I've spent fixing my machine or a family members "PC" I could have likely paid cash for this new UMBP. 🙂
it's not the best laptop in the world, but it sure as hell is the nicest...
worth the price? probably not. but life's too short for mediocre
worth the price? probably not. but life's too short for mediocre
ViciousShadow21
macrumors 68020
iLog.Genius
macrumors 601
Agreed. Like I said, it really comes down to the user. People love the argument, OS X doesn't have viruses. That's true, they really don't but someone who understands computers and know what they're doing, they're not going to encounter viruses (if so, they'll know how to handle it). So I don't consider that in deciding, is my MacBook Pro better than Windows? But someone who isn't to computer smart, if they need to spend $5000 just to be safe from viruses, then that person will feel like the $5000 is well worth it.
To me, it's two parts: is a MacBook Pro worth the money in terms of specs/hardware? No. Is it worth it in terms of consumer confidence, headaches, trouble? Probably.
Kronie
macrumors 6502a
If you can afford it, absolutely worth the money. The higher price you pay is for build, OS and Apple support.
Just based on performance. Lenovo W700. But its big and ugly. (which is why I didn't get one)
Of course its worth the money if you appreciate the MBP's styling and innovative features such as the trackpad and the unibody. If you're just out to get a fast CPU, a powerful GPU, and a high resolution screen, then there are much better and cheaper offerings out there.
crobbins
macrumors 6502
They are a little expensive up front, but when you go to get rid of it I think you'll find you get your money back. I see old iBooks and PowerBooks on eBay that go for quite a large sum of money, for an older computer. A year old pc loses a substantial amount of its value in that year, whereas the MacBook (Pro) tends to hold its value.
If you are someone who keeps machines to the point in which they die, I still think you'll find in the long run it's cheaper or at most the same price as your possible two PCs will cost. In my experience the macs have lasted longer. You are able to keep 1 Apple machine through 2 PCs. Just my opinion though..
If you are someone who keeps machines to the point in which they die, I still think you'll find in the long run it's cheaper or at most the same price as your possible two PCs will cost. In my experience the macs have lasted longer. You are able to keep 1 Apple machine through 2 PCs. Just my opinion though..
Give me 8gb of Ram than it will be worth it. There are some very power hungry portable users out there Apple needs to address there needs.
--they are cooler looking (if you are into that)
--have nice features most other laptops dont such as the trackpad (new one) backlit keyboard
--Excellent customer support, so if you need to go into the store for help , youll get help!
--dont crash as much as PC
--nicer user interface
--light weight
--compatible with MS office
--there is a reason why iphone is SOOOO popular, it just works and looks owsome
--have nice features most other laptops dont such as the trackpad (new one) backlit keyboard
--Excellent customer support, so if you need to go into the store for help , youll get help!
--dont crash as much as PC
--nicer user interface
--light weight
--compatible with MS office
--there is a reason why iphone is SOOOO popular, it just works and looks owsome
mikes70mustang
macrumors 68000
I think its worth it, especially when my friends have constantly crashing pcs, or are going to the computer store to have a guy "fix" all their problems, on the MBP side..... i think its worth it when i see someone with a macbook and i think to myself "man, the screen on that macbook really sucks,"
mikes70mustang
macrumors 68000
michael.lauden
macrumors 68020
IMO MBP's are just as good as the next generation MacBook's.
unless you are going top of the line i don't think it's worth it. especially with a 2.4 13.3" UMB out now for cheap...
unless you are going top of the line i don't think it's worth it. especially with a 2.4 13.3" UMB out now for cheap...
Anuba
macrumors 68040
It might be a little overpriced, but on the other hand I dread the day that Apple dumps their prices, and here's why: They will always refuse to back off from having the highest profit margins in the industry. If they do cut the prices, the consumer is guaranteed to get the short end of the stick. They will not simply cut the prices on what they're offering today, despite the ample room to do so, instead they will cut corners in manufacturing so that the profit margin remains the same even after the price cut. Heck, they'll put in refurbed components, switch to a cheaper LCD screen in the MBP, trim off a couple of millimeters on the aluminium, anything to protect the holy margins.
Just look at the original Mac Mini G4. When they launched it I thought "wow, Apple finally gets it! They've made a competitively priced plug-in Mac which they will sell to PC users to lure them into the OS X fold, and make the money back when those switchers buy bigger Macs". But looking closer at the specs, it became apparent that it wasn't competitively priced at all. It was cheap (what, $500 or something?), but the stuff inside it was worse than on some bargain-basement PC laptop, with a 40 GB, 4200 RPM drive, 256 MB of the slowest RAM available, and a 32 MB video card that couldn't even handle basic OS X effects like the water ripples on Dashboard Widgets. Rather than make the first Mac with a reasonable correlation between specs and price, they had managed to do the impossible and create the world's first overpriced $500 computer. And the only impression that potential Switchers came away with was that those Mac thingies sure are slow.
So while I would welcome price cuts, I would also be very suspicious of the methods used to make the price cuts "possible" (possible in Apple's mind; they were already possible if you ask anyone else). Frankly I would rather pay what they're asking today, at least then I know I'll be getting first rate components and not some used stuff they found in a dumpster.
In other words, no, I don't think an MBP is worth the money but I would bite the bullet and buy it anyway, if that makes sense in the light of what I just wrote.
Just look at the original Mac Mini G4. When they launched it I thought "wow, Apple finally gets it! They've made a competitively priced plug-in Mac which they will sell to PC users to lure them into the OS X fold, and make the money back when those switchers buy bigger Macs". But looking closer at the specs, it became apparent that it wasn't competitively priced at all. It was cheap (what, $500 or something?), but the stuff inside it was worse than on some bargain-basement PC laptop, with a 40 GB, 4200 RPM drive, 256 MB of the slowest RAM available, and a 32 MB video card that couldn't even handle basic OS X effects like the water ripples on Dashboard Widgets. Rather than make the first Mac with a reasonable correlation between specs and price, they had managed to do the impossible and create the world's first overpriced $500 computer. And the only impression that potential Switchers came away with was that those Mac thingies sure are slow.
So while I would welcome price cuts, I would also be very suspicious of the methods used to make the price cuts "possible" (possible in Apple's mind; they were already possible if you ask anyone else). Frankly I would rather pay what they're asking today, at least then I know I'll be getting first rate components and not some used stuff they found in a dumpster.
In other words, no, I don't think an MBP is worth the money but I would bite the bullet and buy it anyway, if that makes sense in the light of what I just wrote.
I think it is I love mine, I believe you pay for what you get. I love the look and feel of my macs.
clyde2801
macrumors 601
thejadedmonkey
macrumors G3
The Dell Latitude line. The E4300 series. 6 hours of battery life, lighter, and it has my personal favorites, a backlit keyboard and a glassless screen 😀
If I had my pick of the E4300 and a current gen (look-wise) MBP when I was in the market, and didn't need to run FCE, I don't know which I would have gone with.
However, when the mac mini was launched, there was no dashboard in OS X, and 256 MB of RAM was adequate for most things that any home user would want to do. Software wasn't as bloated as it is today, and my mini still hums along nicely on 10.3.9. I have upgraded the RAM to 512MB. Now-a-days, that's hardly enough ram to run Leopard on.
Anuba
macrumors 68040
No? I only ever had Tiger on my Mini G4 and I could've sworn I bought it just after it came out, but it was a few years ago so I could be mistaken. Let's see...
OK, according to Wiki the Mini was launched in January 2005 and Tiger was launched 3 months later. But it wasn't until the Intel switch in 2006 that they bumped it up from 32 to 64 MB.
Anyway, I had a dualscreen 4:3 20" setup back then (1600x1200), plugged the Mini into a secondary port on one of the monitors, and at 1600x1200 it had serious problems, even Dock magnification animations were jerky as hell. I had to bring it down to 1024x768 to get glitch-free effects. The Dell notebook I used at the time was a consumer-line Inspiron, it came with a 64 MB video card by default and that was 2 years before the Mini G4 came out. Hence my point about the Mini being the world's first overpriced $500 computer... it was cheap but it used components that not even Dell would touch with a 10 ft pole in 2005. I bet the HDD manufacturer donated the 4200 rpm drives to Apple just to get rid of them.
I mean, it was designed to trap switchers. To give them OS X-in-a-box. So they should've made a box that makes OS X look good, and for once put the margin-obsession aside and sell them with a razor thin margin, because they would recoup that "loss" later when the switchers were trapped and had to get a "real" Mac. Instead they got greedy and wanted the mega-margin on the Minis too, and released a machine that made OS X look slow and crappy. Had the Mini G4 been my first Mac experience, it would also have been my last. And that's no way to expand the market share, is it?