Should I Buy A Macbook? Please help!!

[videotape]

Hi!
I'm a student currently in high school but i'm off to colllege soon and wanted to upgrade to a macbook. I'm currently using windows 2000! And while this still works fine, my computer is very large and bulky and certainly not dorm room friendly. I'd also really like to have a laptop to be able to carry around with me. I've thought about buying a mac for two years now and finally have enough money saved up. My parents don't want me to, they think it is a waste but I have my heart set on it. Should I buy one? and if so is there anything I should wait for, like ilife 07? Also, are their any disadvantages to buying one refurbished?

thank you so much in advanced!

 

[iW00t]

Refurbished Macbooks are great.

I dare say even "safer" bets than the refurbished Macbook Pros. Quite a few instances where people buy refurbished Macbook Pros and it comes with either a dent or a broken hinge. No such occurences for the MBs

 

[extraextra]

No disadvantages to buying a refurbished one, except it comes in a brown box instead of the white box.

I would go for the Macbook.

 

[Skrilla™]

no way dude, get a dell

seriously, what kind of answer do you expect to get at a place like this?

 

[danvdr]

Hi!
I'm a student currently in high school but i'm off to colllege soon and wanted to upgrade to a macbook.

"College" only has two "l"s

Depends how soon "soon" is. If it's next fall, then wait 'til the end of summer. Over the next 6 months there are bound to be improvements which you'll miss out on by buying now; or, if you don't need the latest and greatest, the products on the Apple store's refurb page will be today's latest and greatest.

 

[flopticalcube]

Hi!
My parents don't want me to, they think it is a waste but I have my heart set on it.

I am deeply interested in why your parents think it is a "waste". Oh wait, let me guess: "Macs are more expensive". Right?

 

[e12a]

a waste? if anything you can load windows xp on it.

Almost everyone that is not computer-inclined still does not realize that windows can be installed on intel-macs!

 

[Romulus]

If you are starting school next Fall, wait till then. Apple updated the Macbook to C2D. Next big update will probably take advantage of features from Santa Rosa and Robson (google if you want to know what those are). Those features, especially the flash based memory for cashing files should speed up everything. Also, by waiting you are probably gonna get Leopard, which in itself is 100-150 upgrade with student license. Another factor is that by that time most software will finally be Universal, including MS Office, so you would not have to get things twice.

If your parents thing a Mac is a waste compared to a PC, I was a switcher in November, and am a graduate student now. Macs are actually relatively inexpensive, and for the features included the Macbook runs cheper than a similar Dell. Also, with Parallels, you are able to run Windows without problem and probably much faster than your old computer, especially with the dual core processors built for that. Leopard will further take advantage of the dual core, speeding things up even more. I can tell you being a student myself - you will not regret the switch from PC to Mac, but you will need Parallels or bootcamp for full compatibility with everything at your school.

Good luck!

 

[manosaurus]

Refurbished Macbooks are great.

I dare say even "safer" bets than the refurbished Macbook Pros. Quite a few instances where people buy refurbished Macbook Pros and it comes with either a dent or a broken hinge. No such occurences for the MBs

Are you seriously claiming that? What is the size of your population sample?

 

[BillyShears]

Maybe they think it's a waste to buy a new laptop when he has a functional computer as-is, and it's got nothing to do with Mac vs. PC.

If that's the question, that's not really one for a Mac forum, but more for yourself and your budget.

I've never heard anything really horrible about refurbished MacBooks, so those are probably OK to go with.

If you outlined what you plan on using it for, we might be able to offer more help. (Are you using it for word processing, email, surfing the web? Are you planning on gaming with it? What are you going to school for, and is that media intensive, or software-intensive? etc.)

 

[leekohler]

Oh Lord- I'm actually giving a MacBook recommendation. It sounds perfect for you. Do it if you can.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Be sure to compare the cost of buying thru your schools higher Education plan with Apple - it's going to knock a couple of hundred dollars off - AND get you a discount on AppleCare (which you really need to factor into the cost). I believe there are often "deals" too - free iPods and such for college students!

If i were in your shoes - even though i can totally relate to WANT IT NOW, i'd wait till at least the summer. That way you get your machine with Leopard on it and don't have to feel like you MUST upgrade your OS heading off to school.

Congrats on saving the money - and good luck on the purchase!!