Windows Laptop or Apple Mac?

Stuart Truman said:
MBP looks like the way ahead. You might find a 15" retina display plus an external monitor your best option. IMO 17" is a neither one thing or another size.

Thanks Stuart, my current Dell has a 17" screen, I think my previous HP Pavillion was 18 but a 15" may a tad too small for long periods of use. Think over christmas will pop into PC world and have a play and look at the 15" and see what its like. There is a considerable price difference between the 15 and 17" macbooks.

Tim.
 
Worth it in a way if you are using a laptop for "real" work. My son has the 17" retina one and it is much easier to work with then mine (i.e. his old cast off 15" one :) ).
 
Just my opinion, but 17" is luggable rather than laptop. If it's spending most of its time on a desk, who cares. But if you're going to be taking it places I'd go 15" and buy a fecking big monitor for "real" editing.

Horses for courses though. If you're happy with 17" and carting it about, all good.
 
From looking at the Apple store you can't get a new 17" now anyway?

I have a 13" that's over 2 years old now, paid £899 for it from Amazon. If I was buying again tomorrow I'd get a 13" retina, plus a shiny 24" monitor for about £150 these days. I like the 13" because it's nice and compact and the screen is better than a 15.4" Dell I had previously.
 
One of the reasons I use an iMac rather than a laptop is that I never know if the client will have a decent or any screen for me to connect to.

I did consider a Mac Mini with a 17" screen, but then realised it was easier to cart an iMac around as it had better specs than the available Minis at the time.

I was originally carting my Mac Pro with 30" Cinema Display all around the country in the back of my M5, but I'm sure the travelling didn't do the computer any favours. What finally settled it was having to work in Central London or out f the country where driving was not feasible. So I tried a few laptop options in the interim and realised I'd have to carry a keyboard, mouse and monitor to guarantee my comfort anyway, so a 17" iMac wasn't that great a difference.

I've since upgraded to a later i5 iMac, which was only available in 21.5+, so it's a fair bit heavier than the old plastic 17" one.

Also, not having a laptop means there's no temptation/pressure to work on the train/plane.

This is what I cart mine around in, and having it on your back is quite useful on the Tube for making other commuters give you space.
21.5_black_w500.jpg
 
Stuart Truman said:
Just my opinion, but 17" is luggable rather than laptop. If it's spending most of its time on a desk, who cares. But if you're going to be taking it places I'd go 15" and buy a fecking big monitor for "real" editing.

Horses for courses though. If you're happy with 17" and carting it about, all good.

x2 :thumbsup:

Mobility was why I went for the 15, it's still big, you still get 2560x1920 resolution on the retina display, so yep if you do real desktop editing then get a 27in monitor.

Spec the best cpu and as much memory as you can get, then at least you do have the choice of literally running anything on it (Mac/Windows).
I'm replacing a business spec server and laptop so the mbp gives me massive options especially as I need it as a mobile platform, it really is a do all machine :)
 
mmm-five said:
One of the reasons I use an iMac rather than a laptop is that I never know if the client will have a decent or any screen for me to connect to.

I did consider a Mac Mini with a 17" screen, but then realised it was easier to cart an iMac around as it had better specs than the available Minis at the time.

I was originally carting my Mac Pro with 30" Cinema Display all around the country in the back of my M5, but I'm sure the travelling didn't do the computer any favours. What finally settled it was having to work in Central London or out f the country where driving was not feasible. So I tried a few laptop options in the interim and realised I'd have to carry a keyboard, mouse and monitor to guarantee my comfort anyway, so a 17" iMac wasn't that great a difference.

I've since upgraded to a later i5 iMac, which was only available in 21.5+, so it's a fair bit heavier than the old plastic 17" one.

Also, not having a laptop means there's no temptation/pressure to work on the train/plane.

This is what I cart mine around in, and having it on your back is quite useful on the Tube for making other commuters give you space.
21.5_black_w500.jpg

:? That's a serious amount of kit to be lugging round, would love to see the flight attendants faces when you say you've one carry on and "laptop" bag :wink:
 
Sae said:
:? That's a serious amount of kit to be lugging round, would love to see the flight attendants faces when you say you've one carry on and "laptop" bag :wink:
Strangely never even had a second glance, and only been asked to take it out f the bag once, and that was when I was bumped from a BA flight to a Lufthansa one from Frankfurt.

I can't claim it's the lightest thing in the world, but I only have to lug it around on my back when I've checked in my trolley case.
 
i carry my 17" no probs....

then brought my mom the 15" retina model and i was dissapointed with it, so i held onto mine and gave her the newer model..... irrc, they removed the DVD drive???? i may have made that up but i dont think it was present??
 
Macbook Pro by a log way IMHO. Just bought my son a new machine for school work, went Macbook Air and he loves it (has always had Vaio's up to recently) - transition wasn't too difficult, he's picked it up pretty quickly. I have to use a Lenovo for some work (security policies etc) but as most of my work is through browsers, have the option of using a Mac most of the time. Nowadays though, my iPad gets more use than my laptop!

OP - ever thought of making this a voting thread? :)
 
Thanks guys, I was on Apples website earlier, I'm sure they did a 17" Macbook which was around £1995 or am I mistaken? I will really need to look at the 15" as for me the smaller screen might be an issue :| Re portability, thats not really an issue for me personally although I appreciate many use theirs for business so need something that can be carried around easily, for me I can always take the ipad. Hmmmmm I wish apple still did a 17" :cry:

Tim.
 
What are you thinking you won't like about the smaller screen? That it might not have enough "real estate" or that the smaller screen might be harder to view?

Because the larger screens have higher resolutions and therefore the text appears pretty much the same size on both, except the desktop is smaller on a smaller screen obviously.
 
I went to work ( a new contract) and picked up the company laptop and damned near strained my back lifting it...I'm used to my Macbook Air. It weighs about a third of the Dell dinosaur. I have 4 macs at home so my opinion is very biased, used Bill Gates products at work....disliked them.

PS: I have MS Office for MAC on my gear at home, it's great, and I just found a copycat Mac program for MS Project as well...
 
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