Which notebook should I buy?

[Appeltaart]

Hello, I'm new at this forum and I'll shortly tell something about myself. I'm Daniel, I'm 13 years old and I live in the Netherlands. I know that my English isn't that good so i'll try my best to spell everything correctly So here's my actual question:

I just can't choose. My current HP notebook is a kind of at the end of his life. I'm now looking a while for the Apple notebooks - and I can say: I really like them! One time I was in a store and tried both the MacBook and MacBook Air. I really liked the MacBook Air's size but because I happen to use it for much school stuff, it needs to have a acceptable HDD (or SSD, whatever.) in it. If you buy the 128GB MBA it's just much more expensive than the MacBook unibody with much better specs and much more Gigs. Like I said I really love the MacBook Air's design and it feels so fast! But I'm just wondering whether I need that more space? Am I going to feel sorry if I buy the MacBook Air?

(I hope that you guys understand my poor English :$)

 

[Young Spade]

Well what do you use the laptop for? All of Apple's notebooks are great for what they do and all have good specs, however they vary in functionality and usability depending on what you're doing.

How much are you willing to spend? And go to the Apple site and look around at the various models and tell us what you like.

 

[Apple...]

Dude, don't worry. There's nothing wrong with your English. I can understand you completely.

Anyway, you need to give us some more information. I agree with Young Spade. How much are you willing to spend? Do you really need a lot of hard drive space?

Well what do you use the laptop for? All of Apple's notebooks are great for what they do and all have good specs, however they vary in functionality and usability depending on what you're doing.

How much are you willing to spend? And go to the Apple site and look around at the various models and tell us what you like.

 

[Young Spade]

Dude, don't worry. There's nothing wrong with your English. I can understand you completely.

Anyway, you need to give us some more information. I agree with Young Spade. How much are you willing to spend? Do you really need a lot of hard drive space?

And just to provide some more input, stick with the baseline model for HDD size if you aren't doing editing or something like that where you'll need a LOT of space on board. You can always get a portable hard drive of "any" size that will be compatible with any number of systems and will ultimately be cheaper than getting a larger internal model.

 

[Appeltaart]

Okay. The notebook must to be able to run Adobe CS5 smoothly. And I'm going to do a lot of websurfing in Safari, making a lot of documents and presentations with both Office and iWork (for school I'm going to use Office and for personal use just iWork). But I wonder whether 64GB is just enough, because I need it as a primary computer. I think on one side I love the MacBook Air's weight and style but I never used it so I can't say if it's really usable as primary computer

I want to spend a thousand euros (in America its just the same I think but then in dollars) so that means the baseline of the MB/MBA. I hope you guys can give me advice which computer is best for me..?

I hope I gave enough information and if not, then just ask And o yeah: I don't think I'm going to do a lot of editing of movies but I do think that I'll do a lot of photoshopping and also iPhoto. And by the way, I really like the fast answers on this forums!

Thanks in advance

 

[Appeltaart]

Oh yeah and I have some questions: does the white MacBook get scratches easily? And that rubber bottom: I heard that sometimes when it gets too hot that it wil get a sort of bubbles or that it will come off, is that true? And also that the plastic near the magnetic latch will break - that small pieces will come off. I just want to be sure whether I buy a good notebook because I need to work at least 3 years with it. I still can't choose between MB and MBA :$

 

[R94N]

Oh yeah and I have some questions: does the white MacBook get scratches easily?

It does in a way, the plastic is kinda easy to scratch but I wouldn't worry about it, I think even the aluminium Macs suffer the same problems. You could be super careful with your computer but personally I wouldn't worry about it. It's just general use really.

And that rubber bottom: I heard that sometimes when it gets too hot that it wil get a sort of bubbles or that it will come off, is that true?

That's more to do with the battery than general overheating, from what I know at least. Batteries can expand if they get too hot or they are reaching the end of their lives, but I would say that's quite rare.

And also that the plastic near the magnetic latch will break - that small pieces will come off

I've never heard of that happening. If you take good care of it then it should be fine.

 

[Young Spade]

For the plastic bottom breaking, this happened a lot with the Older, last generation MacBooks. The ones with the single click bar under the trackpad.

I have the blackbook and my palm rest is cracked on both sides; Apple fixes it for free though. I don't think it happens much anymore with the way the notebooks are designed.

But yea the other two problems concerning bubbling are rare and scratching happens... that's just a general result of using a plastic laptop. Two of my friends always put their MacBook on a notebook or clean the table off before setting it down. I think that's a little much

 

[frunk]

I have a 2009 2.13Ghz Macbook, and it runs OpenOffice (better than iWork IMO) and the entire CS5.5 collection pretty easily. I previously had a stock setup (160GB HDD, 2GB RAM), but I saw a nice performance boost with a 500GB 7200RPM Scorpio Black and 4GB RAM.

At this point, I'd recommend a refurb Macbook Pro. If you're lucky, you'll find some of the new Sandy Bridge models for pretty cheap!

 

[Appeltaart]

I don't know if a refurbished model of the Pro is the right option because I live in The Netherlands and there they don't have refurbished models on the Apple Store. (They even don't have a Apple Retail Store, only Premium Resellers )
And I can't spend more than €1000.

I don't know for sure whether I have to get MBA11 or MB13. My feeling says MB. It just has so much advantages: more battery life (because I happen to use it for school that's handy), bigger screen (maybe handier for Photoshop and iPhoto, etc.), better specs, much and much bigger hard drive. However, there is no beautiful aluminum (or aluminium, I don't know) enclosure and it's not as light and portable. Can anybody tell me what's better for school: the better MB specs, harddrive space, battery and bigger screen or the MBA's portableness (don't know if that's a word ), weight and aluminum design. It really pisses me off that I can't make a choice...

Btw, thank you gJuys so much for willing to help me

 

[Young Spade]

I don't know if a refurbished model of the Pro is the right option because I live in The Netherlands and there they don't have refurbished models on the Apple Store. (They even don't have a Apple Retail Store, only Premium Resellers )
And I can't spend more than €1000.

I don't know for sure whether I have to get MBA11 or MB13. My feeling says MB. It just has so much advantages: more battery life (because I happen to use it for school that's handy), bigger screen (maybe handier for Photoshop and iPhoto, etc.), better specs, much and much bigger hard drive. However, there is no beautiful aluminum (or aluminium, I don't know) enclosure and it's not as light and portable. Can anybody tell me what's better for school: the better MB specs, harddrive space, battery and bigger screen or the MBA's portableness (don't know if that's a word ), weight and aluminum design. It really pisses me off that I can't make a choice...

Btw, thank you gJuys so much for willing to help me

Hey, that's what we're here for man; I've been here for a little bit and you can always expect helpful, informal replies from the people here

But yea, I just finished my first year at a University so I can help.

Now between the 11 Air and 13 Book, I'd go between the book. Because you're getting the baseline model, you're going to get better specs all around when going for the book. The ram is the same but the processors (2.2 over 1.x) will give you faster overall speeds. The graphics cards are great in both so you don't have to worry about that.

As for build quality? The Aluminum body will make the MBA (and because of the size) lighter and more stable if dropped. It also doesn't have a HDD (SDD in air) so the drive will be faster and better suited for taking it around. However, if you're just carrying it or putting it in a backpack (better if it's snug when in a bag) you don't have to worry about carrying around a computer with a HDD. The laptops aren't "that" heavy and anything under 5 pounds will be great. It will probably be heavy at first (depending on how many books you have in your backpack) but you'll get used to it.

Screen size makes a big difference; I find that 13 inches is the best size for me; coming from an 11 inch laptop I love the increase in size. My dad next to me is using a 15 inch laptop and it looks a little bigger; I don't know if you have any stores over there with Apple computers sitting out but if you can, find two computers that have 11 and 13 inch screens and see what you like more. 13 is great if you want portability AND you want to have an ample amount of space to see everything. Watching movies and viewing pages looks great on a 13.

All in all, if it's your only computer I'd go with the MB. You'll see a slight increase in performance depending on what you're doing (if it's what you said earlier, either will do fine though) and the battery life is great on both of them.

Oh and if you can, get the AppleCare plan thing. I don't have one myself but if something happens and you need to get something fixed (internally or externally) you get it fixed for free. Definitely worth it for that one unlucky occurrence.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask

 

[Appeltaart]

Thanks! What I'll do is go to an Apple Premium Reseller (there you can try all the Macs out ) and see which I like more. All my questions about the MB rubber and stuff are answered so I think I will go for the regular MacBook. But I'm going to take a look soon in an APR. Thanks for the help!