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What did you buy your Macbook Pro for???

G

Gincoma

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 10, 2013
286
0
I just recently joined the Apple scene by purchasing an iPhone 5 and decided to get a Macbook pro 256gb w/retina display to complement my iPhone 5 you can say.
I was laptopless for 2 years coming from a Dell 700m(it was ancient) and bit the bullet and got the top of the line laptop or so I think to browse the web, its probably overkill but I love it and never look back. So I was wondering what you guys use your laptop for or main purpose (i.e. school, photoshopping, gaming or music editing).
Im interested to know what these computers can do in a small package. Also I searched and didnt find anything on this unless Im blind. :)
 
Gincoma said:
got the top of the line laptop or so I think to browse the web, its probably overkill
Click to expand...

haha definitely correct on it being overkill.

i looked for a similar kind of thing a few months ago and found nothing so good to start it here.

i don't have one yet but waiting on entering the Mac world with a 13" retina pro when Haswell is finally released in the coming months.

going to do any uni work, internet browsing and general computing on it (to complement my 3+ year old custom PC). I don't game as I have consoles for that so it seems to fit the bill. I also aim to edit some family videos and may even take to jumping into Youtube (better late than never).
 
Gincoma said:
I just recently joined the Apple scene by purchasing an iPhone 5 and decided to get a Macbook pro 256gb w/retina display to complement my iPhone 5 you can say.
I was laptopless for 2 years coming from a Dell 700m(it was ancient) and bit the bullet and got the top of the line laptop or so I think to browse the web, its probably overkill but I love it and never look back. So I was wondering what you guys use your laptop for or main purpose (i.e. school, photoshopping, gaming or music editing).
Im interested to know what these computers can do in a small package. Also I searched and didnt find anything on this unless Im blind. :)
Click to expand...

I'm a college student, so main uses are school-related (notes, writing papers, research, etc), music and stuff for iPod and iPhone, web surfing, and watching movies. Also storing photos. I might rarely have a small project in iMovie.
 
jatinklad30 said:
haha definitely correct on it being overkill.

i looked for a similar kind of thing a few months ago and found nothing so good to start it here.

i don't have one yet but waiting on entering the Mac world with a 13" retina pro when Haswell is finally released in the coming months.

going to do any uni work, internet browsing and general computing on it (to complement my 3+ year old custom PC). I don't game as I have consoles for that so it seems to fit the bill. I also aim to edit some family videos and may even take to jumping into Youtube (better late than never).
Click to expand...

what is Haswell? Am I out of luck with not waiting???
 
Gincoma said:
what is Haswell? Am I out of luck with not waiting???
Click to expand...

Haswell is the codename for Intel's next generation processors. The MBA just got them at WWDC. They're supposed to offer similar performance to the current processors, but while using less power (which should help the battery life a bit). For the 13" rMBP we can expect it to get a jump to a way better GPU. The GPU for the 15" rMBP? Well that gets a little complicated.

For your uses, I think the current rMBP should be just fine (there are some pretty good deals on it right now).
 
EE student with rMBP 15".

  • Dual Boot for Windows programs
  • Tons of web browsing
  • Photoshop
  • 7-9 Hour battery life allows me to carry it all day on campus
  • Typical school work such as word processing and having multiple pdf's and windows open
  • Light gaming such as Starcraft 2 (on OS X) and Wine games

Edit: It's actually been a year since I purchased this laptop. The performance and reliability has left me extremely satisfied. Especially considering I came from hand me down HP laptops and desktops.
 
Last edited:
For me my MacBook Pro's are my "Life" machines. I do my Web browsing, email, IM, IRC, Video Watching, Music Listening, Server Administration (SSH/VNC/RDP etc) and Photoshop and Aperture on them.

So I think in general all my needs could be done on a MacBook Air. Buying a MBP for my usage is probably overkill. I've had my current 17" MacBook Pro for over 4 years now and I'm about to replace it with a Haswell Retina MacBook Pro whenever Apple releases them and I'm going for the max spec machine. 768GB SSD (Or 1TB if they offer that this time) highest CPU choice and 16GB of RAM. I'll probably keep that machine for between 4 to 5 years too so I don't know what my usage will be like then and since these are not upgrade friendly notebooks I'm going with the best stuff right off the bat.
 
Gincoma said:
I just recently joined the Apple scene by purchasing an iPhone 5 and decided to get a Macbook pro 256gb w/retina display to complement my iPhone 5 you can say.
I was laptopless for 2 years coming from a Dell 700m(it was ancient) and bit the bullet and got the top of the line laptop or so I think to browse the web, its probably overkill but I love it and never look back. So I was wondering what you guys use your laptop for or main purpose (i.e. school, photoshopping, gaming or music editing).
Im interested to know what these computers can do in a small package. Also I searched and didnt find anything on this unless Im blind. :)
Click to expand...

I'm a web developer who primarily works with ASP.NET, so I'm running Win7 on Parallels, with visual stuido, MSSQL, and all that lovely stuff. Two external HD displays at work, so I definitely make use of the GPU.

Also use it for image preparation with Adobe Fireworks and Photoshop - some designers give us quite bloated photoshop files so having a good CPU is seriously valuable to me.

Gaming works well on it, and of course web browsing. Great machine, only complaint is not enough RAM (8 GB is tight while running a VM and doing a lot of processing), and as always the endless desire for more processing power. Aside from that though, it's a really well-balanced machine (battery life vs CPU vs GPU vs SSD speed etc.).
 
I'm a College student in an Art Program~ So I use my laptop for Illustrator, Photoshop, Papers, I do game on here, and it's fantastic. :D I just got it a few days ago and totally in love with it. Best laptop by far.
 
I got mine for photo work artwork movies and music of course gaming too :) Who says you cant game on a MacBook Pro? The games look really really vivid awesome high detail even though its a 1440 x900 wow.
 
I gotta say... This is why tablets are overtaking computer sales.

If you ask "what are u using a computer for?", then you really don't need it.

R
 
Coming from Windows to a Mac, your use of a computer starts to change drastically. The culture is a lot different. I have been back and forth with Apple computers since the early 90's, and I finally got one in 2006. I mainly needed it for InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop.

But then you start to embrace the exclusive app scene. Everything from apps that help cool the system to apps like Bartender that help organize your menu bar. You get a little bit smarter too and start using the Calendar app and maybe a nice organizer.

When I was using Windows desktops and laptops, I was using them for instant messaging, web browsing, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver. That was pretty much it.

Now I'm like 8 years older and don't do the instant messaging thing anymore (but then no one does now either). I have an app that helps me keep track of my bank account and credit card spending, I use Scrivener for writing (and organizing it all), I have Delineato Pro for brainstorming, I've been using Evernote since 2007, and aswell as the Adobe suite, I have Autodesk's stuff too. Day One is also great too.

I bought my first MacBook Pro in 2006, to do my schoolwork. But now I do even more with it.
 
I use it mostly now for school work, a bit of browsing, maybe dabble in some photoshop/illustrator, maybe a few games here and there, and music.
 
My rMBP is my main computer--I use it everyday for anything I need a computer for--certainly a computer with far less capabilities would satisfy my needs but I love my rMBP so in the end it is the perfect choice for me. :)
 
I have a MacBook Air 11 that I take everywhere with me as my portable machine - mainly tethered to my iPhone.

Im still waiting to buy a 15" rMBP which will be my main workhorse for video editing etc - at the moment its a pain having to use my Mac Mini Server for editing as its not in the most convenient of locations as its my HTPC in the living room as well. Sold my MacBook Pro in the summer as I thought it would be available then - how wrong I was!

I try to buy max spec all the time, because I like knowing I have the best possible system which will handle everything I throw at it, as well as making it last as long as possible.
 
I'm waiting with the money already saved for my first rMBP. I'm going to get the 13" because I'm used to a 13" screen with my current MacBook and I value the portability.

I intend to use it to:
  • Work for my Manager's training course.
  • Internet browsing.
  • Light website/forum design.
  • Photoshop.
  • Light gaming (StarCraft, RTC3, Sim City)
 
Guarantee you the majority of people buying a pro are more "consumers" than "professionals". Not to say there aren't a decent amount of people who do real editing, illustration, and 3D modeling (lol at the struggle there) on their MBP's. But it is more and more common for "average consumers" to be spending higher amounts of money on laptops. Also, once apple kills off the non-retina line (either this year or next), whatever margin was going for that will be gone too, and straight into the rMBP lineup.

FYI, I am a business major at college, and this will be my first laptop bought with my own money. I plan to use it for web browsing, gaming (to whatever degree it performs at), and on occasion I'll open up photoshop to mess with some filters :)D you mad bro?)
 
A professional computer user doesn't have to be someone that does editing, illustration, and 3D modeling. That's a major misconception.

Most using computers for creative jobs yes, but not all professional users.
 
It's my everyday machine. But I just upgraded my Ram today I could run multiple OS' at once. I love messing around with linux and Windows server. I also use it for itunes, web, iphoto, imovie, garageband.
 
Recording artist.

Everything music production and also design related - heavy tasks on the only great, late 2011 - maxed out to the max 17"MBP -- yeah!
 
I have a 2012 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro. I bought it to upgrade from my 2007 polycarbonate 13" MacBook - holy **** Batman! Huge difference haha. But any who, I bought it primarily to use while I'm working on my bachelors/masters degree. I originally thought about buying the 15" retina, but I opted out because I wanted to have the ability to add more RAM and a large capacity SSD when the prices came down. Right now I'm rockin' a 2.3 quad-core i7 with 4GB of memory and 7200 RPM 750 GB HDD. Its primary uses include writing papers, listening to music, keynotes, movies, etc. It's a bit overkill for what I need, but I wanted a 15" screen and the ability to upgrade - something the retinas couldn't give me.
 
Good question

My very first PC was a Mac. That was years ago. I didn't think I'd ever get back to owning a Mac. I've had several windows desktops and laptops since then, because they are cheaper. I even convinced myself that apple products didn't live up to the hype. Then I got an iPod and I loved it. Then I got an iPhone 3GS. Then a 4S . I loved that 4s, but I traded it in for an iPhone 5. I got an ipad 2 as well, but my laptop was a windows 7 HP model.
I was happy with the hp laptop, but it took on some ad ware that really frustrated me. It was paid for and I had the ipad so I was content.

Then a few days ago I went to the appliance store that sold me the laptop. It was during my lunch break. I first started to go to another store and look at and dream about owning a MacBook Pro. To my surprise though the appliance store was now selling the Mac. Next thing I know I am a Mac owner again. It's a dream come true.

What will I use it for? I don't know, the same stuff I used my old laptop for I guess. Re-learning the Mac way of doing things is fun and challenging. I plan to fix the other laptop and use it as well. But the MacBook Pro is the top dog in my little data set up.
 
Agent-P said:
Haswell is the codename for Intel's next generation processors. The MBA just got them at WWDC. They're supposed to offer similar performance to the current processors, but while using less power (which should help the battery life a bit). For the 13" rMBP we can expect it to get a jump to a way better GPU. The GPU for the 15" rMBP? Well that gets a little complicated.

For your uses, I think the current rMBP should be just fine (there are some pretty good deals on it right now).
Click to expand...

Total newb question? What does the "r" stand for in rMBP.
Im on my MBP all the time still trying to figure out the ins and outs of the thing, I guess I had no real reason to get a Mac but I needed a laptop for general purpose but so far I love my iPhone 5 and MBP.
Im going to but iPhone 5s and sell my current 5 which is been cased since day1, but thats a different story
 
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