Trying to Decide the MacBook for Me

[youradhere4222]

I'm torn.

Recently, I've gotten my first Mac - an iMac, in fact. It's fantastic, but I still find myself using my two-year-old piece of **** Dell XPS laptop more, purely because of convenience.

I just turned 15, so I figured a couple of months of minimum wage would get me enough money to purchase a 2.2 GHz MacBook. (opinions on this, too! )

The MacBook Pro is a bit too expensive, and I don't need that much space. Because I take a laptop to debate tournaments, I need something to carry around, and since the lowest model has the same specs as the 2.2 GHz MacBook (besides memory, but I don't need that), I've decided on the MacBook. The MacBook Air is also ruled out. Too expensive, and it has less power than it's $700 cheaper counter-part!

Any comments on the MacBook? How's the battery life, is it as fast as a 20" iMac?

My Dell laptop is plan horrible. As of now, it's missing five keys, the mouse pad goes crazy when you touch it, and the left-click button is pressed in, so you're not actually pressing anything down...

One more thing. My Dell is barely considered a "light-laptop" weighing just under 6 pounds. How heavy is the MacBook? Is it difficult to lug around?

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

What sort of applications are you planning on running?
I love my macbook, it does everything I need (final Cut express and light computer tinkering). It has 2GB of ram and a 120GB hard drive, but I plan to add a 320GB hard drive as externals are making my portable a desktop.

If you don't care about the inherit drawbacks of being a laptop instead of a desktop, then I'm sure you'll be happy with a macbook. However I strongly recommend going to an apple store or a best buy to play with their macbooks.

 

[ayeying]

I'm torn.

Recently, I've gotten my first Mac - an iMac, in fact. It's fantastic, but I still find myself using my two-year-old piece of **** Dell XPS laptop more, purely because of convenience.

I just turned 15, so I figured a couple of months of minimum wage would get me enough money to purchase a 2.2 GHz MacBook. (opinions on this, too! )

The MacBook Pro is a bit too expensive, and I don't need that much space. Because I take a laptop to debate tournaments, I need something to carry around, and since the lowest model has the same specs as the 2.2 GHz MacBook (besides memory, but I don't need that), I've decided on the MacBook. The MacBook Air is also ruled out. Too expensive, and it has less power than it's $700 cheaper counter-part!

Any comments on the MacBook? How's the battery life, is it as fast as a 20" iMac?

My Dell laptop is plan horrible. As of now, it's missing five keys, the mouse pad goes crazy when you touch it, and the left-click button is pressed in, so you're not actually pressing anything down...

One more thing. My Dell is barely considered a "light-laptop" weighing just under 6 pounds. How heavy is the MacBook? Is it difficult to lug around?

I find my macbook to be FASTER then my dad's 24" iMac (2.4ghz, 2gb, 320gb hdd, ati 2600xt). Probably due to the memory but I'm not sure. The Macbook is light, easy to carry around. It is 5 lbs, so unless you have weak arms, it shouldn't be a problem

 

[letswastetime]

I got a middle range macbook about 8 months ago for college and i love it. definitely suggest it. i had a gateway desktop before and after getting a mac i will never go back.

my 2.16 is very fast and i suggest buying the lowest ram and then upgrading with third party ram. the battery life is pretty good, better than any of my friends with pc notebooks for sure. probably about 3-4 hours at most.

 

[heatmiser]

Any comments on the MacBook? How's the battery life, is it as fast as a 20" iMac?

Expect 3-4 hours of battery life. Speed is comparable to other core 2 duo machines; you won't notice it either way for most stuff (browsing, music, movies, etc.).

One more thing. My Dell is barely considered a "light-laptop" weighing just under 6 pounds. How heavy is the MacBook? Is it difficult to lug around?

Current models are a pound lighter. Not hard to move about. As letswastetime said, upgrade the memory yourself (you can buy 2 gig sticks for $40 @ Newegg), and you'll increase performance dramatically over the standard 1 gig.