Whitebook vs. Macbook Pro

I'm looking into getting a new macbook of some sort. I have a old ibook that I am finally replacing. I will play with photo-shop semi-often and I guarantee that I will never do any video editing in the near future. What would be the laptop of choice? I want a 13 inch screen and want to keep the budget down if I can. I don't need the latest gadgets like the new 1-button pad but I would like it at the same time. Thanks for any help.

Go for the 13" Macbook Pro. You get your Firewire 800 port, SD card reader, and better build. Go with the Pro if you can afford it. Just my opinion though.

jtcannonball said:

I'm looking into getting a new macbook of some sort. I have a old ibook that I am finally replacing. I will play with photo-shop semi-often and I guarantee that I will never do any video editing in the near future. What would be the laptop of choice? I want a 13 inch screen and want to keep the budget down if I can. I don't need the latest gadgets like the new 1-button pad but I would like it at the same time. Thanks for any help.

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I'm going to second the 13" Macbook Pro. I lived with a white Macbook for a couple of years, and while it was a brilliant notebook, the Macbook Pro 13" is even more brilliant. I just upgraded mine to 4GB of RAM and that went quite smoothly. The screen on the Macbook Pro 13" is outstanding, and having firewire for my external drive is a boon as well. Also believe it or not the backlit keyboard is awesome even if I only look at it and not use it in my dimly lit office (external keyboard I don't usually look at when typing in said room.)

Also the internal keyboard is a little better and the aluminum casing is just that much better. The trackpad is such that I use it often in lieu of a mouse. It is totally worth the extra centi-bucks to go with the Macbook Pro in that size. You get all the portability, the fantastic screen, and the extra perks that are over the plastic Macbook white. Not to say that the Macbook in plastic guise isn't a great notebook, it is. It's just that the Macbook Pro in the same form factor is a much greater one for the money.

Get the basic Macbook Pro 13" with 160GB HDD for $1200, then later upgrade the RAM to 4GB. This only cost me $77 from Crucial and was easy to do. Makes a world of difference and makes it the perfect small factor Macbook (that does Windows too) for minimum outlay of cash. Also the Macbook Pro is way sexy. Nothing wrong with that.

I would say mbp 13" too. For all of what the others said, plus it uses DDR3 Ram rather than DDR2. Leaving unnecessary explanation at this point aside, sufficient to say that in the future DDR2 might just be left behind for DDR3.the mbp has a faster ram speed too(eventually all of it leading to better performance)

You can get more batt. out of your mbp than the white(apple says 7 hrs vs white's 5). then the other difference- 2.16 ghz for white and 2.26/2.5 ghz for mbp 13".
I've had the aluminum body for 3 odd months now, its super easy to clean as well, white can get dirty, if it does... it will be noticed easily.
If you are going to spend... might as well spend on a product you'd not need to change for longer.
I hope it helps your decision.

I had to make the same choice a while ago and I decided to go with the mbp, it has a lot of little upgrades that add up and make it much more rewarding than the mb,

Although if you don't like glossy screens then you may want to go with the white macbook because the mbp has a glossy screen which reflects light easily

The white MacBook has a glossy screen as well, and always has.

I have the Macbook White and am extremely happy with it.

Depends on your budget and what you want to do with it really.

I have used 2 Macbooks since a year and I can recommend to you the white Macbook late October 2008. I am using it now and I do a lot of logic pro stuff on it. It runs very nicely and I love it.

Will DDR2 really not be supported? I think that is what you were saying at least. And will DDR2 be noticeably slower? What if I put 4 gigs in it? I was wondering what benefit performance wise I will gain in realistic applications? Thanks for the help I really appreciate it.

About half of the current White Nvidia Macbooks are shipping with a serious screen defect of horizontal lines running across the screen. It is as of yet unacknowledged and unfixed by Apple:

New white nVidia Macbook owners: check here to see if you have a defective LCD! - Mac Forums

jtcannonball said:

Will DDR2 really not be supported? I think that is what you were saying at least. And will DDR2 be noticeably slower? What if I put 4 gigs in it? I was wondering what benefit performance wise I will gain in realistic applications? Thanks for the help I really appreciate it.

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If you get the MBP 13" then you won't be able to use the DDR2 RAM because it won't fit in the slots.

I'm going to return the whitebook when it gets here monday or tuesday and drive to Knoxville to the apple store and pick up my 13" macbook pro with my student discount instead. I guess it makes more sense to spend a little more now than to make it a better machine further down the road. Thanks for all the help. Now off to work to buy my messenger bag and mighty mouse for it.

For me it was just a matter of not being able to afford the MBP. I used some financial aid money and my mom helped pay for the rest. We could barely afford it, haha. But I've been pretty happy with my white MacBook so far. Beats that broken down HP I had. It does everything I need it to and more .

jtcannonball said:

I'm going to return the whitebook when it gets here monday or tuesday and drive to Knoxville to the apple store and pick up my 13" macbook pro with my student discount instead. I guess it makes more sense to spend a little more now than to make it a better machine further down the road. Thanks for all the help. Now off to work to buy my messenger bag and mighty mouse for it.

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That is exactly what I did.

I want a pro but I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the main difference advantage of ddr3 ram over the ddr2 in the whitebook? I'm trying to figure out if spending the extra money can be justified with a product that will be significantly better? I'm just gun-shy spending large amounts of money when I may not need to.

Thanks

jtcannonball said:

I want a pro but I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the main difference advantage of ddr3 ram over the ddr2 in the whitebook? I'm trying to figure out if spending the extra money can be justified with a product that will be significantly better? I'm just gun-shy spending large amounts of money when I may not need to.

Thanks

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Well basically what you are paying for is a better screen, glass track pad, illuminated keyboard, SD card slot, faster CPU, faster RAM, and of course unibody construction.

CrimsonRequiem said:

Well basically what you are paying for is a better screen, glass track pad, illuminated keyboard, SD card slot, faster CPU, faster RAM, and of course unibody construction.

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exactly all of this is nice and $200 really isn't that much more. You are getting a better computer, nicer screen, better battery, better build quality, and nicer aesthetics. Things like the backlit keyboard, LED display, etc all make it a much nicer notebook.

If you are having a hard time deciding, go look at the whitebook and macbookpro at the apple store and you will be able to determine if the nicer things are worth $200 to you.

xxBURT0Nxx said:

exactly all of this is nice and $200 really isn't that much more. You are getting a better computer, nicer screen, better battery, better build quality, and nicer aesthetics. Things like the backlit keyboard, LED display, etc all make it a much nicer notebook.

If you are having a hard time deciding, go look at the whitebook and macbookpro at the apple store and you will be able to determine if the nicer things are worth $200 to you.

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Huh I totally forgot about the longer battery life. Defiantly worth the extra money when you kind of list all the stuff out like that.

It's not just that DDR3 is better its that it is the future so when it comes time in 2 or 3 years for you to upgrade your computer DDR3 will be around while like today trying to find DDR is hard and more expensive for less. So paying the extra 200$ will benefit you now with the features of the MBP but also eventually most likely save you money.

i'd say macbook pro if you can afford it it's a good worker compared to the normal macbook but if all you need is a normal computer, why not go for the macbook white?