Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is it worth it to switch?

V

vinnie63

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 13, 2011
6
0
This is my first time on this forum. Here's my Mac story. I used to have a 15" macbook pro, 2.53 ghz, 4 gb ram and 300 gig harddrive. I LOVED that machine to bits, though it was well out of my pricerange. It was a gift from my parents as I went away for university. While there, my screen developed a large black bar down the middle, and the screen was defective, and Apple was going to charge me 700 dollars for the part alone, not including shipping, taxes, and labour to replace the screen. I sold the broken machine for parts, and for the 800 dollars I would have spent on a repair, I purchased a Gateway 15.6" 16:9 HD LED Screen, Intel Core i5 430, 8gb RAM and a 640 gb HD.....head and shoulders above my old macbook.

however, I find myself lusting over the new MBPs, and now, even though I can indeed afford it, I have trouble justifying spending 12-16 hundred dollars on a new laptop that, specs wise, is inferior to my current one. User OS experience, trackpad, and battery life is what I miss the most, but is that enough?

note: As a student, I use my laptop extensively, though, aside from the occasional Civilization 5 marathon and movie encoding to play it on my ps3, the most intensive activities for me include listening to music while surfing the internet and typing documents while running a virus scan.

Thanks.
 
The current MBP's perform very well and have the latest Intel processors and chipsets. Build quality is night and day compared to Gateway. Check out the 15" MBP.
 
Battery life, size, feel, and OS X are very good reasons for me. I think the quality and experience of the mbp is hands down above what else is out there.

With my mbp I feel like the computer works for me, not the other way around. I realize you had a bad experience with a display (which is the most expensive part to repair on any laptop) but I don't think that's typical. If you can, I highly recommend giving it another shot. If you're still disappointed a second time, then you'll know it's not for you. :)
 
thanks!

another thing that's got me thinking, spending this large amount of money for lower specs, will the lower MBP specs actually make a difference? Will I even notice one without photo and video editing? Will I notice it at all? Will the MBP be faster with lower specs because of the OS and overall user interface and touchpad?
 
Which specs are lower? If you are choosing one of the newer MBPs that specs will probably blow away the Gateway as the new MBPs are Sandy Bridge and the Gateway isn't. You need to include the specs of the machine(s) that you are interested in so we can give and honest and comparative evaluation rather than draw conclusions based on what we think you have in mind (for the price you are talking I would guess it is either a new 13" MBP or a Refurb from the Apple store and that makes a huge difference in specs).


Oooh,I forgot all about the airs and yes they will be slower in spec, but faster in i/o activites due to the SSD.
 
Last edited:
vinnie63 said:
thanks!

another thing that's got me thinking, spending this large amount of money for lower specs, will the lower MBP specs actually make a difference? Will I even notice one without photo and video editing? Will I notice it at all? Will the MBP be faster with lower specs because of the OS and overall user interface and touchpad?
Click to expand...

Since I don't edit video or photo I can't speak to the ability of the lower end Mbps to do it. I'm sure they are quite capable but I'll let others to speak to it.

For me, the difference has always come down to what I need. I prefer a 15" screen because it's quite versatile. However, if you travel frequently and don't want an air, then the 13" might be good. It all depends in your needs.
 
i was thinking a 13"MBP, either the i5 4gb 320 gb or the i7 4gb 500gb....for what I use my laptop for, the price of the 15" and up can not be justified.
 
Both of those processors will trounce the processor you currently have, and they might even have a faster bus line speed as well (which means faster Ram as well). The specs aren't as low as you make it out to be.
 
I love my 13 mbp. I had been hauling around a Dell with a 15 inch screen. The 13 is just more convenient in carrying and footprint in crowed places like a classroom or library
 
Honestly I was in your boat somewhat. Initially I wanted the Air, but once I got to the store and noticed how expensive they all were I shopped about for a bit. I looked at the procs, the ram, the hdd space and video cards utilized in each.

At the end though, having been a pc guy all my life, I KNOW what that experience is like, I've never had a MacBook and I once managed to see one unboxed. To my amazement everything worked right off the bat, nothing to configure or drivers or firmware to initialize...It just worked.

That to me alone was truly in the end the reason to spend so much. I bought the 13 inch MBPro and I use it only for myself in a household with 6 other windows machines. I was right, I just unboxed it and it autoconfigured itself to my network and server, I just input my password and presto.

I know how much others pay ME to figure this stuff out, so in the end I actually feel so much better. BTW I have the base 13 inch 2011 model, and this thing screams power wise.

Best of luck regarding your decision.
 
Yes, the money is worth it. Nothing else compares. Truthfully, you could find a used Macbook Pro on ebay that would still be better than your Gateway if you wanted to save money.

Gateway vs. Macbook Pro doesn't even seem like a fair comparison...no matter what the specs are.
 
The new 13s are faster than your current machine by quite a bit, so they're not inferior at all. I have the i7 and it is a monster. Love it.
 
Buy it if you can afford it , you will sure enjoy the nice piece of machine.

Save up if you really want 1 but not able to afford one now.
 
vinnie63 said:
i was thinking a 13"MBP, either the i5 4gb 320 gb or the i7 4gb 500gb....for what I use my laptop for, the price of the 15" and up can not be justified.
Click to expand...

Seeing as you loved your previous MBP and can afford a new one, I say either of the 13" MBP's you mentioned would be a great choice.
 
vinnie63 said:
This is my first time on this forum. Here's my Mac story. I used to have a 15" macbook pro, 2.53 ghz, 4 gb ram and 300 gig harddrive. I LOVED that machine to bits, though it was well out of my pricerange. It was a gift from my parents as I went away for university. While there, my screen developed a large black bar down the middle, and the screen was defective, and Apple was going to charge me 700 dollars for the part alone, not including shipping, taxes, and labour to replace the screen. I sold the broken machine for parts, and for the 800 dollars I would have spent on a repair, I purchased a Gateway 15.6" 16:9 HD LED Screen, Intel Core i5 430, 8gb RAM and a 640 gb HD.....head and shoulders above my old macbook.

however, I find myself lusting over the new MBPs, and now, even though I can indeed afford it, I have trouble justifying spending 12-16 hundred dollars on a new laptop that, specs wise, is inferior to my current one. User OS experience, trackpad, and battery life is what I miss the most, but is that enough?

note: As a student, I use my laptop extensively, though, aside from the occasional Civilization 5 marathon and movie encoding to play it on my ps3, the most intensive activities for me include listening to music while surfing the internet and typing documents while running a virus scan.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

the long fight about pure hardware specs in pc vs macs will never end, but i can tell you this. i feel like my old 1st gen uMB runs smoother than gateways with i5. i swear!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back