What makes Macbook Pro worth it ?

im thinking of buying a Macbook but what makes it worth, its price is almost double for its hardware.

 

Do you really need OS X? That's why people buy mac.

 

Right. Macs in general are about having a simplistic yet stylish hardware design incorporating a customized OS from Apple that is specifically designed to work on the hardware in Macs (which happens to be shared by some Windows notebooks). The main difference in design is that Apple uses a small subset of processors and other hardware options (IGP, GPU, chipsets, etc.) and OS X is designed to use those. On the other hand, Windows has to work with a lot more hardware configurations.

That isn't necessarily a knock against Windows, I am just expressing the differences in their development. As previously pointed out, unless you want/need to run OS X, there is no need to buy a Mac. There are some people who buys Macs and use them to run Windows exclusively but they represent an extremely small minority of users that I just can't understand.

 

the trackpad ,it made me stop using a mouse much better than any windows notebook, it's a small thing but just that good

 

no trackpad is better than a mouse

 

Unless it's the trackpad that Apple puts in their portable Mac line. The purchase of my MBP (and now MBA) is the first time I have never purchased an external traditional mouse. I ended up buying the Magic Trackpad simply because I hook my MBA up to my HDTV a lot and an external monitor.

 

well I will agree with that, lets just say that the trackpad is the first one that makes me not need or want one it is that good

 

I got to try out a MBP for 5 minutes the other day and I absolutely love it.

Screen is the best I've seen on a laptop and love the beauty/design.

When I do get another laptop over a year from now, it'll be M14X (refresh) or MBP.

 

another m14x? The fans on that machine run more frequently than my honda on a hot summer day.

 

What do you expect from a portable 14" that runs current games maxed?

This isn't a G53/73 behemoth with duo-fans, adequate internal cooling and a molded body for noise-reduction.

The fan doesn't even run outside of games if you have the latest BIOS.

 

the thing is that in terms of power the mbp 15 has the same as yours do. Its quite thinner and not a whole lot larger

 

I recently tried the trackpad on the MBP and MBA and that was pretty sweet. Works pretty much like the Tablets do.

 

it is the best touchpad, I dont use a mouse when Im in OSX, just a trip to win 7 and Im back using the mouse again, while there are 2rd party drivers that make it more usable, its still miles behind what you can get in OSX

 

Like others have stated, it's mostly the operating system as well as the small things that people may or may not look for (trackpad, etc). Yes, Apple machines are priced higher than similarly-spec'ed Windows laptops, but there are people out there that value shiny things.

If you asked me though, I'd still rather have an actual mouse (or at least the Thinkpad nibble ).

 

I just loaf the nipple, I was always looking forward to use a mouse on my x61, x200 and so forth

I miss the keyboard though, a lot

 

That's what we first called them.

I got introduced to the ThinkPad eraser nub back in the early 90's when I was in IT. At first it was awkward to use but once I got used to it, it was awesome. They were so accurate.

But the Apple trackpad is the way to go these days because of the touch screens on phones and tablets.

 

Their trackpads are nice (used them several times in friends' notebooks), but it's hard to beat the ability to travel up to 1920 pixels without ever having to pick up your finger to reset on the trackpad

 

In my opinion nothing makes it worth it unless you have a very specific need for OSX.

Most people that think they need OSX do not, they just do not have a desire to not use it.

 

Which can easily be done with Apple's trackpad. In fact, their Magic Trackpad lets me scale much larger than 1080p without having to pick my finger up again and the one built into my MBA can even go a little above 1080p too.

I was never a fan of the eraser nubs and I never will be. They start hurting my finger after a while and it takes way too long to move anywhere for me. Not only that but I often have trouble pushing the left and right click in as they are smaller buttons that are often flush with the outline around the keyboard or even recessed a little. I would rather go with an external mouse than use the IBM/Lenovo eraser head. Although their trackpads have improved over the years, they still can't compare to what Apple is and has been doing for the past few years (since 2009 or 2010, I can't remember).

 

Very true. When I last used a Mac it was partly due to iCal when it first came on the scene. At the time it was the best calendar program which I used for my business. It was simple in a way but it did everything I needed. These days I use another calendar program which has replaced it.

Part of what you said is the phenomenon Apple has right now with it's products much like Harley Davidson did back in the 90's. They went from, no one wanted their motorcycles to "i've got to have one" they are soooo cool. I used to LOL when I would read people in Japan buying them even though the bikes being made in Japan where so far advanced and built so much better than our stuff.

 

Other than the trackpad, I'm not aware of other hardware/OS coordination that makes the MBP/MBA lines more usable and slick, the way iOS does for the phones and tablets compared to Android. That wasn't always the case but, IMO, Windows made such leaps and bounds of reliability and interoperability that it erased nearly all of the OSX usability advantage. But, there is a major but...

If Apple's recent moves in the MBA and iPad are reflective, the coming crop of MBP and MBA replacements are likely to have some killer, best in class technology and/or design elements to move the bar way up again.

Oh, and, I only recently removed the Apple Lover-NOT! from my sig. My main reason is that I think it's dangerous and always leads to bad outcomes for consumers when any company becomes that large and has the ability to so dominate every market they choose to enter. Bear in mind, if Windows/Android tablet competition was creeping up on MBP/iPad markets Apple could afford to cut prices by 75% for about 10 years to drive everyone else out of the market, then prices go way up and innovation and quality down. That's what companies with monopoly pricing power, outsized control of suppliers to it and its competitors end up doing though there's never been a company in history with Apple's $110 BILLON cash horde to enable them to exert such overwhelming control. Even if they make excellent products I don't prefer to have them determine what I will use for all of my devices from the company that only makes one of each kind.

Just sayin...

 

I think one of the main things people enjoy are the aesthetics of a MBP. I've had one for 4 years. I appreciate apples design, OSX, mixture of power/battery life etc. They have a fanastic out casing, screen, keyboard etc. I found the newer 13" model to have a rather weak and mediocre sound system. If you're big into multimedia editing and sound recording than I think OSX is hard to beat. They have some neat/innovative designs though. I really like their battery and magsafe power adapter (the newer one). As far as reliability they are middle of the road IMO. They DO have problems, issues, and quirks. I'm not a fan of their new "can't access the battery without opening up the laptop and voiding the warranty" deal and their service prices if you're out of warranty are highly overpriced.
As far as OS goes, while I enjoyed OSX, it had its quirks that annoyed me. I was rather annoyed with the lack of compatible programs out there. If you watch DIVX movies then you won't be a fan of OSX. I had Windows XP on my MBP using Bootcamp and honestly I found myself using windows more than OSX.
Personally I feel like you're paying a premium for the apple name, but in the end they ARE nice laptops that are sleek and stylish with some nifty designs. I think it's up to you to decide whether or not they're personally worth it to you.

 

why is that? I've not had any problems yet with any divx movies.

 

VLC performs just fine under OS X when playing back Divx, Xvid, MKV (h.264), mpeg-4 AVC, VC-1, mpeg-1, WMV, and mpeg-2 content just as it does under Windows. I am not sure why they made the comment that they did.

I don't think that was ever really the case even dating back to when Apple used the G series line of PowerPC processors from IBM/Motorola. The main argument was that OS X was specifically designed for the hardware that Apple puts in Macs. The hardware has changed to include the standard x86 and x86-64 offerings from Intel but that still doesn't mean that OS X isn't designed to run on that hardware. Furthermore, Apple has a much smaller subset of hardware that their OS needs to be compatible with compared to Windows. Apple knows exactly what they have put in their systems over the years and where they want to draw the line with support. MS, on the other hand, has to support a much, much, much, much wider range of hardware.

That doesn't necessarily mean that OS X is going to be more streamlined than Windows in terms of performance, it just means that Apple has to design for a smaller hardware pool than MS does. Software can only do so much with the hardware it is supplied. It can't magically increase the performance factor by 2. Additionally, given the extent of current hardware, it should provide a smooth experience no matter what OS is running (so long as it has proper drivers).

It isn't like with iOS and Android where Google (and others) are still getting a feeling for the ARM hardware along with its limitations. Google also seems to be complicating things by adding new live updating features further taxing a system. Apple choses to keep things simpler with iOS. So you can't really compare what Apple is doing with iOS to how OS X performs against Windows. Both of those are mature OS's whereas both iOS and Android are still relatively new.

 

I have a 2008 17 inch MBP and I'd like to upgrade but I don't have a good reason to at this time. I continue to use this relatively old system because it has WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution that is getting harder and harder to find (this resolution is being replaced by 1920x1080), it's thin though it isn't light, I like the keyboard (old style, not new chiclet), trackpad, screen (matte option) and its a workhorse. The boot time is half of that on Windows (I have an ExpressCard SSD + 1 TB WD drive in it compared to SSD-based desktops) and my work environment is Linux. The really nice thing about Mac OS X is that it has a native X client so that I can pipe my X-Windows from my work server to it. On Windows, I run a Linux VM to connect to my work server but it has some drawbacks as you can imagine.

What would get me to upgrade is a MacBook Pro with at least 1920x1200 resolution in a 15 inch form factor. A retina display would work though I really wouldn't need that high a resolution.

BTW, in general, I like unix-based operating systems. I like Mac OS X better because they make a lot of the system maintenance painless. I usually use Ubuntu VMs on Windows and the system maintenance isn't painless.

I use Windows on the desktop because I like multi-monitor systems and the components are cheap. I would look at Apple if they did something similar (a tower configuration that isn't as high-end as the Mac Pro).

 

What they should do with theM14x is flip that fan's intake, and point the big hole down instead of blocking it with the keyboard

 

Absolutely it can (and does).

 

The only thing I miss about my Mac was the trackpad. It's so much better than any trackpad on a windows laptop.

 

I pretty much echo your same comments. I don't really NEED to upgrade to a newer machine from my current 2009 MBP 17". The laptop I have is working flawlessly for my software development needs.

I too use Linux, but RHEL as an Oracle 11gR2 server, on a very inexpensive HP box with 5 drive bays. Doesn't have a high end processor, or a lot of memory, or a high end graphics card (using integrated graphics actually). Would be very cool if apple offered a similar box that is not so high end as a mac pro. Actually, now that I think about it, a mac min server using eSATA to external drives with a backplane allowing hot swapping would basically be the same thing (better actually) as what I'm describing. I wouldn't be able to use it as an RHEL Oracle database server though, obviously. lol. But I could try installing Oracle 11gR2 directly onto the OS X lion server. That would be a cool experiment actually.

 

It's not the cost of the trackpad. It's not the cost of OSX. The iMac is comparably priced with comparably-specced Windows 7 all-in-ones, and it has OSX and can be had with an Apple multitouch trackpad. The MacBook Air is comparably priced with comparably-specced Windows 7 ultraportables (Asus Zenbook and Envy 14 Spectre with 900p screens), and it has OSX and an Apple multitouch trackpad. It's ONLY the MacBook Pro line that is dramatically more expensive than similarly-specced Windows 7.

MBPs are more expensive because that's what the market will bear. Full stop.

 

I've always found that STREAMING Divx videos online to be subpar compared to windows.

 

Then you are doing it wrong.

The MBP line isn't the only one overpriced. Both the Mac Mini and Mac Pro are drastically overpriced compared to the competition. Even the AppleTV 2, AirPort Express base station, and AirPort Extreme router are overpriced compared to what other companies are doing. The only product lines where Apple seems to be competing price wise with others is the MBA, iPad, iPhone, and some of the iPods.

 

I agree that the AEBS is overpriced for a router, though I've used similarly spec'ed devices from other major brands that were nothing but trouble.

However, neither the Apple TV nor the Airport Express fall into that category. A Roku box with Ethernet and USB is the same price as the Apple TV. The Airport Express has Ethernet and USB as well and is only $10 more expensive than the Linksys WET610, which doesn't do USB.

 

thats pretty vague... I've still never had a problem.

 

The reason why I said the AppleTV is overpriced is that the Roku models with the same cost do a lot more. It's not just about the cost of the competitors but what functions they can pull off. Hulu Plus, HBO Go, MKV h.264 playback, and support for a variety of audio/video formats has the Roku pulling ahead. Not only that but the model with the ethernet and USB ports is often on sale for $80 (that and the USB port on the AppleTV is only used for maintenance and not expanding its storage since it works on a streaming basis only so I don't think it can really be counted).

Additionally, with the AirPort Express, it may have a leg up with one or two extra features but brick and mortar stores will often discount 802.11n (2.4-5GHz)routers (with multiple ethernet ports) down to $50. Is that extra $50 worth having a USB connection and audio output? In the grand scheme of things, probably not.

My point is that Apple makes expensive products in almost every category. The MBP isn't the only "overpriced" line they have on the market at this point. The iPod nano, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, AirPort products, AppleTV, etc. are all higher priced than their competition and some even offer less features. That doesn't really matter though since Apple has never really been about trying to one up the competition just because they might have more features.

 

Especially the iPod lineup. Back in the fourth(?) generation of Nano, I was debating on either purchasing it or a competitor 8GB version. Ended up with the Sansa View 8GB because it offered all the same features as the then-current Nano, but also included FM radio and mini-SD expansion for cheaper than the 8GB Nano. Shuffle is a joke since you can get a Clip or Clip+ for much less. About the only iPod that's "worth it" is the Touch, but only because the Zune HD is dead and other PDA-like devices lack some features (internet connection, etc.).

 

I don't think people in this thread are taking into consideration HOW Apple prices there devices/PC's. Software development and R&D are a MAJOR factor in the final price. There's not a single PC OEM out there, aside from Apple, that develops their OWN OS for the product they're selling. OSX is financed from Apple hardware sales, no if's-ands-or-buts.

Now with that taken into consideration, and with the premium build materials used on the MBP, I think it's price is more than justified. Just because the internal hardware is similar to other PC's on the market doesn't mean you can compare pricing directly.

Also, the Airport Extreme is very well priced for what it provides... both in hardware and software. It's ease of use is unparalleled. It's hardware is top-notch outside of business class network equipment. And lastly, the antenna design on the latest generation is quite impressive. I've had one in the lab, personally, and it outperforms just about every consumer router out there... even most that have external/protruding antennas.

 

While Apple touts the AE's router functionality, I don't really see it as such because its single Ethernet port is rather limiting. I was talking about it in the context of a dual-band wireless bridge/repeater, where the AE is fairly reasonably priced among other units.

I've also never seen a simultaneous dual band router sell for $50.

 

Wait till ivy bridge then hardware might catch up with the price assuming price wont change most likely

 

One other aspect of Apple is service - you can go into their stores for service and training. If you want Dell's version (in-home or in-business), you have to pay for the service.

 

Just recently I experimented with the USB/hard drive port on the AEBS. I hooked up my old WD 1 TB drive to a $20 USB 2.0 enclosure, connected it to the router, and installed the Airport Utility on the Windows side of my MBP as well as my wife's Toshiba notebook. In just a few clicks, the drive was visible as a network share in Windows Explorer and could be both read from and written to despite being formatted in HFS. The process could not have been simpler. The only small criticism I have is that the drive has to be formatted as HFS or FAT32; exFAT isn't supported, despite both OS X and Windows 7 having the ability to read/write to such partitions.

Edit: As far as costs go, I think we can throw refurbished Apple products into this discussion because they carry the same warranty and support as new ones. There are often significant savings to be had.

It's nice if you live near an Apple store to take advantage, not so much if you don't. I wish Apple offered in-home service as well as accidental damage coverage as part of Apple Care. You can get the latter on an iPhone, so it's not as if it doesn't exist within the company's ecosystem.

 

Depends on which notebook you buy from Dell. If it's a consumer laptop (Insprion, etc.), then your argument holds true (iff you live near an Apple store). However, you've ignored Dell Business, where 3yr NBD warranties are standard on their business laptops (Latitude, Precision, and maybe Vostro though I doubt it). I believe HP Business has the same standard NBD warranties.

 

> It's nice if you live near an Apple store to take advantage, not so much
> if you don't. I wish Apple offered in-home service as well as accidental
> damage coverage as part of Apple Care. You can get the latter on an
> iPhone, so it's not as if it doesn't exist within the company's ecosystem.

I'm 10 minutes away from an Apple Store from my office (could actually walk there) so it's something that's of benefit if there is one nearby. If you're 100 miles away, then the value (to me) would be considerably less.

> Depends on which notebook you buy from Dell. If it's a consumer laptop
> (Insprion, etc.), then your argument holds true (iff you live near an
> Apple store). However, you've ignored Dell Business, where 3yr NBD
> warranties are standard on their business laptops (Latitude, Precision,
> and maybe Vostro though I doubt it). I believe HP Business has the
> same standard NBD warranties.

I have not purchased Dell laptops in a very long time but they were all
consumer models. I think that most consumers purchase consumer
models because you get more compute power for your buck. You just
take a hit on build quality. I do have a few desktops from Dell small business
that didn't come with on-site service. The on-site service was an option.

One disadvantage of the on-site service model is when the repair guy
comes to your office and doesn't have the right parts to fix your system.
The Apple Stores do seem better able to manage the logistics of repair
than the Dell guys (from my experiences).

 

Such is the risk when a company deals with outside sub-contractors. You never know what you'll end up getting. It's not just technicians who might not show up with the right parts; they could very well not know what they're doing at all. One only need look at the Alienware sub-forum here for those horror stories.

That's one thing I do like about the Apple support experience. I've had nothing but great service in terms of sales and tech support in-store, over the phone, and online. It's all very cohesive, too.

By the way, are you on some sort of mobile or old web browser? I only ask because when you're quoting multiple people here it looks really bizarre...nothing like the forum's built-in multi-quote feature.

 

It's a six-hour round trip to the nearest Apple Store.

 

Resell value. I literally sell the previous model around the same price I bought it for and upgrade to the latest and greatest. You won't believe how many people who are completely illiterate about computers. And the Apple brand helps as well.

 

That, my friend, will be a failing of the average consumer, not a pro in favor of the MBP .

 

Kindof off topic but since it was brought up about Dell warranties and repair services vs Apples I'll share a little about my experience with each.

I have several DELLs and I always get them with Accident Protectin and onsite NBD service for at least three years. This is one of the few areas where I have to admit that Apple is lacking, especially for businesses who use Apple products and who can't have a computer down for days, weeks or longer while it is in for repair. DELLs accident protection plans and their higher end (pricier) onsite NBD warranties that they sell to small businesses are not cheap, but they really have paid for themselves (for me). I wish Apple offered accident protection and NBD type of repair, I'd buy it.

I've had Dell laptops that required motherboards, daughter boards, displays, palmrest/touchpad, etc and entire laptops replaced under warranty. DELL has stepped up and for each occurrence they are onsite at my office, usually the very NBD. DELL overnights the parts to the local repair contractor or to my office (my choice)... I've had to wait sometimes a day or two longer as the wrong part was initially shipped. I have the choice of performing the repair myself or having a contract repair company come out to do it. I always opt for the repair company to do the work. But for the most part I get the laptop repaired the next day or two without me having to travel anywhere. And "no questions asked" other than diagnostic type of questions so that they ship out the correct part.

Having a local apple store is great if it is something they can resolve right then and there. But usually, if it is something like a hardware issue, then you leave the laptop with them for varying lengths of time. I've had to leave our MacBooks at Apple stores for at least a month while they replaced the display under warranty. No way would that fly for a business laptop that had to be operational ASAP. *thats why I am ridiculous about always making backups in addition to using cloud synching such as dropbox and having multiple machines. That way I can continue on with my business using another machine while Apple geniuses take their sweet time replacing a screen on the broken mbp



Now, with that all said, perhaps it says something about DELLS quality if I needed all of those repairs performed to begin with. lol. I've also had the contract repairman arrive to fix a DELL and they failed by breaking something else or not doing the repair properly, requiring a 2nd contract repairman to come out the next few days with more parts to do it right. That is frustrating. But I've had Apple repairs, from Apple themselves, also perform shoddy repairs.

anyway, I wish apple had accident protection (cuz I do sometimes break things myself, no fault of the mfr), and I most definitely wish apple offered a NBD repair warranty pkg.

 

Once a video starts streaming there's severe lag between user commands and action. For instance, pressing the pause button and the video doesn't actually pause for a good minute or two. This is only when the video is still being loaded for steaming. It happens for me on multiple sites when on macs. Switch over to windows via bootcamp and works perfectly fine.

 

Example site?