Hi, I'm new to the forums but have read posts here now and again in the past, so I hope I have posted in the correct place.
I am considering purchasing a MacBook pro. This would be my first Mac product, I have used other iOS Apple products before and currently own an iPhone 5s and an iPad 3rd gen.
As part of my job I design leaflets and posters so use Adobe InDesign, Photoshop most days and occasionally Illustrator. There can also be the occasional sound and (simple) video editing. I'm also a photographer so would use Photoshop and Lightroom quite a bit outside of work too.
My current laptop is a 2009 (I think) Sony Vaio VPCF11C5E. When I got it I bought the customised version with a HD screen and bluray burner. It's a fairly big and heavy machine, I think it was intended to be used as a desktop replacement, so is not very portable to carry backwards and forwards to work everyday. It has started to struggle recently, it can take a while to boot up fully, and updates seem to take forever. It will sometimes refuse to turn on unless I turn it over so it's upside down for a bit. Some functions of photoshop can take a while as the laptop is not that powerful any more.
After having a photography exhibition at the beginning of 2016 I realised just how unsuited my Sony laptop is now. I bought a Spyder datacolor to try to improve the reliability of what I saw on screen compared to when I printed the photos but I found the colourspace was something like 70%.
I had decided that my next laptop would be a MacBook, but I thought there wasn't point buying one then as updates were way overdue. Having waited until the 2016 Model was announced, I was a little bit disappointed with the price increase. Even though I am able to afford to purchase a new laptop outright I had thought of buying one on a salary sacrifice scheme but the UK Government are killing these type of schemes. So now with the current 0% financing option offered by Apple I am considering taking the plunge.
I am considering upgrading the 15" base model to 2.9GHz, 1TB and the Radeon 460, so that it would be more capable of coping with anything I might want to throw at it. If possible I would like to try a few games on it, nothing too graphics intensive though, things like Motorsport Manager, Simcity, and maybe Kerball if that would run.
I have looking at Windows alternatives such as the Dell XPS or Surfacebook (although the latter is only 13") but they don't seem to have that many advantages, not even that much of a price advantage for a similar spec machine. So I'm asking people's thoughts and experiences of similar usage. Thanks in advance.
I am considering purchasing a MacBook pro. This would be my first Mac product, I have used other iOS Apple products before and currently own an iPhone 5s and an iPad 3rd gen.
As part of my job I design leaflets and posters so use Adobe InDesign, Photoshop most days and occasionally Illustrator. There can also be the occasional sound and (simple) video editing. I'm also a photographer so would use Photoshop and Lightroom quite a bit outside of work too.
My current laptop is a 2009 (I think) Sony Vaio VPCF11C5E. When I got it I bought the customised version with a HD screen and bluray burner. It's a fairly big and heavy machine, I think it was intended to be used as a desktop replacement, so is not very portable to carry backwards and forwards to work everyday. It has started to struggle recently, it can take a while to boot up fully, and updates seem to take forever. It will sometimes refuse to turn on unless I turn it over so it's upside down for a bit. Some functions of photoshop can take a while as the laptop is not that powerful any more.
After having a photography exhibition at the beginning of 2016 I realised just how unsuited my Sony laptop is now. I bought a Spyder datacolor to try to improve the reliability of what I saw on screen compared to when I printed the photos but I found the colourspace was something like 70%.
I had decided that my next laptop would be a MacBook, but I thought there wasn't point buying one then as updates were way overdue. Having waited until the 2016 Model was announced, I was a little bit disappointed with the price increase. Even though I am able to afford to purchase a new laptop outright I had thought of buying one on a salary sacrifice scheme but the UK Government are killing these type of schemes. So now with the current 0% financing option offered by Apple I am considering taking the plunge.
I am considering upgrading the 15" base model to 2.9GHz, 1TB and the Radeon 460, so that it would be more capable of coping with anything I might want to throw at it. If possible I would like to try a few games on it, nothing too graphics intensive though, things like Motorsport Manager, Simcity, and maybe Kerball if that would run.
I have looking at Windows alternatives such as the Dell XPS or Surfacebook (although the latter is only 13") but they don't seem to have that many advantages, not even that much of a price advantage for a similar spec machine. So I'm asking people's thoughts and experiences of similar usage. Thanks in advance.