Now this is why I don't like laptops. For the same price as that, you could get an overclocked i7 920 rig with an ips panel, an ssd and a 5870.
I already own two i7 rigs (920 and 930) complete with SSDs, nVidia 2xx cards, Dominator GT RAM and all the rest of the trimmings. You don't like laptops because they're expensive - I get that. I need a new laptop though, and am more than willing to spend the money on this one because it will add a whole other level of ability to both my working and personal/leisure life. -I am not trying to be hostile or start an argument, but- Why would you say you don't like laptops because you could get (what you've basically described as) a gaming rig for the same amount of money? It's not the same thing at all. To me, that's like saying "This is why I don't like high powered speedboats, for the £40K that cost, you could get a VW Scirocco sport, tune it, body style it and install a really cool ICE system" Two vehicles, two purposes, similar amount of money. Two computers, two purposes, similar amount of money. I know it's not a perfect comparison, but surely you see where I'm coming from?
Yeah, I do see where you're coming from, but I'd replace your two vehicles with an Ariel Atom (gaming rig) and a BMW 530i (laptop). One is more much practical than the other - I'd actually use the 530i for driving but you do get inherently more speed for your money with the atom. I see what you're saying, but it is basically cheaper to get a mid-range C2D laptop (VW Passat) and a gaming PC (Ariel Atom) than it is to get a high end laptop, but because of the heat that has to be dealt with the mid-range laptop is not actually that much slower.
I'm running 2GB on my 13" MBP, so when you get it, if you're wanting to sell the 2*2GB modules, I'd be interested
No problem Guinevere, when I get the MBP and get the memory changed, the spare 2x 2GB modules will have your name on them!
Really the whole problem is microsoft being one of the strongest companies in the world and being selfish and not letting other software companies like mac and linux advanced.Apple do excellent laptops and are mainly about being stylish, but you have no choice if you want a high end system.and for all the apple haters have ye actually use a mac book pro? or are ye just dissing it because people are ye are used to windows.if so take the quality and how sleek they are into account aswell.This comes at a premium just like Lian Li cases
Office on the Mac is still running on Carbon, rather than Cocoa so it isn't quite as good as it could be. I'd personally rather use Openoffice than MS Office on my Mac. However, if you don't need compatibility with Office users, iWork is excellent and really good fun to use.
Being in the Apple store today made me huuuungry to buy my MBP sooner than I thought, but that would be less economical than waiting another month so I'm going to bite my lip
I've been attempting to use iWork for the last six months. Honestly, it's horrendous, the simplicity is horrible. It's nice and easy to use, but as soon as you want some of the more advanced features, it's a nightmare! Example: I need to add equations. Simple stuff like integrals and geometric progressions. Almost every office suite can do this by default, Word, OpenOffice, heck, even Abiword can handle equations gracefully. Six months of looking, haven't found it yet.
Pretty sure there's no native equation editor for Pages. However, you can buy MathType and integrate it with Pages, giving you the ability to easily put any equations into your document. Although that's hardly an ideal solution, as it's not free.
Exactly, I'd rather not spend $50 to have equations in iWork, when I could get Office 2008 for not much more.
Right. I'll first say that, I personally, would not buy a MBP. There is zero reason I can see for me to choose a Mac over a Windows 7 laptop. Programs that are going to be needed are likely to run on both, so there is no issue with OS. I could not justify the extra money on laptop styling...honestly if you need it for work, surely it's more sensible to get a better performing machine, rather than one that looks pretty (the MBP does look very pretty) especially if it's a case of better hardware for less money, which there are i7 powered laptops for less than the 15" MBP. But thats me, and out of the two options you've listed, get the 15". Even if the C2D is good enough, it won't be in the future, the i5 will be a better investment. Plus 13" screen. No thanks.
[hijack] I've sort of managed to convince myself recently that I need to get an MBP and from digging, I've not found anywhere that I can get the same battery life and hardware for less. Additionally bootcamp + Win7 would give me the best of both worlds (not that I need OSX, but its nice to have choice). Seems that if I buy a regular laptop that I would have to heavily sacrifice on battery life and additionally, increase weight for the most part as well as sacrifice build quality. If anyone can point me to something better or the same (most importantly battery life), for less than the basic £1500 MBP please do! [/hijack]
If its battery life you're after I don't think you are going to find something that will beat the MBP. Unless you are happy with ULV processors ( something like the Acer Timeline) or can handle those huge extended batteries that double the weight of the laptop...
9 hours+ on real world use for mine. Thats Spotify + internet browser + msn + other apps periodically and I just tip over 9 hours use with the PC being powered on while on mains power. Mightily impressive and better than I could manage out of any of the Timeline ULV laptops I tried, doing the same tasks on them I would be lucky to get to 5 hours sometimes. Like OSX a lot more than I expected as well, gone as far as to remove my bootcamp install.