13" Macbook vs. 15" Macbook

[airplaneman]

Hi eveyone!

I'm thinking of my buying my first Mac... Like many others I can't decide on which one to buy.

The following is all that I do:
1. MS office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel).
2. Transfering photos from my phone or digital camera and viewing them.
3. Internet - eMail, Watching music videos on YouTube and just browsing the net.

I don't use photoshop. I don't do video editing or photo editing. I don't paly games and I don't watch movies online, etc, etc.

My question is: While doing only what I do... Will I notice whether I'm using a 4GB Mac or a 2GB Mac?

What I've been told is... For an example: If the Mac OS and all the applications that I run only 1GB... Another 1GB is free on a 2GB Mac. And if I get a 4GB Mac... 3GB will be free. And 7GB will be free on 8GB RAM! Therefore, the chances are that I will never be using the extra RAM.

So, will I ever notice a difference between the two?

Please help me to decide whether I need to buy a 2.26 Macbook13" and upgrade to 4GB or just use it with the standard 2GB...

Thanks everyone!

2GB is plenty for your needs.

 

[ARF900]

I know you don't care about the latest tech, but if you can wait until around February they should refresh the whole mbp line. Plus you can have fun reading the last 62 pages of "The unofficial 'I'm waiting for Arrandale' Thread" to pass the time.

I dont think there will be a refresh on the 13 inch, the 15 and 17 will get arrendale, the 13 will be left for next year, and probably wont be refreshed until the alleged 10.7 that apple is already working on.

 

[Lucbert]

I dont think there will be a refresh on the 13 inch, the 15 and 17 will get arrendale, the 13 will be left for next year, and probably wont be refreshed until the alleged 10.7 that apple is already working on.

Are you kidding?
10.7 will probably not be released within the next two years, at least that's how long it took for leopard to be released after tiger came out.
I seriously doubt that they won't update the computer unroll this date, but I sure hope so because that would mean my mac would still be up to date in two years.

 

[Patriks7]

Video editing? I think you'd be best off with a 15" MacBook Pro, unless you have a good external monitor at home.

 

[Anike]

Oh gosh. So i went to the Apple store yesterday and talked to a sales employee for like an hour about which mac i would need. he considered me getting the 15 inch MBP standard as it will be enough for my needs. however, i want to stay to a $2000 as much as possible. however when i added everything up (final cut express, apple care) it came up to $2397+13% tax=$2708.61 which is kind of way over budget. I feel guilty to buy a computer that expensive, however i will have it for a while. So i'm not sure if should just go down to the 2.53ghz MBP 13 inch with everything the same (however, smaller screen for video editing, and such...). and btw does anybody know if black friday happens at the retail stores too. because i wasn't sure if the representative told me to come to the store on friday or order online.

 

[Gabriel GR]

Oh gosh. So i went to the Apple store yesterday and talked to a sales employee for like an hour about which mac i would need. he considered me getting the 15 inch MBP standard as it will be enough for my needs. however, i want to stay to a $2000 as much as possible. however when i added everything up (final cut express, apple care) it came up to $2397+13% tax=$2708.61 which is kind of way over budget. I feel guilty to buy a computer that expensive, however i will have it for a while. So i'm not sure if should just go down to the 2.53ghz MBP 13 inch with everything the same (however, smaller screen for video editing, and such...). and btw does anybody know if black friday happens at the retail stores too. because i wasn't sure if the representative told me to come to the store on friday or order online.

You can get it without the applecare and get applecare in a year from now.

 

[TheQuestion]

Video editing? I think you'd be best off with a 15" MacBook Pro, unless you have a good external monitor at home.

Good point. I love my 13" MBP, but I'd be dead without my 19in external monitor (at least for FCE).

 

[vant]

Oh gosh. So i went to the Apple store yesterday and talked to a sales employee for like an hour about which mac i would need. he considered me getting the 15 inch MBP standard as it will be enough for my needs. however, i want to stay to a $2000 as much as possible. however when i added everything up (final cut express, apple care) it came up to $2397+13% tax=$2708.61 which is kind of way over budget. I feel guilty to buy a computer that expensive, however i will have it for a while. So i'm not sure if should just go down to the 2.53ghz MBP 13 inch with everything the same (however, smaller screen for video editing, and such...). and btw does anybody know if black friday happens at the retail stores too. because i wasn't sure if the representative told me to come to the store on friday or order online.

In the US black friday is both store and online.

Your best bet is a 2.26GHz MBP. Upgrade the HD to over 250GB and 4GB RAM and pocket the cash.

Aren't you a student? You can get a discount that way too.

 

[lilskaterpunk]

Im thinking of going for the 2.53Ghz model.
From reading many topics about Jan/Feb MBP new line, I dont see much changes in the 13.3'' MBP models, well not until later in 2010 or so... They just changed the 13.3'' MBP models a while ago...