Mac laptop

CiB

Hivemind opinion sought pls.

Boy Elder is likely to have a laptop soon, disguised as a Christmas / Easter / birthday / Mothering Sunday and August Bank Holiday weekend in Whitby present. Ostensibly it's for school work but he's nearly 16 so will probably use it more for FB, email and websites of an interest to a teenage boy - Manutd.com probably.

He's v keen on a Mac, because he likes playing about with Garageband and because one of his A level courses will require him to use some Mac-based music recording s/w (Logica? I dunno, yet).

So - those in the know on Macs - what's the recommendation for a well-specced Mac lappy? I don't mind spending the money as long as it's worthwhile (it can be his version of Di2) so Win8 & various flavours of Linux won't cut it, much as I'd like him to be enthused by learning about dual booting & running different distros.

So there yer go - in the style of Road Beginners, what's the best Mac lappy? As in, most suitable for general use + music & probably a bit of video editing.

tailwindhome

Is a Mac laptop one which is made in Scotland?

Mac? MAC? Like scottish names? Geddit?

LOLZ

meanredspider

I think just a MacBook Pro of suitable size. Mrs MRS has the MacBook Pro which is very good. I have the MacBook Air which is a thing of beauty but vanishingly small storage - that would be fine if you have a NAS or external HDD. The only downside of the MacBook Pro is its weight - it's very chunky.

Be aware that you can get educational discount on the Mac website - though costco.co.uk has good deals on specced-up Macs with 2 years warranty thrown in too.

ETA - you can dual-boot Macs using Bootcamp. Or use "Parallels" to run Windows virtually on your Mac desktop. That really does eat into the HDD space on a MacBook Air though

jonnyboy77

depending on budget, I don't think you can wrong here: http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/s ... acbook_pro

The MacBook Air is probably less suitable, with less storage and less processing power albeit lightweight and attractive (to some).

- Jon

Green Brompton

Try and get it using the education discount... it may need to be purchased through a school network computer.

Tricycleboy

+1 for Macbook Pro.

Had mine for 5 years and as fast as it was on day 1. Used for both professional quality graphics stuff and messing about with music and games etc. Hoping it'll last forever, as the ease of use and speed and most importantly reliablity is awesome.

rjsterry

What MRS said. MacBook Pro, then it's just a question of screen size, speed and storage. The MacBook Air is really designed for people who fly a lot and store all their data elsewhere/online, so probably not ideal for CiB jr.

meanredspider

Green Brompton wrote:

Try and get it using the education discount... it may need to be purchased through a school network computer.

I've bought 2 with educational discount (3 schoolkids and a teacher in the house) and never been asked for any proof.

kelsen

In case it doesn't get mentioned, a MacBook Pro

Green Brompton

Ah, the OH works at a university, and has used it to purchase many iMacs and other Apple products! Cool, wasn't sure.

the_fuggler

I use my Macbook Pro for music editing (Garageband, Logic, Ableton Live). When I was looking at upgrading earlier in the year, I spent quite a lot of time talking to the team at the local Apple store.

Consensus was that the bottom of the range Macbook Pro was the one to go for as it still had plenty of grunt for music editing. The only issue was the screen is 13" and if you're editing a lot of tracks in Ableton, the screen could feel a little cramped, but for a young pup with decent eyesight, it shouldn't be an issue.

Anonymous

Macbook pro. I would say you wouldn't really need anything bigger than the standard 13.3 screen.

If you are doing video editing I would go for the higher spec one of the 2 (usually has more processing power/RAM) as these can be handy. More HDD space is a bonus - note the solid state drives (SSD) are more considerably more expensive.

daviesee

Just to confirm the above - for serious music and especially video, you want a Macbook Pro.

To make you feel better about the purchase, I have a 2005 15" 256Gb version and it is still flawless and can do anything I ask of it. I only upgraded because I needed/wanted a larger screen and more memory (without an external drive).

DrLex

FWIW, buying on behalf of an undergrad. @ Oxford or Cambridge gives 15% discount and free AppleCare to the DVD of year 3.

meanredspider

So Apple's price for the "basic" MacBook Pro 13" is £999

Education price is £939

Costco's price is £969 but with double the RAM (8GB) and 2 year's warranty

Amazon £885

John Lewis £999 with 2 year's warranty

vermin

meanredspider wrote:

So Apple's price for the "basic" MacBook Pro 13" is £999

Education price is £939

Costco's price is £969 but with double the RAM (8GB) and 2 year's warranty

Amazon £885

John Lewis £999 with 2 year's warranty

Holy cr@p! A 13" lappy with a previous generation Core i5 proc and 4GB of RAM costs £1000? No wonder the stock value's going through the roof!

twist83

Echo the above however if you can squeeze for a Retina display Macbook pro they are truly stunning although a few ££ more.

jonnyboy77

vermin wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

So Apple's price for the "basic" MacBook Pro 13" is £999

Education price is £939

Costco's price is £969 but with double the RAM (8GB) and 2 year's warranty

Amazon £885

John Lewis £999 with 2 year's warranty

Holy cr@p! A 13" lappy with a previous generation Core i5 proc and 4GB of RAM costs £1000? No wonder the stock value's going through the roof!

I can't believe it took this long for some Apple hate to surface

- Jon

rjsterry

vermin wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

So Apple's price for the "basic" MacBook Pro 13" is £999

Education price is £939

Costco's price is £969 but with double the RAM (8GB) and 2 year's warranty

Amazon £885

John Lewis £999 with 2 year's warranty

Holy cr@p! A 13" lappy with a previous generation Core i5 proc and 4GB of RAM costs £1000? No wonder the stock value's going through the roof!

Gotta pay for those nice rounded corners and that seamless aluminium body. You'd think a cyclist who turned down a replacement bike on the basis of it's paint job alone would understand the appeal of that.

vermin

rjsterry wrote:

vermin wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

So Apple's price for the "basic" MacBook Pro 13" is £999

Education price is £939

Costco's price is £969 but with double the RAM (8GB) and 2 year's warranty

Amazon £885

John Lewis £999 with 2 year's warranty

Holy cr@p! A 13" lappy with a previous generation Core i5 proc and 4GB of RAM costs £1000? No wonder the stock value's going through the roof!

Gotta pay for those nice rounded corners and that seamless aluminium body. You'd think a cyclist who turned down a replacement bike on the basis of it's paint job alone would understand the appeal of that.

I get it, it's like paying double for an aero frame; when you always ride in baggies. Yup, I'd still do it.

Not sure why/how my surprise constitutes Apple hate :roll: On the other hand, I do get that it was not the least bit helpful. As you were...

CiB

Funny - I thought someone might have mentioned a Macbook Pro as a possibility.

Sounds good. I'll have to look into CostCo or educational discounts - shouldn't be difficult with a teacher & a student in the house.

Cheers.

Anonymous

There are no other mac laptops any more unless you want a macbook air. The white is discontinued

meanredspider

To step to the defence of the £1000 bill, the attention to design detail is impressive. I love the magnetic charging port for instance - simple but beautiful. And the backlit keyboard with a lovely "feel" is great too. It's all those little things that you pay for rather than the bald tech spec of Gb etc Not everyone wants to pay for them or even appreciates them - I think they are rather nice.

daviesee

meanredspider wrote:

To step to the defence of the £1000 bill, the attention to design detail is impressive. I love the magnetic charging port for instance - simple but beautiful. And the backlit keyboard with a lovely "feel" is great too. It's all those little things that you pay for rather than the bald tech spec of Gb etc Not everyone wants to pay for them or even appreciates them - I think they are rather nice.

I would add reliability and longevity - see my post on page 1.
Ribble v Pinarello.
You either appreciate the difference or you don't. (PS - Same could be said for Acer v Sony).

Paul E

I have a 2009 13" Pro and it looks the same as when I bought it and runs just as well, I changed the hd for a 320gig one from a 250gig one but thats it, I love the backlit keyboard the charging port the feel of the keys the way it wakes up almost instantly (I almost never power it off) and above all the trackpad, I only use a mouse for photoshop or lightroom work, all the other time the trackpads multi touch just like a iphone or ipad works amazingly well.

asprilla

I can't believe anyone who rides a bike is advocating a MacBook Pro over an Air.

I'm currently using a Pro in the office. It has never been home with me and it never will. In my previous contract I also had a Pro and I refused to work from home for intercontinental calls because of its size.

Contract before that I had an Air. I took it everywhere.

The Pro is an anchor.

rjsterry

Asprilla wrote:

I can't believe anyone who rides a bike is advocating a MacBook Pro over an Air.

I'm currently using a Pro in the office. It has never been home with me and it never will. In my previous contract I also had a Pro and I refused to work from home for intercontinental calls because of its size.

Contract before that I had an Air. I took it everywhere.

The Pro is an anchor.

Pfft. When you're also carrying a pair of site boots and a set of tender drawings, it sort of blends in. The Air is lightweight but if you are doing stuff like 2D or 3D CAD, the screen is too small and it's not got the oomph required.

vermin

I get this

meanredspider wrote:

To step to the defence of the £1000 bill, the attention to design detail is impressive. I love the magnetic charging port for instance - simple but beautiful. And the backlit keyboard with a lovely "feel" is great too. It's all those little things that you pay for rather than the bald tech spec of Gb etc Not everyone wants to pay for them or even appreciates them - I think they are rather nice.

But I don't get this

daviesee wrote:

I would add reliability and longevity - see my post on page 1.
Ribble v Pinarello.
You either appreciate the difference or you don't. (PS - Same could be said for Acer v Sony).

I've never known any laptop be wanting for reliability. Longevity is simply a matter of choosing an up-to-date spec at time of purchase. Arguably, non-Apple laptops have geater longivity because they are generally a bit easier to upgrade as they age.

itboffin

For what you've described as its use I'd be looking at a Google chromebook for 220 is, it'll cover the email, web docs stuff just fine.

Hoopdriver

+1 for the MacBook Pro. It's a beautiful machine. I've got the 13" one - small for travel - but specced pretty highly and I love it.

There are reasons people in the creative/publishing industry use Macs almost universally.

Hoopdriver

rjsterry wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I can't believe anyone who rides a bike is advocating a MacBook Pro over an Air.

I'm currently using a Pro in the office. It has never been home with me and it never will. In my previous contract I also had a Pro and I refused to work from home for intercontinental calls because of its size.

Contract before that I had an Air. I took it everywhere.

The Pro is an anchor.

Pfft. When you're also carrying a pair of site boots and a set of tender drawings, it sort of blends in. The Air is lightweight but if you are doing stuff like 2D or 3D CAD, the screen is too small and it's not got the oomph required.

Nonsense. I travel all over the world with my MacBook Pro. I don't know what you're on about