Next week I'll be downgrading to the macbook from a 17" hi res mbp!

[jjahshik32]

Been a great read this thread and has answered a few of my questions without having to post, so thanks .


...the only thing holding me back buying a Macbook is the glossy display ( I just don't like it ) as I work outside a lot it would be a problem for me.... also I wonder if I would actually use the dedicated graphics on a MBP

Glossy screens are actually better outside. I've used a powerbook g4 outside and you cant see anything under the sun but with the macbook under the sun the glossy makes it easy on your eyes to see everything just fine (I guess the minor glare imo isnt that big of a deal). And they both used ccfl backlighting.

The matte version of the mbp is led and is visible now under the sun or outside but the glossy mbp of the led looks much better outside and the macbook's ccfl backlit in the sun is alot better under the sun as well.

 

[gkarris]

I have a MacBook and like the 13" - did take getting used to (compared to my 12" Thinkpad X31).

My friend's got a 12" Powerbook, he'll be ready once the Aluminum MacBooks come out (he's not much into the plastic - his Wife has one).

 

[jjahshik32]

I have a MacBook and like the 13" - did take getting used to (compared to my 12" Thinkpad X31).

My friend's got a 12" Powerbook, he'll be ready once the Aluminum MacBooks come out (he's not much into the plastic - his Wife has one).

I love the aluminum of the mbp.. but I like plastic as well its more durable and with the $1199 price tag with same performance as the $2000 + mbp I can just lug it around without much worries and use the hell out of it!

 

[marbles]

Glossy screens are actually better outside. I've used a powerbook g4 outside and you cant see anything under the sun but with the macbook under the sun the glossy makes it easy on your eyes to see everything just fine (I guess the minor glare imo isnt that big of a deal). And they both used ccfl backlighting.

The matte version of the mbp is led and is visible now under the sun or outside but the glossy mbp of the led looks much better outside and the macbook's ccfl backlit in the sun is alot better under the sun as well.

thanks for the info

I had a first gen macbook which had the glossy ... I couldn't use it outside at all really , I suppose every one is different but for me it's a no go ....

The dilemma I have just now is to get the MBP with matte or wait and see if Macbook gets a matte option when they get upgraded ...just don't know if I need the graphics etc in the pro machine though ... arrgghh decisions decisions ... I've never been good at making those .But with what I've just learned about the LED from you I may just get the pro when it go's refurb

 

[jjahshik32]

thanks for the info

I had a first gen macbook which had the glossy ... I couldn't use it outside at all really , I suppose every one is different but for me it's a no go ....

The dilemma I have just now is to get the MBP with matte or wait and see if Macbook gets a matte option when they get upgraded ...just don't know if I need the graphics etc in the pro machine though ... arrgghh decisions decisions ... I've never been good at making those .But with what I've just learned about the LED from you I may just get the pro when it go's refurb

If using your notebook outside is critical or really important to you (and it does sound like it is) yea I would go for the macbook pro as the led backlighting either matte or glossy makes viewing the screen in any condition awesome. I remember when I first bought the 15" led backlit mbp I was amazed at how clear it was outside with the sun here in Texas at 100 degrees shining right down to the 15" led screen in my friends car and it was very clear and easy to use!

I love the macbook but I cant wait for the Nehalem to upgrade to the 15" mbp! But I'm hoping and probably will the nehalem macbooks will adopt the led screen of the mba (I loved the mba's led screen) then I would buy the macbooks.

 

[marbles]

If using your notebook outside is critical or really important to you (and it does sound like it is) yea I would go for the macbook pro as the led backlighting either matte or glossy makes viewing the screen in any condition awesome. I remember when I first bought the 15" led backlit mbp I was amazed at how clear it was outside with the sun here in Texas at 100 degrees shining right down to the 15" led screen in my friends car and it was very clear and easy to use!

I love the macbook but I cant wait for the Nehalem to upgrade to the 15" mbp!

Nehalem yeah ...I'll be doing the upgrade shuffle when that comes along (rev B of course
)


yeah it is important to me to be able to see the screen outdoor , I compose music( well try too) with Logic and prefer to do that outside by a river or in the woods etc ... more chilled and relaxed that way for me .

Just dunno if the extra £$£$ the MBP commands justifies it though , I reckon the Macbook would suffice for me ( then again I'm hearing horror stories ) ... arrgghh what to do , what to do ????

 

[jjahshik32]

Nehalem yeah ...I'll be doing the upgrade shuffle when that comes along (rev B of course
)


yeah it is important to me to be able to see the screen outdoor , I compose music( well try too) with Logic and prefer to do that outside by a river or in the woods etc ... more chilled and relaxed that way for me .

Just dunno if the extra £$£$ the MBP commands justifies it though , I reckon the Macbook would suffice for me ( then again I'm hearing horror stories ) ... arrgghh what to do , what to do ????

1 1/2 ago I used the 1.83ghz core duo macbook outside my college campus and with the sun burning hot at 100 degrees the macbook's screen was easy to use outside. Even at 3-4 notches from off it was clear and vivid outside. I think all glossy just makes it easier to see in bright conditions and the sun acts as the glossy screens backlight.

To give you a better example, the matte led screen of the mbp made it easier to view the screen outside and it was now on par with the macbook's ccfl backlit glossy screen outside.

Here's a picture of mbp led (glossy) on the left powerbook g4 on the right (matte)

I got this off flickr.com and one of the comments someone saids I'm looking at this picture from my glossy mbp right now. But to me glossy (led or ccfl) is viewable outside but matte (only led is viewable outside).

I've owned everything so I've tested it all out before outside as well =D

 

[marbles]

1 1/2 ago I used the 1.83ghz core duo macbook outside my college campus and with the sun burning hot at 100 degrees the macbook's screen was easy to use outside. Even at 3-4 notches from off it was clear and vivid outside. I think all glossy just makes it easier to see in bright conditions and the sun acts as the glossy screens backlight.

To give you a better example, the matte led screen of the mbp made it easier to view the screen outside and it was now on par with the macbook's ccfl backlit glossy screen outside.

Here's a picture of mbp led (glossy) on the left powerbook g4 on the right (matte)

I got this off flickr.com and one of the comments someone saids I'm looking at this picture from my glossy mbp right now. But to me glossy (led or ccfl) is viewable outside but matte (only led is viewable outside).

I've owned everything so I've tested it all out before outside as well =D

different screen tech tho eh !.... if that was a pic of the current MBP and Macbooks then I'd give it cred but as is no good for me , sorry like .


thing is I used a macbook outside too and I may as well just have had a mirror infront of me , couldnt see anything on the scree unless my head was at 'just the right angle ' bit of a pain really.... just my opinion tho eh so dont flame me !!! .. some like glossy , some don't ... I'm in the don't camp at the moment unless I can be show otherwise


hope this doesn't come across as being arsy m8 ... I'm terrible at getting myself across on text alone

 

[jjahshik32]

different screen tech tho eh !.... if that was a pic of the current MBP and Macbooks then I'd give it cred but as is no good for me , sorry like .


thing is I used a macbook outside too and I may as well just have had a mirror infront of me , couldnt see anything on the scree unless my head was at 'just the right angle ' bit of a pain really.... just my opinion tho eh so dont flame me !!! .. some like glossy , some don't ... I'm in the don't camp at the moment unless I can be show otherwise


hope this doesn't come across as being arsy m8 ... I'm terrible at getting myself across on text alone

Hmm.. if you really cant work with the glossy outside then I guess your only choice is matte. But I highly doubt the macbooks will get an option for the matte screens.. as the macbook air currently is led backlighting but no options for matte either.

So I would think your only choice is a macbook pro.

 

[marbles]

Hmm.. if you really cant work with the glossy outside then I guess your only choice is matte. But I highly doubt the macbooks will get an option for the matte screens.. as the macbook air currently is led backlighting but no options for matte either.

So I would think your only choice is a macbook pro.

yeah , really can't ~ just too mirrored for me ( unless that has changed with recent revisions ?)


I hope the Macbooks come with a screen option ( I mean , why not ..MBP have it so...)
I just think the MBP is too much machine for my purposes? ( logic , serato , ableton live and a bit of video/photo editing etc ), maybe not , I dunno really , still trying to find out if I actually need the MBP or not .... there supposed to be of better quality , no ?( I have a grand UK so either machine is within reach but savings would be good , obviously )

 

[jjahshik32]

yeah , really can't ~ just too mirrored for me ( unless that has changed with recent revisions ?)


I hope the Macbooks come with a screen option ( I mean , why not ..MBP have it so...)
I just think the MBP is too much machine for my purposes? ( logic , serato , ableton live and a bit of video/photo editing etc ), maybe not , I dunno really , still trying to find out if I actually need the MBP or not .... there supposed to be of better quality , no ?( I have a grand UK so either machine is within reach but savings would be good , obviously )

Man but I still cant believe the performance I get out of the 2.4Ghz macbook.. its like feels exactly the same as the 2.5Ghz macbook pro that I had connected to my 23" ACD! And I'm just lovin the price at $1199, I know $1000 is alot of money (well at least it is to me) but its so damn cheap for what you get!

Another thing to note is that if you go to www.apple.com and on the right side it shows you the top 7 sellers I noticed that mba is #1,the macbook is #2, imac #3 and the macbook pro at #4 (pretty much last in the lineup of computers.. well only the mini is not even up there.. but if the mini gets updated I'm pretty sure it will take the imac's place).

 

[marbles]

Man but I still cant believe the performance I get out of the 2.4Ghz macbook.. its like feels exactly the same as the 2.5Ghz macbook pro that I had connected to my 23" ACD! And I'm just lovin the price at $1199, I know $1000 is alot of money (well at least it is to me) but its so damn cheap for what you get!

Another thing to note is that if you go to www.apple.com and on the right side it shows you the top 7 sellers I noticed that mba is #1,the macbook is #2, imac #3 and the macbook pro at #4 (pretty much last in the lineup of computers.. well only the mini is not even up there.. but if the mini gets updated I'm pretty sure it will take the imac's place).

... I expected the Macbook to be almost as good as the MBP, I'd use it at home connected to a decent display as well ( tiz just the outdoor bit tho ) for sure the price is bang on for what you get ( especially if you buy it state side)

as far as the mini go's .. as soon as that gets an update I'm all over it for a home desktop ....just wish they'd hurry up with that one

 

[johnsy]

I checked yesterday Mac's in Bestbuy. Surprisingly MB's in local Apple store look better, might be it has something to do with lighting? In Bestbuy it looked like crap, while MBP's were quite good. Might be also that in Apple stores they have on display LG/philips and in Bestbuy some examples of bad batch? 17" inch laptop is for certain people. I had some time ago 11 pound (charger probably weighted another 2+ pounds and battery life was only 1 hour!) beast. I can tell that it left my house just a few times. Other than that it was "one room to another" laptop. Times of course changed, there is not that much weight difference between 15" and 17" MBP laptop, but there is size difference. I think 17" is more table laptop while 15" is more lap notebook. Of course in practice you don't want to keep these notebooks on a lap. You just might forget about children after that. Might be it was your intention though?

As far as for price drop wait after upgrades, I am not on a hurry. Imac at home is so far enough for me. I manage to do some stuff with my iPod...
I can tell that I lean somehow more to MBP than MB... We will see, Apple just might "upgrade" mbp just by adding 13" lappy. Rumors might be wrong???

 

[jjahshik32]

I checked yesterday Mac's in Bestbuy. Surprisingly MB's in local Apple store look better, might be it has something to do with lighting? In Bestbuy it looked like crap, while MBP's were quite good. Might be also that in Apple stores they have on display LG/philips and in Bestbuy some examples of bad batch? 17" inch laptop is for certain people. I had some time ago 11 pound (charger probably weighted another 2+ pounds and battery life was only 1 hour!) beast. I can tell that it left my house just a few times. Other than that it was "one room to another" laptop. Times of course changed, there is not that much weight difference between 15" and 17" MBP laptop, but there is size difference. I think 17" is more table laptop while 15" is more lap notebook. Of course in practice you don't want to keep these notebooks on a lap. You just might forget about children after that. Might be it was your intention though?

As far as for price drop wait after upgrades, I am not on a hurry. Imac at home is so far enough for me. I manage to do some stuff with my iPod...
I can tell that I lean somehow more to MBP than MB... We will see, Apple just might "upgrade" mbp just by adding 13" lappy. Rumors might be wrong???

Surprisingly when I had the 17" hi res 2.6Ghz mbp, I used it on my lap for 3-4 hours with the magsafe plugged in and it was just warm at the hottest. It didnt bother me one bit and I'm anal about heat when it comes to the mbps. I have an ilap for 17",15",13". But no need for the 17" ilap.

 

[adrianjt]

with 10 office staff & dislike for ms starting from whatever came b4 windows 3.1 & 286s, i have always mulled over value when upgrading

2nd hand minis (CD 1.66), macbooks (since late07) & refurb imac alums have given me the best bang for buck ever (with max ram)


the minis for filemaker, mail, browsing etc, the imacs or macbooks (same except gpu) for design/prepress & accounts (with xp via parallels),

replaced g5 macpros, quicksilvers, g4mins,

design/prepress staff run ext ACD 20"

we prep/design for offset, digital, whatever upto A0+, sure imacs with 8gb ram & minis with 4 would be better - or a decent headless mini with gp - but mbp & macpros too expensive (mbp) & also overkill (macpro)

go the headless, pity pystar so hobbled

still faithful...

 

[Mackan]

I'm going to return my 17" hi res mbp for an exchange to the 2.4Ghz macbook to use with my 23" ACD... Man I do love that 17" hi res.. but I just cant justify the $3k price tag that I paid and even with the restock fee that's going to punch me in the face.. I'd rather have the $1550 back as the macbook can more than do everything I want it to do.

With this information given, I wonder why you bought the MPB in the first place? Do some research and careful consideration before buying expensive things, is my advice.

 

[Sesshi]

So in the end you'll finally end up with what you actually have?

 

[jjahshik32]

With this information given, I wonder why you bought the MPB in the first place? Do some research and careful consideration before buying expensive things, is my advice.

Sometimes its hard to distinguish between want/need or to find the perfect balance. I've found it with the 2.4Ghz macbook pro! =D