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MacBook or MacBook Pro

V

VoodooSteve

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2007
9
0
I'm soon going to be purchasing either a MacBook or a MacBook Pro to begin school this fall. Unfortunately, the choice is a difficult one. So what I want to know is which one has the best battery life and which one is the most durable? Size is not too much of an issue because although the MacBook Pro is larger, both are fairly close in weight. I will be running Parallels to run both Windows and Ubuntu Linux so if I do choose the MacBook, I will upgrade the RAM immediately to 2 GB. Therefore, I kind of feel that the MacBook will have no room to grow. In terms of the video card, I could live without my games but I'm more concerned with longevity of the notebook. I feel the Intel GMA 950 might not cut it for much longer.

A friend of mine purchased the MacBook Pro and he is very happy with it. He advised me to go with the MBP because of the Santa Rosa chipset, the video card, backlit LED display, backlit keyboard and a maximum of 4GB of RAM. Is this worth the extra $500 from the 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook with 2GB of RAM? Which notebook is the better one for my needs? Has anyone purchased one and wished they had purchased the other?
 
Every question you have can be answered by doing a search. Every question that you have has been discussed ad nauseam in these forums.
 
VoodooSteve said:
I'm soon going to be purchasing either a MacBook or a MacBook Pro to begin school this fall. Unfortunately, the choice is a difficult one. So what I want to know is which one has the best battery life and which one is the most durable? Size is not too much of an issue because although the MacBook Pro is larger, both are fairly close in weight. I will be running Parallels to run both Windows and Ubuntu Linux so if I do choose the MacBook, I will upgrade the RAM immediately to 2 GB. Therefore, I kind of feel that the MacBook will have no room to grow. In terms of the video card, I could live without my games but I'm more concerned with longevity of the notebook. I feel the Intel GMA 950 might not cut it for much longer.

A friend of mine purchased the MacBook Pro and he is very happy with it. He advised me to go with the MBP because of the Santa Rosa chipset, the video card, backlit LED display, backlit keyboard and a maximum of 4GB of RAM. Is this worth the extra $500 from the 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook with 2GB of RAM? Which notebook is the better one for my needs? Has anyone purchased one and wished they had purchased the other?
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If I were you, go for the MacBook Pro. Everything about it is better then the MacBook. The graphics suck on the MacBook. Also the MacBook Pro just looks nicer which I like. I feel for what you are doing, MBP all the way.
 
the low end macbook pro keeps me more than happy. i also had the same dilemma that you did and the macbook pro is perfect. it is very portable and the battery life is great, 4 good hours and that is while on normal settings (not energy saver) using airport, itunes, internet, iphoto, adium, pages, numbers, etc...
 
Macbook pro, you will only regret it if you dont.

I would go pro, I just sold my 2.16C2D MB white to get a macbook pro base model itha 160HDD. It flys, I thought the macbook was fast, but I kept on getting the spining wheel, and using DW was a night mare on the small screen. I love my macbok pro.
 
eme jota ce said:
Better battery life and much improved wireless reception range lead me to sell my MBP and get a macbook.
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An important point^^^. The macbook will give you an extra 30 minutes to an hour and a half (depending on the applications and settings you choose) over the new SR mbp. However, with the performance and future potential of the mbp over the mb, I'd have to say that the mbp is still a better deal. You pay more now, but you get more for your money. As for the battery life on the new mbps, I have to say that I get a good 4 hours on mine when I'm just web surfing and doing light stuff like word processing (note that I keep my Bluetooth off and only have a USB mouse plugged in). Two important things you can do to improve battery life are:

1. Dim the screen. I find in most cases that my screen is too bright anyways, and that dimming is easier on my eyes. This will give you a lot more battery power.

2. Turn off things you're not using; like I wrote above, Bluetooth. Turn off your back-lit keyboard, use headphones instead of the built-in speakers, and don't play games and the like.

Hope this helps.
 
I wouldn't start turning off features that you've paid a premium for just to get more battery life.
Like said above, turn off things you absolutely don't use or want.

If you're going to turn off backlight, dim the screen so you can barely see it, turn off wireless or force yourself to use a wired mouse, you might as well buy a macbook.
 
kurzz said:
I wouldn't start turning off features that you've paid a premium for just to get more battery life.
Like said above, turn off things you absolutely don't use or want.

If you're going to turn off backlight, dim the screen so you can barely see it, turn off wireless or force yourself to use a wired mouse, you might as well buy a macbook.
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Frankly, I only really want the back-lit keyboard once in a thousand times; most of the time, it doesn't help. I dim the screen fairly low, but I can still see everything quite clearly; it doesn't need to be as bright as the sun for it to be readable;)

I don't turn off Airport, just Bluetooth. Bluetooth mice annoy me anyways, so it's a win-win for me.

I don't see how using a wired mouse is equivalent to buying a macbook:rolleyes:
 
CalBoy said:
Frankly, I only really want the back-lit keyboard once in a thousand times; most of the time, it doesn't help. I dim the screen fairly low, but I can still see everything quite clearly; it doesn't need to be as bright as the sun for it to be readable;)

I don't turn off Airport, just Bluetooth. Bluetooth mice annoy me anyways, so it's a win-win for me.

I don't see how using a wired mouse is equivalent to buying a macbook:rolleyes:
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You missed the point. If saving battery life was that important, might as well get a Macbook. :rolleyes:
 
kurzz said:
You missed the point. If saving battery life was that important, might as well get a Macbook. :rolleyes:
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But it isn't that important; it's just one of many aspects to consider. The battery life of the mbp is fine for me, and honestly, I would have done the same things I do with my mbp with a mb. It's just like fuel economy with your car. Even if you buy an Explorer, you're still going to make sure the tires are well inflated and such to give you good fuel economy. Even if you don't have a hybrid, it will still make a difference. Like I said, I'm not inconvenienced by any of it, so what difference does it make?
 
Calboy, this thread isn't about you. It's about the OP. My post was never meant to discredit your posts. Doesn't matter if you are not inconvenienced by it. Some people are inconvenienced by a 1.5 hour difference in battery life.
 
I think the macbook will work just fine for you, but with the macbook atleast you get a bigger display and the real reason to get it is the decent graphics if you need it, also better get it now while it's nvidia so it works accelerated with 3d in linux, freebsd and solaris compared to ati junk.
 
kurzz said:
Calboy, this thread isn't about you. It's about the OP. My post was never meant to discredit your posts. Doesn't matter if you are not inconvenienced by it. Some people are inconvenienced by a 1.5 hour difference in battery life.
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Right, and we're discussing it so the OP can make up his own mind. I'm giving him some perspective from my experiences. I just happen to disagree with your way of looking at it. It was never about me.

aliquis- said:
I think the macbook will work just fine for you, but with the macbook atleast you get a bigger display and the real reason to get it is the decent graphics if you need it, also better get it now while it's nvidia so it works accelerated with 3d in linux, freebsd and solaris compared to ati junk.
Click to expand...

I think you mean macbook pro:)
 
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