About to take the plunge

Hello all,

I now find myself on the threshold of purchasing myself a mac for the first time ever.

I had tried to resist this buying decision but unfortunately the market at present seems to leave me very little choice. Simply put: no Windows based manufacturer has yet been able to offer me a machine which displays the same mix of style and performance as the MBP line. Various hopefuls have cropped up (Samsung 7, Lenovo u400, etc) but none are really able to deliver the goods.

Thus it seems that mac it is.

This may seem stupid to all the Mac veterans here but i am quite apprehensive about making this decision. Not only is the machine very very expensive but additionally the Mac OSX is all but a mystery to me. For this reason my question to you seasoned Mac users, but particularly to more recent Mac switchers, is what are the upsides + pitfalls to making the switch?

I am by no means trying to insight the kind of Mac vs PC drivel that threads such as this deteriorate into but would like some objective and sound advice before making my purchase. One can read as much as possible on a new machine/OS but until actually owning said system will never really understand it on a day to day level. Hence the reason i would value your input.

I shall be doing some medium gaming: MMOs, etc, newer games at moderate settings. Photoshop. Virtual DJ software. The usual office, web stuff.

Many thanks

 

I switched to Macs earlier this year whenever Apple came out with the updated MacBook Pro (MBP) line featuring Intel Sandy Bridge processors. I had been using Windows exclusively since about 1995 up until early 2011 and quite honestly, I didn't find the switch to be jarring. It took me the same amount of time to get used to Mac OS X as it did to get the hang of Windows 7. You can still right-click in OS X (you can setup the trackpad to do this either when you click with two fingers or when you click in the lower right corner of the trackpad), you can still run MS Office if you have to, iTunes is a smoother experience, you still have access to the same web, etc.

The only time you might run into issues is when you are trying to install some games/programs as they may not have a Mac OS X version. I think the big MMOs have both Windows and Mac versions but many of the smaller ones don't. Of which you would need to install Windows on the Mac through the bootcamp procedure in order to get those games up and running. More modern games such as Battlefield 3 or Batman Arkham City are Windows only as well. I had to do that (though I switched to running Windows 7 in Parallels 7) simply because I am using MATLAB for my research and some of the commands work only in Windows despite there being a Mac version of MATLAB.

So, other than some program compatibility issues, I have really enjoyed using Mac OS X over Windows. In the end, both are just OS platforms that are essentially designed to do the same thing. They may take different paths and look differently but they are both designed to let you use programs, consume media, and surf the internet. I prefer OS X simply because I have had a smoother experience with it than Windows 7 on all of my systems and, if OS X gets hung up, I have only ever had to close the problematic program instead of restarting my entire system as I have had to do in Win 7.

I think many people worry about switching to a new OS platform but with OS X, I feel that the transition isn't bad at all. It may take you a little bit of time to get used to the smaller things such as using System Preferences instead of the Windows Control Panel but I think that is about on par as switching from the Control Panel in Windows XP to the one in Windows 7. So, if you can switch to Windows 7 (or even Vista), I don't think you will have any issues with OS X outside of program compatibility.

 

Switching to Mac products just because you want the aluminum shell is sometimes a recipe for disaster, depending on just how much you're wedded to the Windows software programs for various things ... people can't find, or don't want to spend the time learning, OS X equivalents and then complain like crazy about how their new machine won't get the job done for them.

Have you looked at Asus' new Zenbook line of ultrabooks, or the recently announced Dell 14z? These look like they could emerge as first truly viable competitors to the MBA and MBP lines in terms of similar style and design.

 

Yes, I would say that the switch to OS X from Win 7 or dual use of them isn't as bad, as Apple does spend big bucks on the development of its close sourced OS compared to free linux alternatives like Fedora or Ubuntu. Now, those later choices were a shock to me when I played around with them recently.

 

The aluminium shell isnt the only reason for thinking of switching to an MBP, its the whole package. Show me a windows machine that has the same mix of performance and style and i will consider it. I'm interested in the use of the machine as a whole and to my knowledge no other manufacturer can offer the same multitouch pad quality, screen standard, etc etc etc as the MBP. Heck even the Mac AC charger is ingenious.

The Dell 14z looks good specwise but it's keyboard looks like crap (same as 15z) and just generally seems to lack a certain something that the Mac has.

Given the recent spec update and the fact that i have recently realised that i can get the new base 15 MBP for a little over £1000 i think i'm just about sold.

Hello Mac OSX its nice to meet you

 

The XPS 14z looks really nice, I saw the review on Anand and was just blown away by how elegant it looks, especially how thin the screen is.

 

It is better to look for a reliable, well-built machine that meets your application's hardware requirements than to seek performance and style. Style is a very subjective quality, and performance is also relative to the user's computing needs, so valuing these qualities can be a waste of money. I would recommend buying the MBP for better reasons besides "performance and style."

 

I'm going to offer my recommendation but TBH, I'm having some real issues with your above statements. You say the Mac is "very very expensive", yet you say that there's nothing in the Windows-based world that offers you what the Mac can offer? Well that should justify to you why it's more expensive. You even go as far as saying "it's the whole package" that Apple offers that you don't get in the Windows-based world. Again, that should justify the price to you.

Now, honestly, I don't see how you're seeing the Mac's "whole package" if you're on the fence and you're not even convinced that OS X is something you want to use. With that being said you're only looking at the aluminum shell as others have pointed out.

My suggestion is to go into your local Apple store or local Apple reseller and take a good look at the Mac and OS X Lion and ask some questions about how it works and the programs that you're interested in using on it constantly and then you can make an informed decision.

Right now it just seems that you're more focused on the "pretty" and not the actual system. The multitouch gestures that you're attracted to will not be available should you decide to install Windows, they will only work in OS X Lion. That being said, again, you should go check out a Mac in person and play with it for a good long time and ask questions.

If want to switch just for the sake of switching to something new then go for it, if you're switching just for the "pretty" you're going to be "pretty disappointed".

 

In my opinion, the PC laptops that ape the MacBook Pro's style are ones to be wary of (Envy 14, XPS 15z). While there are some exceptions, generally speaking, when somebody is clearly trying to ride someone else's coattails, they're doing it for a reason. The only possible exception is the Samsung Series 7 Chronos, but so far, personal reviews online have been very inconsistent, so I'm withholding judgment. My favorite PC machines--Vaios, Alienwares, Thinkpads--are their own thing and are proud of what they are.

You're right that MacBook Pros are very expensive, PARTICULARLY if you want a decent GPU. The cheapest MBP with a decent GPU is $2,199. That's insane. If you want the (really, really nice) aluminum unibody case and the best-on-the-market multifunction trackpad (disclaimer: it loses much of that functionality when you're running Windows 7), I'd pull the trigger on the MBP 15 with the 6750M. But if you're stretching your budget and/or you want to play MMOs besides WoW (for example, I don't think Guild Wars 2 or Star Wars: The Old Republic runs on OSX, and buying Windows to run on the MBP adds $200 to an already-expensive package), I'd encourage you to look at a Vaio SE, Vaio F, or Alienware M14x instead.

 

You may want to wait on the XPS 14z that comes out next week and see if it has a better GPU than the one administered in the XPS 15z (nVIDIA GeForce GT 525M). If you are not worried about GPU (e.g. you won't be doing excessive gaming) then I would just get the mid-tier XPS 15z with a 2-year protection plan, as they will save you money.

But you may also want to consider the Samsung Series 9 laptop, as that's a really thin and portable machine, aside from that I would say give the Alienware M14x a shot and see how that works out for you. Also the 14x is more affordable and comes with 900p screen, which is better than the Envy 14 which is barely 720p.

 

I'm in the same boat, I bought an MBP because nothing else offerred the same experience. I just couldn't find a Windows PC that offerred the same hardware experience as the MBP.

Anyways I was worried about OSX, I've had zero problems. Macs are expensive, that is pretty much the only trouble I've had with mine. I even run a lot of engineering software, so I need to go into Windows to run that but overall the Mac experience has been great for me. It took me a couple days to get up to speed with OSX, but it really wasn't much of a learning curve at all.

Plus I liked the Apple customer support.

 

Thats not true anymore. Right now the cheapest once with a decent GPU is $1800, they refreshed. Plus if you install Linux on your old laptop you have a free copy of Windows.

 

Gotcha, I was helping someone buy one just a couple weeks ago, adn they wanted the 6750M model but couldn't afford it. I'm not gonna tell her that a week or so later, the 6750M was added to the $1,799 model.

Offering the 6750M on the $1799 model makes the MBP 15 pricing a LOT more sensible than it used to be.