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

ehabs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 25, 2008
3
0
I am getting ready to go to college and have never had a mac before, but really want to get one for college. I probably have like $3000 to spend on a computer over the next four years or so. I am wondering if it would be better to get a killer MacBook Pro now or if it would be better to get a decent MacBook now and another MacBook in a couple of years? Thanks a lot!
 
You'd be spending the same amount of money if you get a couple of MacBooks. Why not just get the Pro. As usual, a forum search is probably in order here as this question has been asked on average of once a day it seems. My advice though, get the Pro.
 
Thanks a lot guys. I was sort of thinking that a macbook in a couple of years will be better then a macbook pro is now. I guess I was wrong.:)
 
Sorry to be the dissenting opinion but my MacBook is more than enough for me and I would worry about such a valuable machine getting stolen or broken. My $0.02
 
I have both. The Pro is worth the extra money as an all around desktop replacement type laptop. I like that the speakers are better, the graphics card is powerful, hooking up to a 30 inch screen, Firewire 800 is very fast and I depend on it for making FW800 to FW800 backups. I like the LED display and the keyboard is much better than any keyboard I have ever used. And you can pick your display if you didn't want to have glossy. (I don't mind glossy though.). Keyboard lights are cool and the standard 15 inch display is the perfect size to do real work and not weight much more than the Macbook.

The Macbook is almost as fast and more portable and I like the latch better. It feels more durable to me. It makes a better portable for my needs and I use it for Handbrake tasks when I have it at home to free up my Macbook Pro for gaming. I think it is a much better value than the iBook in it's day because it doesn't feel crippled with a slow processor, memory, or hard drive. And it is very easy to upgrade the hard drive on your own. It is the Macbook Air to me. I don't even feel it in my backpack and it doesn't take a lot of room.

If I had to be stuck with a single laptop, I would go with the Pro because it is seems to do everything in one package as a Mac with few tradeoffs. It cost more which is the biggest tradeoff. In 3 or 4 years, the Macbook will probably still not exceed the Pro on some of those features.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.