Should I take the plunge...

Hi

I have always used pc's and have an XPS M1330 on order but am considering cancelling and getting a MBP. Other than the ridiculous 11 week wait for the Dell, I am getting concerned about reports of bad build quality on what should be a premium product (with price to match). Have a few q's before I take the plunge...

1. I have a copy of Vista and would be using this via bootcamp - is the support good enough to use this as my primary os (at least to begin with)?

2. I like having a dedicated partition for my files, could I create a 3rd partition for these which I could access from both OS X and Vista?

3. Will files I have created/edited in Windows based environment be compatible with OS X and iLife/iWork?

4. If I find that I don't use OS X, is there anyway I can remove it altogether and only have Vista installed?

5. Does the extended support have to be bought at the same time as buying the MBP or can I buy it later in the year?

6. I use my trusty inspiron 8600 ever day (stays at home but used all around the house) and has lasted nearly 4 years - how robust is the MBP, would it be able to match this?

7. How good is Apple's customer support (do they use Indian call centres like Dell) and how reliable are hardware repairs?

Thanks

 

4.) At this time, OS X is required to be installed.

6.) You're lucky you're 8600 is still operating. I've had mine since April of 2004. A couple of months ago the hard disk failed (Hitachi ATA-6 7200RPM 60GB). The bezel snapped in the bottom right corner. The left hinge tore through it's casing and broke through the plastic. The right hinge was getting close to failing. The 8600c wasn't really made to stand the test of time, but I feel confidant that the MBP is designed to withstand a respectable amount of torture. Just to be safe, you might want to add a shell to it. It's odd, because my 8600c was never roughed up yet it looks like it fell off numerous tables in it's lifetime.

Out of curiosity, what are the specs of your 8600?

Fun picture of my 8600c:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5610/08dp0.jpg

 

1. some people would say yes, i would say no. for the time being, os x is the only practical primary operating system for the macbook pro.

not to say that you couldnt do it, just that when it comes time for portability, vista will suffer heavily compared to os x (for now - driver updates could change my answer)

2. you can do that from within windows (or os x) but not with the boot camp tool, you will need other third party tools.

3. the files themselves os x doesn't have a problem with (ie. if you emailed a file to yourself, os x could read it)

however, windows won't be able to pick up (read) or write files from / to the os x side (without 3rd party tools) and os x can only read the windows side (without 3rd party tools - free)

iwork 08 can import power point documents, word documents, and excel documents to varying degrees of accuracy

ilife can import some things... music files in certain formats (not wma, for example) go to garageband. pictures in various formats could be imported into iphoto... that sort of thing.

4. not at the moment. you have to keep os x. one tangible reason for this is that os x is needed for firmware updates... although that might change in the future.

5. you can buy it later in the year.

6. a 4 year old laptop? hah. i think so. the macbook pro is top-shelf in all its components for a 15" laptop. as far as staying up and running for 4 years, that should not be a problem at all. it can last forever if you take care of it. I know people with like 8+ year old apple laptops.

7. customer support is excellent. they are renowned for being really good.

 

1. There is no official support from Apple at this time as Bootcamp is still in Beta. Having said that, you should not run into any problem which apple forums or forums such as this will not solve.

2. I think that is possible, though best is to get a external HDD, format it as FAT32 and use it for all your files. Or format your Windows partition as FAT32, and use Macdrive in windows to access Mac files.

3. Office files can be opened edited in OSX. You can use Microsoft office for Mac, NeoOffice or iWork.

4. Not possible or recommend at least now.

5. You can buy Apple care anytime within the first year of your purchase of MBP.

6. MBP is pretty robust. Having said that 4 years is a long time for any computer, though with good care, MBP should last you.

7. Apple is supposed to have the best customer support around.

 

I am amazed at how well its lasted considering its a consumer laptop - only repairs have been replacement screen hinges which were covered under warranty:

1.5 Ghz Pentium M CPU
100 GB 7200 HDD
2 GB RAM
Radeon Mobility 9600Pro GPU
1680x1050 screen
Dual boot Vista/XP

 

I assume you are refering to reduced battery life due to badly optimised drivers - what runtime should I expect from MBP running Vista on batteries?

Do you think these issues will be resolved in leopard?

 

Thanks for all the feedback - going to have a play with one at an apple store tomorrow

Sounds like its pretty complicated to get Vista and OS X to play nice If I decided that Vista was going to be my primary os, what is the smallest partition OS X would need (planning on getting the 160 GB drive)?

 

battery runtime, other assorted driver issues. 95% of the problems can be resolved with an external keyboard / mouse / being plugged in. its just that those things severely limit your mobility.

 

just as everybody else has said, i dont think so at this time. but i have a feeling that once the first real version of bootcamp is released with leopard that there will be some hacks for getting vista/XP to be the only one running.

 

Can you be more specific about what features don't work without an external keyboard/mouse - only issues I've read about is the lack of keyboard backlight and right-click button but I thought this had been fixed by a 'double tap' on the touch pad?

Can anyone give me a rough idea of the difference in runtime when on batteries between OS X and Vista?

Currently I spend about 2/3 of my time mobile and 1/3 plugged into psu with external mouse so this could be a deal breaker

 

The minimum partition size for either OS X or Windows is 5 GB. So you can dedicate 5 GB to OS X and leave the rest to Windows if you want.

 

I am on Vista about 95% of the time. I have a 17" HiRes.

I click on the battery icon in the system tray and switch to "Power Saver" mode. This looks like it disables the aero interface and other stuff. but it will has lasted me at least 2 hours (I also dimmed the screen to about 75%). The battery was about 25% left when I finished my tasks and put the PC to sleep. So, i guess it would last around 2.5 hours, but i can't confirm.

anyway, i'm plugged in about 80% of the time. so battery life wasn't a huge deal for me.

hope that helps.

 

do it mang. I would.