13.3" Laptop or Macbook Pro?

[RussZS]

Ok, new laptop is imminent but I'm stuck between this HP and a Macbook Pro 13"

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/597376/HP-DM3-1025SA

or:

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/556955/APPLE-Macbook-Pro-13-inch-MB990

Is the Apple REALLY £400 better? The HP is better built...

Which would you go for?

Russ.

 

[The Boosh!]

Russ, I have got a 13" unibody macbook.

Its 100% worth the extra money IMO

Will last longer, customer service is second to none, they never crash, really well built, very quick!

(I still need a hand with the car, will bring my macbook down for you to play on if you like) x

 

[RussZS]

I'm free on Saturday dude...

 

[The Boosh!]

Will give you a text mid week mate

 

[dk]

i struggle to believe they are worth the money unless you are buying one to have a fancy case and look cool.

you can get a much better spec for the same price with a non-apple laptop, apple couldn't come close to my sony's spec and it was cheaper, and sony are hardly ugly, no brainer really.

i'm thinking about getting a macbook pro when the new ones are launched, but only because i quite like the design, it won't be any better than my sony, just a bit more portable, i'll still have the sony for compatibility reasons.

 

[The Boosh!]

i struggle to believe they are worth the money unless you are buying one to have a fancy case and look cool.

you can get a much better spec for the same price with a non-apple laptop, apple couldn't come close to my sony's spec and it was cheaper, and sony are hardly ugly, no brainer really.

i'm thinking about getting a macbook pro when the new ones are launched, but only because i quite like the design, it won't be any better than my sony, just a bit more portable, i'll still have the sony for compatibility reasons.

Have you ever owned a mac DK? (not an arsey question btw, just curious!). As you are quiet technological im guessing you have?

Only I had the same view as you, at the time it was a sony via laptop for £300 cheaper or the macbook.

Only bought the macbook because it looked prettier, I got student discount, and applecare is awesome.

Can honestly say I would never use another operating system out of choice now! I <3 it! (there are loads of threads on here with people saying the same thing, so thats the last you will hear from this fan boy )

 

[Glos182]

MAC for show
PC for PRO

Im struggling with this one, as to why the apple is £400 more!!!!

I can't talk i spent 3k on my Alienware laptop, but 2.5 years down the line i'd still have to spend 1.5k - 2k to get the same spec! But with the apple, its no way near Laptop spec's, and alread more expensive!?!

Don't get me wrong here, apple mac's look good and look expensive bits of kit, and "feel" nice to touch/use etc, suppose if your "image" is that important then go with Apple. If you like value for money, much more software, play the odd games without hassel then go for a laptop!

Have you looked into ASUS laptops? A college at work has the lambo one, i was stunned by the build quality and the spec of the little thing!

This aint the lambo one, but much better then the HP imo!

http://asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=K50IN-SX149V

 

[Tom]

Get the HP, MBP's are rubbish.

 

[sneeks]

Get the HP, MBP's are rubbish.

brilliant

 

[Tom]

I get the feeling thats what people wanted to hear.

 

[sneeks]

Yeah you are right. These type of threads are becoming as argumentative as the PS3 or 360 questions.

 

[Lagerlout]

Because they're full of fan boys, that's why. No one can detach themselves enough to have a reasoned discussion. Any Apple related thread is the same.

To answer the OP's question, is the MBP pro £400 better?

In my opinion, absolutely not.

 

[Aluco]

Because they're full of fan boys, that's why. No one can detach themselves enough to have a reasoned discussion. Any Apple related thread is the same.

To answer the OP's question, is the MBP pro £400 better?

In my opinion, absolutely not.

Crux.

 

[seb]

i wouldn't say i am a fan boi. I just appreciate a top end product.

i believe although the specs may be less than a comparable laptop, it performs, for the functions I require much better.

it does a lot of things that are important to me sooooooooooo much better than a laptop.

1. battery life is scarily good. i don't think i ever owned a laptop that doesn't need to be permenantly plugged in as the battery went shite.

2. it boots up IN SECONDS. show me another laptop that does this. Plus once it has booted up it works. it is already connected to my router etc. It just works.

3. the build quality puts to shame any other laptop i have seen.

if you don't want a top line product that works so well that is fine. that is what the premium is for.

don't get huny up on power compared to other laptops, i find that insignificant. i do music, movies, photos, internet etc. for that the macbook is king. i am sure other apple users can say what else they do well, but for me, i don't need any processing power that some pc people crave.

i would then say why buy such a top end laptop when really a desktop would suffice but there we go.

i won't ever be buying another laptop. the macbook has shown me the way forward for what i need.

 

[Munson]

i struggle to believe they are worth the money unless you are buying one to have a fancy case and look cool.

you can get a much better spec for the same price with a non-apple laptop, apple couldn't come close to my sony's spec and it was cheaper, and sony are hardly ugly, no brainer really.

i'm thinking about getting a macbook pro when the new ones are launched, but only because i quite like the design, it won't be any better than my sony, just a bit more portable, i'll still have the sony for compatibility reasons.

Your views will change when you use an MBP for a few weeks. I'll leave my input at that

 

[seb]

roy was one of the biggest defenders of the normal windows based system over the apple.

says a lot.

 

[sneeks]

roy was one of the biggest defenders of the normal windows based system over the apple.

says a lot.

I used to be the same and would forever argue about how crap and overpriced Macs are. I was wrong.

 

[seb]

i think for me also, i have moved away from pc gaming too. I have my wii for when the mates are round and the ps3 for the more hardcore games.

I strongly suspect I will be buying an imac when i want another desktop. It jsut does what I want with no hassle.

 

[Munson]

Too right. Steve is so awesome, he can even make very highly opinionated people admit that they were catastrophically wrong.

 

[Munson]

i think for me also, i have moved away from pc gaming too.

You prick! :dapprove:

 

[dk]

it's just a case of waiting for the new ones to be released for me, then i'll spend a grand on trying to prove you guys wrong

 

[seb]

i hope you spend a grand and hate it tbh. LOL

[YOUTUBE]nUTXb-ga1fo[/YOUTUBE]

 

[dk]

what frustrates me is software compatibility

i use my laptop for web (firefox is on mac i think, so check), digiguide (no mac client), and usenext (lower feature client, can live with that), photos (sure the mac will be good at that, i upload most to flickr anyway and IDM (sure i can get used to a mac based programme on this) and itunes which obviously is built in.

I just find the thought of liking a piece of software and then having to source a mac version a pain, on the pc you have no such worries etc.

I'm definitely going to dabble though as i love the iphone, so i know what apple are capable of, just need to change a few of the things i currently do on my laptop.

might be a silly question, but i have a few WD passport drives with a lot of media on, will they just plus into the mac and work? both fat and ntfs formatted or can the mac only read fat?

 

[Munson]

There are almost always Mac versions/alternatives available. They also look and work better.

NTFS will work for read but not write. However, a simple download later, and you can read and write under NTFS.

 

[Glos182]

2. it boots up IN SECONDS. show me another laptop that does this. Plus once it has booted up it works. it is already connected to my router etc. It just works.

Hmmm i can't complain about my Alienware booting up with SSD, i think you would be VERY supprised. I can't say i have ever seen a mac book boot up from Off, so i can't say if it's quicker or not. But mine puts every PC/Laptop i've seen boot to shame! Oh and my wifi is on by the time i enter my password.

3. the build quality puts to shame any other laptop i have seen.

Have you ever used/seen an Alienware laptop? I don't see many apple's with a protective skin coating to stop the laptop from being scratched. Or a harder shell around the screen for more protection. I'm not trying to say don't get an apple etc, i just wouldn't say they are the highest end product for portable computers!!!!!!!

 

[Mark One]

i've got a Q210 with 4gig ram and Nvidia graphics.

Really impressed. Very nice thing and the HDMI has come in use frequently

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/.../NP-Q210-FSS0UK/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

 

[Krispwee]

Build quality on my mac is much better than any laptop I've used but I have the same issues with trying to find alternatives that I use on my PC everyday. Things like Steam (mac client being released soon apparently), IRC - simply cannot find a free one that works anywhere near as well as mIRC + NNScript), a decent free download manager (Flashget > all), HLSW, MS Office / iWork (that works aswell as it does on Windows). The list goes on. It seems that once you have forked out your extra £400 quid your forever coming across software that you need to pay for to use where on a Windows PC this isn't the case.

Also in regards to the old "it boots in seconds". Its because when you flip the screen down it doesn't actually turn off so it doesn't need to reboot. The major downside to this that over a few days the battery will run out. Your retort may well be "well turn it off then if you know your not gonna use it for a few days" but surely that then removes the arguement of "it boots in seconds"

If you have enough money for the Mac and you have checked that you can get all the software you need on it that you currently use on your Windows PC/Laptop then go for it. If not then save your money and buy the HP. But remember to re-install Windows 7 from fresh if you do get it

 

[Noj]

to be honest it all comes down to what you want to use it for, if you want to any gaming just get a pc. don't bother with trying to have dual boot on mac either. pc on mac is just not worth it! i'm a mac man myself they're really good but do have they're faults

 

[Mot!]

I've just gone from a PC/Laptop to a MBP and have taken to it like a duck to water, even after 12 years of being a "PC lover"

Technical/Warranty issues are dealt with so much more efficiently than any PC supplier..I've been waiting for dell to get a courier out to collect me laptop for 2 weeks now, they claimed that adverse weather conditions prevented collection on Friday - adverse? We had blue skies and a slight breeze on Friday!

Whereas with a Mac I can just jump on the train to Birmingham and get things sorted there and then (if they can't sort it on the phone before hand..and then, it's someone that comprehend me)

You should see my MBP with an SSD, cold boots are quick..I mean 10seconds quick! And that's with only 2GB of DDR3, as soon as my 4GB turns up, I imagine that will improve

 

[seb]

it does boot in seconds surely, i turn my mbp off every night. it really is spookily quick.

to the OP, you don't actually seem to want a MBP from the off, so tbh, i'd just buy a laptop. you seem happier with that.

i can only tell you from my experience, and i haven't seen any other laptop that is built or works better than my mbp.

i would expect a 2.5k alienware laptop to be what you say. 2.5k? that is insane.

 

[Glos182]

Well including the alien bag, 3 years extra warrantee and an extra charger (so i could leave one at work) it came to 3k. Yup i had an insane geeky moment when i was 23 . But i must say, i still don't regret it one bit, such an amazing bit of kit. As i say to people, it's the Rolls Royce of laptops hehe.

 

[seb]

i'd say it was more of the maybach of laptops, the mbp is the rolls royce LOL

 

[Glos182]

hahahah

 

[sneeks]

How long are 13" MBP owners getting with each battery charge from a mix of internet browsing and iTunes use? The initial displayed time is over 6 hours but in reality I'm getting nowhere near that length of time from a single charge, I'd say it's lucky to last 2 hours. I've ran some checks on the battery and it is charging to full capacity.

 

[Dafthead]

Just buy a MBP 13 then use VMWare Fusion & Windows 7 for anything you REALLY need windows for, best of both worlds

Works beaut

 

[Mike_182]

Not a mad fan of HP laptops other than the Elitebooks. The rest of the range can feel very plasticky so I'd go for the Macbook (yes, you can quote me).

However I'd also consider looking at the Dells unless you truly hate them. The E4300 is a very competent machine.

 

[Darren S]

it does boot in seconds surely, i turn my mbp off every night. it really is spookily quick.

to the OP, you don't actually seem to want a MBP from the off, so tbh, i'd just buy a laptop. you seem happier with that.

i can only tell you from my experience, and i haven't seen any other laptop that is built or works better than my mbp.

i would expect a 2.5k alienware laptop to be what you say. 2.5k? that is insane.

The boot time is really impressive - even when shutdown. Whenever I use the MB, I always do the full shutdown once I've finished with it. Long and firm believer of having things on when you use them and off when you're not. None of this standby/hibernation crap.

I got one 'built' on their website to come in at £3.5k last week. Madness.

D.