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cant decide: base MBP 13" or HP Envy 14 Beats?

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petp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 30, 2010
1
0
Im racking my brain here. Will be getting either one in the next week. Both cost about the same ($1100) since i saw that Micro Center has the MBP 13 for $200 off. Narrowed it down to these two since i NEED a backlit keyboard. I'll be using it for web surfing, and MS Office. Dont play much games (except for online poker sometimes)

Mac Pros; great display, great backlit keyboard, LOVE the solid sturdy design of the body and the keyboard
Mac Cons; VERY pricey for what u get (15" mac with the envy's specs costs more than double!!! which is why im considering the 13" for almost the same amount of money), less than adequate power? (but then again, do i NEED an i5 cpu for web surfing?)

Envy Pros; LOTS of power/features for the money, best build quality of any PC laptop ive seen (though still not as good as apple)
Envy Cons; display not as good as on the mac (i like the flush glass design on the Envy, but the macs resolution just looks better to me), battery life not as good as the macs, build quality is ok but not as good as the macs (has some keyboard flex whereas the macs have none)

so which should i choose???

wish i could afford the MBP 15, regardless which i get, hopefully i'll be selling it and getting a MBP 15 in 8-12 months.

thanks for any advice
and happy holidays to all!!!
 
You are on a MAC forum so everyone is obviously going to say get the MacbookPro. It basically comes down to this, OS X or Windows 7.
 
Neither web surfing nor office need much horsepower outside of the rare individuals who do really heavy duty Excel stuff.

If I were in your shoes I'd go with the MBP13 for the following reasons:
  • Smaller/lighter -- 12.78"x8.94"x0.95" 4.5lb vs 14.01"x9.33"x1.16" 5.69lb
  • Better rated battery life -- "up to" 10 hours vs "up to" 6 hours
  • Likely better resale as a percentage of purchase price; especially so if you buy the MBP13 at Microcenter. Even more so if you're patient and watch your local MC's website for an openbox system to pop up and snag it at $900 at the expense of perhaps a week's worth of Applecare.
  • Screen ratio of 16:10 vs 16:9 -- may not matter to you, but I prefer 16:10 over 16:9. If I had my choice, I'd have stayed in the old school 4:3 world. :)

OSX vs Win 7 -- I like both, but as a recent convert I do find that OS X just seems a little more seamless.

But as another poster mentioned, what other answer would you expect here? :D
 
Forget about the hardware. Both machines will be plenty capable for your casual use. The only question is: Do you want OSX? Or do you want windows?

Personally, I've used Windows from the 3.0 days, through XP, and I just can't stand it any more. Every version is sold as the "best ever!!!1" and yet each version is slower and more bug-riddled than the last. Sorry Microsoft, you aren't getting any more of my money.
 
dime21 said:
Forget about the hardware. Both machines will be plenty capable for your casual use. The only question is: Do you want OSX? Or do you want windows?
Click to expand...

Very true, though if mobility is part of the requirement, size/weight/battery life becomes important. These play to the MBP's strengths as well.


Personally, I've used Windows from the 3.0 days, through XP, [...] each version is slower and more bug-riddled than the last.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Windows XP was released over nine years ago. If you haven't truly used Windows 7, don't be too quick to judge. I used Win7 on my Thinkpad since the RTM release came out in July 2009 until moving to my MBP13 in November this year. It was very solid and worked well. (I've also used Windows since the early days and DOS well before that)
 
I was in the exact same position. I played with the 14 a friend had, and immediately got the Mac. I hated the 14's touchpad. I mean, like despised it.

So, I'd say go with the Mac.
 
How much will the HP be worth in a year or two?

Few hundred at best.
 
Macbook Pro. The mac's trackpad rules. No PC's can touch it. Keyboard too. And like someone else said, you're a Mac forum with Mac fanbois abound. The HP is gonna get smoked here in user opinion. But maybe that's the response you really want. In that case, just buy that MBP already!
 
Take it for what its worth. HP makes TERRIBLE i mean TERRIBLE laptops. Over the past few years I went with 2 HP laptops, both motherboards died within 2 years & couldnt be replaced unless you wanted to spend 500+ to get it fixed, HP is terrible & not worth it, take my word.

I have several friends who all got HP laptops, none use the laptop anymore, all broke.
 
Get the MacBook Pro.
You'll understand once you use it for a few days. :D


Not sure if BestBuy has return fees anymore, but if they don't, pick one up from there, try it out.
 
I personally HATE windows 7. I was a very loyal windows user (for about 5 years), and even the pre-release versions of Win 7 were really nice. But for some reason the release version of Win 7 was a steaming pile of cr*p.

I was Apple loyal from 1992 - 2006, when I went PC for 3d graphics reasons, but Win 7 sent me back. I have been very happy with my late 08 uMBP 15 that I've had since March.
 
tasslehawf said:
Macs hold their value ludicrously well. It's usually worth buying new when 1 - 2 year old machines aren't that much cheaper than new.
Click to expand...

Right on the money...I have always gotten quite a bit of my money back on my sold Ipad, Macbook and Macbook Pros to buy the latest and greatest. They don't really depreciate that much if you buy the upper end models...You'll be lucky if the HP brings ya 400 bucks when your ready to sell it...!! ( and you will !!:D)
 
tasslehawf said:
I personally HATE windows 7. I was a very loyal windows user (for about 5 years), and even the pre-release versions of Win 7 were really nice. But for some reason the release version of Win 7 was a steaming pile of cr*p.

I was Apple loyal from 1992 - 2006, when I went PC for 3d graphics reasons, but Win 7 sent me back. I have been very happy with my late 08 uMBP 15 that I've had since March.
Click to expand...

Windows 7 is one of the best Microsoft have released. Yeah its pretty much a rework of Vista but its a hell of a lot better. Yeah XP was good but its old news.
 
It all comes down to whether you'd prefer Win7 or OS X. Even though Win7 is the best os from Microsoft in a pretty long time, most of the people in this forum prefer OS X. If you're not that familiar with OS X, go to an Apple store and try it out for a bit, and find out from there what you prefer.
 
Ok, I came back to offer some more opinions. Take 'em what they're worth; I've always liked HP. I went with Apple this time, and I'm glad I did. It just fits me better.

Anyways,
The battery life and screen are better on the MBP. If you could have gotten the Envy with the better screen, then that would be great. Problem is, that SKU has been disabled.

OSX is fairly equal to Windows 7, except for the polish. OSX is more polished. Both are extremely usable.

The MBP's touchpad is better. Leaps and bounds.

The Envy 14 should be your choice if you plan on playing games more than just a little bit. The hardware is simply better.

MBP feels more responsive for most applications, which is strange because the hardware is less than what the Envy has.

Both keyboards are great; pretty much equal.

MBP boots faster, and wakes from sleep/goes to sleep faster.

If you have Windows apps that you need, go Envy. Much easier, since it comes with Windows than Bootcamp (though that is always an option).

MBP build quality is better. Envy has great build quality, but is a notch or two below the Pro. Not something that you would notice without looking for it, though.
 
No doubt the Envy series notebooks are some of the best laptops right now, other then a few "business class" desktops which are insanely expensive, even more expensive than macbook pros.

If you like vista/windows 7, go with the Envy. you get a red backlit keyboard, which is much easier on the eyes in dark conditions. you also get a larger 14.5 inch screen. A 13 inch screen is too small in my opinion, especially if you browse with a lot of windows or tabs. You also get a core i5, which is more powerful than the macbook pro's core 2 duo, and a better graphics card. In terms of build quality, I don't think the Envy's build quality are worse than the macbook pros.

If you like Mac OS, go with the macbook pro, but consider saving up to get the 15 inch version. The 13 inch is just too hard to run lots of apps because you can't put windows side by side and see much.
 
You will might not get an honest reply, because like everyone said, its a macbook forum. Someone will be biased over the other. So it must be you to decide which is "better"

Though I havent tried out the HP Envy, on paper it seems like a great machine. Like you said, fast processor and a superior video card than MBP product line. However, I had bad experiences with HP products such as their Compaq laptops which barely lasted 12-15 months. My HP tablet had the same longevity rate and was known to have a video card issue which HP did not claim their fault. (google Tx-1000 for more information). So I decided to get a solid machine such as the MBA and its been great so far. Not favoring the Apple camp just yet since I only had the machine for about a week.

I would say get a machine based on your preferences because on paper they are both great. The MBP may not be powerful but would be much more stable since it isnt anything "new" from the past. HP Envy is sounds powerful having better specs than MBP but the stability of it weirs me. Its up to you to decide, not the Apple only club or PC only club...
 
gregrose said:
Take it for what its worth. HP makes TERRIBLE i mean TERRIBLE laptops. Over the past few years I went with 2 HP laptops, both motherboards died within 2 years & couldnt be replaced unless you wanted to spend 500+ to get it fixed, HP is terrible & not worth it, take my word.

I have several friends who all got HP laptops, none use the laptop anymore, all broke.
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I agree 100%. HP laptops are the biggest POS in the world. Get either the Mac, a Toshiba or a Vaio. There are a few 12&13 inch Vaois which are spectacular laptops, but they costs as much and more than even the MBP.
 

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You have to take those failure rates with a grain of salt. Especially when apple has worse malfunction rates then dell and asus is on top.

There are two big drawbacks of the Envy 14. Its bigger, closer to MBP 15 size if i remember correctly, and its battery life isn't up to par with MBP.

You can get good deal on it right now and get a MUCH better cpu than MBP along with having a much better GPU standard. And its cheaper.

If you are going to sell it you'd get more out of a MBP or probably even more out of a 13 MBA.
 
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I owned the envy 14 with radiance display but wasn't happy with it so sold it and bought the mbp 13. To me it's hands down better.

The radiance display was great on the envy but I hated the keyboard, speakers and battery life.
The keyboard felt cheap with loads of flex and I hated using it. Speakers were meh but sounded great with headphones. Battery life was about 4hrs on the intel gfx and even less if switched to ati.
 
All I can say is that the trackpad on the Envy is really bad, but what I do like about it and what the MBP13 doesn't have is the much higher resolution screen, 1600 by 900.
 
OP: Care to explain why you want the BEATS edition over the normal HP envy 14? IMO the beats is hideous compared to the normal one and the normal one still has the "beats audio" if that is what you desire.

but yea, if you play any games extensively, i would say go HP envy 14.
 
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