iMac or Macbook pro

I have decision to make. My 6 yr. old G5 is being euthanized. Don't feel bad it had a good life. Anyway I'm a photographer/graphic artist and use CS4 extensively on the G5. However with a new system I'll be going to CS5 and I am between the Macbook pro 2.5ghz with turbo boost or an equivalent priced iMac 3.4ghz. I like the speed of the iMac and from my research it seem to out perform the Macbook but the portability is also important. I'm just not sure that incremental performance is worth giving up portability. I'm looking for some real world experience with CS5 on either of these two platforms. Any help/suggestions are appreciated.

Your first decision is to figure out if you need portability or not. Then the choice between an iMac (desktop) or MacBook Pro (laptop/notebook)...will be easy!

Unfortunately...this is really only a decision you can make.

- Nick

I was in your exact situation. I had an iMac G5 and i had to decide between a desktop or a macbook, I went with the macbook. There is no noticeable difference in speed and since you do photography, take it with you on shoots (what i do) or take it with you when your traveling or if you just want to sit in the living room or up in your bedroom you have a choice. I STRONGLY RECOMEND MACBOOK PRO the 13inch i5 with 2.4 Ghz processor with a 500 gb hard drive is awesome! I love the portability and functionality so go with the macbook!

Thanks good info.

If you have any other questions just let me know

MacAddict. said:

I STRONGLY RECOMEND MACBOOK PRO the 13inch i5 with 2.4 Ghz processor with a 500 gb hard drive is awesome! I love the portability and functionality so go with the macbook!

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I am the opposite. Working with photos and video, I never recommend anything smaller than 15" - even when taking it on shoots and such... Sure, at home you can get a 2nd larger monitor, but man, after even 30 mins you will start getting eyestrain... Also, with the 15" you can get the i7 with the AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5. You will see a marked improvement. Yes, you pay for it, but you can never upgrade the LCD, CPU or Video Card after purchase.

Buy the BEST you can afford, even if you wait an extra month or so. Also, there are some 2011 15" MBP's in the Referb section of Apple's store.

I am a photographer as well and

use my 15" MBPro at home with the 27" Apple display and two 1TB external HDDs but carry my 11" MBAir with 256 gig SSD and 500 gig WIFI external HDD on the road. Much easier to pack than the 15" MBPro

I agree with you also the screen is slightly hard to see on but they also make 15 and 17 inch modules but you should still go with the macbook