Deciding between these two macs is killing me. Help required from the experts please!

After weeks of research and reading I can't decide between these two below: Between £1000 and £1200 is my budget: Both macs are base models in their screen size.

Apple Macbook Pro 13inch 2.4ghz, 4GB or Apple 27inch Imac 3.06ghz, 4GB, 1TB. Now I am aware that the cycle is nearly up for the 27inch desktop....should I just go on without a computer until end of September??


Macbook comes in at £905 with Apple care and student discount
Imac comes in at £1256 with Apple care and student discount
The difference in cost between these two is £351.

Now I think that £351 is not that much money between the two of these machines if you look at spec! I mean if you were to buy a wireless keyboard and wireless magic mouse for the macbook pro then that would cost an extra £112 alone and they come with with the imac! I am also thinking about future proof and re sale value for these machines. Both are entry models for their size of screen..no i5 or i7 processors..which will date sooner. The being able to move the computer is not an issue before you ask.....I will be mainly be using the computer to download movies and music....maybe play a few flight sims...hopefully when they bring the lead out to scale bluray up to 1080p instead of 720p on the imac screen..watch blurays.....although feel this is a little bit of a gamble if they do!!!.I have been told there is lead that does this right now (1080p) in the states...that was launched 4 days ago. I want to be able to burn dvds quickly and have machine that is fast. Anyone with some advice and in the know..would be good to hear your thoughts. Thankyou

Thanks for your help! you seem to know a lot for only ten months on here! I am swayed towards the macbook pro, due to the fact it has been updated very recently and the fact it is cheaper! The basic 27inch is due a revamp and I couldn't bare seeing a new model come out after buying the core 2 duo. I need a computer in order to activate my iphone 4!!! ha ha!! the one that maybe recalled or whatever Apple intend to do! I think I trying to buy the best in my budget which is always a hard thing to do! just dont want to make a mistake! You certainly get more for your money with the 27inch....would def increase the 13inch memory from 250 to 320 for the sake of £40!!

Kieranic said:

I've only been in the Mac World for around 10 months now so I won't tell you which Mac to buy, but I will help with some stuff in the last paragraph



Why would you buy a wireless keyboard for a MacBook Pro? It'll be pretty much exactly the same, no difference in keys (Wireless keyboard and Macbook keyboards do not have Number pads)




1. If you're going to download movies, you'll want the biggest hard drive you can afford. The average DVD sized movie/iTunes Standard Definition movie is 1-2.5GB. HD are usually 3.5GB-7GB (and thats only 720p I think).

2. The movies on Blu-Rays HAVE been 1080p ever since they came out (well, at least as long as I can remember). Macs won't have Blu-Ray for some time... says Steve Jobs anyway. Then again, rumor has it the digital revolution (aka Netflix, Hulu, iTunes) is going to over take the physical revolution (aka Blu-Ray, and most certainly DVD) so that may be why.

3. You said something that you want it to be at least 720p or something (Your last paragraph is sort of hard to understand (I have no idea what you mean by "lead out")) but the Apple 27" Mac is infact BIGGER than 1080p (the resolution is infact 2560 by 1440 pixels while 1080p as you probably know is 1920x1080p). The 13" MacBook Pro has a resolution of 1280x800 and thats just slightly above 720p so it's pretty good for that size in my opinion. Movies you buy off iTunes that are in HD are 720p.

I hope that has sort of helped... just thought I'd throw that information in here

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