Apple MacBook Pro vs. Asus V1s

Hello.

I just recieved my Asus V1s, and have tried it for like a couple of hours. It seems pretty good, with nice resolution, silent when browsing/typing, good build quality and hdmi. Only downsides are Vista and the unconfirmed battry wear problem.

But lately I've been looking alot at the MacBook pro 15,4", and I think it looks really awsome, even better than the Asus V1s. Better design and build quality, OS X AND Windows XP/Vista, GDDR3 VRAM, better battery life, to mention some of the things I like about it.

So I've been thinking. Is there any downsides by getting the MBP instead of the Asus V1s? Does the MBP run Windows XP just as stable as any other computer? The difference in buttons and lack of right-click I think I'll manage fine, but I really want stability and being able to run Windows XP without any problems.

I'm not really sure if I'm going to use OS X alot. Maybe I will be using it for school and stuff like that (I'm going to university, so better battery life will come in handy), but I will probably be using Windows XP the most, for gaming and everyday browsing.

So my question is: Is the MBP a better choice than the V1s, for university, Windows and gaming, or should I just stick with the Asus V1s?

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies

 

Well, for now the MBP handles Windows pretty well; it'll never be as smooth as on a PC but its darn close. Boot Camp's getting better and the final version will be out in October with Leopard.

I would say both are awesome notebooks with their own drawbacks.

 

Are you willing to keep an open mind and try OS X? If you are close minded or you can't adapt away from Windows don't bother with a Macbook Pro. It sounds harsh but that is the biggest and most significant difference.

 

You are suffering from a case of the "grass is greener on the other side of the fence" syndrome.

The MBP has multiple advantages over the V1S in some areas, whereas it lacks sorely in other areas. However, seeing that you just bought a V1S, it doesn't make much sense to trade it in right away for a MBP.

But anyway to answer your questions one by one:

Sure: the V1S has a spill-resistance keyboard. Its web cam swivels 180 degrees. It has a TPM chip. It has Intel Turbo Memory. It runs cooler than the MBP. It has a multi-bay. It can run Windows fairly well (although XP requires tweaking and you'd have a few driver issues that are yet unresolved by Asus).

On the exchange side of things, you'll probably be charged for shipping the V1S back and possibly a restocking fee depending on where you bought it. Replacing your laptop now will cut into your university time, and you'd have to learn a new OS as well as set everything up again.

Yes for the 32-bit version.

You can right-click on the MBP (2-finger tap, 2-finger tap+click, cmd+click, external mouse), although the first of these doesn't work in Windows - but the others do.

The MBP will probably have better battery life than the V1S, which by all reports tops at an abysmal 2.5 hrs (but you can add a spare battery pack to the multi-bay). It also doesn't suffer from the horrible battery problems of the V1 series. You'll likely get better battery life under OSX than Windows though.

In sum, don't get the MBP. Using 100% Windows on a MBP, while certainly feasible, seems to be a bit of a waste of money and it also does offer a very slight productivity hit (keyboard not optimized for Windows, missing keys PC users are used to, etc.). Part of the HDD will always be taken up by OSX, so that's wasted space, and you'd need to reboot into OSX to get certain driver updates too.

The one scenario where I'd strongly you to take another look at the MBP is if you get fed up with the V1S's battery problems and after trading in your 1000th battery in a month, you decide to get a different laptop. In that case, I'd just suggest keeping an open mind and getting the MBP

 

The only problem with the V1s is the batter wear issue. Thats a constant and seemingly never-ending problem with the Asus high end models (V6, V1, R1, etc).

Other than that, the V1 should be better than the MBP for Windows. The lack of a right click button could get aggravating, as could the heat and hard drive space taken up by OSX. However, the MBP is a lot lighter and better looking, plus it has OS X. If you're never going to use OSX, then just stick with the V1s.

 

I am not using the MBP for just Windows, but I just installed Bootcamp and I have to say, it works just as well as on any Win machine. Haven't tried games but performance should be OK from what I hear.

There are some details in Bootcamp that I didn't know about, so I am going to list them here:
- Bootcamp burns a disk with Apple drivers for you - install a generic XP, then the drivers disk on top and everything is ready. Simple.
- Bootcamp software includes support for all Apple hardware including the screen brightness controls and sound controls. A nice touch is that they cheekily ported the OS X on-screen display for sound and brightness which looks way, way better than the controls on my Acer, say. Acer - which only makes Windows machines - displays a garish green screen overlay that looks like a leftover from the 1970ies when changing the volume. Acer displays nothing for changing the screen brightness. Apple drivers display a sleek semi-transparent indicator for both. Small things, but this makes Windows a better experience than on a PC in some ways IMHO.
- Bootcamp software lets you choose the default startup partition. Hold down option while booting to see all options, otherwise it would always and without delay boot into Windows if you wish. Better than the NT bootloader or Grub IMHO.
- Right click is supported just as on OS X- hold two fingers on the trackpad + click for a right click. I find that easier than a real right button for the trackpad.

I think it depends on your faith in Apple's Windows support. As it is, new machines come with Vista and making XP work on a new PC laptop is just as much or more of a hassle than installing it on a MacBook Pro. So for XP, I think there's parity, and you can freely indulge in your lust for that sleek piece of aluminum

Vista experience will be better on a dedicated PC. It's pre-installed, you are guaranteed that drivers will be updated etc.

I would also think about the future. You are a little bit at risk that Apple might suddenly lose interest in Bootcamp and not update it. Small risk as I see no reason they'd do that, but still.

For me there's no question I will run OS X for the majority of the time. I use XP for gaming and from within VMWare or Parallels for testing the occasional Windows-only issues with software I am working on.

I've tried Vista on my Acer and was just extremely disappointed - it would be much better if it was just a WinXP with the most glaring bugs fixed, but sadly it's turned out to be a major step backwards in usability and performance. Vista is not an option for me. Wake me when it's at SP2.

PS Yes the MBP hardware is excellent. The only issue is that it sometimes gets too warm as has been discussed on many threads here. If you like to compute naked while balancing the laptop on your thighs the MBP is not for you

 

This would be none

The worst case scenario, and one that I'd expect to see happen more often than not because I'm so pessimistic, is that if you run into a problem and call Apple, they'll tell you it's a Windows issue and they can't do anything about it (unless you can prove that it's absolutely a boot camp issue - in which case they'll probably say, wait until the next update and see if it's fixed). If you call Microsoft, they'll say, "oh you're on a Mac? Sorry, can't help you. It's an Apple thing."

 

I don't see Apple abandoning Boot Camp at all. From what I've read in lots of forums (including NBR), it would seem like Apple is gaining market share in the hardware department, and gaining some market in the Mac OSX department also. This is actually a very smart business decision for Apple, as they get better exposure to have people try out Mac OSX.

 

True. As I said in a previous post, Apple's really opening up the opportunity for those who've always admired OS X, but couldn't get away from Windows, and couldn't afford two machines. Now with Boot Camp, Apple's finally opened up that market.

 

alright i had to make the same decision v1s vs MBP, i choose the MBP, why? well with me the v1s just took way too long to be released, it should have been out 1/2 months earlier. i also when first looking said i would never use OS X and just use windows all the time but this has changed, i now use os x 80-90% of the time because it just does the same stuff for me. its just a different operating system its not that big of a change. i dont know if im sold on OS X yet or not, but the MBP is definately worth it, its simply unmatched in the PC notebook world imo.

 

The MBP's performance when running Windows Vista is impressive. According to the "Windows Experience Index" benchmarking utility in it, it ranks my MBP with a base score of 4.8. The breakdown is as follows:

Processor: 5.1
Memory: 4.8
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming Graphics: 5.4
Primary Hard Disk: 4.9

I was stoked to learn that the graphics card gets such a high score. Overall, I'm impressed with the hardware's performance in Mac OSX, Windows XP, and in Windows Vista.

What does the Asus V1s get for scores in the Windows Experience Index?

 

The Asus V1s gets a 4.5 Windows Experience Index:


Source

 

Good point!

 

Hm. I would have to pay the shipping cost for sending the Asus V1s back, but that's the only cost for me.

So basically the only issue I have with the V1s is the battery wear (and minor issues such as the went on the right hand side, and Windows Vista). But reading about problems on earlier models, I'm kinda worred, since I will be depending on battery life when I'm at university.

I'm not very close-minded. I will give OS X a go. Might even use it for school and stuff like that, if I like it. I've always wanted to give OS X a go, but didn't know about BootCamp until a week ago or something like that. OS X should be fine for school and web-browsing and other tasks like that, right?

But for gaming and P2P I will run WinXP. Mostly cause I don't know how P2P works on Apple

But I'm really wondering about what issues WinXP got on MBP. What kind of issues are there now? Someone mentioned it earlier in the thread, without going into specifics.

 

Well, if you really have a use for OS X, then by all means get a MBP. If you will pretty much just use Windows, I see no real reason to switch.

 

^ Yea in my opinion OS X is the real reason to get an MBP. Its good that you are willing to try it. If you have time, go to a store (Best Buy, CompUSA, Retail Apple Store, etc.) to try them out if you haven't already. OS X + bundled software is prety good stuff, add in Neoffice or Pages or MS Office and that is more than enough for my final year of college.

 

This is the first time I buy a computer with bundled software that is actually useful to me. I haven't felt the need to clean out my MBP... yet.

 

I agree. Except for GarageBand. If you use it, it's great, but if not, it is HUGE!

 

^ This makes me wonder, does apple supply iLife in the recovery cd/dvds?

 

iLife can be installed as an optional install from the OEM OSX install disks, or if you bought on the border as iLife 08 was released, from the up-to-date disks provided in the packaging.

 

Yeah, I spent a few hours on GarageBand...its an excellent app and really easy to use, but for me I just spent a few hours on it and that's probably all I'll ever use of it. I haven't bothered to get rid of it yet as I still have tons of hard drive space .

And to SaferSephiroth, you have the option to do a "Full Install of OS X" or you can choose which parts you want to install. So if you want you can uncheck iLife, for example.

 

It's one of those things when you suddenly have the need/whim to use it, it's right there even if you haven't used it for months...

But if you don't have it still installed, you'd probably never be bothered to install it just for that whim .

 

Bah, still undecided.

I keep thinking that the battery life and less weight will make the MBP a better computer for me, since I'm going to university etc. And especially since I will be trying out OS X. (Is there any way to convert OS X text-documents, and stuff like that (thinking mostly about excel and word), into a format that is useable in Windows? In case I have to send documents and stuff like that to other students etc).

What kind of buttons does the MBP lack compared to a normal PC? I'm aware of the lack of Print Scrn, Delete and Right Click. Anything else I should know about?

And is there any way for me "to know" if I will use OS X? I mean, I will try to keep an open mind and try it out a little bit, but I don't really know if I will use it. I might edit some video, since I have a video camera, but not alot. For school I might use it, if I like it.

 

If you use Microsoft Office for Mac, all the documents and spreadsheets will work fine between PCs and Macs. Almost all Word documents are compatible on both sides, and you don't even have to use Office for Mac. NeoOffice and iWork's Pages will most likely work fine with Office as well.

Excel spreadsheets are a bit harder to transfer between OS X and Windows (sometimes there's compatibility issues if you use say, Numbers from iWork to Excel in Office), but Excel for Mac works with Excel for Windows fine.

 

If you are still not convinced then maybe you should stick with what you have. The V1 is a very good computer, maybe you should wait to buy apple until you really feel like windows doesn't cut it anymore.

I woke up one morning and realized that I was sick and tired of windows. I was/am ready for a change and OS X seems to be the answer for me.

 

And when you get your MBP, you'll most likely install Windows . The grass is always greener...

 

^ No i don't think so. Don't want to waste HD space on that crap.

 

from my perspective I went through pretty much the same thing as you are going through now. I chose the MacBook Pro thinking I would be using windows the majority of the time, but that I could simply not find what I needed in the pc world, besides the fact that I was going to be doing movie editing and photo editing the majority of the time as I am a photographer. I needed the 15.4 inch screen, and I needed it to be light enough to carry around in the field and there are simply no other contenders to the mbp in my mind. Couple that with the fact that this baby has the best screen ever on a laptop for color reproduction and amazing battery life and I was sold. So I booted up my MBP and in less than 5 minutes I was in the OS and dinking around. Didn't take me long to fall in love with mac os and it took no time for me to adjust or figure things out. Switching was a breeze for me, bootcamp was even easier. Since I am using the MBP for presentations as well I decided to go the unconventional (and unsupported) route of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. I did very little tinkering and it's working like a dream. I installed firefox and camino alongside the updated safari web browser and eventually came to the resounding conclusion of firefox as the mac version is super powerful and smooth and stable. Some things did not work so well with safari but I didn't find that out until 3 days later when I went into hotmail and it could not complete some of the operations and camino isn't supported for secure connections like eBay. Moving tonnes of files around, playing dvds, playing tv shows in xvid and divx, burning, uninstalling, are all super fast for me. and SO STABLE. I was amazed how everything is ike butter and just works together. I have had one issue with a program (it was iTunes when I added my entire library of 11000 songs) and I got the spinning wheel issue which was easily resolved by a force quit. WAY better than ctrl-alt-del in windows, super fast, doesn't change anything else or mess with the kernel and can go back into the program no problem without a restart. Speaking of restarts, my MBP 2.4 Ghz is booting in 20 seconds, restarts are even faster... I couldn't believe it. One thing about the screen too while I think about this, I am typing this in the dark in my bed and my backlit keys are amazing but the best thing since I am in pitch black is that the LED backlit screen has a feature not advertised enough by apple or these forums, it goes WAY dimmer than other laptops and brighter at the same time. The screen isn't hurting my eyes at all right now because of too much brightness like my roommate's brand new toshiba a200-th7(Which by the way took over an hour to turn on the first time with vista ultimate installing etc). So now I find myself only going into XP for games and specific programs that I can't get equivalents for in mac os. Another thing about that, people have written loads and loads of excellent programs for freeware for mac os... it's awesome... anyway where was I? Oh yes, mac os has turned this faithful windows user into a mac fanatic. (I have been using pcs for 15 years with some old mac os thrown in there back in school). While I remember it too, I was frustrated about the whole no delete key for some time until I was told about the fact that it is fn+del in windows, super easy to get used to for me. Mac os can do everything windows can but 98 percent of the time it does it better. Oh the MBP has double finger scrolling 360 degrees which is amazing and apple has included this functionality in bootcamp as well, just a little thing but amazing for surfing without a mouse, after a couple of hours on the toshiba I was getting frustrated and not even realizing that I had gotten so used to the powerful feature. Ok so to answer your other big question, battery life is amazing on this thing, with wireless on and using the internet and itunes playing music and bluetooth on for my mouse and mac os set to better battery life I get just over 4 hours. If I turned off bluetooth and turned down the brightness, exited itunes, I get even more... more than 5 hours... that is amazing to me. When I have a full charge in windows and wireless and bluetooth enabled it tells me an estimate of 2 hours 20 minutes or so which is a lot less, although supposedly battery life will improve with new versions of bootcamp as they get proper battery optimization software. but to get that much battery life on a 15 inch laptop with only a 6 cell battery blows my mind. anywhoo... I wanted the higher resolution of the asus as well, but after looking at them both side to side I realized tw things I never thought of before. I didn't like how tiny everything looked, text was harder to read for me despite the extra resolution. The other thing which never occurred to me was for gaming. Running a game at the native res of a screen is the best. So if you think about it, what has better performance? A game running at 1440x900 with set details, or a display set at 1600x1050 with those same detail levels? To address the heat/noise level issue you referred to; My MBP is silent, and I mean silent for browsing and I use it on my lap all the time and it's never bothered me. The new MBP runs cooler than last generation as well. My idle temps are low 40s although mbps will vary, and case bottom temp lower than 30. Using SMCFancontrol whenever I am doing cpu or gpu intensive work and it has to be on my lap or I just don't want to be running very hot for whatever reason I just go to 4000rpm and it kicks it right down again, and at 4000rpm it is still quieter than the majority of laptops I have listened to recently( been shopping for myself and 2 others). Having free software like iMovie and iPhoto is awesome for me, I got iLife 08 as a drop in too cuz I bought in that in between stage so that is always nice. What's even nicer is that apple heard the complaints from the more pro or more than just casual video editor and put up a free link to the entire iMovie 06 HD because of it's advanced editing superiority. I got my MBP for 2025 USD off of eBay including shipping (the faster 2.4ghz model) and the guy got it right from apple, was still in the box that apple ships out and wasn't opened. I got applecare off of eBay for 180 or so as well. I also got a new real apple battery for 50 off ebay and that in itself is amazing, even buying retail they have the cheapest battery i've seen for a laptop. So all in all I think I am a surprised switcher, can't believe how good osx is. The odd time I think it's not as customizable but then someone proves me wrong and shows me how to do something or I find tools like tinkertool which allows me access to hidden features of os x. Oh another thing, widgets and the dashboard is amazing, loads times better than vistas gimmick and so much more useful, same with expose which I thought were kinda gimmicks when I first heard of them but I find myself using them all the time. I have found some really powerful and useful widgets that I love love love. So anyways this is just my opinion that I was coming from kinda the same area as you are now that I thought might be helpful. Hmmm I can think of other things that would help you, but you get the idea, if I can think of any more big ones I'll post again for you. oh ya, I got a DVD from europe as a present that I just saw for the first time because the dvd drive in the MBP is region free

 

DeepShadows, I'm glad you're enjoying your MBP so much.

There's a feature of the MBP that I'm not sure you're aware of yet: the MBP comes with two (2) "enter" keys, both of which function in basic text boxes as a 'return' key.

I also went with the MBP over the V1S and feel strongly that I made the right decision. It's easy to get something and think you have the best of what you could get if you don't realize there's something so much better around the corner. Although I would have been happy with the V1S (minus the battery issues), at the moment I couldn't imagine giving up my MBP for even 2 or 3 V1S machines (unless it's to sell them so I can get more MBPs ), or for that matter, being stuck with Windows as the only OS (granted I could always install Ubuntu...but...)

 

Thanks alot for good replies Think I might return the V1s, mostly because of the (unconfirmed) battery issues, and get the MBP.

Only one more thing. Will I be able to connect the MBP to a LCD-TV? And will there be any noticeable difference in quality when playing DVD's and playing games, compared to hdmi? (The TV, a 32" Tatung, has HDMI, VGA, komposite, and S-Video connections, so guess I have to use a DVI->HDMI adapter?).

I figure there might be some quality-difference with blue-ray or HD-video, but I will use neither.

 

no difference, both dvi and hdmi are digital signals so converting produces no noticable degradation or artifacts... I'm runnning a 35ft dvi to hdmi cable to my high def projector with no problems, and in fact I beiieve the MBP can output to external monitor at resolutions of up to 2560x1600 natively... uhh here is the quote from apple "Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colours" so you can do that and still be running your macbook pros lcd... pretty sweet!

 

Ok, basically decided to return the V1s and get the MBP Saw a video review of the MBP and OS X and it looks awsome, made me want to try out the OS.

Just another question. Will I be able to share a partition between XP and OS X? Let's say I have 1 partition for OS X, 1 for WinXP, and one for files such as music, movies and other files. Will it be possible for both operating system to access those files? I'm guessing NTFS won't work. How about FAT32?

 

No it's not, unfortunately. You get to change the region code about 5 times, and then the DVD drive gets locked to the last region you used.

Trying to watch DVD's from different regions is actually my biggest issue with the Macbook Pro. It really can't be done without an external, region-free USB drive (and even with one of those it's hard to get working).

 

There are firmware patches to make certain of the Matsu****a drives in the MB region-free now. There's a thread over on macrumors about it.

 

Not too long ago i was set on buying the V1S and was so close to getting it but i'm glad that i didn't and after looking at the MBP there is only one choice for me.

It was the battery issues that ended it for me with the V1S but after looking further into the MBP (something i didn't initially consider) i'm really looking forward to using the Mac OS as oppose to windows and think the MBP is as close to perfect as i can get. I'm sure i'll prove myself to be right

 

Agreed, in terms of image-qaulity, HDMI and DVI are very similar. One important difference, to me, is that HDMI also carries audio, whereas DVI does not.

 

As I understand it HDMI and DVI are exactly the same except for the connector obviously and HDMI carries audio as well. There is no quality difference between the two.

 

actually seeing as how I just played a region 2 dvd in my macbook pro I beg to differ... it's the SOFTWARE that is region locked, playing dvds in vlc is fine for me as you get all the same controls.

 

*bump*

Thanks alot for helping me out here, can't wait to get my MBP now.

 

I think HDMI is like ~10gb/s, and DVI is 3-4GB/s.. I don't know the exact numbers.

I'm in the same situation as you, starting from V1s. Except I didn't buy it. V1s has low graphics rating from Windows Vista Index probably because the graphic drivers are crap.. I can't imagine how a 2 gb ram with 2.2ghz duo core processor, and a 8600 GT would be only ~2600 3dmarks, but benchmarks aren't everything.

MBPs are thief magnets. MBP doesn't have as many ports or USB ports as V1s. It comes with less accessories. However, you get a free printer and an iPod nano when you order a new mac. I did a simulation in my last post:

iPod nano, 4GB - Silver
Part Number: MA426LL/A
Engraving: Add
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Gift package: Add

Remove $199.00 $199.00
Estimated Ship: Within 24 hours
MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.2GHz
Part Number: MA895LL/A
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Remove $1,799.00 $1,799.00
Estimated Ship: 7-10 business days
Canon MP470 Photo All-in-One
Part Number: TN631LL/A
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Remove $99.95 $99.95
Estimated Ship: 2-3 weeks
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http://store.apple.com/1-800-780-500...Rzre231gdzengT
$
Not found

Cart Subtotal: $2,097.95
Free Shipping: $0.00
Estimated Tax*: $141.61

Estimated Total: $2,239.56

With rebate, I can get back money on the $300 spent on the printer and the nano.

Take away the $200 that'll be earned back from selling the nano, and it'd be ~1739. Everyone suspects a new nano comes out the 5th, so wait till then to order, since the price of the original nano might depreciate. Hopefully you and I can both get lucky, and get $199 rebate back from the nano while its price is $125 or something..

Other than that, I'm also waiting for Leopard, which comes out in October..

Just the things I've been through, and some things that might be helpful..

 

If you keep your music and stuff in FAT32, then both operating systems can read and write to it. If you keep your files in NTFS, OS X can only read but not write out of the box. This is a problem people have been having with external hard drives. Search threads on external hard drives and you will find explanations.

Unless im mistaken there are some apps that can enable OS X to write to NTFS as well, not sure on cost vs. freeware.

 

Yes, MacDrive (costs money) enables Windows to run HFS+ drives, and MacFuse (free) enables OS X to write to NTFS.

 

How do I see the Mac partition in my fat32 windows? It won't show up... do I need a program for windows to read HFS drives?

 

Yes, you need to purchase MacDrive if you want Windows to be able to read the HFS+ formatted hard drive. Your actual Windows hard drive being FAT32 doesn't mean it can view HFS+...you need the actual external hard drive to be FAT32.

If you want, you can reformat your external hard drive to FAT32, and both OSes can read and write to it.

 

hdmi has those THEORETICAL higher numbers because of one thing... it carries MULTICHANNEL AUDIO over the same cable... dvi and hdmi video are equals. The drawback, if you can call it that of dvi is that it does not have audio, however most devices can't decode the audio over hdmi yet anyway, and in fact you have to get a high end receiver to be able to switch hdmi audio with the video signal. All the lower end to middle range receivers switch the video only. The newer (hdmi 1.3) receivers are able to do it. So in the case of the macbook pro, it has digital audio out on it.... so the ONLY disadvantage you have is that you run two cables instead of two... which to some is an advantage.