What macbook to get?

I've been wanting a Macbook for as long as I remember. I've had the Macbook Air 13 and returned it because I started having a real bad fan issue. Before that I had the Macbook pro 13.3, but returned it because my brother had the exact same computer (2010, but looks identical and got annoying cause we lived together at the time). I've been thinking about the Macbook Retina 15, but it seems to have a buttload of issues (non upgradeable, screen issues, etc). Also, I don't think 256gb is enough. I'm going to use this computer mainly for school, lots and lots of typing lol, Photoshop, movies and everything else people use computers for (web etc...). Well thanks in advance guys.

 

The non-Retina MBP 15 maybe? 1440x900 isn't ideal, but it's nice quality colors for movie watching and good enough resolution for productivity; I've got a 2008 MBP 15 with that resolution. And you get a quad-core CPU, a dedicated GPU, and an optical drive for $1800. The mechanical HDD means you get a lot more storage than an SSD offers at any reasonable price, even if performance suffers.

 

Having swapped a 1440x900 glossy MacBook Pro for a 1680x1050 antiglare/matte model, I couldn't disagree with you more. The latter is the perfect resolution, IMO, for a 15-inch notebook. The colors might not "pop" on the matte display (so to speak), but the near total eradication of glare more than makes up for it. If you're looking at a non-Retina, aka "classic" MacBook Pro, I would strongly advise spending the extra $100 on the high-resolution display upgrade, if only for the extra pixels. Whether you want glossy or matte is completely up to you. Fortunately, Apple offers the high-resolution panels even on base models so you don't have to jump into the $2200 version to take advantage.

 

Mitlov didn't say that it was perfect.

 

I was speaking in general. 1440 and lower is too little. 1920 is too much. 1680x1050 or 900 is the sweet spot. And since Apple offers the higher resolution display as an option, I was advising the OP to take advantage.

 

I would recommend the same thing - get the classic model, preferably with the upgraded matte display. If money doesn't matter, just get a new one. Otherwise, you would be fine with any used model from about early 2011 or later. I would just get a quad core.

 

I didn't know that Apple offered resolution upgrades on the base MBP 15. They didn't use to...you used to only be able to get it as an optional upgrade on the higher-trim model (which I think started at $2,200 not including the resolution upgrade). Yeah, if we're talking a difference between 1440x900 and 1680x1050 only being $1800 versus $1900, then yeah, go for the higher resolution.

 

High res became available on base models starting in early 2011.

 

I have high res matte on my 2010 macbook dual core i7, I like my macbook especially considering I got it for under 1,000 dollars I believe I get enough glare from my two Ipads, Iphoe 4S, and Iphone 5 that I appreciate the anti-glare on my 15 that I'm using as we speak, especially at 7 in the morning as I write this catching a flight out... :/