New macbook or blackbook? Advice please!

[jen24689]

I was waiting for months for yday's macbook announcement certain that i would order one straight away to replace my dying ibook g4, but now that they've arrived I'm just confused

My main hesitations with the new macbook are the loss of firewire and the apparent lack of processor upgrade. tbh i never use the firewire at the mo, but i wanted to buy a video camera soon.. will not having the f/w limit the type of camera i can buy?

Another thing is that i live in Thailand which does not have a mac store yet, only resellers, so if i choose the new macbook i will have to wait at least 2 months for them to arrive here. They have the blackbooks in stock now retailing at $1650 inc. 4GB memory upgrade, and now that the new ones are out I will be able to negotiate a discount as well (the price is equivalent to nearly 1 year av. salary here, so they dont sell well and they want to shift old stock).

So my question is, should I just get the blackbook while i still can or hang on for the new one? OR do i wait til xmas when my friend comes over from the states and get her to bring me a refurb. from Apple? My budget is $1600 and i want a mac that i will be happy with for 2/3 years, just dont want to buy the new macbook and down the line go 'dammit i need that firewire' or whatever. Now that they've taken the blackbook off the apple site i cant compare the specs anymore, so any advice is very much appreciated!

 

[disco2000]

Refurbed Macbook Pro for $1349. Hallelujah, all your problems are solved.

 

[Project7]

Currency?

Can I ask, when you say that your limit is 1,600 dollars, do you mean US Dollars or Thai Baht?
I know this is a stupid question, but I just have to ask because, if Thai Baht, I hope I'm not the only person to notice the huge difference in exhange rate.

I live in Australia, $1000 for me would be almost $24,000 for Thailanders.

I could get a whole lot of MacBooks

Cheers,
P7.

 

[jen24689]

lol no, unfortunately I was talking about US dollars. The black macbook here is 50,000 Baht, or 56,000 with the memory upgrade. I believe that this makes it similar in price or a bit cheaper to the States and much much cheaper than the UK where i am originally from. Oh yeah, plus you get an extra tourist tax refund of 7% so actually the price still isnt bad.

To disco2000, yes it seems that the logical thing to do is wait til xmas and get a refurb from america, but the problem is that when i say my ibook is dying, i mean its REALLY dying My '9,O,L' and arrow keys dont work and the space bar is now on its way, meaning i have to type using the on-screen keyboard viewer which is a COMPLETE MISSSSIONNN. Oh and the battery lasts around 20 seconds, which is a problem because I live on a tiny island running off generators which switch on and off randomly, meaning that if i dont run to my computer in time when the power goes the whole thing switches off!

So i suppose my question was really if the new macbook is technically much better than the blackbook? Yes it has some cool features like the trackpad and it let's face it, it's cool to have the newest toy, but in the end i want the computer with the better value. If it turns out the new one is better I can fly down to singapore or hong kong to get it rather than wait for them to arrive here, but obviously its more convenient to get it in Thailand.

What i really want to know is if the lack of firewire will be a problem when i try to get a video cam next year... I really dont know ANYTHING about cameras but my bf is a diver and wants to start making underwater videos so i need to know if not having it will be a problem.. if it helps I think we will most likely get a Sony handycam.

 

[McBeats]

id definitely go for the new macbook

 

[The Hammer]

The new MacBooks are more expensive aren't they? I'm told that previously Apple introduced improvements but held the line on price.

 

[Batt]

Blackbook.

 

[ptjh]

You can get a USB > FW cable which will be fine if your not demanding pro performance from you laptop. If it's a years wages, unless you earn 5-10x the average don't buy anything from apple lol!

The new MB offers much better graphics and build quality as well as a better creen. If your into video you'll probably want this, but by the same token, you'll also want a FW port. Stupid apple! I know let's make graphics better and not allow anyone to use them by removing all useful ports...genius.