Macbook or Laptop

[ktbubster]

Low end MBP or Refurb store mbp if you can do that in the UK. Goooood deals there, and plenty of computer for you. Def would suggest mbp for photo editings and the like (specially for the extra screen space and the color accuracy of the matte screen compared to the gloss)

Cost a little more, but will last you longer.

Don't get a dell. Dell has horrendous customer service (from all my friends who have/had dells) and don't work all that week cept for the first year (also from many first hand reports on this) not to mention, Vista uses over half a gig of ram BY ITSELF who knows how much processor it sucks up. While the specs may be similar the mac will be using less of the power to run it's system and won't get begging viruses etc... and photoshop runs much nicer on the mac os. Graphics/photoediting = Mac. Period.

I do all that stuff on my macbook pro listed on my sig and it handles it BEAUTIFULLY.

 

[NtotheIzoo]

Most people on here are biased, me too.

What I will say is if you are perfectly happy with Windows then by all means stick with it.

However, if you are thinking about a Mac then try before you buy. Find out about any differences and see what you do or don't like.

I totally agree.

 

[Roba]

The MacBook is not yet using the SR chip or the 3100 graphic card. If you could hang on you could probably get yourself a better deal if you waited until Apple updated the MacBooks.
There are companies such as IBM who are using the 3100 graphic card and the SR chip in their consumer notebooks.
If you don't care about the 3100 or the SR chip though then buy a MB now.

 

[elppa]

The MacBook is not yet using the SR chip or the 3100 graphic card. If you could hang on you could probably get yourself a better deal if you waited until Apple updated the MacBooks.
There are companies such as IBM who are using the 3100 graphic card and the SR chip in their consumer notebooks.
If you don't care about the 3100 or the SR chip though then buy a MB now.

IBM don't make consumer anything

 

[Igantius]

Just get the low end MBP. The MB is not as reliable (don't flame, just a personal opinion based on the people I know) and the MBP is just a nicer, better made, more capable computer (for MY purposes).

It's only a few hundred more, but you're keeping this thing for about 3 years, right?

I’m not going to dispute the MBP are great machines, and I do appreciate that you are basing you opinion on personal observation. However, I think it’s worth pointing out that it a reader survey that Macintouch did at the end of last year that covered about 3,000 laptops, the 17” MBP was the most reliable, then MBs and then 15” MBPs - if memory serves me right, a 15” was twice as likely to have needed to be repaired than a MB. The main cause of this was logic board problems in the 15”, which Apple did sort out.

I’m certainly not going to claim that this is the same situation now or that the Macintouch survey was 100% representative, but I think that if you trawled most forums back then, a lot of people would have said that the MBPs were inherently a far more reliable machine, though there was some evidence to the contrary

As I say, you are basing your claim on actual first-hand info and I’m not certainly going to dispute that – just wanted to add a bit to the other side.

As to the cost, unfortunately in the UK, the price differential is rather more – the price difference between the entry 15 incher and the two white MBs are $950 and $1200. It’s a bit of a moot point here, as even with the max student discount the cheapest MBP is noticeably over the OP’s intended budget.

Low end MBP or Refurb store mbp if you can do that in the UK. Goooood deals there, and plenty of computer for you. Def would suggest mbp for photo editings and the like (specially for the extra screen space and the color accuracy of the matte screen compared to the gloss)...

Re: cost see above – I don’t think the current MBPs are in the UK Apple refurb store currently. Performance in a CPU intensive app like PS is basically the same in the older MBPs and new MBs – the newer models have quite a bit more pep (due to their faster FSB and processor) (e.g. see recent barefeats test), but nothing like the extent when it comes to a GPU intensive app.

The point about the screen is well made.

 

[Roba]

IBM or Lenovo does it really matter?

IBM don't make consumer anything