Thanks to you all, yet again. Everyone has contributed extremely useful information extremely quickly and really made my choice easier.
The support here is fantastic - just something aside from actually using a mac, I really am impressed with the community on this site. It is comforting to know that when purchasing a mac, there is a place online you can post any questions to (silly or complex) and receive a good deal of informed answers, without bias. Fantastic. I don't want to come off cheesy - I just want to make it known in case someone stumbles across this thread in the same position as me. Having a supporting community is a big sell when moving to a new product, at least for me.
I've decided to pick up a Macbook Pro Retina, as stated above. I'll check out the refurbished models and if there is something there, I'll grab it. If not I'll purchase directly from a store, the best one I can find (dedicated graphics one with the 2.5ghz processor - I figured the difference between the 2.5ghz and 2.8ghz processor is negligible in real work use).
Not only that, I'll be buying two MacBooks - one for me, one for my partner who is also in need of a laptop replacement. She is coming from Windows 7, so we'll learn the new system together.
Someone mentioned that having all Apple devices improves the new OS experience (e.g. iPhone, iPad) so I'll keep that in mind. Currently using the Nexus 6, Android is better than I expected it to be so for now on that front I'll be staying. In terms of tablets, it could go either direction (Android or iOS) - save that for another day. I'll definitely keep in mind though the fact about all Mac products being designed to coexist seamlessly together. Thanks for that extra info - very useful thing to keep in mind.
Thanks again to everyone in this thread, every post has been extremely helpful.
The support here is fantastic - just something aside from actually using a mac, I really am impressed with the community on this site. It is comforting to know that when purchasing a mac, there is a place online you can post any questions to (silly or complex) and receive a good deal of informed answers, without bias. Fantastic. I don't want to come off cheesy - I just want to make it known in case someone stumbles across this thread in the same position as me. Having a supporting community is a big sell when moving to a new product, at least for me.
I've decided to pick up a Macbook Pro Retina, as stated above. I'll check out the refurbished models and if there is something there, I'll grab it. If not I'll purchase directly from a store, the best one I can find (dedicated graphics one with the 2.5ghz processor - I figured the difference between the 2.5ghz and 2.8ghz processor is negligible in real work use).
Not only that, I'll be buying two MacBooks - one for me, one for my partner who is also in need of a laptop replacement. She is coming from Windows 7, so we'll learn the new system together.
Someone mentioned that having all Apple devices improves the new OS experience (e.g. iPhone, iPad) so I'll keep that in mind. Currently using the Nexus 6, Android is better than I expected it to be so for now on that front I'll be staying. In terms of tablets, it could go either direction (Android or iOS) - save that for another day. I'll definitely keep in mind though the fact about all Mac products being designed to coexist seamlessly together. Thanks for that extra info - very useful thing to keep in mind.
Thanks again to everyone in this thread, every post has been extremely helpful.
