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Girlfriend buying Macbook pro today, I don't know what to do

D

DennisD7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2012
62
2
London, UK
OK, so my girlfriends old white macbook died a few weeks ago, and she asked my help to find a good replacement. The obvious choice was Macbook Air 11 or 13 inch base models, since she mostly uses it for emails, twitter and spotify, and is lugging it around everywhere.

After days of careful research and weighing pro/cons she tells me it must have a DVD-player. So that settles it I guess, but it's very frustrating since the Macbook pro's are end of cycle and also wth, can we embrace the glorious future of no spinning disks please? Gah!

OK </venting>
 
Get the MBA with the external USB optical drive. I doubt she needs the optical drive all the time, and so when she does, she can whip it out.
 
I thought of that but it might be a tough sell. I'm just amazed how resilient the optical drive thing is. I had the same thing happen with another girlfriend last year too (not the reason we broke up lol).
 
Haha I understand your frustration!! I'm so sick of telling people that you don't need an optical drive because you simply don't need it everyday these days.

In some case, get an external drive because the Air or Retina specs gain is HUGE. For example, the display and the flash storage and the light weigh of the Air :D

I guess some people just WON'T move on :rolleyes:
 
I know right?
Anyway, one good thing is that at least the MBP can be upgraded in a few years with an SSD or new ram, so there's that.
 
Take her to the apple store and show both models. If she still wants the cMBP, then I guess you have no choice :cool:
 
I'd suggest the cMBP for her uses as well, although I love the MBA to be honest - and she will too once she see's it!!

Let me know if you are in the market for an Apple USB Superdrive though. I have a brand new sealed one I may be putting in the marketplace section ;)
 
Ultimately it is her computer so if she wants/needs a computer with an optical drive that's what she should buy. Based on the fact that she was until recently using a white Macbook I would guess that she does not care about being on the cutting edge of technology. So why not just buy the 13 inch Macbook Pro. A great way to anger a wife/girlfriend is to buy or pressure her to buy an expensive item that she does not want. Besides do you really want to be told for the next five years or however long the computer lasts why "did you buy me a computer without a dvd player" every time she wants to play a dvd or cd?
 
Given the requirements, I'd suggest the base 13" cMBP, put in the max amount of RAM and she should be good to go go for a long while. Later on, she can swap in an SSD and get new life out of the machine.
 
All true, and of course it's her money so I'll be supportive in any case :)

I guess if I want a MBA in my life I'll just have to get one for myself.
 
Any time someone says they need a DVD drive, I ask when was the last time you used it and for what purpose. Usually, they start by saying "I use it all the time," but they cannot come up with a concrete example.

I know very few people who burn CDs because they all use iPods or similar media players.
 
From personal experience, I once convinced my wife (then girlfriend) to get a particular MacBook Pro despite it not being exactly what she wanted - all because I thought it was better. However, what I found important ignored what mattered to her. She was never happy with it and was rather frustrated.

She made it clear to me that beyond offering my input when asked, I was treating her like she was stupid. In short, if it is a machine she likes, support her purchase. Trust that she knows what she wants and has found a suitable choice.
 
DennisD7 said:
OK, so my girlfriends old white macbook died a few weeks ago, and she asked my help to find a good replacement. The obvious choice was Macbook Air 11 or 13 inch base models, since she mostly uses it for emails, twitter and spotify, and is lugging it around everywhere.

After days of careful research and weighing pro/cons she tells me it must have a DVD-player. So that settles it I guess, but it's very frustrating since the Macbook pro's are end of cycle and also wth, can we embrace the glorious future of no spinning disks please? Gah!

OK </venting>
Click to expand...

Don't know what to do? Let her pick the machine she wants?

It's quite simple, you get a list of requirements (optical drive being one of them), work out which machines meet those requirements then pick the one that you like the look/feel/whatever of.

Or rather, your girlfriend does, given she's the one buying it.

It doesn't require days of planning and research, it just requires making a list of requirements and sitting down in store to play with the couple of machines that meet them.
 
outphase said:
Any time someone says they need a DVD drive, I ask when was the last time you used it and for what purpose. Usually, they start by saying "I use it all the time," but they cannot come up with a concrete example.

I know very few people who burn CDs because they all use iPods or similar media players.
Click to expand...

Honestly most people do not need a DVD player. However, I've had many experiences where I need to use a DVD player unexpectedly. So if I bought something that didn't have a DVD player I would still tote an external one around. So for some people it is easier to have one installed in the machine itself. Anyways, I'm all for DIY upgrades..
 
She is the one using the machine, let her get what she wants lol.

+1 to go show her the models in store to persuade her, but at the end of the day...its her laptop.
 
Just had to respond.

My daughter just bought a 13 inch MBP with the optical drive. She will be able to get Parallel and Windows free from her college. Some of her Engineering software is Windows only. And even some of her textbooks only offer tutorials on the included optical disk in the back of the book. No online downloads. For her, it was the right choice for right now.

Maybe in a couple of years she will give it to Dad. She is pulling in over 5K a month as a summer intern with a major corporation. She will have a Master's when she graduates. She will be able to afford the latest and greatest.

Regarding optical disc. It is not as dead as many think. Not every place in the huge geographical area of the United States has broadband, not every city has the huge amount of money to spend on server farms.

Blue prints, in my case for fire alarm installations are still sent to many cities in hard copy. Hard copies must be maintained in the building where the system is installed. Of course the cities have been keeping a hard copy too. But space is at a premium and just today another city informed me that plans must also be delivered on optical disk.
That may sound archaic to many but file cabinets to store optical discs of plans are cheaper than servers that use electricity for budget strapped municipalities.

Not every person, not every city is able to afford the same things as large cities that take in so much tax money that servers and broadband costs aren't even noticed.
 
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G4er? said:
Just had to respond.

My daughter just bought a 13 inch MBP with the optical drive. She will be able to get Parallel and Windows free from her college. Some of her Engineering software is Windows only. And even some of her textbooks only offer tutorials on the included optical disk in the back of the book. No online downloads. For her, it was the right choice for right now.
Click to expand...

+1 for this

As much as college students like to think that class materials move with the times, they don't always. Having an optical drive can come in handy.

That said, I can't honestly remember the last time I used mine. Maybe a few months ago when I was watching a DVD in my room. Since moving out of campus housing in 2011, I've had a tv and a DVD player, so I've used my optical drive less often for movies. I've also been downloading more than buying disc media.

Take her to the store and let her look at what's out there. I was looking at a cMBP a little while back when I thought mine was going to die, but since it's fine I will probably wait and see what comes out in the future. While the cMBP is a solid, reliable machine in terms of form factor, it's been around a while. I personally don't like the Air so I would never buy one. The retina pros need to have the kinks worked out before I would get one.
 
DennisD7 said:
OK, so my girlfriends old white macbook died a few weeks ago, and she asked my help to find a good replacement. The obvious choice was Macbook Air 11 or 13 inch base models, since she mostly uses it for emails, twitter and spotify, and is lugging it around everywhere.

After days of careful research and weighing pro/cons she tells me it must have a DVD-player. So that settles it I guess, but it's very frustrating since the Macbook pro's are end of cycle and also wth, can we embrace the glorious future of no spinning disks please? Gah!

OK </venting>
Click to expand...

I'm not going to read the faux nerd comments below the OP but here it goes. While it means nothing to you I've been married to a German woman for 9 years if you don't know they can be more than a bit tough to get along with.
Spell out the benefits of all the machines first price independent, then whe price comes up let her know the whats in her price range, she'll remember what the benefits of each are. When she picks be supportive whether it's what you'd pick or not. After almost a decade I let my wife decide what she wants to spend on something and give her her options in that price bracket. When she decides I buy that specific thing in down to the color. The women in our lives tend to be more responsible than we are, let her play and decide it's hers and she has to like it advice or not.
 
No matter how much some of you dislike or supposedly "never used" used an optical drive - the technology will be out there for a long, long time to come. Everything has a function, not everyone uses things in the same way or has to just go with the trends. I still use an optical drive and I still have fully functioning CD-Rs and DVD-Rs filled with important files since 1995. People are still exchanging discs and making mix cassette tapes (GASP) the horror, that technology is still around (GASP)!
 
G4er? said:
Just had to respond.

My daughter just bought a 13 inch MBP with the optical drive. She will be able to get Parallel and Windows free from her college. Some of her Engineering software is Windows only. And even some of her textbooks only offer tutorials on the included optical disk in the back of the book. No online downloads. For her, it was the right choice for right now.

Maybe in a couple of years she will give it to Dad. She is pulling in over 5K a month as a summer intern with a major corporation. She will have a Master's when she graduates. She will be able to afford the latest and greatest.

Regarding optical disc. It is not as dead as many think. Not every place in the huge geographical area of the United States has broadband, not every city has the huge amount of money to spend on server farms.

Blue prints, in my case for fire alarm installations are still sent to many cities in hard copy. Hard copies must be maintained in the building where the system is installed. Of course the cities have been keeping a hard copy too. But space is at a premium and just today another city informed me that plans must also be delivered on optical disk.
That may sound archaic to many but file cabinets to store optical discs of plans are cheaper than servers that use electricity for budget strapped municipalities.

Not every person, not every city is able to afford the same things as large cities that take in so much tax money that servers and broadband costs aren't even noticed.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Not everybody sucks up the marketing slop that Apple occasionally spews out. Because Apple sells digital media that somehow translates to optical is not useful anymore.

Want quality music? Buy a CD and do a lossless rip. The music sounds better and the cost of an album is about the same. The only thing it is not is instant.

And true, a lot of Windows software comes via disk.
 
scottsjack said:
Exactly. Not everybody sucks up the marketing slop that Apple occasionally spews out. Because Apple sells digital media that somehow translates to optical is not useful anymore.

Want quality music? Buy a CD and do a lossless rip. The music sounds better and the cost of an album is about the same. The only thing it is not is instant.

And true, a lot of Windows software comes via disk.
Click to expand...
I haven't had made or used a single CD in over 8 years besides installing Ubuntu Server cause it doesn't like playing nice with the USB creator. Sorry, CDs are pointless. We have the internet and people like you hold back forcing ISPs to actually provide a decent internet here in the US.
 
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