Kinda like the sound of this....I've been coveting the iPad cause of the cute size of it. LOL And I MISS being able to get on the web wherever- HATE HATE HATE being tied to the desk 24/7.
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Trying to decide...help a girl out!
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Kinda like the sound of this....I've been coveting the iPad cause of the cute size of it. LOL And I MISS being able to get on the web wherever- HATE HATE HATE being tied to the desk 24/7.
Kinda like the sound of this....I've been coveting the iPad cause of the cute size of it. LOL And I MISS being able to get on the web wherever- HATE HATE HATE being tied to the desk 24/7.
IMHO, you wouldn't be tied to a desk 24/7 with a "small" but powerful 13" MBP since it is portable & probably "light" enough to carry everywhere you want.
Based on your budget of $1,500, I humbly think that the best option right now (given the available choices) is a 13" base (2.4GHz) MBP. The part number, if you want to shop around online, for this MBP is MC374LL/A. The best price for that particular model brand new is $999.99 (price is before sales taxes) at MicroCenter. It will be great if you have a MicroCenter near you because they only sell them in stores.
In regards to the other part upgrades, I'll suggest that you wait & see how it goes when you've used your new MBP for a period of time. If you find that you need more memory or need more storage or a faster HDD/SSD, you can always buy those aftermarket since they're cheaper. At this point, you're probably gonna have slightly more than $400 left over after your base 13" MBP purchase, depending on how much state taxes you have to pay at your local MicroCenter store.
For about $400, there are quite a number of choices to choose from in regards to a computer monitor. Since you're doing lots of Photoshop stuff, I can be sure that most people around this forum will agree with me that you'll probably want to go for an IPS monitor, instead of those cheap TN monitors. For the best bang of the buck as of today, I'll like to suggest the Dell U2311H UltraSharp 23-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Display, which can be had for about $279 (price is before sales taxes). It is an IPS panel with a high enough resolution of 1920 x 1080, which will be fantastic for photoshop activities.
With the purchase of an external display, you'll definitely want to go ahead & purchase an Apple Wireless Keyboard. As for the mouse, you may want to consider the Apple Magic Trackpad, the Apple Magic Mouse, or even a wireless mouse made by another company such as the Razer Orochi Bluetooth mouse. That is going to make it easier & more convenient for you to work on your MBP when it is hooked up to your external monitor.
You might also want to consider buying a few not too expensive but useful accessories such as a notebook sleeve for your new "baby", the display adapter/cable to connect your MBP to the monitor (buy this from a third party company such as MonoPrice), & so on.
The above are just my suggestions.
I'm sure fellow members will be able to give you better advise & suggestions. Good luck.
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Kinda like the sound of this....I've been coveting the iPad cause of the cute size of it. LOL And I MISS being able to get on the web wherever- HATE HATE HATE being tied to the desk 24/7.
Exactly how I felt. I would have loved to get the iMac with it's great 21" display and better specs, but it's soooo nice being able to take a full powered machine around with you. I think the 13" MBP with an external monitor is the way to go. Remember to get a wireless keyboard and mouse as well, I got my apple bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo on eBay for $90.
Whatever you decide though I'm sure you'll love it, enjoy your mac when you get it! You won't go back.
Kinda like the sound of this....I've been coveting the iPad cause of the cute size of it. LOL And I MISS being able to get on the web wherever- HATE HATE HATE being tied to the desk 24/7.
If you can wait, they may bump up the 13 inch from it's two year old tech soon enough so that you can benefit from the extra processing power. 15 inch isn't all that much heavier/burdensome than the 13 inch...
If it were me, I would either wait if I could or get the 15"
I have all three and I must say I do not use the MBP at all unless I'm traveling on business. The iMac and iPad are all I need for e-mail, web and reviewing the occasional word or excel doc. I also have all my books and music + netflix on the iPad. I prefer the iMac for it's speed and performance and with the refurb 21.5 and refurb iPads on sale you can get close to the $1500.
$1019
Refurbished iMac 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 processor
21.5-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
500GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera
$429 Special Limited Time Price
Refurbished iPad, 16GB Wi-Fi
16GB flash drive capacity
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
9.7-inch widescreen display
Multi-Touch screen
1.5 pounds and 0.5 inch
Total $1448 before taxes.
For me, in all situations when I need a full computer the MBP 13 is slower than my iMac and just does't feel as responsive. Perhaps the i5 and i7 MBPs are faster or additional RAM would help. If I had to get rid of the MBP or the iPad. The MBP would go.
Cheers,
$1019
Refurbished iMac 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 processor
21.5-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
500GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera
$429 Special Limited Time Price
Refurbished iPad, 16GB Wi-Fi
16GB flash drive capacity
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
9.7-inch widescreen display
Multi-Touch screen
1.5 pounds and 0.5 inch
Total $1448 before taxes.
For me, in all situations when I need a full computer the MBP 13 is slower than my iMac and just does't feel as responsive. Perhaps the i5 and i7 MBPs are faster or additional RAM would help. If I had to get rid of the MBP or the iPad. The MBP would go.
Cheers,
Kinda like the sound of this....I've been coveting the iPad cause of the cute size of it. LOL And I MISS being able to get on the web wherever- HATE HATE HATE being tied to the desk 24/7.
Get a MacbookPro. The bold statement above says it all.
I would highly recommend that you get a 15" MBP.
MacConnection currently has the base model (i5 2.4Ghx 4GB 320B) for $1599 after rebate.
If you can hold out until the new MBPs are released... well, let's not go there.
It's PLENTY powerful enough to do what you need. (I run CS4 on a base model '08 MBP as my primary computer, runs "just fine," but will be upgrading on the next update).
OR get a used one. You'd be fine with a '08 for your needs (just get 4GB RAM).
My main point is that you'll greatly appreciate the larger 15" screen. And it looks better on a resume.
MacConnection currently has the base model (i5 2.4Ghx 4GB 320B) for $1599 after rebate.
If you can hold out until the new MBPs are released... well, let's not go there.
It's PLENTY powerful enough to do what you need. (I run CS4 on a base model '08 MBP as my primary computer, runs "just fine," but will be upgrading on the next update).
OR get a used one. You'd be fine with a '08 for your needs (just get 4GB RAM).
My main point is that you'll greatly appreciate the larger 15" screen. And it looks better on a resume.
15" MBP (add more ram on your own) and a quality monitor will let you do most anything. That's what I use - see signature
IMHO, you wouldn't be tied to a desk 24/7 with a "small" but powerful 13" MBP since it is portable & probably "light" enough to carry everywhere you want.
Based on your budget of $1,500, I humbly think that the best option right now (given the available choices) is a 13" base (2.4GHz) MBP. The part number, if you want to shop around online, for this MBP is MC374LL/A. The best price for that particular model brand new is $999.99 (price is before sales taxes) at MicroCenter. It will be great if you have a MicroCenter near you because they only sell them in stores.
In regards to the other part upgrades, I'll suggest that you wait & see how it goes when you've used your new MBP for a period of time. If you find that you need more memory or need more storage or a faster HDD/SSD, you can always buy those aftermarket since they're cheaper. At this point, you're probably gonna have slightly more than $400 left over after your base 13" MBP purchase, depending on how much state taxes you have to pay at your local MicroCenter store.
For about $400, there are quite a number of choices to choose from in regards to a computer monitor. Since you're doing lots of Photoshop stuff, I can be sure that most people around this forum will agree with me that you'll probably want to go for an IPS monitor, instead of those cheap TN monitors. For the best bang of the buck as of today, I'll like to suggest the Dell U2311H UltraSharp 23-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Display, which can be had for about $279 (price is before sales taxes). It is an IPS panel with a high enough resolution of 1920 x 1080, which will be fantastic for photoshop activities.
With the purchase of an external display, you'll definitely want to go ahead & purchase an Apple Wireless Keyboard. As for the mouse, you may want to consider the Apple Magic Trackpad, the Apple Magic Mouse, or even a wireless mouse made by another company such as the Razer Orochi Bluetooth mouse. That is going to make it easier & more convenient for you to work on your MBP when it is hooked up to your external monitor.
You might also want to consider buying a few not too expensive but useful accessories such as a notebook sleeve for your new "baby", the display adapter/cable to connect your MBP to the monitor (buy this from a third party company such as MonoPrice), & so on.
The above are just my suggestions.
Ill add to this, the Magic Mouse SUCKS. Most uncomfortable thing I have ever touched, returned it and bought the Razer Orochi and it is GREAT. Feels awesome, works awesome in bluetooth and I have no complaints except it seems to delete macros if they screw up. Also tried a Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet, very difficult for me to use...your experience may differ.
OK I am trying to decide whether to get:
an iMac & an iPad
OR
a Macbook Pro
I am in art school. My dearly beloved almost 7 year old HP laptop has DIED. I do Photoshop work, lots of photos, stuff like that.
What say ye, Apple fans?
If you only do Photoshop work at home, a 27 iMac + iPad would be my choice.
I already ue a bamboo and I LOVE it....took some getting used to and is most certainly NOT a mouse replacement, but for working in photoshop it's fabulous.
Are there normally this many replies to such a broad question (laptop, desktop or tablet)?
Everyone has an opinion and many of us like to express them.
Cheers,
Expressing opinions is a primary reason that any message board exists, I just noticed that there have been other similar threads* started with very little input.
I'm not complaining, I come to these forums for the express purpose of reading opinions (Just starting out with my very first Mac laptop, actually the very first laptop I have owned** so I am looking for as much opinion from Mac users as I can get!) just wondering if anyone else is thinking along the same lines as I am.
* I'm not talking about the dozens and dozens of "Should I get a MBP now or wait for a new one to be release later" threads I understand why those would go ignored.
** I have used and will continue to use many Windows based laptops and desktop computer. I setup and maintain a lot of them for my job, I will still have the Dell that my work provided me, but will not be using it very much now I am so sick of Windows!
I'm not complaining, I come to these forums for the express purpose of reading opinions (Just starting out with my very first Mac laptop, actually the very first laptop I have owned**
so I am looking for as much opinion from Mac users as I can get!) just wondering if anyone else is thinking along the same lines as I am.* I'm not talking about the dozens and dozens of "Should I get a MBP now or wait for a new one to be release later" threads I understand why those would go ignored.
** I have used and will continue to use many Windows based laptops and desktop computer. I setup and maintain a lot of them for my job, I will still have the Dell that my work provided me, but will not be using it very much now
I am so sick of Windows!Are there normally this many replies to such a broad question (laptop, desktop or tablet)?
Only if the OP is female.
iPad + iMac
I have a MacBook Pro and most of the stuff I do on it is Mail and all the things the iPad can do already. The productivity is done on my Desktop.
In such cases the iPad is way more enjoyable device because it's way lighter and more portable
I have a MacBook Pro and most of the stuff I do on it is Mail and all the things the iPad can do already. The productivity is done on my Desktop.
In such cases the iPad is way more enjoyable device because it's way lighter and more portable
I knew someone else noticed that.Oh, I didn't put my opinion out there:
- If you could only have one of the three (iMac, MacBook Pro, or iPad) I would go with the MacBook Pro as it's the best of both worlds (Portable but still a "real computer" the iPad is wonderful and magical, but it's still limited when compared to a Mac.)
- You could get a base 13" MBP and a base 16GB Wifi iPad for your budget of $1500 (if you find one or both on sale, SPEEDwithJJ mentioned the $999 13" MBP at Micro Center)
- I am guessing you could also do a base iMac (21.5-inch: 3.06GHz, which retails at the same price as a 13" MBP, so I'm sure it can be found for $999) and iPad if you need more power at the same price and don't mind leaving the full Mac experience at home (no Photoshop on the go)
If you don't mind eating your whole budget with 2 devices iMac + iPad makes more sense since only one is portable.
Ok, perhaps the "Help a Girl out" title helped with the responses.
Cheers,
You guys are cracking me up about the GIRL thing!!
I've never heard of MicroCenter...what is that?
I've never heard of MicroCenter...what is that?
OK I am trying to decide whether to get:
an iMac & an iPad
a Macbook Pro
I am in art school. My dearly beloved almost 7 year old HP laptop has DIED. I do Photoshop work, lots of photos, stuff like that.
What say ye, Apple fans?
If you are doing photoshop, an iPad is definitely out of the question. I would definitely get myself an iMac (if i want to edit photos @ home) or Macbook Pro 15 inch (for portability), or you you can get both systems.
I am a photographer, I have both Imac 27 inch and MBP 15 inch. I use the Imac when im home editing photos & i use the MBP if i'm out in the field.
I hope this thread helps you out.
This also depends on a person's budget.