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Old Macbook Pro? Or Unibody Macbook?

wutisupmonSD

wutisupmonSD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2008
17
0
Hello everyone just wanted to ask some opinions about a war that's been going on in my head for a little while now.

Before the new year I'm going to be purchasing an apple laptop, but I'm not sure whether to go for the new unibody mb or the old(2.5ghz) mbp. both have their ups and downs for me, including firewire, screen size, resale value, speed, expansion, and style.
I will be using this for (possibly)video editting, animation, gaming, and regular school work.

any advice or on-hand experience would be greatly appreciated.
 
Buy the unibody unless you budget only allows for the previous MBP, which can be had for a steal. Either way you'll be happy. Which will meet your needs better?
 
I have the early2008 MBP 2.5GHZ macbook pro and just bought the unibody 2.53Ghz and theyre both awesome in many ways. Theres not MUCH difference but if you have the money, go for the unibody, resale will be higher due to better specs like the faster ddr3 memory and the faster FSB.
 
I'm thinking of buying the unibody mb 2.0 as the new mbp is completely out of my price range, but thanks for your experience with the old mbp.

and just a quick question, how do the graphics on your old mbp compare with the 9400m on the unibody?
 
Personal Opinion?

Pros-
Difference in the gfx card, onboard or discrete (Apple says 5x faster than intel)
Screen only comes in glossy, not that big of a deal
Unibody has multi-touch, one big trackpad :)
Speaker holes are slightly smaller, less gunk gets trapped in them
Solid alluminium construction, much stronger
Battery last longer
Hard Drives come bigger standard.
Lighter and thinner

Cons -
I hate the new keyboard, the gap between the keys pisses me off
I've been finding that there is a ridiculous amount of time required to charge it.

Overall I'd still go with the new unibody if you can spend that much, and absolutely buy applecare, it WILL save your butt.
 
I have just received a new unibody MBP in exchange for an early 2008 MBP which used to go in and out from the service centre.

I prefer the old one, but here is my list of pros and cons.

* Early 2008: Pros
Silent keyboard, better tactile experience
Screen: I had a matte screen (which I prefer over glossy)
Trackpad: It had a button.
Battery life. Simply great.
USB: two full-powered USB ports.
Firewire 400.
DVI exit plus DVI to VGA cable in the box.

* Early 2008: Cons
It used to run too hot even when doing simple tasks. Very annoying to use in the summer.
Keyboard layout: not so comfortable for people with big hands (but not so bad).
You could feel electricity from the area where you rest your right wrist upon.

* Unibody MBP: Pros
Keyboard layout: much easier to type if you have big hands and fingers like me.
Integrated GPU: the case never runs too hot. It does become hot when using the discrete card, but with the integrated card you never feel a hot surface.
Screen: When the illumination is correct, the screen and the colours are wonderful (much better than my previous matte screen).

* Unibody MBP: Cons
Screen: too glossy. Very annoying.
Keyboard: plastic and cheap feeling. I hope in the future they will use the same components as in the desktop aluminum keyboard (which is fantastic)
Trackpad: if you need to click (without tapping) it's ridiculously stiff and loud.
"Poor" battery life (poor compared to the old model, but it's fantastic if compared to any pc notebook). The batteries in current models are smaller than they used to be.
Substituting the battery requires too many movements and it's difficult to do on-the-fly.
Only one USB port is fully powered.
DVI and VGA cables too expensive.

Conclusion: I prefer the old version because of the screen, the trackpad and video output. If I could choose I would keep buying the old version.

thistle
 
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