Switching to Apple: macbook or macbook pro?

[xxguitarist]

i got torn apart a bit huh :rolleyes:

referring to the charger, *on the ones my friends have* the macbook pro came with a faster charger, they both were magnetic...then her dog ate it, and shes using her roomies from a macbook.

regarding the touchpad.. no, i suppose its not true tactile feedback, but when theres a frame around the edge of the touchpad, i know when i'm at the edge, and i know if a finger is on it, emphasis on the latter. I had issues with that on the macbook pro, and i dont know if the same can be said for the macbook.

[bobdea]

the imac you can switch out drives but there are no open bays so you can't add a second hard drive or optical, fire wire 800 is alright but still slower than SATA drives so it's a bottleneck, USB 2 and the original 1394 are really slow and the video card is soldered on

in a few years the best things you can do to a aging machine other than add RAM is get a new video card and either replace the CPU or overclock, with the imac you lose one of those options and the two latter I think would be a real pain in the ass in a imac because it's gotta be a bitch to get in there and then keeping a hot cpu cool in such a small case is not something I'd want to have to deal with

[cail]

get the apple care, i had a fluke bad computer that manifested itself 14 months in and it was so bad apple replaced it with the newest model.

ditto... only mine was the PowerBook G4 no apple care. luckily mine went crazy within the first half a year so i was good on warranty still. they fixed the wrong problem (which i told them not to do in the first place cause i knew they were wrong)... so after a month of waiting i got it back and the problem was still there (hmmm wonder why). anyway they ended up giving me a Macbook Pro .. i also added apple care at that time.

the video card is soldered on

yeah, can't replace graphics card which is a bummer.

i got torn apart a bit huh :rolleyes:

no problemo dude... the mouse pad is close to flush with the case, but i think you get used to it fairly quickly. you can turn on trackpad clicking also... but i think it's too sensitive.

[Jim]

oh yeah. Well it's *nix, in any case.

One more Q: how necessary is AppleCare? I assume it's like rustproofing.

I returned my daughters Mac Book Pro with arrow keys malfunctioning (probably her over-usage) and got it back 3 working days later. They replaced the keyboard. I don't remember how much Applecare was but it was less than the repair. It helps to live near Silicon Valley. FWIW

[Jack M]

Bob, good point about the iMac being having all (or rather several) of the disadvantages of a laptop with none of the benefits. I think I'll scratch that off the list.

I started this quest lusting for the Mini because it's so cheap. You can get it with 2gb ram. However again, all the disadvantages of a laptop. So I think a laptop is the way to go.

So I'm back to the original quesiton... is the MBP <i>really</i> worth another $550?? That's a season pass to Sugarloaf and then some.

I will wait for Leopard in any case.

[Vahur]

IMO there is no big difference between macbook or macbook pro for photo editing: they both seem to have TFT panel (IMO panel is most important for photo editing), so external calibrated monitor is must for precision work.

Both MacBook and MacBookPro have more than enought processing and graphic power for photo-editing so other things equal I'd prefer smaller and more lightweight MacBook.

/me half-way into mac-land with BIG and shiny 23" Cinema display :)