I hate doing this but what should I do!?

Ok tax refund came (yay) and I been thinking heavily about buying a Mac. The reason being I just got into photography and I feel the software for the mac could be beneficial. I never owned a mac before on my own though my family all during when I was growing up our main PC was a Macintosh Performa 550.

Anyways my current laptop is a HP DV6636NR which is an athlon dual core system. I can't stand it really. Sure it looks pretty and has a nifty remote and media controls but...the battery life is abysmal. I mean its absolutely horrific if I get 100 minutes on low brightness just surfing the internet I am happy. Its thick its like 2" thick and its 6ibs which is sorta heavy and makes me never want to carry it anywhere. I cannot use it on the train for my daily commute because the seats are too close together and I cant even open it up to use it comfortably.

So that being said I been thinking of getting a Macbook. I figured the 13" screen would be a small enough footprint I can use it on the train and the 5 hour battery life is pretty impressive to me. And reading the reviews I saw that it could even make it through a movie. The problem I am seeing is a lot of people have an issue with the screen. Now I don't mean the glare (and please don't start arguing on that I read the 50 kajillion topics on it) but I mean the quality. Everyone says its really bad. Now I don't know if I should worry because my HP I am sure has a low quality panel already so maybe it won't matter (I only paid $600 for it) but people make it out to be really bad and the pictures in the reviews aren't helping. Is it something you think I would notice or no?

Also I been teetering back and forth on a Macbook or a Macbook Pro...now I know all the benefits to both are and I am really looking for a smaller footprint but...I don't know what I should do I am so confused. Can anyone help me?

 

Go to an Apple Store, like a physical one, and have a look at the Macbooks they have there on display.

 

Yeah I am doing that today as soon as the misses wakes up...not allowed to wake her up early on Valentine day...problem is I am a sucker for instant gratification. I went into a camera store to play and feel different models and then decide I ended up walking out with a camera that I really wasn't going to buy yet...

 

If screen quality is of any issue to you, I recommend the Pro. I bought the MacBook and ultimately returned it because the screen quality was not up to par for the price of the machine. I was coming from a laptop with a poor screen and thought the MacBook's screen was good enough at first glance. Upon using it for about a week, I found it to not be very good. The Pro's screen is great. Like namaiki said, you should go to an Apple Store before you make any decision to see them in person.

 

lol ..where I am in Australia, Valentine's day ended one-and-a-half hours ago.

 

lol yes I think its a poor excuse to make guys feel bad on yet another day of the year when they forget to do something...

 

If you can wait, I'd recommend waiting for the next generation of intel platform which should be out in late this year. Nehalem CPUs will offer a significant jump over the current crop, with elimination of FSB and an on chip memory controller.
USB 3.0 may also be out by then.

 

I thought about it but a few things worry me:
1) Intel Freezes Notebook Stuff

So I am not sure if much will even happen this year

2) I have this sneaking suspicion that Apple's next update will totally ax any user changeable battery like they are doing on the 17" Macbook pro.

3) I hate waiting. I can pawn off my old laptop to a friend for a good price right now. If I wait till next year then the year after that something new bigger and better will be coming along.

 

I say go with the MBP but like the others said, go look in person. I just felt 13" was too small for editing photos.

 

The delay will be just to clear out the inventories (a couple of months at most).
It does not make sense for intel to keep produciing the old cpus when they have the new ones.

I guess the optimal scenario wold be if you wait till the new cpus are just out, so that you can get old MBPs at clearance, giving you a choice of both new MBPs and old ones in case the new MBPs have a non-removable battery.

Yes, you will have to wait, but it'll be sweet torment Anticpating a new MBP

 

*Sigh* buy now, regret later.
(I brought my MBP a week ago and have yet to regret it)
No point in waiting for the latest and greatest. Plus its going to be next year before Apple Release a new variant of their MacBook series (or VERY late 09)

Theres always going to be a better thing just round the corner and the corner after that. Sucks, but thats the way it is. Plus if you wait, chances are you won't get as good a price for that HP.

 

If you're getting into photography I would think the extra graphics power of the MBP would be worth it. Probably depends if you're planning on going into photography heavily or even professionally, though, as the Pro (especially the new one) offers the dedicated graphics card if needed. If you're just going to be playing around with it then the Macbook might suffice. As others have pointed out, however, the screen on the MB might not make you happy.

Go to the Apple store and look at them side by side.

 

Conversely, are there poeple who regretted waiting ?

True dat, but this will be a siginificant bump in architecture and performance.

 

Either the MBP 4.1 (the newest classic MBP) or the new Unibody. The MacBook isn't good for photography or even movie watching.

 

remember, if you'll run vista on the macbook or the macbook pro, you will get approximately 1.30-1.45 mins of battery runtime. (Note: This is when brightness is set to medium and power mode set to balanced and you are surfing on the net through wifi).

on the os x however, the battery will last 5 hours approximately when doing the same tasks.

 

yeah, but who cares?

even significant bumps aren't that significant.

6 months is too long to wait if you need a new computer today.

i guess its up to individuals to decide what their threshold is, but at the end of the day, your computer is going to be outdated soon regardless of when you buy it. and if you are waiting 6 months to buy your laptop so that you can get the latest hardware, the NEXT set of latest hardware is only going to be about 6 months away.

so, wait forever?? of course!

my advice is buy it when you decide you need it. my wait-for-new-tech threshold is much less than 6 months. maybe if it were 3 or 4 weeks.

 

I regretted waiting for dual-core Atom..
After I heard the announcement, I was like ZOMG DESKTOP ONLY?

But that's slightly different...

 

lol well I ended up buying a Macbook. While I would think the better screen and the extra power of the Macbook pro might have helped a little I do most of my heavier editing on my Core i7 Desktop anyways. Mostly my laptop is for getting pictures from my camera onto a computer while I am traveling and light editing. Portability was a more important factor to me so in the end the slower and smaller yet lighter and smaller Macbook won me over.