Opinions on MBP purchase....

[Hankcah]

Would like to hear some opinions or suggesitons in regards to my MBP purchase this week.
MBP 15" basic for 1699 with (student discount)
OR
MBP 13" basic WITH an iPad and save $100.

I do photography and enjoy the larger real real estate of the screen.
The looks of the 13" are nice too I feel but just dont like the HUGE bezel around the screen of 13". iPad would be nice for magazines and photos to show off and a random google search.... but then again its a 13, i dunno.

Thoughts or persuasions?
Thanks guys

 

[MacDawg]

Do you have an iPhone?

If you don't, get the 13 with the iPad
If you do, get the 15

Just my opinion, feel free to disregard it

 

[tjb1]

I have the 15" and I love it over the little 13", my old pc was ~15 or 16" and I also had a netbook that was something like 10.6? (yes I know big mistake...) and the 15" is perfect and the ipad is just an oversized ipod touch something you dont need when you have the mbp.

 

[Hellhammer]

How about 13" and external monitor? IMO 13" and iPad kinda fight against each other as they are both so portable. You could then save your money towards 2nd gen iPad if you really want one

 

[MacDawg]

How about 13" and external monitor? IMO 13" and iPad kinda fight against each other as they are both so portable. You could then save your money towards 2nd gen iPad if you really want one

This probably makes more sense
My first post was my initial gut reaction (and I love my iPad)

 

[paintballswimgu]

Just some advice. Macconnection.com has the new 15 in for $1600 and they are an apple authorized reseller. http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/PM/Brands/Apple/MacBookPro/default.htm

Plus no sales tax if your out of state. Should save around $225 depending on where you are.

 

[talkinghead]

What is the real world difference in the i5 520M and the i5 540M? Does the quad give a significant difference in performance?

 

[Hellhammer]

What is the real world difference in the i5 520M and the i5 540M? Does the quad give a significant difference in performance?

They are both dual core but they support Hyper-Threading which means that every core can process up to two threads. So, two physical cores and four threads.

The only difference between those CPUs is one frequency multiplier, i.e. 133MHz. That's about 5% difference

 

[TJones]

A MBP 13" with iPad would seem redundant to me.

Better options:
An iMac + iPad would make more sense.

An MPB 15" pretty much does everything.

So if you want a big screen and just a little bit of something portable to drag around with you or you want something portable that you can use everyday.

 

[Buck987]

I have the 15" and I love it over the little 13", my old pc was ~15 or 16" and I also had a netbook that was something like 10.6? (yes I know big mistake...) and the 15" is perfect and the ipad is just an oversized ipod touch something you dont need when you have the mbp.

No...wrong about the ipad

 

[wordoflife]

Have you seen the 13" in person?

On Apples website it looks like it has a huge bezel, but not in person.

 

[tjb1]

No...wrong about the ipad

Ok it has a few apps like iwork and other crap, but its an oversize ipod touch. Has no ports or anything and the only real advantage is it can connect to the 3g now. I would rather have an Ipod touch and a 13-15-17 mbp than a huge netbook and a macbook...

 

[halledise]

Have you seen the 13" in person?

On Apples website it looks like it has a huge bezel, but not in person.

all the Macbook range have 'huge' bezels - the only one that doesn't look like it does is the 17" and that's cos the screen's so flippin' huge