Yet another "Which for me?" question...

fjpoblamfjpoblam
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I do websites. I sit here, all the livelong day... I'm switching to Macbook from the PC realm. I see the "power" I think I want can be found in a black (13") MB or in a 15" MBP, but with roughly $1500 difference for 2 inches of screen real estate.



Is a keyboard grope, for long-term feel, the determining factor? Or should I be thinking of other things?\

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member
    Can we assume that's a typo and you really meant to say "a $500" difference"? (or about $600 if you upgrade the Pro to a 160GB HDD.)



    If it matters, the Pro also has a more powerful graphics card. It also has more/better expansion options (ports), and ships with 2GB ram instead of only 1GB.

    Those may or may not matter to you, but if you're doing design work, that extra screen real-estate can make a world of difference.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Lighted keyboard too. But many people say they prefer the MacBook keyboard. I do.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Macbook has plenty of power for anything website related. My setup of a Macbook + large external screen should be good if your circumstances permit external screen. If not, you just have to consider if you have enough screen space on the Macbook for what you want to do.



    Note that the black model has extra price tacked on for nothing but the color.



    Both MB and MBP keyboards are quite nice. A good external one is somewhat better. If you have an external screen, you should have an external keyboard to go with it to maintain decent ergonomics.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    fjpoblamfjpoblam Posts: 126member
    ...before I stretch the patience of "backtomac" I had forgotten I posted a similar question in a similar thread before, and he replied, that the main difference was about the GPU...



    The price difference I ran into, configured as I want, was about $1500!!! (including all software and accessories to be added). The difference was, as "backtomac" said, GPU, and as I've said, screen real estate, and as I've yet to try in person, a good solid grope of the keyboard.



    As I say, I'm about a month away from buying the little booger now. (I finally gathered the bucks by selling off a library of leather-bound books that were gathering dust for a few years.) I do websites.



    The graphics I'm used to are (1) an HP dv5000 15-inch 1M and (2) an old IBM A31 Thinkpad 15-inch 512K (!) which the MB(P?) will replace.



    I do websites, so I DO need some graphics, but not movies or games, just some photo manipulation to put on web pages. I type code, and I'm a touch typist, about 80WPM. So that's all the deciding factors. That's why, I decided to ask, the "PROs". I'll read, CAREFULLY, your answers (WHICH I VERY MUCH APPRECIATE, thank you) and this very day, I'll go grope a keyboard.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Photo manipulation does not use the graphics chip, that's done on the CPU, so you don't need to take graphics hardware into consideration at all. (Scratch one pro from the Macbook Pro.)



    So, can you use an external display or do you need the laptop to handle it all, all the time?



    You could actually consider Macbook Air as an alternative to Macbook. I think either of those two plus external screen would be great for you.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    fjpoblamfjpoblam Posts: 126member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gon View Post


    Photo manipulation does not use the graphics chip, that's done on the CPU, so you don't need to take graphics hardware into consideration at all. (Scratch one pro from the Macbook Pro.)



    So, can you use an external display or do you need the laptop to handle it all, all the time?



    You could actually consider Macbook Air as an alternative to Macbook. I think either of those two plus external screen would be great for you.



    Well, I DO need to be able to plug in my spouse's SD cards to download photos, but then, I see, for about $20, I can fetch a Sandisk USB booger that'll adapt to download the SD card (or our old Olympus "smart card" I think).



    I don't want to go to the expense of an external display...that would negate the cost advantage, anyway, and as you might have deduced from the library conversion, I'm not exactly a rich sort.



    I won't consider Air due to its many lacks: shortage of USB ports and (from what I understand) difficult physical angle for USB handling of e.g. USB flash drives, necessity of shipping for battery exchange, expense of external CD capability, limitation of CPU and RAM (I want Parallels/Windows), no Ethernet, etc.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member
    WOW!... a $1500 dollar difference means you configured a $3000 MBPro... at that point it's a much different computer than the MacBook and hard to make a fair comparison between the two. If you configure a 15" Pro that's EQUAL to the BlacBook, then it's only a $600 difference. And I'll say it again, 'cause I made the small screen mistake once... in design work, that extra screen space is worth quite a bit... whether it's worth 600-1500 dollars is (of course) your decision.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    fjpoblamfjpoblam Posts: 126member
    The screen space is likely worth quite something, as a few of you have said.



    I just now felt up the keyboard. The "rubbery" feel of the MB doesn't quite promise the long-term comfort of the more metallic MBP. (I live in a dry climate...soft rubber touch will dry out sooner than the rest of the computer, I suspect.)



    The graphics on the MBP certainly look more appealing.



    So I guess I'll shell out.



    Again, thanks, all, for your generous, patient, and very informed advice.
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