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Best device for on the go, working at home, couch surfing, den, cafe ...

Best device for on the go, working at home, couch surfing, den, cafe

  • 17" MBP

    Votes: 12 9.0%

  • 15" MBP

    Votes: 41 30.8%

  • 13" MBP

    Votes: 58 43.6%

  • MBA

    Votes: 8 6.0%

  • MacBook

    Votes: 7 5.3%

  • iPad

    Votes: 29 21.8%
  • Total voters
    133
entatlrg

entatlrg

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 2, 2009
3,385
6
Waterloo & Georgian Bay, Canada
Based on your needs, whether it's serious work, entertainment, light email etc

Which of the following would you choose? If you could choose one which would you choose, or if you chose two what would it be?

17" MBP
15" MBP
13" MBP
MacBook
MacBook Air
iPad
 
this will obviously be a biased poll. obviously more people will choose their MBP as its in the notebook forum section... /facepalm
 
great poll

if i could have 2 it would be a 17 mbp and ipad or maybe 13.

if i could only have 1 it would be a 15 mbp.
 
I bought a 13" MBP, the Air was too thin and underpowered, the 15" and higher were too big/heavy and the MacBook felt a little too much like a toy.

The 13" MBP felt perfect, looked great and handles my work perfectly, also loving that I could fit a 12.5mm HDD in it, upped it to a 1TB a few weeks back and put 8GB in it last week!
 
I would go with the Macbook Air (unless "serious work" is processor intensive stuff like Film editing etc) but the MBA is just itching for an upgrade.
 
I have to go with Macbook if I'm just going to use this for those uses listed above, and I already have another computer.
It's nice to use a computer to just beat around, take as your road warrior. Dump in your backpack, or car seat.
 
I travel extensively for work. Having said that, the MBP 13" is a great travel computer as it's portable and fairly lightweight. I also have an iPad, and while it too is great to travel for the same reasons as previously mentioned, it isn't great to use for heavy browsing, or lots of typing (email replies, for example).

In my opinion, the iPad is great if I know that I won't have much time to use the computer, but want to keep up on news and email. If I will have some more time to use the computer, or need to do more than just read email and browse the web, then I'll bring the MBP.

Truly, as has been said a million times, the iPad is great if you don't plan to create, but instead plan to consume. However, if you're going to create, even if it's just emails, I think my MBP is the way to go.
 
I have a 17" MBP and a MB, and I'm very satisfied. If I were to have only one notebook, I'd go with a smaller MBP or MB plus an external monitor.
 

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SPX said:
In my opinion, the iPad is great if I know that I won't have much time to use the computer, but want to keep up on news and email. If I will have some more time to use the computer, or need to do more than just read email and browse the web, then I'll bring the MBP.

Truly, as has been said a million times, the iPad is great if you don't plan to create, but instead plan to consume. However, if you're going to create, even if it's just emails, I think my MBP is the way to go.
Click to expand...


Agreed. I have both the MBP and iPad and really couldn't do with just the iPad. For surfing the internet,watching videos, reading books and listening to music the ipad is great.

But posting on forums, using powerPoint, Word Processing, writing emails,on-line banking etc etc... I highly recommend a MB or MBP
 
i am surprised that the 15 inch is leading. is it the size or the fact its the smallest mbp with i5/i7?

re the 13 if i could have 2 devices it would not be an ipad and a 13 they have too much in common including screen size thats were the 15 would come in, combined with an ipad for me. if i was starting over.

as always not much love for the 17 mbp, i have i7 ag 17. before that had a c2d glossy. i am starting to think notebooks are meant to be smaller. the 17 is is a desktop replacement (and i already have a desktop) I have been thinking about adding a smaller mbp to the mix but cant decide on 15 or 13.

would not buy a mba it needs updated or eol

would not buy mb for a couple more bucks get an mbp.

ipad would never replace my mbp only add to it
 
iPad, It's Half the weight of the MacBook Air, and 4 and a Half times lighter than the biggest MacBook Pro, It does the Stuff you want to do on a Cafe, Couch or whatever, and If you need some stuff from your desktop you can use a VNC App :)
 
tim100 said:
i am surprised that the 15 inch is leading. is it the size or the fact its the smallest mbp with i5/i7?

re the 13 if i could have 2 devices it would not be an ipad and a 13 they have too much in common including screen size thats were the 15 would come in, combined with an ipad for me. if i was starting over.

as always not much love for the 17 mbp, i have i7 ag 17. before that had a c2d glossy. i am starting to think notebooks are meant to be smaller. the 17 is is a desktop replacement (and i already have a desktop) I have been thinking about adding a smaller mbp to the mix but cant decide on 15 or 13.

would not buy a mba it needs updated or eol

would not buy mb for a couple more bucks get an mbp.

ipad would never replace my mbp only add to it
Click to expand...

The 15" MBP seems to do well in just about every Poll I've seen it in, lol.

For my uses the iPad is not adequate in most cases, as a second device it's okay.

A 15" and an iPad? Good idea, I can see that working. Although the 15" would be heavier to than I'd like for on the go work. If the iPad could do better with regards to creating content then I could make it work. As it is now I'd be lugging the 15" everywhere wishing it was a 13" MBP or MBA.

17" and 13" sounds good too. The 17" would serve well as a desktop and is still easy to move about the house/office and the 13" good for travel.

For my needs at least it's good to build around the 13" MBP, that's the one MacBook I wouldn't want to be without. Sure I'd rather not plug/unplug from the ACD so often and it would be nice to have two. A notebook that can act as a desktop replacement, (I'm not into desktops anymore) and a smaller full powered notebook would suit me just fine :) Decisions, decisions.

Alvi said:
iPad, It's Half the weight of the MacBook Air, and 4 and a Half times lighter than the biggest MacBook Pro, It does the Stuff you want to do on a Cafe, Couch or whatever, and If you need some stuff from your desktop you can use a VNC App :)
Click to expand...

No, the iPad does not do the stuff/work I want to do on the couch, cafe or whatever. Too slow to type on, small screen, no flash, no keyboard ETC.
 
Having used all of these devices I can say this.

The iPad by itself is IMO crippled. It gets heavy on the arm after a fashion, it's extremely limited in what it can do, and from my experience the wireless was rather slow. That said, it's the perfect bathroom companion, great for spur-of-the-moment lookups or media, or simple browsing. I just can't justify it for those limited applications. I know some game with it - I just can't bring myself to do it.

Any of the MacBook Pros can handle the majority of grunt work. The poly MacBook...good for a cafe or whatnot and decently powered I suppose, but hard to cost justify over the 13" MBP. The Air, I just have a thing against.

So...for me, 17" MacBook Pro for getting stuff done. iPad for playing around and casual access to things.
 
revelated said:
Having used all of these devices I can say this.

The iPad by itself is IMO crippled. It gets heavy on the arm after a fashion, it's extremely limited in what it can do, and from my experience the wireless was rather slow. That said, it's the perfect bathroom companion, great for spur-of-the-moment lookups or media, or simple browsing. I just can't justify it for those limited applications. I know some game with it - I just can't bring myself to do it.

Any of the MacBook Pros can handle the majority of grunt work. The poly MacBook...good for a cafe or whatnot and decently powered I suppose, but hard to cost justify over the 13" MBP. The Air, I just have a thing against.

So...for me, 17" MacBook Pro for getting stuff done. iPad for playing around and casual access to things.
Click to expand...


its hard to use the ipad when you cant multitask. i cant surf the web and listen to pandora at the same time. for a few more bucks you could get a 13 mb/mbp.
 
tim100 said:
its hard to use the ipad when you cant multitask. i cant surf the web and listen to pandora at the same time. for a few more bucks you could get a 13 mb/mbp.
Click to expand...

I don't have that problem. My Palm Pre does Pandora extremely well, and if I find a song I want, I can buy it directly from Amazon MP3 on there. I prefer that anyway.

What was annoying about the iPad when I did own it was the fact that a lot of the time, it just collected dust because, outside from the occasional bathroom visit or late-night web lookup, it didn't get used.
 
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