General Mac hardware discussions forum: Thinking about a new Mac laptop

The only major difference between the macbook and macbook pro is the graphics card. There are a lot of small differences like back lit keyboard, slightly faster processor, support for a 30 inch display, etc., but mainly it is the graphics card. Macbooks have really lame graphics cards that will not handle modern video games or graphics intensive programs well. The Macbok pro has a pretty good one that comes with either 128 of 256mb of VRAM. Other than that there isn't really a huge difference. I don't think a macbook would die on you, but if your concerned just purchase the three year warranty just in case.

Thanks for the really solid advice. I think I will go with the MacBook. Do you think I should wait until Leopard is released? Is there much difference between it and Tiger? I run Panther on my iBook and I love it.
I am not a computer gamer, so a better video card for that reason is not worth the extra price to me.

Sure, I can wait. I have an iBook that works great right now. I will definitely wait for Spring for 10.5. I think it would be worth the wait.

But surely buying a Merom based MBP in September (October?) this year and upgrading to 10.5 when it is released would be an option?? I'm seriously considering buying a MBP, but with Merom just around the corner, I decided to wait for that. But I would love to have my new machine before 2007 and upgrade to Leopard later. I now have PPC iMac and a Windows XP laptop (which is unreliable), using the machines mostly for audio/music.

So what's your opinion on the release dat of Merom based MBP's???

Thanks,

Hens

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7592-0.html?forumID=25&threadID=201825&messageID=2164758

One Merom gets here you will find about the next great thing.

Will you wait again?

Bob

You made some great points. I have a perfectly wonderful iBook, so I am in no rush to buy another Mac laptop, but I really, really want one. I definitely wanna wait for Leopard. A Core 2 Duo processors on a MacBook would be sweet!
I have decided to sell my almost brand-new, but constantly broken Windows laptop and use that money towards the purchase of another Mac laptop. I can hardly wait!

Sorry to just jump in here, but I'm thinking about getting a new iMac (it'll be my first Mac) and wondered if it's worth the wait for Core 2 Duo (and maybe with that there will be Firewire 800?) and Leopard. Besides the easy stuff like word processing and Web access, I plan on using it for photo and video editing. I currently have a PC, so I don't have to buy immediately.

Thanks P. Everyone always says waiting for an upgrade is nuts, or you'll never get a computer. I totally understand when Intel and AMD waged the clock speed war in PCs. But I don't know much (if anything) about Macs and thought it might be worth the wait in this case. I'm sure the folks who waited for the change to Intel chips are glad they did in the long run. Do you have a guess at what the high points of Leopard will be over the current OSX? From what I read, Time Machine sounds the most interesting.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/index.html