Macbook Pro Advice

[hoobang]

Hello everyone....

I am currently in the market for a new laptop home setup....

I have taken an interest in the mac book pro... with one of those cinema screens

I have only ever really had a play around with a mac book pro for 5 minutes in an apple store a few weeks ago.

I currently own a Dell XPS m1710 which has the following....

XPS M1710 DUO PROCESSOR T2500 (2.0 GHZ,
17" ULTRASHARP WIDE SCREEN WUXGA
MEMORY DUAL-CHANNEL 2048MB (2X1024) 667M
HARD DRIVE 120GB SERIAL ATA (5400 RPM)
DVD+/-RW (READ/WRITE) 8X FIXED INTERNAL
XPS 512MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GO 7900 GTX

What I would like to know is what advantages do I have in buying a macbook pro over a pc laptop?

I just want something that is powerfull, needs to be a laptop as I travel alot with work.
Also can people who have experience with using MS Office on Macs please give me their feedback on performance and compatability (with windows office files) also I have read lots about excel not being as good as the windows version?

Any information would be appreciated...

One more thing... I have noticed after reading alot of posts on the net that apple do not like to tell anyone when something new is coming out... Does anyone believe that there will be a new Mac Book pro out before Xmas?... Is it worth waiting for a new one to be released...

Thank You

[Dogcow]

What I would like to know is what advantages do I have in buying a macbook pro over a pc laptop?

Clearly you have already "taken an interest." Why? What drew you to the macbook pro as an option? The advantages are great, if they are things you would take advantage of... iLife, front row, mobileme, ease of use, product support at the retail stores. Something sparked your interest, so you probably already have some idea why you are considering it.

Also can people who have experience with using MS Office on Macs please give me their feedback on performance and compatability (with windows office files) also I have read lots about excel not being as good as the windows version?

I support an office of about 25 macs and 35 pcs. Word, Powerpoint, and Excel files are traded daily with no problems. 99% of what most people do is completable and they have have matching features. Mac Office/excel does not support VBA scripting, thats probably the biggest thing that's missing. There are a few other small annoyances with Entourage (the mac outlook client), but no show stoppers.

One more thing... I have noticed after reading alot of posts on the net that apple do not like to tell anyone when something new is coming out... Does anyone believe that there will be a new Mac Book pro out before Xmas?... Is it worth waiting for a new one to be released...

Apple announces new products when they feel like it and try hard to keep it a secret. Typically they don't just spring new products out the door one morning without fanfare. Many sites track these rumors. Most people believe that the MacBooks will be updated before Christmas, if not MacWorld in January. The current line has not seen upgrades since February.

[captaincore]

man, check this out at MacMall

• 15'' 2.2GHz MacBook Pro, $1,449.99 (1599)
— 2GB, 120GB, 8600M GT w/ 128MB
— Glossy display
— Price after $150 mail-in rebate

http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=9628

[zinfella]

man, check this out at MacMall

• 15'' 2.2GHz MacBook Pro, $1,449.99 (1599)
— 2GB, 120GB, 8600M GT w/ 128MB
— Glossy display
— Price after $150 mail-in rebate

http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=9628

Methinks that there's just too many brain dead "internet fools" here that don't have the savvy to take advantage of good deal when it's stuffed right in their face! Many of these fools HAVE to have the very latest model, OR, they will simply perish!!!!! ;)