Sell me a mac

oli356 · 13 Sep 2011 at 18:14

Hey there, edit: this is gonna be a long post, sorry!

Well I've been working all summer and now back to college and feel like spending money -typical me-. Will still be working a bit to keep myself 'topped up' though on money and have enough to buy a Mac and not be broke

Never used one before (plan to take a walk down to the Apple store in my lunch hour tomorrow and have a little play around for a bit)

Was looking at the MBA's and the MBP's. As great as the MBA looks, I guess your paying more for the thiness etc. Though the SSD seems to be the main advantage over the MBP.

I'm a college student so I have bought a NUS card and from the site have access to the further education and higher education store. Though the further education discount is only like 7% compared to higher which is 15. Though not sure if it would let me use the higher one or not... or either of them if I purchase from home.

Going on the higher education prices though:

MBP: 13", 2.3GHZ i5, 4GB RAM, 320GB 5400rpm HDD £859

The higher end 13" MBP would be OTT. The 15" costs £1332 and would rather not go paying that much.

MBA 11", 1.6GHZ I5, 4GB, 128GB SSD: £859.20
MBA 13" 1.7GHZ I5, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD: £945.60

So it would be the MBP 13" (maybe buy a SSD and install it myself) or the MBA 13". The price between the 11 + 13" isn't much and the screen resolution might be a bit better; though I think I saw that the MBA has a better screen res then the MBP anyway.

I would most likely have Windows on a Mac, as I think most people do anyway. Incase for any reason I need it.... Not sure what the best method of this is, using the VMware software maybe?

-----------------rambling over--------

Anyone know about the higher education discounts and if I could use it then?

And the main point of the thread, why should I go and spend nearly a grand on a Mac over a Windows laptop (which tbh I wouldn't go and buy

)

Cheers!

oli356 · 13 Sep 2011 at 19:04

theheyes said:
Opening a can of worms with that question really. My honest answer is, if you have no motivation to use OSX then you might as well save your money.

Out of the choices I would go with the 13" MBA but, again, if you're just going to install and run Windows then you're really missing half the worth of getting one in the first place.

Of course I would use OSX, looks like a totally different OS compared to Windows and well you pay the extra bit for the OS. I might never need Windows, but it's there if I do need it. Though don't see why I would, only if I was using some software what didn't work on Mac for e.g.

oli356 · 13 Sep 2011 at 19:23

Concorde Rules said:
Find yourself a second hand bargain IMO.

I picked up a 3/4 month old 15" with full 3 year applecare for £1100. The guy paid north of £1500...

If you don't do a lot then the Air is up your street but always worth looking for a bargain!

Keeping an eye on the MM. Though wouldn't want to be sending that much money really, if it was local then it's a different story.

Just looked the MBP also was refreshed in February so not to long away till it's refresh, compared to the air atleast. With the 11" air being the same price as the 13" mbp it's a hard one really. Though the air has a better cpu it has the ssd

oli356 · 13 Sep 2011 at 19:46

Concorde Rules said:
Air will only be refreshed with Ivy Bridge I recon.

Apple tend to leave things for 10-14 months before updates, and guess what happens in Feb/March next year?

Also I drove 85 miles to pick this one up, but ebay is also a good bet, see the other thread for the bargin a bloke got.

Feb/March, a new one I guess?

Which thread did you put that in?
Item number: 280737974637(auction site) will keep an eye on that, though the 11" version. Just seems like that would be to small.

oli356 · 13 Sep 2011 at 19:59

Thought you could as they aren't really a competitor, though rules says no auction sites so.. Edited

oli356 · 13 Sep 2011 at 20:14

DefiantAsh said:
<snip>
Especially apple, as with higher-education i get 3 year hardware warranty on my macbook air (when i get it )

Best to be safe then sorry yeah.

Nice warranty. Shame I can't get the HE discount

seems like you need to be on the network to buy online as well so. Would have to be at college for the 7% discount. £88 difference between 13" MBA HE discount and FE discount.

oli356 · 13 Sep 2011 at 20:23

Hehe nice, maybe take into consideration if you buy I think its before end of September you get a free mac voucher

oli356 · 14 Sep 2011 at 07:24

Keep just going back in forth in my head. Hopefully going to see them in person will help.

Air: SSD (noticeable difference), screen resolution higher (though much difference?, lighter and thinner (could argue that it's a disadvantage in a way, might not feel as tough, not sure if I even prefer the look!

Pro: Better processor good for the future and if I try to do anything more demanding, maybe even play a game.. still looks nice, and tougher , could buy an 128GB SSD..

oli356 · 14 Sep 2011 at 08:43

Good point, though I have a gaming desktop and it's not like I would ever use a laptop for 'proper' gaming. Maybe like Minecraft or something

..

oli356 · 14 Sep 2011 at 18:42

Well went into the apple shop, had a play around and a talk with one of the guys and came out with a 13" MBA.

The further education discount was pretty rubbish! (Compared to the university one, its like 6% vs 13% or something.)
It was £1099 and I got a £65.94 discount.. (and the £65 mac store code)

Just feel like I'm constantly going to drop it if I hold it. Need to look for a case of some kind. Got back to work with it, and in the afternoon the wireless screws up I'm thinking "Ok I'll just use a network cable" ..... oh wait

oli356 · 16 Sep 2011 at 00:17

Well, I'm sure the battery isn't right.. Swear I didn't get even 5 hours of basic use from it today.
Had a roaring fan for some reason when browsing and listening to music.. restarted.
It was SILENT, just turned on tvcatchup.com and its pretty loud again, not as bad, but pretty loud, can still hear it with volume on 100%..

The RAM usage earlier seemed a bit weird, I was on like Firefox and iTunes or something and I was using the majority of 4GB of RAM...

oli356 · 16 Sep 2011 at 07:13

I only had tvcatchup going for a few minutes, it was on charge then anyway. When it was off charge I was only browsing and on spotify really. But the noise was worse just before I did the tvcatchup test, I was on msn videocall and spotify....roaring away. Like I was on San Andreas earlier for 10 minutes, I can see why that would make the fans go at it, but msn and spotify.

I had a look at the monitor, at one point yesterday I had like 55MB free, 800MB wired, 1GB inactive or something..Didn't take a screen capture of that, but this wasn't to long after.

I just turned it on now, so have about 2GB free, 1GB wired, 850MB active, 140MB inactive. Full battery (4h 39m predicted) edit: Though that goes up and down between 3.5 hours and 5 I guess it can't be 'trusted' though meant to get like 7?

oli356 · 16 Sep 2011 at 13:15

Thinking of returning it (I think I can within 14 days)? And getting a 13" MBP instead... The Pro I can put a SSD into if I want to, though not sure how fussed I will be with it, and it means I can actually 'store' stuff onto it. Yes it would be heavier and the screen isn't as nice etc but its more future-proof really.

oli356 · 17 Sep 2011 at 10:29

Anyway, thanks guys

At work ATM, just went to return it.. The woman didn't even check the box :s, walked in asked for refund, looks at my receipt, I put my card in, card out, give her bag. Walk out, now to wait for the money to go back into my account then I'll buy a mbp and find a place to buy 8gb ram