Mac Book Pro for Web Design/Development

[moonpixel]

Hi I would like some advice please...

I am thinking to buy the Mac Book Pro (15" or 17")
to use for my daily work (Web Design/Development)

I am spending 12 hours / day average working on computer,
but lately spending more time on the road, so a laptop might be handy.

Anyone has any advice please, working long hours on laptop ?
Are there any drawbacks comparing to the iMac (apart from the screen size).
How about security?
Back pain or sore eyes, comparing to desktop computer?
Any feedback appreciated
Thanks a lot

 

[moonpixel]

Mac Book Pro

Sorry, I just forgot to mention something, wondering if I will need to use an external HD if its possible to connect to the Mac Book Pro via USB

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Make sure that you get the matte screen, as the glossy screen distorts colors slightly. That limits you to the 15" or 17" models, and it's a $150 upgrade I believe.

 

[BrianMR]

I would MRoogle around for some of these answers. I do web development, and its one of the reasons I got a MacBook Pro. I can test from clients in OS X (obviously), Windows, and Linux all at once from the my machine (I use VMware). Not sure how you do that on any other computer.

I use the 15" screen, but I know web-devs who prefer the 17.

Security is great in my opinion. I use Little Snitch for added security, and check into WaterRoof for firewall config. In Firefox I use NoScript, great if you care about speed & security. As I am sure you know, Firefox is great for web development with plugins such as Firebug & Web Developer. Firebug is amazing. Get Little Snitch if you care about security.

You can do web development on any OS I suppose, but I think OS X is the best. I used to use Ubuntu up until 2007 which I switched. If you're doing pure .NET development, maybe Windows is best although I've seen pictures from .NET conferences which have lots of Macs on the desks.

Get an external mouse, keyboard, and screen for times when you are at your desk.

Hope this helps.

 

[harpster]

I'm also doing web design & web programming primarily would recommend the 17". The reason is simply because you can drop the resolution down to 1680 X 1050 which to me is a more comfortable resolution to design on (larger text size). I've been at the Apple store and spent a few hours really looking at the screen sizes of the 15" Hi-Res and the 17" and also looked at several of my web sites so that's probably what you should do if you can. I just felt that the screen resolution on the 15" Hi-Res and 17" made the text and website overall look smaller than I like to see and develop in. But when I change the resolution on the 17" to 1680 X 1050 is looks better to me and more to what I'm used to. So I think it would be an advantage to be able to have those two usable resolutions and more screen real estate if needed. On the 15" you can't really change the resolution and still have it look good. I'm also going to get a 23" or 24" monitor for my office to use with the 17" MacBook Pro.

 

[Fry-man22]

I'm also doing web design & web programming primarily would recommend the 17". The reason is simply because you can drop the resolution down to 1680 X 1050 which to me is a more comfortable resolution to design on (larger text size). I've been at the Apple store and spent a few hours really looking at the screen sizes of the 15" Hi-Res and the 17" and also looked at several of my web sites so that's probably what you should do if you can. I just felt that the screen resolution on the 15" Hi-Res and 17" made the text and website overall look smaller than I like to see and develop in. But when I change the resolution on the 17" to 1680 X 1050 is looks better to me and more to what I'm used to. So I think it would be an advantage to be able to have those two usable resolutions and more screen real estate if needed. On the 15" you can't really change the resolution and still have it look good. I'm also going to get a 23" or 24" monitor for my office to use with the 17" MacBook Pro.

Man - you're killing me ruining the sharpness of that 17" display @ 1680x1050...

Make your text bigger in the app or something.

 

[harpster]

Man - you're killing me ruining the sharpness of that 17" display @ 1680x1050...

Make your text bigger in the app or something.

Oh well I guess you missed the whole point of that one.. How could I be killing you anyway your not looking at my screen?

What I said is you have two decent resolutions to work with so it might be better suited for web design which is what this post is about... As far as changing all your apps to match the screen.. who want's to do that? If your using the computer primarily for text you need to decide if that native resolution will work for you or not without having to adjust everything.