I’ve been loving my MacBook for a year now. I have a white MacBook with a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM and a 160 GB HD. It is fast, light and very reliable. Although sometimes, I do wonder how much more I would have gotten with a MacBook Pro. Since I had never used a MacBook Pro over an hour, I really did not know how much better a MacBook Pro was compared to my MacBook. I had just expected that you get what your pay for. The more money you pay, the faster and better your computer is going to be.
After using a MacBook Pro for a more extensive amount of time and researching more about it, I have come to realize that $1000 more for a MacBook Pro may not have been such a good idea. With the specs and prices that Apple has as of now, the MacBook may be just fine for a lot of the work you need to do.
If you’re deciding between a MacBook Pro or a MacBook, you are probably considering the highest end MacBook and the lowest end MacBook Pro. Lets compare both of these devices. The highest end MacBook is black one with an Intel 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB of RAM and a 250 GB HD. This is all for $1,699.00. The lowest end MacBook Pro has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM and a 200 GB HD. So, you lose 2 GB of Ram, 50 GB of HD space and you have to pay $300 more! Lets say we match up the specs and give the MacBook Pro 4 GB of RAM and a 250 GB HD. Now it is $2,249.00, a whole $549 more! How is this possible? Well, lets look at what you get for that $549. You get a 15-inch screen as opposed to 13.3-inch screen, a Backlit keyboard and a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card, which is superior to the MacBook Intel GMA X3100. So, this $549 is not giving you any more power or speed, just looks. Is the $549 really worth it? This is why I think the MacBook has a better value than the MacBook Pro.
I run my MacBook with Final Cut Express all the time for various projects. Remember, this is with a 2.16 GHz machine with 2 GB of RAM… not 4. These 2 GBs are well enough for Final Cut. If at all it will take up half of my memory with a full GB left for other apps. So in fact, I disagree that you NEED a MacBook Pro if you want to do video editing. A lot of people will buy MacBook Pros just for this reason. I believe this is a waste of money. I also believe you are loosing a lot of taste when buying the MacBook Pro. For a lot of people, this will not matter, but MacBooks are lighter, sexier and smaller. The MacBooks actually have a much better ratio of power/space compared to the MacBook Pro, which is very important to me. Why pay more for something that looks and feels worse? Oh, I almost forgot, the MacBook’s keyboard is 10X better than the MacBook Pro’s.
There are some reasons you would want to buy a MacBook Pro, which you defiantly should know about.
1) If you want to play games, you may want a MacBook Pro. MacBooks are not able to process a whole lot of visuals. The MacBook’s video card is just not enough for a whole lot of games and you may be really disappointed when your favorite video game starts to lag as soon as it starts. All MacBook Pros can handle your games, whether they are PC virtualized games or native Mac games. For example, Diablo III…
2) If you want to virtualize Windows XP/Vista along with Mac OS X, you may want a MacBook Pro. Sometimes, it may be hard to have a virtual machine running along with Mac OS X. For one reason or another 2.5 or 2.6 GHz can really help everything run smoother.
3) If video editing is your job, you may want a MacBook Pro. I still believe that MacBooks can run Final Cut perfectly fine, but don’t get me wrong, you can always run it better. Final Cut Express and Pro are very different. Express can be run easily on a MacBook Pro, but Pro is a little different. Final Cut Studio comes not only with Final Cut Pro, but also Motion. You can only run about 1/3 of Motion’s filters on a MacBook, so it really is unusable. At the same time, it is mostly only professionals who use Motion. If spending $1000 more for a 2.6 Ghz machine for a little better performance is necessary for your job, a MacBook Pro may be the right computer for you. If you use Final Cut Pro for side jobs or just for fun, there is no reason you need to spend that kind of money.
In conclusion, I really think the MacBook has a ton more value than the MacBook Pro. It is sort of like Apple adds $500 just for that “pro” feel. I am still waiting for some necessary changes that I wrote about here. I think Apple really needs to rethink their notebook product line because I do not see a big enough difference between the two notebooks that makes me want to spend that extra money.
If you are deciding between a MacBook or MacBook Pro, I highly suggest a MacBook. Save your money and get a great, quality machine that will not disappoint you.
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July 5th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Interesting post Gabe. I kinda feel better for buying a black macbook now (or rather receiving one for graduation). It makes me sad though because I am looking so forward to Diablo III and this graphics card probably won’t be the best for it (but at least it’s not the requirements of Crysis!). I think when we get down to it though, you can probably get the specs of say a black macbook for much cheaper. It almost feels like i’m paying for the brand and the operating system (some people will argue other points but when you get down to it…thats what is). So if you REALLY want to save money… I would say Macs in general are probably not the best.
July 6th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Great post! I’ll certainly keep this in mind the next time I’m ready to buy a laptop… in about 10 years (I’m happy with my iMac). Although all of the ‘MacBook’s and MacBook Pro’s kept getting mixed up in my head… of well.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:30 am
hey, I had the same problem 6 months ago and ended up buying the Pro. Basically its all true what you say….you dont get much more in terms of performance. Both can do email, word, internet, pictures, etc. But the extra 2 inches of screen is absolutely perfect. Even sometimes I which I had the 17 inch. Look, we spend so much time in front of this thing, the least we can do is have a big screen to look at all day! bye,
Gabe Jacobs reply on July 7th, 2008 8:40 am:
I guess 15 or 17 inches would be really nice, but I still do not think it is worth the money. Plus, with a bigger screen comes more weight and more chunkiness, which sort of annoys me.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I’m curious, do you think CoD 4 will run on a brand new black macbook fine? I’m tempted to buy it but I’m not sure if the graphics card can handle it well…..
Gabe Jacobs reply on July 7th, 2008 9:49 am:
If you were trying to play this game in a virtual machine, I would say you need a MacBook Pro, but since (if I am correct) it is coming out for the mac, there is a possibility you will be able to play it on a macbook. I would research what other people say before you buy it. Either way, a MacBook Pro would be safe…