Macbook vs Macbook Pro

[bandit]

Thought I'll make a new thread for those also interested and maybe future reference.

I've was thinking of getting MBP but some people suggested MB. I'm mainly using it for surfing and graphic design work. Those who are more familiar and actually own either one, both whether now or previously, which is better? Is there a difference in performance? Would the MB handle my programs (2-3 programs opened at one time)?

Advantages? Disadvantages? Only thing that may concern me is the 13" vs 15" but that I can see for myself at the store.

Price is definitely a factor and I know the MBP is more expensive but does it warrant for the extra cost?!

[MarsKitten]

Programs opened/handling is purely a ram question. 1 gig I can play wow, listen to music, compress a video h.264, surf the web, have mail open and use a multi messanger


But MBP has a video card, thats the big difference. If you're going to game in bootcamp or in osx, you NEED a MBP. Its essentially the same machine in a better case. Both have their flaws and defects but if i had a choice to drop the extra case I would get the MBP over the MB. I don't so I have the mb which is an excellent student computer.

Either way for graphics work I'd ask for extra ram, at least 2gb depending...

[bandit]

Programs opened/handling is purely a ram question. 1 gig I can play wow, listen to music, compress a video h.264, surf the web, have mail open and use a multi messanger


But MBP has a video card, thats the big difference. If you're going to game in bootcamp or in osx, you NEED a MBP. Its essentially the same machine in a better case. Both have their flaws and defects but if i had a choice to drop the extra case I would get the MBP over the MB. I don't so I have the mb which is an excellent student computer.

Either way for graphics work I'd ask for extra ram, at least 2gb depending...

It comes with 2GB minimum now. So that is fine for me. The programs you use seem to not be memory hogs or require much of it. if anything, i can just buy more RAM (up to 4GB) and install it myself or have a tech at work do it for me. I'll probably get a black MB. I dont game on notebooks...not even on desktop so I dont need the videocard (did I just answer my own thread?)

I tend to have Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and Fireworks open all at once.

[bbobb]

If you're sure you don't need a graphic card then a MB is probably fine.

[bandit]

If you're sure you don't need a graphic card then a MB is probably fine.

I dont play games and even if I do Final Cut Pro or anything related to rendering, the program itself will do it.

I guess its just Apples marketing strategy. MB and MBP is pretty much the same..just that if you want graphics card, backlight keypad, multi-touch trackpad or bigger screen you have to get a MBP.

I see that there is bootcamp and Parallel Desktop. Is it worth it to get it? If so, whats the difference?

[Tommy Tallarico]

A MacBook isn't fine. It's the worst piece of shit screen Apple found on the floor of their warehouse and shoved it into a pretty white plastic enclosure. There is no viewing angle where you won't see color gradients and rampant distortion. It's an unusable piece of shit. Tommy Tallarico can't even read long PDFs on it without losing my mind over how the text on the top of the screen is dark black and the text at the bottom is grey and almost unreadable. I went to the Nine Inch Nails site for that new downloadable album last night on my MacBook and the website was grey, and I go on a real computer this morning and it's fucking light brown. A MacBook and MacBook Pro aren't the same +/- video card at all.

Regardless, if you really cared about design work, you wouldn't give the MacBook any thought in the first place because it has a glossy screen. And Final Cut Studio only works on the Pro.

Tommy Tallarico

[Brand X]

I didn't realize the standard MB only comes with the glossy screen. Ugh, that's shitty.

[bandit]

I though the glossy screen was better as its much clearer. MBP does however have a TFT LED screen.

[bbobb]

Glossy screen?

Yuck.

[Tommy Tallarico]

I though the glossy screen was better as its much clearer.

So when you were talking about design work earlier, you weren't serious.

Glossy is not clearer, it distorts the colors and amps the saturation. It looks great if you're just using your computer to look at the Internet, but it'll fuck you up when you take a picture of the sky, edit it in Photoshop or Lightroom to pick the best shade of blue so the photo looks great, and it turns out for everyone else on the planet that the sky in your picture is a bright green.

This doesn't even count how glossy reflects light in your room and gets in your way.

You're in NY. Go to the Apple Store and look really hard at the MacBook screen. Move your head around to see all the different viewing angles and move the monitor hinge to see just how bad the colors warp when you move it. Then do the same with a Pro and watch the colors and brightness stay almost the same no matter where you're viewing it.

Tommy Tallarico