Looking at MacBook Pros

MikeHiow · 2 Dec 2009 at 22:08

I'm a web developer, and have always fancied a mac, a pretty, well supported POSIX based environment seems quite appealing to me.

I work from home, but often travel to the office/clients, so really, A laptop is preferable. If money were no object, I'd jump at a 17" 3GHz, but life isn't that simple - and work dictates that I need to find something a little closer to £1000.

Apple's refurbished store seems to widen my choices a little, but what is the deal with this, is it primarily box open/distance selling act returns? Or repairs etc? Anyone have any experience of these refurb models?

Looking at the refurb store, £1099 will get me the 2.53GHz 15", doesn't seem like a bad deal, although the apple keyboard, mouse and VGA adapter bump it up a little. (£1229 with Magic Mouse, Wireless Keyboard and Mini->VGA adapter)

Any tips or advice in purchasing one?

cu3ed · 2 Dec 2009 at 22:33

Can you add any money of yrou own or is that not somthing you want to do?..does work purchase it for you in your behalf?

MikeHiow · 2 Dec 2009 at 22:51

I could probably put money into it, but would need the bare in mind that it would be my own cash, and would probably be lost in the event that I left the company (although unlikely).

Why, what would you suggest?

mosfet · 3 Dec 2009 at 12:28

MikeHiow said:
Any tips or advice in purchasing one?

Never bought from the refurb store myself, but have considered it quite a few times; all the reviews say that there's no difference to the main store. All items are cosmetically perfect and are identical to the main store unless specifically stated.

Bear in mind that new MBPs will almost certainly be out in January with the new i5 and i7 mobile CPUs, so that should drive down the price of the current ones, or speed up any new one you decide to go for.

My better half uses a MBP 13 with an external monitor, keyboard and mouse for heavy-duty photoshop work and she loves it. Ended up around £800
from the Edu store. Unless you need a much better graphics card, the 13" might be the best option.

InQ · 3 Dec 2009 at 12:51

Is there any rumours on what GFX cards the i5 or i7 MBP's will have?

MikeHiow · 3 Dec 2009 at 12:51

Yeah, this is the way I've been looking at it now. There is a 2.26GHz 13" in the Refurb store - £50 to go up to 4GB ram, and then the price difference between that and a new 15" could buy me a 24" Cinema.

The trouble with waiting is that I need something from the beginning of January really, so if I wait, and nothing comes up when predicted (3rd Jan iirc?), then I may lose out on the cheap refurb one for nothing.

mosfet · 3 Dec 2009 at 13:15

InQ said:
Is there any rumours on what GFX cards the i5 or i7 MBP's will have?

Nothing solid. My guess is that the 9400M will stay in the low end models and the high end might get a slight bump up to something like a 260M. Lots of rumours around that Apple will be dumping nVidia for the foreseeable future, however.

MikeHiow said:
Yeah, this is the way I've been looking at it now. There is a 2.26GHz 13" in the Refurb store - £50 to go up to 4GB ram, and then the price difference between that and a new 15" could buy me a 24" Cinema.

The trouble with waiting is that I need something from the beginning of January really, so if I wait, and nothing comes up when predicted (3rd Jan iirc?), then I may lose out on the cheap refurb one for nothing.

The 13" model is unlikely to get a bump due to thermal limits and CPU cost. If I were you I'd go for the 13" refurb and get a decent quality screen. If the Apple mDP -> Dual Link DVI adaptor wasn't so shoddy I'd suggest a nice 30" Dell, but in light of that the 24" Cinema Display might be the best option.

Apple laptops don't devalue anything like Windows based machines, you'll be able to recoup most of the cost of the 13" if you decide to upgrade in the next year or so (provided your work let you).

SiriusB · 3 Dec 2009 at 13:24

This might seem like a silly question, but why on earth is Apple so afraid of making their 17" models affordable?

Any other laptop brand in the world sells 17" models at prices that wont annoy your bank manager. Sorry to steal the thread, but I have been casually interested in a MBP for a while, but I don't think i would be happy with a tiny 15" screen.

mosfet · 3 Dec 2009 at 13:45

SiriusB said:
This might seem like a silly question, but why on earth is Apple so afraid of making their 17" models affordable?

Any other laptop brand in the world sells 17" models at prices that wont annoy your bank manager. Sorry to steal the thread, but I have been casually interested in a MBP for a while, but I don't think i would be happy with a tiny 15" screen.

Because they can. It seems the majority of 17" MBP users are photo, audio and video professionals who count it as a business expenditure or people with enough money not to care too much.

Go down to your nearest Apple store and take a look if you can, the screens are deceptively large. I occasionally borrow a 15" glossy 2007 MBP to take to client meetings and it's perfect for displaying high res photo and video.

MikeHiow · 3 Dec 2009 at 13:54

The way I look at it is though, with the high resolutions, and decent quality screens, you don't notice the smaller screen so much on the MBP, in fact, when using a friends 13", I thought it was a 15.

I've noticed the residuals on them, as I've been looking around at second hand ones too, seems impressive.

I'm quite keen on the 24" Cinema, after spotting its docking like features, plus it looks stunning.

SiriusB · 3 Dec 2009 at 13:57

mosfet said:
Because they can. It seems the majority of 17" MBP users are photo, audio and video professionals who count it as a business expenditure or people with enough money not to care too much.

Go down to your nearest Apple store and take a look if you can, the screens are deceptively large. I occasionally borrow a 15" glossy 2007 MBP to take to client meetings and it's perfect for displaying high res photo and video.

I might take a look later today or tomorrow. I need to take my iPhone in anyway for a repair so probably have a nosey. It just feels "wrong" somehow to only have 15" in that price bracket - so used to larger sizes.

bigredshark · 3 Dec 2009 at 13:59

SiriusB said:
This might seem like a silly question, but why on earth is Apple so afraid of making their 17" models affordable?

Any other laptop brand in the world sells 17" models at prices that wont annoy your bank manager. Sorry to steal the thread, but I have been casually interested in a MBP for a while, but I don't think i would be happy with a tiny 15" screen.

Because they're not like the consumer 17" machines in PC world, which have the same screen res as a 15", weigh the same as a desktop and are generally plastic rubbish. They're comparable to something like the Dell precision M6400, which is a 17" workstation class laptop (although it's still heavy) and costs, surprise surprise, around £1700 with a similar spec.

mosfet · 3 Dec 2009 at 14:03

MikeHiow said:
in fact, when using a friends 13", I thought it was a 15.

So many people have mentioned that to me. The 13"s feel so much larger than they are. They're without a doubt the best value laptop out there; really solidly made, great screen, light, thin and quiet.

If you do go for one make sure you get a decent hardcase/skin to keep the aluminium scratch-free.

ps3ud0 · 3 Dec 2009 at 15:48

Sorry to go off-track slightly, but can someone expand on the below statement:

mosfet said:
The 13" model is unlikely to get a bump due to thermal limits and CPU cost. If I were you I'd go for the 13" refurb and get a decent quality screen. If the Apple mDP -> Dual Link DVI adaptor wasn't so shoddy I'd suggest a nice 30" Dell, but in light of that the 24" Cinema Display might be the best option.

Ive got a 2407WFP and was just assuming a 13" MBP would work fine with it - have I assumed wrong? Also hoping for a 13" change regards i5/i7 otherwise it gonna be oretty long in the tooth next refresh cycle...

All seems to be pointing out to a 15" atm which is just too big

Thanks

ps3ud0 :cool:

mosfet · 3 Dec 2009 at 16:20

ps3ud0 said:
Sorry to go off-track slightly, but can someone expand on the below statement:

Ive got a 2407WFP and was just assuming a 13" MBP would work fine with it - have I assumed wrong? Also hoping for a 13" change regards i5/i7 otherwise it gonna be oretty long in the tooth next refresh cycle...

All seems to be pointing out to a 15" atm which is just too big

Thanks

ps3ud0

My 4 year old iBook is happy with my own 2407WFP, so I can't see why not, it's just a single DVI link. I've actually just bought one for my girlfriend to use with her 13" MacBook Pro for christmas, so I hope it works!

It would be nice to see an upgrade to the 13" MBP in Jan, to separate it from the plastic MacBooks, but I don't think the i5 mobile chips will be cheap enough by then to maintain the current price structure. We'll have to wait and see.

ps3ud0 · 3 Dec 2009 at 16:22

Ah sorry - kinda forgot that the 30" requires Dual link DVI...

Thanks

ps3ud0 :cool:

bigredshark · 3 Dec 2009 at 16:23

ps3ud0 said:
Sorry to go off-track slightly, but can someone expand on the below statement:

Ive got a 2407WFP and was just assuming a 13" MBP would work fine with it - have I assumed wrong? Also hoping for a 13" change regards i5/i7 otherwise it gonna be oretty long in the tooth next refresh cycle...

All seems to be pointing out to a 15" atm which is just too big

Thanks

ps3ud0

2407 will work fine as you just need single link DVI and the adaptor is simple, 30" requires dual link and apple's adaptor is a nightmare.

I can't see the 13" getting a i5/i7 upgrade in january myself. The TDP of the i7 720qm/820qm (the only mobile quad core's currently available aside the the extreme editions) is 45w, that's a hell of a lot more than the 25w the current 2.53 uses...

I suspect it's most likely they'll get faster core 2 duo chips, and the i7 will be for one of two high end 15"/17" models.

But thats speculation, maybe Intel coughed up something fancy for apple..

dalepearson · 3 Dec 2009 at 18:04

I have been looking at the MPB's also. Is it worth holding off until Jan then?

Kainz · 3 Dec 2009 at 19:27

iirc the 17" MBP has one of the most pixel dense screens around - none of these pansy panels that you see littering conventional laptops.

Spyhop · 3 Dec 2009 at 19:32

1920x1200 at 17" is nothing special. Ancient Dell XPS had that.

The question is why, in 2009, does the 15.4" MBP have a poor 1440x900 resolution? It's not about pixel density vs readability. Even if it had it's rightful 1680x1050 resolution, it would still have a lower density than the 17"' screen.

Conclusion: Apple cut corners on their 15.4" "Pro" laptop and/or want to push you to buy the more expensive 17".