I love my Mac Book Pro that my DH surprised me with at Christmas. If you plan on using it mostly at home, it's great. It you plan on using it out and about a ton, you might want to consider the lighter Mac Air.
We have two iMacs at home that we love as well. NOTE: We got all three refurbished from the Apple store. Not a thing wrong with them, same exact warranty as NIB AND saved over 30% on each. (Something you might want to look into). As far as pc goes, we are completely a mac family now...all the way. Converted my DH even because he is a bit of a gamer and didn't think the mac would compare to the pc regarding how they played. But, he is able to run PC on his mac using some software either called parallels or boot camp...something like that -lol. We will never go back to pc. Macs are so intuitive and soooo much easier to work with. Plus, wayyyyy less viruses out there vs. pc's.
HTH.
:)
I got a MacBook Air for Christmas and I love it! I use it for the same things you described and it is fantastic! It is so light and easy to carry around when you are on the go. Love it a million times more than my old pc laptop!
i have a MacBook Pro, but i think for those activities even the standard MacBook would be perfectly fine.
i also have a MacBook Air, which use to be my primary laptop, but the part that connects the screen to the computer/keyboard (hinge?) broke. since i use my laptop daily for school, i couldn't last the 7 days it took to repair it without a computer, so i got the Pro and now use the Air as a backup/around the house computer. I transport my laptop back and fourth to school/library/hospital daily, and i feel like the Pro is just more sturdy for transport. if you aren't worried about transporting it a lot, the Air is great.
and as a note: my Air was out of warrantee, but i took it to the apple store to see if it could even be fixed, and they covered the repair & replacement parts for free. based on my fiance's experiences with PCs, i have never seen that happen for PC repair if it's out of warrantee.
Personally, I love my Macbook Pro. It's easy to figure out, and it makes my life so much simpler. Invest! :D
I do agree with Suz, though! Since I pack it with me to school, it gets to be a bit heavy with my books, etc. Go with the Air if you'll be traveling anywhere with it!
Honestly? I truly think that my white MacBook was WAY better than my MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, my cat peed on it and it's dead. And they stopped making the white Macbooks. :( So now I have a MacBook Pro...but I mourn my white one every day.
We've got big love for Macs here. It's been so many years that I've had a PC, that I couldn't even compare them anymore. I'd never go back. I don't have a MacBook Air, but my husband recently got one for work, and he loves it. It's amazing how light it is.
Have you ever noticed that Mac people are passionate about their computers? Not that PC aren't but it seems like every time I have seen a thread like this there are millions of Mac responses.
Having said that.... I currently have a mac and a windows lap top..... mostly because the tech guy at the school I work at refuses to support Macs as he says they are more work to set up on the system..... so essentially the mac(pro) is my home computer and the windows is my work one. Having said that if I have to choose a computer to work on at home 9 times out of 10 I choose my mac and simply transfer the file across when I am finished. It is simply nicer to use.... and faster but to be fair the mac was possibly way more expensive...although they were probaly bought at the same or similar time. I find my windows machine takes for ever to start up which is terribly frustrating when I just want to quickly check something.... it is so frustrating that I will often use the desktops instead at work (if they are quicker)
For photos i shoot raw, i like that on the mac i don't have to download a codec, and i can still see thumbnails, the newer windows may do that too, but my old one didn't it was a pain(my windows file has never seen a raw file as it is not something i do at work.)
I use MS office, I finally bought it over pages because of the mac/ pc cross over thing and I was having to pdf everything. With the latest version it is very similar to the windows version and the files seem to cross over to windows fairly well.... although if i know the person has windows i still often pdf.... and because of the mac i learnt to do that on windows too.
On that note when I firsst got the mac it took me a while as I had to learn the ropes and as things were different it was frustrating. Generally now I find that most things, like printers just work straight off the bat on the mac .....I have had a few issues with my airport.... but no more than I have had with the windows machines in our house and their internet connection.
On another note my daughter who is 10 has a netbook for school, she loves it, it works beautifully 90 % of the time.... she has had it a year now and in that time she has had a virus that required her computer to be completely wiped..... and more recently I have found she is using the ipad over the netbook for things like watching youtube. Also in that time i have had two phone calls from dodgy indian places telling me there is a problem with my windows machine and to turn it on and they will help me fix it.... (one was right before my daughters computer crashed) in both instances they have hung up when i insist that i have a mac. In actual fact only the mac was connected to the internet at the time.
My mac book pro is nearly 3 years old....the only issue i ever had was when it wouldn't work cause the hard drive was full with photos!
We love our MacBook Pros and we did the same thing as Suz....bought them refurbished from the Apple sight. Same warrenty as brand new and we can attest to that because one of them died before the warranty was up, and since they'd quit making the dead part, Apple sent us a brand new MacBook Pro!
I have to say, I'd love a giant iMac, but I'm afraid I would miss the freedom the laptop gives me, to work from the couch whenever I want to, instead of being tied to my desk.
we have a macbook and it's great! i've never done photo editing on it though - didn't want to tie up the os with pse. looking back, i think we should have gotten the pro, but it came down to finances at that point.
i would think a pro is good enough for your needs - doesn't sound like you'll be toting it around a lot of places, so i can't see why you would need an air.
oh, and for the record, the air doesn't have a dvd drive. might not be a big deal for you, but we watch movies every now and then on our laptop (especially on vacation), so i would want that.
I so appreciate your feedback, thank you.
Now to figure out size and customizations. I was surprised that I like the 13" so much, I thought for sure I would want the 15.
please weigh in letting me know your thoughts.
i will use it for blogging, photo editing, and all the regular office type stuff (MS Office), etc.
I love my Mac Book Pro that my DH surprised me with at Christmas. If you plan on using it mostly at home, it's great. It you plan on using it out and about a ton, you might want to consider the lighter Mac Air.
We have two iMacs at home that we love as well. NOTE: We got all three refurbished from the Apple store. Not a thing wrong with them, same exact warranty as NIB AND saved over 30% on each. (Something you might want to look into). As far as pc goes, we are completely a mac family now...all the way. Converted my DH even because he is a bit of a gamer and didn't think the mac would compare to the pc regarding how they played. But, he is able to run PC on his mac using some software either called parallels or boot camp...something like that -lol. We will never go back to pc. Macs are so intuitive and soooo much easier to work with. Plus, wayyyyy less viruses out there vs. pc's.
HTH.
:)
I got a MacBook Air for Christmas and I love it! I use it for the same things you described and it is fantastic! It is so light and easy to carry around when you are on the go. Love it a million times more than my old pc laptop!
i have a MacBook Pro, but i think for those activities even the standard MacBook would be perfectly fine.
i also have a MacBook Air, which use to be my primary laptop, but the part that connects the screen to the computer/keyboard (hinge?) broke. since i use my laptop daily for school, i couldn't last the 7 days it took to repair it without a computer, so i got the Pro and now use the Air as a backup/around the house computer. I transport my laptop back and fourth to school/library/hospital daily, and i feel like the Pro is just more sturdy for transport. if you aren't worried about transporting it a lot, the Air is great.
and as a note: my Air was out of warrantee, but i took it to the apple store to see if it could even be fixed, and they covered the repair & replacement parts for free. based on my fiance's experiences with PCs, i have never seen that happen for PC repair if it's out of warrantee.
Personally, I love my Macbook Pro. It's easy to figure out, and it makes my life so much simpler. Invest! :D
I do agree with Suz, though! Since I pack it with me to school, it gets to be a bit heavy with my books, etc. Go with the Air if you'll be traveling anywhere with it!
Honestly? I truly think that my white MacBook was WAY better than my MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, my cat peed on it and it's dead. And they stopped making the white Macbooks. :( So now I have a MacBook Pro...but I mourn my white one every day.
We've got big love for Macs here. It's been so many years that I've had a PC, that I couldn't even compare them anymore. I'd never go back. I don't have a MacBook Air, but my husband recently got one for work, and he loves it. It's amazing how light it is.
g
Have you ever noticed that Mac people are passionate about their computers? Not that PC aren't but it seems like every time I have seen a thread like this there are millions of Mac responses.
Having said that.... I currently have a mac and a windows lap top..... mostly because the tech guy at the school I work at refuses to support Macs as he says they are more work to set up on the system..... so essentially the mac(pro) is my home computer and the windows is my work one. Having said that if I have to choose a computer to work on at home 9 times out of 10 I choose my mac and simply transfer the file across when I am finished. It is simply nicer to use.... and faster but to be fair the mac was possibly way more expensive...although they were probaly bought at the same or similar time. I find my windows machine takes for ever to start up which is terribly frustrating when I just want to quickly check something.... it is so frustrating that I will often use the desktops instead at work (if they are quicker)
For photos i shoot raw, i like that on the mac i don't have to download a codec, and i can still see thumbnails, the newer windows may do that too, but my old one didn't it was a pain(my windows file has never seen a raw file as it is not something i do at work.)
I use MS office, I finally bought it over pages because of the mac/ pc cross over thing and I was having to pdf everything. With the latest version it is very similar to the windows version and the files seem to cross over to windows fairly well.... although if i know the person has windows i still often pdf.... and because of the mac i learnt to do that on windows too.
On that note when I firsst got the mac it took me a while as I had to learn the ropes and as things were different it was frustrating. Generally now I find that most things, like printers just work straight off the bat on the mac .....I have had a few issues with my airport.... but no more than I have had with the windows machines in our house and their internet connection.
On another note my daughter who is 10 has a netbook for school, she loves it, it works beautifully 90 % of the time.... she has had it a year now and in that time she has had a virus that required her computer to be completely wiped..... and more recently I have found she is using the ipad over the netbook for things like watching youtube. Also in that time i have had two phone calls from dodgy indian places telling me there is a problem with my windows machine and to turn it on and they will help me fix it.... (one was right before my daughters computer crashed) in both instances they have hung up when i insist that i have a mac. In actual fact only the mac was connected to the internet at the time.
My mac book pro is nearly 3 years old....the only issue i ever had was when it wouldn't work cause the hard drive was full with photos!
Anyway good luck with your decision
I have a MacBook and I love it! I have had it for almost three years now and it has never given me any problems. Plus Macs are very user friendly.
I agree with Meagan though, if you'll be toting it around I'd go with the air :)
We love our MacBook Pros and we did the same thing as Suz....bought them refurbished from the Apple sight. Same warrenty as brand new and we can attest to that because one of them died before the warranty was up, and since they'd quit making the dead part, Apple sent us a brand new MacBook Pro!
I have to say, I'd love a giant iMac, but I'm afraid I would miss the freedom the laptop gives me, to work from the couch whenever I want to, instead of being tied to my desk.
we have a macbook and it's great! i've never done photo editing on it though - didn't want to tie up the os with pse. looking back, i think we should have gotten the pro, but it came down to finances at that point.
i would think a pro is good enough for your needs - doesn't sound like you'll be toting it around a lot of places, so i can't see why you would need an air.
oh, and for the record, the air doesn't have a dvd drive. might not be a big deal for you, but we watch movies every now and then on our laptop (especially on vacation), so i would want that.
I so appreciate your feedback, thank you.
Now to figure out size and customizations. I was surprised that I like the 13" so much, I thought for sure I would want the 15.