Macbook or Macbook Pro?
Adinoto pinged me tonight about a deal he has on Macbook pro. It’s a barter between my current Macbook with a new Macbook pro in addition to some cash and I think it’s a very good deal. The problem is I’m 60% sure that Apple will update the specification this June (usually they bump up the speed with the same price). And with the graphic card that a Macbook Pro has (ATi Radeon Mobile X1600) which is already dated, financially I can get a much cheaper laptop with the same spec.
The second reason that I’m still pending the decision is that I’m not sure that I’m going to use the graphic card that much since I was just doing some pretty regular stuffs without a hard-core need of a dedicated graphic card (read: a built-in GMA 950 is just good enough for me) — hence not justifying a hefty price tag.
However on the pro-buy side, the finishing of Macbook Pro is astounding. I haven’t seen a finishing for a laptop better than a Macbook pro, even for fashion-segmented Asus (that has leather as its casing — a very bad design choice, it traps the heat) seemed pale compared to Macbook Pro. With the back-lighted keyboard that is sensitive to light (self-adjusting to the brightness level of the room), it’s probably the best designed notebook ever.
On one hand it’s a good deal on a great designed notebook, on the other hand there’s a chance for update (around June probably, coincide with WWDC) and the graphic processing power might not used too often. What do you think?
If you are going to keep your Apple machine for 4-5 years (or longer), its perhaps best to buy the 15in and 17in MacBookPro that has the ATI Mobility Radeon (X1600 with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM). Just in case you want to plug it into a high-end monitor (eg. to play computer games on Windows/Parallels). Just a thought :) And yes, the current product is almost at the end of its cycle (new ones coming out soon). [TH]