EPTWhat really made me choose a mac over a pc laptop is the combination of battery life, size, and power. I was unable to find a laptop that had anywhere as long a battery life as this macbook pro 13' that also has as much power. And comeon, the sleek unibody design is just awesome!
Buy Mac or PC laptop? - Page 2
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HaruHaru
United States988 Posts
What really made me choose a mac over a pc laptop is the combination of battery life, size, and power. I was unable to find a laptop that had anywhere as long a battery life as this macbook pro 13' that also has as much power. And comeon, the sleek unibody design is just awesome! | ||
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FragKrag
United States11565 Posts
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Jibba
United States22883 Posts
HP, Acer, Lenovo, MSI and Asus all have thin and light series, and are starting to do metal bodies (although no one does a unibody like Apple.) Most of the new lines from all of them can get 5+ hours with switchable graphics (I think Acer Timeline X have the highest rated times of these companies, at around 8~ hours.) Their switchable graphics are also mostly using ATI 5xxx series, instead of Apple's Nvidia stuff. In terms of performance, the ATI cards dominate all of the Nvidia 300 line. So I don't think weight/thinness are really in Apple's favor anymore, and battery life is only slightly. What still is is the build quality and screen quality. Most of the above mentioned companies are using plastic cases still, that can be iffy. The plus side is that Asus and MSI give fantastic warranties, and both along with Lenovo have great track records. In terms of screen quality, only the Envy line is going to match Apple, and the 14 might actually surpass it (although I can't imagine ever needing a 400nit laptop screen.) The Envy 14 comes out later this month, and the only real downside is that HP is unreliable. On paper, the laptop should be pretty fantastic, and with the ingenious slice battery (it's a thin tray that attaches to the bottom), it should get something like 14+ hours of battery life if it's really that important to you. Sony deserves mention too for meeting these criteria, but their prices are absurd too. | ||
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sob3k
United States7572 Posts
On June 07 2010 12:15 Mykill wrote: PC's have awful battery life compared to macs you must plug it in often. i plan to use my pc for over a year. after 1 year PC's need to recharged every 2 hours. macs last 5-6 after a year im not a tech tard im saying the tech support is awful when you need your PC itself fixed. not the software This is flat out not true, you talk about PC's like they are one laptop. Macbooks are generally rated to last 7 hours max, you can get an Acer Timeline that lasts 8, and If you really want to go crazy an Asus UL that can go up to 12. Your post seems to indicate you know very little about computers. | ||
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KOFgokuon
United States14911 Posts
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IndecisivePenguin
United States771 Posts
As far as gaming, I'm only planning to play BW, SC2, and probably TF2. Since Steam is coming out for Mac and all, TF2 will work fine without having to Boot Camp. This is another nice feature though, Boot Camp. I enjoy the option of using both operating systems if I so choose. I'm switching out the HDD to personally install an SSD. All of this is really dang expensive though, to be completely honest. However, I don't mind the high cost if I don't have to replace the computer for another four years or more. Because of the simplicity that comes with less overall compatibility, customer support is really good. Apple Care is also really good about fixing or replacing stuff that gets damaged. With PCs the customer support is generally poor, and most will have to resort to purchasing new computers or parts on their own to fix the problem. However, if you are a tech-savvy guy and understand the ins-and-outs of PCs well, go for it! And yeah, with Macs you're generally going to run into less issues like viruses and adware. Macs receive less of these issues because people don't care enough to write viruses for Mac computers. Personally, I really like this fact haha. Makes life easier. Good PC-savvy individuals know well how to avoid these things and how to keep your computer constantly running at great speeds, but if you're not one of those people, you'll likely be subject to your computer noticeably slowing down as you use it more. If you're well educated about these things, though, PCs will probably work just fine for you. Mac vs PC always comes down to preference (and cost). I could really care less if Macs were a trend, I really like the OSX, simplicity, lack of viruses, and customer support. SC2 and BW have been running fine for me as well, so the gaming department is covered for me. ^^ The hardware works well for what I want, and the SSD is gonna make it even better. Just go with what you like man. Best of luck!  | ||
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0neder
United States3733 Posts
If you can afford it, I say get a Mac, but honestly it's not a huge difference. | ||
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Two_DoWn
United States13684 Posts
That being said, i am going to get a pc to play starcraft and other games on, while keeping the mac for browsing and school stuff. | ||
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FragKrag
United States11565 Posts
On June 07 2010 12:46 sob3k wrote: This is flat out not true, you talk about PC's like they are one laptop. Macbooks are generally rated to last 7 hours max, you can get an Acer Timeline that lasts 8, and If you really want to go crazy an Asus UL that can go up to 12. Your post seems to indicate you know very little about computers. And then you realize that both the ASUS UL and the Acer Timeline have pitiful, old 1.3GHz Core 2 CPUs while the Apple laptops are supposedly able to muster 6-7 hours with a much more powerful i5 cpu which can be clocked as high as around 2.53GHz. Not exactly a fair comparison to be honest. I'm switching out the HDD to personally install an SSD, which cancels out a lot of your Mac cons (processing power, overheating, loud fan). All of this is really dang expensive though, to be completely honest. However, I don't mind the high cost if I don't have to replace the computer for another four years or more. I have no idea how a SSD cancels out any of those cons. The loud fan is a CPU fan, and the heat is caused by the CPU. Has nothing to do with the HDD at all. | ||
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Zyphen[p]
United States91 Posts
The general thing I hear about Mac is that you pay a pretty large premium (~$200) for the name / design, but that it works very well / looks+feels really nice. If you can afford it and don't mind spending extra for those benefits, then go ahead and get yourself a MBP. I'm entering my second year of undergraduate right now and I have a ThinkPad T400, which works great and is really sturdy / hasn't given me any problems, so I'd recommend one of those. | ||
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RainWhisper
United Arab Emirates333 Posts
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IndecisivePenguin
United States771 Posts
On June 07 2010 12:52 FragKrag wrote: And then you realize that both the ASUS UL and the Acer Timeline have pitiful, old 1.3GHz Core 2 CPUs while the Apple laptops are supposedly able to muster 6-7 hours with a much more powerful i5 cpu which can be clocked as high as around 2.53GHz. Not exactly a fair comparison to be honest. I have no idea how a SSD cancels out any of those cons. The loud fan is a CPU fan, and the heat is caused by the CPU. Has nothing to do with the HDD at all. Ah, I mistakenly confused the CPU fan for the HDD motor. Horrible brain-fart. My apologies! ^^ I shall edit the post so that it no longer causes this confusion. | ||
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Jibba
United States22883 Posts
On June 07 2010 12:52 FragKrag wrote: And then you realize that both the ASUS UL and the Acer Timeline have pitiful, old 1.3GHz Core 2 CPUs while the Apple laptops are supposedly able to muster 6-7 hours with a much more powerful i5 cpu which can be clocked as high as around 2.53GHz. Not exactly a fair comparison to be honest. I have no idea how a SSD cancels out any of those cons. The loud fan is a CPU fan, and the heat is caused by the CPU. Has nothing to do with the HDD at all. The Timeline X refresh is all i5s. They're already out in Europe, no word on when they come to the states. The main problem is that it's an Acer. I forget which Asus has the switchable. The MSI is the GE600. Just curious, can you undervolt Macs? FWIW, I just ordered an Ideapad Y460. $999 + 10% Bing Cashback (not sure if it works up there) comes to just over $900. When HP releases the Envy 14, they'll probably run something like 25% BCB. The default configuration is $999, but you can probably expect to add at least another $200 getting the nice screen and everything. The other thing in terms of boot times is that HP and a few other companies are shipping with pre-OS bootloaders which are basically light versions of Linux that load in 10~ seconds and give you access to internet browsing, Skype and a few other basic things, so you don't have to wait for Win 7 to load if you're just doing simple tasks. | ||
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eLiE
Canada1039 Posts
in terms of batteries, a pcs original battery will give u at least 2.5 hours depending on how much of a hog you have, but if i heard some pcs run 7 hours (must be low consumers). and make sure you bargain with the people in store. i got a 50 buck bag with my laptop and a cheaper warranty | ||
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Gino-
United States56 Posts
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synapse
China13814 Posts
Many moneys => Mac Not so many moneys => PC I personally dislike how un-customizable Macs are, but they work pretty well for simple work purposes (and the Macbook Pro has a very cool design). If you're planning on doing any sort of gaming, PC. Obviously if there are certain programs that you need for your college courses, you're probably better off with the PC. (If you decide to go with a PC laptop, I definitely suggest Lenovo laptops - its insane how much shit they jam into a tinyass laptop) | ||
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zrules
United States88 Posts
Macs, as one of my friends called them, is a Dell on a different OS + much more $$$. Except Dell has the capability of you swapping parts out yourself cause of handy containment methods... Mac you have to go the Apple store. Macs are so easily broken into (by Hackers). If I used Safari with Mac last year it could be broken into in 10 seconds... This year they had an improvement! To like 1 minute and 20 seconds... and Firefox isn't much better on Mac either (plus it has the memory leak with Flash thingies). Currently the safest way to run is Win 7 with Google chrome without flash, java or any other highly targeted plugin/program. Of course at the college level I highly doubt someone to target you (much more likely to want to target your parents if your parents are the same as your friend's parents), but otherwise don't piss off other people. Pcs run fine but... Win 7 (and vista) have a huge bug that doesn't allow for Recovery of the Registry if I remember correctly. So long as you don't f up, ur fine... but it can still happen cause the OS messes up... I personally would recommend staying with Win XP cause most stuff is still gonna support it cause it is less buggy and such. Though you might eventually have to make it go to Win 7 by Junior or Senior year (DO NOT GET VISTA NO MATTER WHAT). If you wanna save the trouble of having to upgrade Win XP to Win 7 (or if they make a new OS by then) just make sure to NOT get vista. Some stores are still selling laptops with Vista, DO NOT GET THEM. Vista is one of the worst OS's out there atm, and 7 is essentially Vista Service Pack 3 (It could be 2 if Microsoft decides to just say screw it and not upgrade Vista any more to bring it up to par). HP is something my friend says is a problem too... I personally have never had any experience with their products so I have no clue. Also with Win 7 and Vista (why I prefer XP) is that they're both huge for Operating systems, virus scans will take forever, and as far as I know Combofix's Beta for the 2 kind of destroys the OS... (rumor, haven't actually seen it yet). Hope this helps. | ||
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Saturnize
United States2473 Posts
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Jibba
United States22883 Posts
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artofmagic
United States1951 Posts
You wont be piss off on anything. (I can't believe I typed that, but it is true. I don't remember any thing that grinds my gear. Ok beside not able to do bootcamp when my harddrive is all fragged(So if you decide to dual boot, do bootcamp at the very first moment) ) The hardware is both pretty, well-designed and solid. The OS is stable and ui friendly. some REAL cons for mac are: - software support including games(you can dual boot if you need to run windows app, but to me it's a nuisance as everyone hate switching environment) - premium price I'm not rich and I have already forgotten the premium price of my macbook. I believe the "premium price" is much less than face value as the pleasant experiences of both the hardware/software that Apple delivers. There is no way the current Windows can provide this. Many software are not Mac-supported, which can be a deciding factor for consumers. So If there is no priority software you need and you're willing to shell out some more money, do yourself a favor and get a mac. If you can some how use a macbook for half a month.. do it! you probably will agree with me. | ||
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