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Would you recommend a MacBook Pro?

MacBookPro13"

MacBookPro13"

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 25, 2011
589
0
Ireland
My current pc is a Sony Viao and the battery is running very low lately and it is getting very slow at times and shuts itself off randomly.

I am thinking of buying an Apple MacBook Pro to replace it because I really need a new computer.


I like Windows, but from the videos I have seen, Mac OS X seems to be a lot tidier and more organized. I like that in an OS. I just want something for browsing, music, email & media playback.

Do you think I should upgrade to a MacBook Pro? (Are they worth the extra money?) Is there any chance that I might hate Mac OS X and want to go back to Windows?

What size would you recommend? (I do like portablilty but I want to see the screen also)


One final question, are the refurbishments any good? I would like to get my MacBook Pro for a little bit less!


thanks
 
The Vaio could probably do with some extra RAM And a reinstall of the operating system - will speed up a lot of things for you, and might give it some life for a few months until we find out whether there is going to be a refresh of the Macbook Pro line.

I just did that to mine - a C2D CR model, moved it from 2gb to 4gb, reinstalled windows, and its great. Depends on your Vaio model and your level of PC knowhow, however...
 
I did see that. Thing is, I live in Ireland.

My Dad is going to Chicago next week, if he bought it over there would he be able to bring it home? :D

Are you able to buy online in Ireland for a delivery address in Chicago?
 
MacBookPro13";11791464 said:
Thing is, I really want a MacBook Pro but I am just afraid that I might regret it after a while. :apple:
Click to expand...

Nobody will be able to determine if you will regret it after a while
You might try using one at an Apple Store to get the feel for it
Or use a friends' MBP for a bit

The OS is different, and there things you will have to get used to

You can't cut/paste FILES in the Finder natively
You can't selectively delete files in the trash natively
You can't resize windows except from the bottom right corner

"Most" who switch love it
"Some" don't adjust well and go back

There is no way to tell which you will be
 
I would definitely recommend a MBP. They are great machines and will be more than enough power for what you do. Buy from the refurb store to save money, the refurbs are just as good as new, they just come in a different box.
 
MacDawg said:
Nobody will be able to determine if you will regret it after a while
You might try using one at an Apple Store to get the feel for it
Or use a friends' MBP for a bit

The OS is different, and there things you will have to get used to

You can't cut/paste FILES in the Finder natively
You can't selectively delete files in the trash natively
You can't resize windows except from the bottom right corner

"Most" who switch love it
"Some" don't adjust well and go back

There is no way to tell which you will be
Click to expand...

Well explained, cheers.

I am big into PC's & I think I would be excited about exploring the Mac OS having been using Windows for years.

mrkramer said:
I would definitely recommend a MBP. They are great machines and will be more than enough power for what you do. Buy from the refurb store to save money, the refurbs are just as good as new, they just come in a different box.
Click to expand...

The aluminium body on the refurbs, is that used?

(I know battery is new & other things)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
you don't really need a macbook pro tbh, the white macbook would be fine and it's cheaper too. the only plus the MBP has is the backlit keyboard and the external design.
Just a tip, the aluminium kinda "cuts" your hands if you spend a lot of time on the macbook, although most people get used to it.
If you get the white macbook and add 2 gb of ram , the price is still lower than the MBP and you have the same processor-ram-gpu, everything.
But to be honest, for your uses, 2gb of ram is fine. you can always change that if you see it's slow.
 
Well this is pretty much what I use my PC for;


Google Chrome - Browsing the internet, watching video's on YouTube & Facebook

Football Manager 2011 - (Steam works on Apple as of this year right?)

MSN - Keeping in contact with friends, family abroad and work colleagues. (Is there a Mac equivalent for WLM? & Can I do video calls with people using WLM on a PC)

Mail - Sending, receiving from desktop as opposed to the actual website. Managing work & personal email in one.

Media - Watching films, tv shows from my HD, Organising my photo's & playing music (iTunes as standard on Mac)

Microsoft Office - Word processing, spreadsheets etc.



That is pretty much all I do with my PC but I am on it quite a lot so I would like a very adequate computer as it is where I spend most of my time.



Basically, is a MacBook Pro worth the money or do I not really need it?
 
For what you want a computer for, any MacBook or MacBook pro would be great and really, better than a PC for those purposes. A Mac does browsing, music, email & media playback much easier and effortlessly than a PC. You'll find it so much more pleasant to do those things on a Mac you'll wonder why you used a PC for those things for so long. I personally keep a i3 Windows 7 laptop around to only use for business applications that don't run on a Mac, for everything else including the simple day to day things you do, I only use my MacBook.

Here are some examples to illustrate what I mean.

Browsing on a Mac: Simple, clean, fast, no worries of adware/malware/viruses, no annoyances of IE like constant security or active x popups.

Email on a Mac: Again it's simple, clean interface, fast, easier to use Mail than Outlook, which you can only get Outlook if you buy Office Pro.

Media playbac on a Mac: For things that don't run in Quicktime, I use VLC player and it works great. I find on a PC I have to do a lot of codec downloading and managing but with VLC on the Mac it plays everything.

One key of all these apps is they are integrated into the OS and with each other much better than Windows.

Another thing where Mac shines for simple and constant daily use is you don't have to shut them down, wait for startup, things to load in the background. Just close the lid and open later. You don't need to constantly shut down a Mac and when you open it, its ready for use immediately and the wifi is connected within 2-3 seconds. Try doing that with a Wintel laptop. It's sluggish at best when doing that.
 
MacBookPro13";11791577 said:
Basically, is a MacBook Pro worth the money or do I not really need it?
Click to expand...

Most of us don't NEED any of this stuff. Do you want it? That's really all that matters. You'd get on fine with either a MacBook or the base model MacBook Pro. But you can pretty much get either for $999 at this point so why not get the aluminium and backlit keyboard right?

I used PCs for years and years, and got my first Mac last April. I never have a day I regret it. I love this machine.
 
JoJoCal19 said:
Media playbac on a Mac: For things that don't run in Quicktime, I use VLC player and it works great. I find on a PC I have to do a lot of codec downloading and managing but with VLC on the Mac it plays everything.

One key of all these apps is they are integrated into the OS and with each other much better than Windows.
Click to expand...

VLC is available for windows too, and it's the same as the mac (a little less buggy tbh).

@OP. Steam was released last year for macs but not all games are available for it yet. But you can always use boot camp with a winXP or win7 partition for gaming.
 
skiltrip said:
Most of us don't NEED any of this stuff. Do you want it? That's really all that matters. You'd get on fine with either a MacBook or the base model MacBook Pro. But you can pretty much get either for $999 at this point so why not get the aluminium and backlit keyboard right?

I used PCs for years and years, and got my first Mac last April. I never have a day I regret it. I love this machine.
Click to expand...

For that price I think it is the right move. :)
 
orfeas0 said:
VLC is available for windows too, and it's the same as the mac (a little less buggy tbh).

@OP. Steam was released last year for macs but not all games are available for it yet. But you can always use boot camp with a winXP or win7 partition for gaming.
Click to expand...

Yea I know VLC is there for Windows, I find it runs flawlessly on my almost 5 year old MacBook though. Not sure why it's buggy for you :confused:

I even used it to play a 720p anime rip smoothly that ran like crap on my sisters i3 Toshiba.
 
VLC on Mac is quite neat with the horizontal scrolling. Much better than Quicktime.
The only thing one needs to get used to is that you always have to use the menu bar on top and the popup menu is quite poor. That is the Mac way. I'd say it is a less efficient way but one can get used to it.

The only thing I really miss from Windows is Word 2007 or 2010. MS Office for Mac is not the same it is like a featureless bad GUI copy that has more issues than benefits. It depends on how word savy you are if you even notice it. The people that do not notice it are usually those that wouldn't need MS Office in the first place and would do fine with Apple's iworks.
 
My high-end MBP is a total waste of money.
If I did not have the money I would be satisfied with a low-spec Ubuntu laptop.

But I love my MBP to death:
- Unbelievable build quality
- Battery life
- Suspend/Resume
- It just works
 
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The **** thing in mac VLC is that when you scroll up or down to adjust the volume (with the trackpad) , there's a big chance you will accidentaly scroll left or right too, which results in a move forwards or backwards. Really annoying.
 
MacBookPro13";11791471 said:
I did see that. Thing is, I live in Ireland.

My Dad is going to Chicago next week, if he bought it over there would he be able to bring it home? :D

Are you able to buy online in Ireland for a delivery address in Chicago?
Click to expand...

A US billing address is required to purchase anything from the US Apple store. Yours best bet is either Amazon or "fingers crossed" Ebay. They are both much cheaper and don't care if you have a US debit/credit card or not
 
MacBookPro13";11791490 said:
The aluminium body on the refurbs, is that used?

(I know battery is new & other things)
Click to expand...

It depends on if it needs to be replaced, I bought a refurb macbook air, and couldn't tell a difference from new. Basically with refurbs, they just take the computer and replace whatever needs to be replaced, so if the case is damaged it will be replaced.
 
orfeas0 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

The **** thing in mac VLC is that when you scroll up or down to adjust the volume (with the trackpad) , there's a big chance you will accidentaly scroll left or right too, which results in a move forwards or backwards. Really annoying.
Click to expand...

ha, yeah.. that does suck.. i've been trying to get used to ⌘↑ & ↓ for vlc volume but i'd rather just use the trackpad.. but then i end up doing what you're talking about.
 
if it hasn't been said before: you can buy the macbook, try out Mac OS, and if you don't like it: buy a windows 7 package (or get it free with educational bonusses ^^), boot up, hold option (alt), and format the entire drive for windows in the windows 7 installation.

Install drivers from the Snow Leopard DVD and there!
Coolest laptop with your preferred OS :)
 
Verix said:
if it hasn't been said before: you can buy the macbook, try out Mac OS, and if you don't like it: buy a windows 7 package (or get it free with educational bonusses ^^), boot up, hold option (alt), and format the entire drive for windows in the windows 7 installation.

Install drivers from the Snow Leopard DVD and there!
Coolest laptop with your preferred OS :)
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense. :)

Does Windows 7 run well on a Macbook Pro?
 
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