Alright so I'm going to give my opinion since I've had both and currently using a macbook

The bang for your buck factor is totally thrown out the drain, for a macbook you're paying a HUGE AMOUNT for some pretty bad peripherals.

It may just be me, but when you think 2 usb ports will do the trick, it DOESN'T; as it's a major pain in the donkey when you find out you have a wireless mouse, usb external and wireless keyboard. Believe me, you need more than 2 USB ports; i guarantee it. The irony is that most NETBOOKS have 3 USB ports, it's funny how a 1400$ machine only has flipping two...

Also, if you're going for a macbook; it's CPU and GPU power is decent for 1080p videos and bioshock at like medium settings to run smooth. Basically, you just can't play any games on this platform nor transcode videos as well because all video encoders for the mac are poo poo. That, and the fact they don't use the CUDA technology just makes encoding that much more of a pain in the donkey.

Now third party support isn't totally ruled out of this equation thanks to VMware fusion and other OS emulators; as running those allow you to use windows applications within mac OS X. The only thing that people always seem to forget that even running windows XP can eat your ram and system resources up pretty quick; try getting 4 gigs of ram before you try running two OS's at once.

The VMware environments are only good enough for video transcoding and playing a visual novel, do not think you can even try running a game as it simply won't even work. This requires bootcamp, which is basically just a bragging tool to tell PC users to STFU and to play games; which you aren't buying this system for right?

If you're a guy who is like me and uses a mac only for schoolwork, listening to music, and watching videos; you'll find a lot to love in mac os x. Compared to windows, mac os x is a lot more productive with the way you handle windows with swiping across the touchpad, pinching to zoome and rotate, etc. It's basically a lot more easier to keep track of windows and manipulate things with a few simple key strokes and such; something i haven't seen implemented in any windows environment. It's also got a unique way of handling file previews in the OS environment and that quick look gimmick is so darn useful.

Now i don't know about a plastic unibody macbook, but my aluminum macbook was able to take a guy stepping on it (douche bag, should've shot him in the face) and it didn't break or get nicked at all; which makes it pretty durable if you ask me.

Lastly about a macbook, you do get a DECENT (not amazing) specs for a huge amount of money and believe me, the grand you drop on a macbook (or any other expensive laptop for that matter) makes you totally spoon your pants about it whenever you take it outside. Personally whenever i take my macbook outside I'm worried about it 24/7; why? because i spent a HUGE FREAKING PAYLOAD ON IT and as such, a guy like me can't sit still when my laptop that is the equivalent to a small car is out in the wild; easily 'borrowed' or broken by the rampant society wee have running around these days.

So to sum it up, this is why you should probably go with a macbook

Pros:
-Best construction quality on a laptop
-Mac OS X is very intuitive and productive, please stfu pc fags if you're going to debate which is better as this is my opinion
-Decent specs
-Great touchpad use
-Great screen (color contrast ratio and resolution are top notch)
-VMware fusion for third party apps (recommended only when you have 4GB ram)
-perfect for school work and 1080p playback
-I like the magsafe adapter, snap
-Great battery life

Cons:
-Two USB ports, like seriously....double you tee eff
-Single mic and head phone jack....double you tee eff
-Price is iffy, even for the plastic macbook
-Combo drive is poo poo (i mean come on, no blu-ray?)
-chocolateting your pants over such an expensive laptop

My final words are that if all those pros fit your needs and if you really like screen clarity and build quality; then by all means, go for a macbook as it won't disappoint you. Also, you just can't play any games unless you run bootcamp, which is really just a waste of your time and harddrive space as rebooting into an entirely different OS is a pain in the donkey, bootcamp is there if you just NEED to play that said game.

My macbook suits me fine and after a guy stepping on it, it really reassured me about it's build quality; but personally? I'd rather just stick with a decent plastic 300$ used HP laptop and not worry about it getting 'borrowed' or broken when i take it outside. Laptops are MADE to leave their homes and move around, you need a dependable laptop that can take some blows but you also don't want to be spending a huge amount of money on a machine you feel is going to get dropped sometime or later. I've bought it and i must say my macbook is a pretty good machine with a durable build, but if you're so concerned about money like i am; then you might as well buy a 300$ used laptop and not worry about it when it breaks or gets outmodded later into the future.

And come on, a 300$ used laptop can basically handle everything the macbook can do; except 1080p playback (depends on it's graphics card).

(This post was last modified: 28/11/2009 11:43 PM by Tetris999.)

I'm gay.

Last.fm | Steam

(This post was last modified: 28/11/2009 11:43 PM by feinicks.)

Last.fm | Steam

(This post was last modified: 28/11/2009 11:53 PM by Joom.)

^^^
I proofread/edited the post, might want to read it again... :P

feinicks Wrote:About the USB slots, do the USB slots extenders work on this? They work for windows lappys but never used one for a mac.

any should work

feinicks Wrote:How is the transfer done between PC and Mac? As in, do they see each other normally over the network? And can it now read NTFS?

Yes, macbooks can read and edit NTFS file systems normally with the macfuse/NTFS 3-G plugin

For the network sharing, i was able to get my PC's to recognize my macbook and access it; but i never tried to access a PC from a macbook, but I'm sure it should work.

feinicks Wrote:Like I already said, its not going to be my main PC. All the transcoding, ripping, etc is not going to part of the laptop. Gaming is also a practically non-existent issue as I will not play any games (other DoTA etc) on this. Like you mentioned, I will only use this for PS, Office and watching stuff while sleeping or outside.

Well it will exceed those expectations then, believe me; working with PS and Office is great in OS X

feinicks Wrote:Also, I am really careful about taking stuff out all the time and plus, I'm a biker (motorcycle...*sigh*), so everything will be on my back, lol)

Just take good care of it, I'm sure it can take some blows; but for anything expensive it really sucks to see it break because of one careless mistake >_>

Last.fm | Steam

Joomla12 Wrote:Well there ya go...

sorry if i 'borrowed' the show or something like that,

Last.fm | Steam

Tetris999 Wrote:It may just be me, but when you think 2 usb ports will do the trick, it DOESN'T; as it's a major pain in the donkey when you find out you have a wireless mouse, usb external and wireless keyboard. Believe me, you need more than 2 USB ports; i guarantee it. The irony is that most NETBOOKS have 3 USB ports, it's funny how a 1400$ machine only has flipping two...

It's like a laptop... why the hell would you want a USB keyboard for it?

That being said, I agree that 2 USB ports may not be enough, I'm permanently using like 5.  But it's sort of a different situation here because this is my desktop with everything always plugged in (external storage HDD, portable 2.5' HDD, printer, ...), and also my main and only machine.

Tetris999 Wrote:... nor transcode videos as well because all video encoders for the mac are poo poo. That, and the fact they don't use the CUDA technology just makes encoding that much more of a pain in the donkey.

Pretty sure you can compile (or find binaries on the net for) x264 for Macs, ffmpeg too.  Don't know about you, but I'll use x264 over CUDA any day.  If you want a GUI, Handbrake's supposedly pretty good.

But yes, Windows is best for that kind of stuff.

Tetris999 Wrote:-Single mic and head phone jack....double you tee eff

So what, you want like 5 or something?  So you can 2 sets of speakers, 3 additional sets of headphones and 4 microphones at the same time?

You may have a point about 2 USB slots being not enough, but 1 pair (mic and headphone) is really REALLY all you need.  And I've never seen a laptop with more than that anyway.

(This post was last modified: 29/11/2009 12:08 AM by Assassinator.)