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Has anyone bought a MacBook Pro and regretted it?
- Thread starter airplaneman
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Not yet. I have owned my new 15" MBP for less than a week. it's still the best laptop I have ever owned, and it damn well had better be, for the $$$$ laid out for it.
I will regret this one when the next phenomenal refresh to the hardware comes along, in all probability. The next one will probably do things like convert urine to diesel, ozone to oxygen, and politicians into floor-stools.
Then I'll regret it....
I will regret this one when the next phenomenal refresh to the hardware comes along, in all probability. The next one will probably do things like convert urine to diesel, ozone to oxygen, and politicians into floor-stools.
Then I'll regret it....
I do not regret buying my MBP one bit.
3 months ago I bought a 13" unibody MB. I had it for all of a week before I decided that running Photoshop, InDesign etc. on it would annoy me when I knew I could have just upgraded to the 15" MBP. Not to mention, the display quality on the MBP is noticeably superior to the MB.
3 months ago I bought a 13" unibody MB. I had it for all of a week before I decided that running Photoshop, InDesign etc. on it would annoy me when I knew I could have just upgraded to the 15" MBP. Not to mention, the display quality on the MBP is noticeably superior to the MB.
When looking at the machines in the Best Buy ad that have similar specs for half the price, yeah.
I felt that way, once upon a time.
Take this for what it's worth, but don't confuse advertisements with research. Also, any computer system is greater than the sum of its parts: it all has to work together. Try OSX (on a Mac: yes, it makes a difference), get to know it, then compare that experience to Windows. You may still prefer Windows on a cheap laptop -- if so, great for you, best wishes.
However, given that you offer in comparison an ad from Best Buy touting the virtues of cheap laptops, I suspect you don't own a Mac at all, let alone an MBP...? Making your statement basically tantamount to picking a fight.
My late '06 17" MBP purchase gave me a pang of regret when the new Nvidia upgraded model rolled out less than a month later in June of '07....
But then, over time, it became apparent that the 8600 gpu's are ticking time-bomb's and I am now completely ecstatic that I got mine when I did. It was/is my first Mac after being on PC's for 10 years. Led me to also picking up a quad-core Mac Pro.
I have some slight regret about buying my late '08 15" upgraded MBP from the Apple refurb store last month for $1449...because I'm having a hard time justifying the need for two laptops. But I do appreciate the real estate of the 17" screen a lot more now that I've been able to compare it with the 15" back-to-back-to-back-to-back whenever I feel like it.
But then, over time, it became apparent that the 8600 gpu's are ticking time-bomb's and I am now completely ecstatic that I got mine when I did. It was/is my first Mac after being on PC's for 10 years. Led me to also picking up a quad-core Mac Pro.
I have some slight regret about buying my late '08 15" upgraded MBP from the Apple refurb store last month for $1449...because I'm having a hard time justifying the need for two laptops.
But I do appreciate the real estate of the 17" screen a lot more now that I've been able to compare it with the 15" back-to-back-to-back-to-back whenever I feel like it. so he offers a one line remark, exactly what the OP was asking for, even with a smiley at the end, and that's picking a fight?
it never ceases to amaze me the thin skin of some people on this site.
i like my MBP, but i wouldn't buy it again if i could go back. the fact is that you can get similar performance (better, in some cases) for FAR less money. how is that picking a fight?
I regretted buying mine for the missing first keystroke between cells.
But I have been giving a used macbook and it does the same thing so it must be OSX hopefully snow leopard fixes this.
I am looking at buying a new 13" MBP now
But I have been giving a used macbook and it does the same thing so it must be OSX hopefully snow leopard fixes this.
I am looking at buying a new 13" MBP now
Your question proves the point... it is not only easy, it is almost guaranteed, to start a fight with any comment, point, or question, in these forums.
*ahem* Isn't your riposte a self-referential example of that?... Lest I be again misunderstood ->
[QUOTE}
i like my MBP, but i wouldn't buy it again if i could go back. the fact is that you can get similar performance (better, in some cases) for FAR less money. how is that picking a fight?[/QUOTE]
Religion, Sports, Politics... and Mac-vs-PC. Some things just create arguments.... As I said to pjmburg, if that works for you, then great, good on you, best of luck. I disagree. I base my disagreement on my personal experiences over the decades. I've owned a lot of Windows (and DOS and OS/2 and Linux and so on) machines. I've owned two Macs. Of all the OSs I've ever used, I prefer OSX by a large margin. That's *my* personal preference.
The hardware spec war has been fought ad nauseum, and I'm not interested in another skirmish. I feel I get more than twice the value, so to me, it's worth twice the price, at least. YMMV and best of luck.
I actually just purchased a 17" MBP so I can't comment on anything yet other than being a bit overwhelmed by the cost (I've never made this large a computer purchase). But I can honestly say I don't feel bad about the price like people would have you believe.
I just specced out a similar Dell 16" with just about all the same features as the MBP 17" I just ordered and the cost was $2k. After what I assume I can sell my free touch for and the student discount, the net cost of the 17" will be about $2275. I'm gladly willing to pay the premium for the extra screen size, physical size/weight, one battery that's as good as 2 of the Dells, OSX, and much better quality.
If I have any regrets after I will follow-up, but I'm stoked for delivery this week.
I just specced out a similar Dell 16" with just about all the same features as the MBP 17" I just ordered and the cost was $2k. After what I assume I can sell my free touch for and the student discount, the net cost of the 17" will be about $2275. I'm gladly willing to pay the premium for the extra screen size, physical size/weight, one battery that's as good as 2 of the Dells, OSX, and much better quality.
If I have any regrets after I will follow-up, but I'm stoked for delivery this week.
I've had so many combos of Macbook, MBP, Powerbook, and MBA over the past five years...at this point I don't think I could ever go back to a Wintel system as my primary laptop.
Just went from a 13" UMB to a 15" UMBP. "Had" to upgrade because one of my employees needed a replacement for their iBook and I decided to get a new MBP and "hand me down" my old system.
Only two possible regrets:
First, the size difference, I'm not flying very much at the moment but back when I was the 13" is much better on an airplane tray/table.
Second: the GPU. It seems like they could have streamlined the process of enabling / disabling the 9600 - it's a bit of a pain should I decide to enable the 9600, so for the moment I'm just running on the 9400 almost all the time.
Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied so far.
Just went from a 13" UMB to a 15" UMBP. "Had" to upgrade because one of my employees needed a replacement for their iBook and I decided to get a new MBP and "hand me down" my old system.
Only two possible regrets:
First, the size difference, I'm not flying very much at the moment but back when I was the 13" is much better on an airplane tray/table.
Second: the GPU. It seems like they could have streamlined the process of enabling / disabling the 9600 - it's a bit of a pain should I decide to enable the 9600, so for the moment I'm just running on the 9400 almost all the time.
Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied so far.
i bought a brand new MBP in september 2007 for $2700. 2.4 ghz, santa rosa chipset, 2GB of ram that i personally upgraded to 4 (another $100 from newegg at the time), 256MB 8600M GT.
i took my roommate to best buy two weeks later, after finding a deal (fatwallet) on a gateway m-6862 for $350 plus tax. 2.2 GHz instead of my 2.4, but it came with 4GB of ram stock (at a faster speed than my pc-5300), and a discrete ATI video card with 512mb of RAM (more than my 256, although the benefits of 256mb ram in a notebook graphics card are obviously negligible). the point being that his laptop offered 92% of the cpu power, twice the ram, twice the video ram, at about 1/7th the price.
i am better off than him financially, and apple had my SR MBP replaced with my current 1st gen unibody in oct 2008 (five repairs in a 3 month span), but i ask myself all the time... would i be better off with an extra $2500 and his perfectly decent laptop?
yes. yes i would.
os x is nice, but there's a reason everything "just works" (even though it sometimes DOESN'T "just work")... it's completely closed. only runs well on apple's particular hardware. windows has its issues, but most of those stem from the fact that 99% of the hardware/software on there is developed to run with/on a windows machine. of course os x is consistently more stable for a novice user... there are 10% of the drivers to worry about! 10% of the software! therefore 10% of the bugs, 10% of the issues, etc etc.
i hate not being able to play games if i'd like to. i hate not being able to upgrade anything but RAM or HDD, i hate not being able to throw together a custom barebones setup and use the OS X programs i've paid for. i hate that the OS X Finder truly, truly sucks.
all that being said, i'm not saying i don't enjoy my MBP. ive finally gotten my MBP to the point where i can genuinely say i love it, but i loved my windows notebook just as much before i got this one. my original SR MBP crapped out OVER and OVER again, and kernel panic after kernel panic, and there wasn't a single thing i could do to fix it. cpu/video card/wireless adapter soldered onto the "logic board" (seriously? it's isn't a motherboard or mainboard?), hard disk replacement in pre-unibody MBP voiding warranty; things like that are completely ridiculous.
all i'm trying to say is that it's a nice machine, but OS X's advantages are overrated, and its weaknesses are underrated. especially on sites like this.
and for me at least, it's definitely not worth an 800% price premium over a similar machine. and YES, those deals can be found. maybe you don't think they can, but that's only because most of you live in an apple-centric world. go read slickdeals or fatwallet, and you can consistently find brand new notebooks and desktops for 1/5th the price of a similarly equipped new macbook/pro.
the gateway m-6862 deal was legendary even on slickdeals, happens maybe once a year like that, but it never really happens at all on the apple side. but if you know where to look, you can get a windows notebook for nothing over half the price of a mac notebook ANY day of the year.
it is a valid question considering the number of headaches posted on here. one would assume in light of the complaints that, at some point, folks may feel like opting for another computer brand might have been a better choice. come on, there are so many factors to consider which makes it a valid thread - cost, headaches that happen again and again, technicalities with Applecare, QC problems...the list goes on and on. leave the OP be.
i don't regret buying my MBP but if it were a bit cheaper (i bought mine for 1499 with academic discount included), i'd be happier because i could have used the cash for other things. overall my late 2008 MBP has been a trooper.
No regrets, or at least, not yet. I've only had my 15" 2.66-GHz MBP for a couple of weeks, but I'm still amazed at what I can throw at this and have it take it in stride. I've been running two VM's under Fusion, one running Windows XP (because I have to run some tools that are Windows-only) and one running Linux (CentOS 5) with a 300+ GB MaxDB database that is stored on an external FW800-connected 500-GB drive. I'm running apps simultaneously under OS X, XP and Linux -- at near-native speed. I now have a portable development system that replaces three physical machines -- and outperforms them for the most part.
If/when the prices of 4-GB DDR3 sticks come down I'll upgrade to 8 GB. Once the prices of SSDs come down, I'll put one of those in. I'll have a screamin' machine, and the 9600M GT option should keep the graphics performance acceptable for a long time to come.
When I chose this machine, I fully expected to use it for 4-5 years. It's early days, but I've yet so see anything that even hints that won't be the case.
If/when the prices of 4-GB DDR3 sticks come down I'll upgrade to 8 GB. Once the prices of SSDs come down, I'll put one of those in. I'll have a screamin' machine, and the 9600M GT option should keep the graphics performance acceptable for a long time to come.
When I chose this machine, I fully expected to use it for 4-5 years. It's early days, but I've yet so see anything that even hints that won't be the case.
Maybe??
This is a tough question. I don't know if regret is the correct word, however, after selling all my other Macs and my Sony, I am somewhat disappointed that this uMBP doesn't do as well with my games as my Sony. I really wanted to eliminate carrying two computers (Mac for work and Sony for fun) and even sacrificed my Bluray capabilities on the Sony in order to get the uMBP.
This 2.8 uMBP (refurb prior version with expresscard slot, currently populated with 21 in one card reader) is perfect for my job. With an external monitor I am able to access all the Mac and Windows Applications I need from a single machine. Since I sometimes work 10-12 hour days this machine helps me be more productive. For work, a Mac is my only solution. With all the replacements and re-imaging my co-workers endure on their Windows laptops I can't imagine using anything other than a Mac at work.
However, at play, it is another matter. Playing games works just fine on the nvidia 9600-based uMBP (Sony had ATI HD3650) but the Mac is sooo much louder. The fans are on full blast the moment you load the game. Add to that, the lack of 1080p (Sony was 16" FW model with 1080p) and Bluray and I miss the Sony when I'm not working. I've considered getting a inexpensive gaming PC for home, however, I travel so much I don't see this as a viable solution. I'm also running out of bootcamp space as I install more games (even though I have a 500GB 7200 Seagate) because I give OS X the majority of the space.
I really like the single laptop concept, but I'm thinking for me, it may not work. I may buy another Sony FW this fall (now with ATI 4650) or the as yet unreleased MSI GT725 replacement with the ATI 4850. Either way, another 6-7 lbs. to carry when I travel just to enjoy a bit of fun on the road.
So maybe just a little regret...
Cheers,
This is a tough question. I don't know if regret is the correct word, however, after selling all my other Macs and my Sony, I am somewhat disappointed that this uMBP doesn't do as well with my games as my Sony. I really wanted to eliminate carrying two computers (Mac for work and Sony for fun) and even sacrificed my Bluray capabilities on the Sony in order to get the uMBP.
This 2.8 uMBP (refurb prior version with expresscard slot, currently populated with 21 in one card reader) is perfect for my job. With an external monitor I am able to access all the Mac and Windows Applications I need from a single machine. Since I sometimes work 10-12 hour days this machine helps me be more productive. For work, a Mac is my only solution. With all the replacements and re-imaging my co-workers endure on their Windows laptops I can't imagine using anything other than a Mac at work.
However, at play, it is another matter. Playing games works just fine on the nvidia 9600-based uMBP (Sony had ATI HD3650) but the Mac is sooo much louder. The fans are on full blast the moment you load the game. Add to that, the lack of 1080p (Sony was 16" FW model with 1080p) and Bluray and I miss the Sony when I'm not working. I've considered getting a inexpensive gaming PC for home, however, I travel so much I don't see this as a viable solution. I'm also running out of bootcamp space as I install more games (even though I have a 500GB 7200 Seagate) because I give OS X the majority of the space.
I really like the single laptop concept, but I'm thinking for me, it may not work. I may buy another Sony FW this fall (now with ATI 4650) or the as yet unreleased MSI GT725 replacement with the ATI 4850. Either way, another 6-7 lbs. to carry when I travel just to enjoy a bit of fun on the road.
So maybe just a little regret...
Cheers,
I bought my "early 08" mbp on the day that the first unibodies were released. Because of that I got it very cheaply at around 1300 euros, which was barely more expensive than the macbooks.
I've had zero issues with it (in contrast with my previous macbook which had every possible problem) and enjoy using it every day.
If I had spent 2000 euros on it, the normal price when it was released, I might have regretted it, since I think that's too much money for what i need in a laptop.
I've had zero issues with it (in contrast with my previous macbook which had every possible problem) and enjoy using it every day.
If I had spent 2000 euros on it, the normal price when it was released, I might have regretted it, since I think that's too much money for what i need in a laptop.
I have no preference between Mac OS X and Windows Vista/7, and in use, I still need Windows for my uses, so without Bootcamp or VMware, I would need to go Windows.
Currently, besides the Macbook Pro 15" (June 2009) and the Macbook (October 2008), I have a Fujitsu T2010. I also have a pair of Windows desktops (one workstation and one HTPC).
The Macbook Pro 15" is the best available notebook for my needs, and it is down to the trackpad and the battery life and the overall processing power (CPU, GPU and fast RAM). The size and weight are acceptable. The trackpad is the first I have used that I do not hate. If they made a USB version to plug in to a desktop, I would have it. It is fabulous for me.
The screen could be better. The screen could be matte. There could be ExpressCard. There could be another USB port. The Mini DisplayPort could pass audio and could play nice with Dual-Link DVI.
Overall, I am happy with it. I knew going in what I did not love about it.
Meanwhile, my wife has a strong aversion to Mac OS X. She does not like it one bit. She spends most of her time in PowerPoint, Excel and Word, so that is understandable. She occupies the majority of the Fujitsu's use.
At the end of the day, it is just a computer. Figure out what you NEED, then get your hands on a couple and figure out what fits you best.
Currently, besides the Macbook Pro 15" (June 2009) and the Macbook (October 2008), I have a Fujitsu T2010. I also have a pair of Windows desktops (one workstation and one HTPC).
The Macbook Pro 15" is the best available notebook for my needs, and it is down to the trackpad and the battery life and the overall processing power (CPU, GPU and fast RAM). The size and weight are acceptable. The trackpad is the first I have used that I do not hate. If they made a USB version to plug in to a desktop, I would have it. It is fabulous for me.
The screen could be better. The screen could be matte. There could be ExpressCard. There could be another USB port. The Mini DisplayPort could pass audio and could play nice with Dual-Link DVI.
Overall, I am happy with it. I knew going in what I did not love about it.
Meanwhile, my wife has a strong aversion to Mac OS X. She does not like it one bit. She spends most of her time in PowerPoint, Excel and Word, so that is understandable. She occupies the majority of the Fujitsu's use.
At the end of the day, it is just a computer. Figure out what you NEED, then get your hands on a couple and figure out what fits you best.
This screams "I should become a hackintosh genius!"
i7 920, GA EX58-UD5, EVGA GTX 275, Corsair 750-TX, Corsair Dominator 6 GB @ 1600, WD Caviar Black 1 TB, and an Antec 300: $8 less than base line MBP 13"
Time to hack OS X into working on this rig: I dunno, all together, a few hours?
(all prices in Canadian dollars, quoting Newegg.ca + Bestbuy.ca)
/wet dream of a poor teenager.
So it looks like those who regret it didnt do any research before buying. They thought, "hey look, its a mac, i think il buy it and not learn anything about it first"
its another opinion thread, there needs to be an opinion section to this forum. Where run on threads can be separate from constructive threads where problems are solved.