Is MacBook pro really worth buying?

There are plenty of people who use a MBP as a second machine. I do coding on mine, go to study groups with it, surf online and play occasional games with it when there is a lan party. Works well enough for what I do. If I needed to do anything that "power user" would need I go do it on my desktop. This is a notebook forum, and calling any notebook other than the 17-18" monsters a "power user" platform is rather laughable.

 

How about 15"... Asus, Sager, Alienware etc all provide the type of specs I just listed at this size. I spoke about the CPU and GPU limitations in a Mac. I won't even get into SSD limitations in OSX.

 

Even the best mobile part is a far cry from desktop parts. True "power users" don't use notebooks for the heavy lifting...it just isn't powerful enough. So does someone having a MBP for doing misc stuff while having a decked out desktop for whatever else less of a "power user" than you are?

 

Having multiple tools is simply deflecting the debate at hand. We're comparing apples to apples (hah!), and then you say have a Watermelon as well. The additional Watermelon, while tasty I'm sure, does not suddenly make one apple better or worse than the other.

 

Well they all do the same job. You may want to add the word "relative" to your posts then. You are the one making it sound like whoever has worse specs than you in a notebook is less of a "power user" which is just flat out arrogant when plenty of people have MBPs and desktops that flat out wipes whatever notebook is out there.

p.s. If you want true Apples to Apples compare a notebook that has similar size, weight, battery life etc (which is 15", about 1" thick, around 5.5 lbs, 5 hours battery to save you the trouble of looking it up). Even then it is "more powerful", not "if you are a power user you would be getting this instead".

 

Apple is never going to win a should I buy this machine vs a Windows based laptop based on price. No you can't do much regarding upgrades on the MBP's, such is life with Apple products. You buy the MBP 17" machine because you want it, is it the best laptop I have ever owned? Nope, the best by far laptop I have ever owned is the HDX Dragon, aside from crushing your legs it was/is the best portable machine I have ever owned. The MBP didn't run Windows stable enough without user intervention to make it stable, at least this is what I have found after owning a few of them. People blame MS/Vista but the problem was/is video related, so I blame Nvidia/Apple since they both blame each other, but that's a different thread and these words alone will draw fire so on to continuing my point.

But then, it wasn't designed to run Windows either, it was designed to run OS X first and Windows second so I never depended on my MBP when running Windows, which was sad prior to Windows 7 because I really wanted to depend on it, it cost me $3,000.00! Since Windows 7 and Snow Leopard's Bootcamp 3.0 this MBP has suddenly become a dependable machine when running Windows, so far, but it's lack of some features I consider a must for a "Pro" machine bothers me, obviously not enough to stop me from buying it however.

For those who don't have the option to buy an MBP simply to use it as their fun machine should stick to Windows based laptops unless of course they prefer OS X, if this is the case in my view buy the biggest fastest version of the MBP you can afford and you'll love it. Running OS X it's a great machine and I highly recommend it, but I do wish if Apple was going to continue making what they call Pro level machines they should indeed install the hardware that help make the machine deserve the price Apple charges.

I'm sure the Apple fans will explain why it's worth every penny, we'll agree to disagree. I don't consider most of the Apple users I support power users, even though they do. I don't agree but heck, I bought one myself so what do I know... I find most Apple users are a bit different than Windows users and will buy based on looks and believe it or not simply because it costs more than Windows based machines that would smoke it for less money and some of my clients actually get mad if I show up with a Windows machine, I have never had a Windows client get mad when I show up with a Mac.

Anyway I digress and I mean no offense to Apple users, buy what YOU think is the right machine for you but for the money you will always find a better performing Windows based machine for less money than you'll find at Apple and Apple knows this, hence the Apple vs PC ads. You buy an Apple because you find it cool but don't buy it and expect a $2,700.00 MBP to have better specs than a middle of the road HP DV8t priced at $1,600.00.

I can spec a DV8 from Costco for under $1,600 that would beat any MBP at any configuration but does that make it a better computer that will last longer? Who knows, I have had about the same luck with both companies, I'm not impressed with support from the consumer side of HP or any side of Apple so take what everybody says and do some research and buy what you think will be right for you.

Good luck! Oh, side note, the screen on my MBP is excellent and the sound isn't that bad either.

EDIT: I also own many other Apple products to include a late '08 Mac Pro and several other machines so I don't hate Apple, just their support line and the arrogance of some of the users. I don't mean any offence to any Apple user here as I don't know you, so don't take my negative comments as a slam on you.

 

PC v Mac. The Eternal Struggle.

Like Jedi v Sith. Good v Evil. Dogs v Cats. Jordan v Kobe.

 

Man I feel bad for the OP on him deciding. Seems like there were atleast a dozen answers/arguments for both sides.

For me it's always been simple. For my gaming homebuilt PC desktop for the win everytime.

Laptop wise I stay Apple most often, like OS X when i'm on the go for some reason. Also, no I didn't buy my Macbook because it was "pretty", funny part is i've always preferred the metal over plastic but this time around it was a present so i'm not complaining

Big downside to the white MB I own, scratch magnet!

 

It's a good point. You compromise less for mobility if you take a 'do-everythinger' out of the equation by buying a desktop for heavy lifting. However in this case you can pick up an even more mobile-optimised machine than anything in the 'jack of all trades' bracket that Apple has to offer.

Citizenpanda et al seems to miss the point that Macs come in at narrow price points - and that the quality of comparable hardware at those price points is nearly always better, or at least better QC'd.

 

and, citizen panda, do you care to explain what kind of heavy number crunching that you are doing for android application development that a modern core 2 duo in a macbook pro might struggle with that you can do faster on a pc, when your target platform is a 600mhz arm processor running applications in a cut down version of the java virtual machine?

yes, explain to me the kind of cpu and gpu bound work you might need to do to get your android application development done.

or do you just play games?

i think you do.

if you admit that you were simply talking about playing games, i will happily agree that windows does it better (and in many cases, better means "at all", because most games don't run on the mac platform).

but you aren't doing 15-100% faster work in adobe cs3, mobile phone development (especially not the iphone hah), or using other native cross platform applications. that is just beyond the realm of sense. you also aren't "browsing faster" or converting music or video faster... or "playing back music faster"... so much rolfcoptering.

and for running cpu/gpu intensive desktop applications, or number crunching algorithms, windows is not faster. period. if i write performance oriented c++ code and compile it using the gcc and windows compilers, you just aren't going to get the differences you described.

 

you are not listening... "up to"... hell,I am only using 100% cpu when I am converting video...and the most time it took my mac to convert a video was ~5 minutes! at this rates, "faster" is becoming irrelevant, since converting the same video in 2 minutes won't give me anything, just "WOWZ! my laptop can convert video in 2 minutes!!!!I am a power user!!!"

 

I'm settling on the idea that CPU & gpu bound work translates closely to "playing video games", and power user translates to "gamer".

So, yes, I agree with you.

 

Haha! That's like saying "My Dodge Viper will smoke your Subaru WRX on the go-kart track." Coding, IMing, everything you listed are not CPU or GPU-intensive at all- even a decent low-mid range system is full overkill for those kinds of tasks. (Unless maybe you're building protein-folding software or something like that, then yeah, maybe the quad-core has a bit of an edge. )

 

^^^ That's why I bought a Lenovo with my own money, and let work buy me a Macbook with THEIR money. The Lenovo has higher specs and runs a bit faster at exactly half the price. win-win!