Should I get a Macbook? - Hardware & Software

Should I get a Macbook? If I get one, should I wait until Lion is out and preinstalled on the machines?

No.

It would help a lot if you told us what you would use it for.

It depends what your interested in, if your looking into gaming, I would buy a PC, the selection is much better.

If you use it for internet and music and school and minor gamming than i would go with the macbook If you use it for youtube, and internet and music and itunes and alot of gamming I would get the Macbook pro... _______ If you will use it for ALOT of gamming and want to customize the parts, get a PC.

[QUOTE=Xriderx11;31165340]If you use it for internet and music and school and minor gamming than i would go with the macbook If you use it for youtube, and internet and music and itunes and alot of gamming I would get the Macbook pro... _______ If you will use it for ALOT of gamming and want to customize the parts, get a PC.[/QUOTE] what's a "gamming"?

No

I have a Vaio worth $300 now that easily trumps the entry-level MBP in specs. Even Hackintoshed it and it ran as well as my friend's MBP, which is the cheapest one. Not worth it IMO, you'd be better off getting a Windows PC for almost anything.

Unless you absolutely have to use Final Cut Pro or any applications specific to OS X, your money is best saved purchasing a PC.

[QUOTE=spacedooky;31167638]Unless you absolutely have to use Final Cut Pro or any applications specific to OS X, your money is best saved purchasing a PC.[/QUOTE] This. Get it if you need one or more Mac-specific programs urgently. Otherwise, your money is wasted (in my opinion, of course).

Yeah, the problem is that the cheapest Macbook is $1000 and you can get a better computer for way less than that. If you ARE just going to do internet and music and school things, don't get a Macbook unless you have no clue what you're doing and you really want one.

Get a MacBook.

Basically I'd say the general rule is - if you don't need specific mac only applications don't bother with a mac. As there are widows laptops that perform just as well for a lot less. (or better for a lot less) Though a lot depends on the region you live in of course. The price discrepancy is a bit less in the US than in europe for example.

Alternately if you want the novelty of Mac OS just get one of the laptops that almost work flawlessly with Mac OS (Intel processor, generally Intel onboard video works, and anything but a Intel 3495ABG wireless chip) should run a Hackintosh almost flawlessly with Chameleon.

Wait for the Sandy Bridge refresh of the Macbook Airs next week. Same price, but so much more portable, and with Sandy Bridge, very powerful (for the size)

[QUOTE=Dr Egg;31177273]Wait for the Sandy Bridge refresh of the Macbook Airs next week. Same price, but so much more portable, and with Sandy Bridge, very powerful (for the size)[/QUOTE] Or just get a sandybridge Windows laptop that has been around for a lot longer

[QUOTE=Protocol7;31178601]Or just get a sandybridge Windows laptop that has been around for a lot longer[/QUOTE] By most accounts I've seen, the Samsung Series 9 is the only real competitor to the Macbook Air, and it's $350 more($650 if you want to be as portable as possible and get the 11 inch Air). Now admittedly the MBA was my idea, and not OP's, but the Macbook and MBA are the same price (albeit for the 11 inch MBA to a 13 inch Macbook). I personally think there is no reason to buy a Macbook now unless you desperately need Firewire/Sandy Bridge now and can't spend a penny more than the price of a Macbook

Get a mbp if you can get a good deal on it like I did; otherwise a pc will easily be the better choice. I still need to have my old windows laptop with me for all the windows specific programs and games

[QUOTE=Dr Egg;31180054]By most accounts I've seen, the Samsung Series 9 is the only real competitor to the Macbook Air, and it's $350 more($650 if you want to be as portable as possible and get the 11 inch Air). Now admittedly the MBA was my idea, and not OP's, but the Macbook and MBA are the same price (albeit for the 11 inch MBA to a 13 inch Macbook). I personally think there is no reason to buy a Macbook now unless you desperately need Firewire/Sandy Bridge now and can't spend a penny more than the price of a Macbook[/QUOTE] Only problem with the air is you have to buy one of those cd drives if you want to use disks. Kind of a pain in the ass to carry if you know you'll need it.

I'm on my brothers Macbook pro right now, it's alright. But I like PC's better. Macbooks are great for school, internet and music, but gaming, forget about it.

Wouldn't one be better off buying a normal laptop and just installing the apple operating system on it?

I have an 15" Macbook Pro. While I love my desktop PC, the Macbook feels more responsive and plain sturdier than any Windows laptop I've seen, which all feels quite flimsly and badly built in comparision. In addition I believe that OS X is much better suited for laptops than Windows, considering it doesn't get clogged with crap and is generally much easier to use. Oh, and lastly, the Macbook touchpad and it's multitouch is seriously a decade ahead of any PC touchpad. The touchpad alone is one of the biggest reasons i went with a macbook. That said, macbooks aren't budget computers. So if you don't have a lot of money you might be better of getting a cheaper PC and spending the money you saved on other things.

Macbooks' touchpads are overrated in my opinion, they're cool, but I've seen just as nice trackpads on other laptops (like most things this is subjective, but well, that's my opinion). If you plan on changing harddrives and shit, I've just found out that on Sony Vaios it's easier than pie. Two screws and you're pretty much done, same goes for RAM. About build quality, some laptops feels flimsy, but there's a difference between feel, and actual robustness. I've dropped my (plastic) laptop a couple of times, and I can't see a scratch. I've seen many (aluminum) Macbooks getting dented. Aluminum is cool and all, but in many cases it isn't better than plastic.

[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;31190454]Macbooks' touchpads are overrated in my opinion, they're cool, but I've seen just as nice trackpads on other laptops (like most things this is subjective, but well, that's my opinion). If you plan on changing harddrives and shit, I've just found out that on Sony Vaios it's easier than pie. Two screws and you're pretty much done, same goes for RAM. About build quality, some laptops feels flimsy, but there's a difference between feel, and actual robustness. I've dropped my (plastic) laptop a couple of times, and I can't see a scratch. I've seen many (aluminum) Macbooks getting dented. Aluminum is cool and all, but in many cases it isn't better than plastic.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't be suprised, I'm just speaking from experience. In fact I don't even see a lot of other laptop in the macbooks' prince range very often, so it's not really fair to compare.

[QUOTE=Neolithic v2;31190486]I wouldn't be suprised, I'm just speaking from experience. In fact I don't even see a lot of other laptop in the macbooks' prince range very often, so it's not really fair to compare.[/QUOTE] My laptop isn't in that price range at all. I picked it up for 5400DKK while the basic white Macbook is ~7000 if you find it on sale.

Apple has just discontinued the MacBook.

[QUOTE=Hackintosh;31180809]Only problem with the air is you have to buy one of those cd drives if you want to use disks. Kind of a pain in the ass to carry if you know you'll need it.[/QUOTE] You can find a program in some dark corner of Apple's website that allows you to share the CD Drive or any other Mac or PC, so while you don't need to buy and carry that CD Drive, you do need basically another computer which isn't much better, but atleast you won't have to buy something separately that way

I'd honestly say, only if you want to spend about 1500+ for a laptop. Macbook Pro can easily be bootcamped. Basically have Windows Vista/7, so if you need any Mac applications, you can use the Mac partition. If you need to use something from the Windows side, use the Windows partition. I agree with everyone here, you can get a WAY better laptop for way less that of a Macbook Air/Pro with way better specs. I'd just tell you to buy it only if you got the money to flush out. These things aren't cheap ya know. [editline]21st July 2011[/editline] As for gaming as well, Macbooks can game pretty well. But I mean that only if you bootcamp it. The specs of the Macbook Pro are fine, it'll run most games perfectly fine. I'm an owner of a Macbook Pro 17" it ran me about 2300 dollars including tax and my student discount. I bought the Macbook because I'm a design student and Macs are good for design applications and such. As for games, I play simplistic games such as CSS and TF2 and I run them all on full settings. (1900x1200 res, etc. etc.) and they run smoothly. Obviously I Bootcamped my Macbook so I can actually run these games. I honestly think, it's up to your wallet. Look at it. Will it cry if you spent over 1000 dollars for a laptop?

I saw this thread from the homepage and came to say no. I don't even know why you would need any Mac specific Applications anyways because all the Mac only apps have better versions you can get on Windows.

[QUOTE=OneTuThree;31252813]I'd honestly say, only if you want to spend about 1500+ for a laptop. Macbook Pro can easily be bootcamped. Basically have Windows Vista/7, so if you need any Mac applications, you can use the Mac partition. If you need to use something from the Windows side, use the Windows partition. I agree with everyone here, you can get a WAY better laptop for way less that of a Macbook Air/Pro with way better specs. I'd just tell you to buy it only if you got the money to flush out. These things aren't cheap ya know. [editline]21st July 2011[/editline] As for gaming as well, Macbooks can game pretty well. But I mean that only if you bootcamp it. The specs of the Macbook Pro are fine, it'll run most games perfectly fine. I'm an owner of a Macbook Pro 17" it ran me about 2300 dollars including tax and my student discount. I bought the Macbook because I'm a design student and Macs are good for design applications and such. As for games, I play simplistic games such as CSS and TF2 and I run them all on full settings. (1900x1200 res, etc. etc.) and they run smoothly. Obviously I Bootcamped my Macbook so I can actually run these games. I honestly think, it's up to your wallet. Look at it. Will it cry if you spent over 1000 dollars for a laptop?[/QUOTE] what gets better performance, tf2 on osx or windows?