Well to be blunt you don't
need to do video editing on the go.
Most of us don't spend time sipping some "branded" and expensive coffee when putting together the next blockbuster together in a cafe. If you spend a lot of time in uni just chuck an extra iMac there, if you don't have your own office there then obviously you are not that important (yet)
, the only decent Macbook Pro that has a nice screen is the 17", and woah that thing is huge and costs the same as a Mac Pro!
I travel the country, go to rock concerts, film the band on and off stage, and make monthly video diaries for them. It'd be nice to be able to edit them on-the-go as it's hard to do them with this nuisance the people around me like to call "high school."
I own the 15" MacBook Pro (2.33 Ghz, 2 Gig Ram) and would suggest this unit over the MacBook for video editing, since I use it for video editing as well.
Here's my thoughts:
1) MacBook Pro's 15" screen beats the MacBook's 13" screen, especially for viewing the timeline of FCE. Otherwise you'll spend time scrolling over the time line continuously.
I was thinking about it and comparing them on the Apple store, and instead of looking at diagonal screen length, I looked at pixel count, and the MBP 15" has the same number of pixels as my 17" iMac G5.
The MacBook's pixel count is slightly less. I might be going to the Apple Store tomorrow, and I'll compare them.
2) MacBook Pro's matte screen (which is a buyer's choice) is easier on the eyes than the glossy screen of the MacBook. The glossy screen which is great for watching DVD's has too much saturation in the colors, in my opinion for really doing serious digital editing.
I don't mind it that much, either, for basic tasks, although I've never edited video on a demo unit. Again, I'll take note of it tomorrow.
3) MacBook Pro's Firewire 800 is great for working with an external harddrive. MacBook only has Firewire 400.
I guess that's nice, but all of my video peripherals are FW400, and I'd like to work on the videos on-the-go, and then save them to an external hard disk and finish them on the G5. Unless if I can find another external hard disk that's both 400 and 800, (I have some FW400 FireLites) this isn't really an advantage for me.
4) I'd also max out the processor to the 2.33 Ghz in lieu of the slower MacBook's 2.0 Ghz.
Good point. Of course, any of these intel macs can surely blow my G5 out of the water.
5) MacBook Pro does not require a DVI adapter to plug into my external 20" Apple Cinema Display, which means its one less item to lug around.
I'm clueless when it comes to using an external display. This summer, my sisters wanted to watch a DVD on our DVD-less upstairs media room (because there were "mice" in the basement....where our DVD player is) and I tried figuring out how to hook up my sister's 12" PowerBook up to it, and I couldn't figure that out. It'd be really useful if I could maybe be able to hook up my future laptop to A/V inputs (you know, those yellow, white, and red plugs) because I know all of our TV's have those. It's nothing necessary, but it'd be nice to be able to show my family my latest project on our 52" rear projection TV without burning a DVD.
6) MacBook Pro 15" is not much larger or heavier than the smaller MacBook 13", so the effort to carry it around is about the same. The MacBook Pro 17" however is much more computer to carry around, and is not as portable.
I was getting close to buying an iBook about two years ago, but I went with the iMac G5 instead. I didn't realise this at the time, but a widescreen display is really great for editing video. Had Apple not converted the iBook into the widescreen MacBook, the choice would be pretty clear. Either size, the 13" or 15", is fine with me. My brother has a 15" PowerBook G4 (last revision ever) and I really like the size of it. However, I don't understand why he needs a PowerBook/MacBookPro when all he does with his mac is surf the web and use iTunes when I'm working with FinalCutExpress.
I really like the 15" display over the 13", but that's hard to justify for the $400-500 difference in price. It's also hard to invest so much in another compuer knowing what sort of a good computer I have now, which I mostly paid for.
The MacBook does have its faults, too. The glossy screen did bother me, but I haven't spent much time with it. Plus, I hope that they will have an option for a matte screen by the time I'm ready to buy. I also am wondering if 13" will be enough for FCE. And while the Core 2 Duo can definitely blow my G5 out of the water, it would be nice to have an extra 160 MHz.
I'm still torn, but I'm definitely not buying until at least Leopard comes out. I'm also expecting another revision from each line sometime in the next 6 months or so, so I have time. Plus, I'm still saving.
It's fun to fantasize about my future portable mac, though.
