What to buy Macbook or iPad

Im looking to get my wife a replacement for her very old Dell laptop.

Looking at the following:


Macbook Unibody White -13" 2.26GHz 250GB 3GB

Apple Macbook Pro - 13"LED 2.4GHz 320GB 4GB

iPad 2 16GB Wi-Fi


Not sure which one to go for. She uses her current laptop mainly for surfing the web and a little bit of office work. However she also sometimes works from home on it and remotes into her work place and for this reason the iPad might not be suitable, also is the iPad really suitable to sit and type emails for many hours or is it better really as a consuming and reading emails and media? She has an iPhone already and doesn't use any of the apps on there, so that isn't a selling point. I don't want to get the iPad and then she is always using my Macbook Pro to sync or just misses the real keyboard and mouse.

If i have to go for the more expensive laptop option, which i do feel is a little over the top for what she wants to use it for. Which should i go for out of the two? Which will give the longer life span and which is the faster and better machine. The MacBook White is newer but a lower spec, while the MacBook Pro is older but has a better spec, which to go for? Also if anyone knows anywhere i can get something a little cheaper that would be a real help.

Thanks

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FWIW my wife has a whitebook, she's never out-tasked the box.. with the exception of running virtual machines (which she doesn't do anymore). Even running photoshop etc, generally won't cause a significant slowdown for the type of work she does. Is the mbp a better spec? Yep. Is it overkill for browsing, running productivity apps? You betcha.

The iPad is great for entertainment and web surfing - but anything that requires productivity apps, data entry and manipulation or even just heavy emailing - she'll need a real computer. (I guess you could use a keyboard with the iPad - might fill the gap.) If you're looking to save money - sounds like a MacBook is the way to go. Or get her a MacBook Air - then she'll have the best of both worlds. A nice light, snappy computer that meets all her needs just fine.

Id say got for the white macbook. doesnt sound like shes doing anything graphic intensive which would pretty much be the only slip up. Not many people would really feel a few hundred mhz difference in speed.

Another vote for the Air, but it may be refreshed in June. Its a great machine as is though

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yes i looked at the Air, and yes it ticks all the boxes for what she would need there is one downside, its a little to expensive at the minute.

Think im going to go with the White Macbook, as its just what she needs in that she still really wants a full computer so the iPad is out and its not over kill like the Macbook Pro for mainly surfing and email.

Sorry for posting in the wrong place wasn't to sure where to place the question to be honest, thansk for moving to the right place.

Well that's good, if it's any consolation I was going to suggest the standard MacBook as well. The specs will be fine for whatever she has to do and unless the extra 200 is worth the differing build, better battery life, backlit keyboard, and increased ram, the MB should do its job well.

You can always upgrade the internal RAM as well if she needs more computing power; I have 4 gigs in mine and an upgraded HDD and it run maybe a hair slower than the MBPs and iMacs in the Apple store (brought mine into one to test it out. Opened programs like iTunes, Mail, Safari, etc. to see how it stacked up).

Office work for sure the Macbook. The iPad will do some work like that but it's no substitute for a real computer. You can run a VNC client on the iPad and navigate any system that uses a VNC client, But for serious work, I will would recommend the Macbook any day of the week.

For just normal Web surfing and some email and even some small documents the iPad is fine. I am on mine right now with an Apple BT keyboard and can do quite a bit, but not what I can do on my computer.

Why don't you get her a refurbished Mac Air? It's a lot more elegant than a Macbook and you'll get more bang for your buck

goldleader80 said:

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yes i looked at the Air, and yes it ticks all the boxes for what she would need there is one downside, its a little to expensive at the minute. [moment]?

Think im going to go with the White Macbook, as its just what she needs in that she still really wants a full computer so the iPad is out and its not over kill like the Macbook Pro for mainly surfing and email.

Sorry for posting in the wrong place wasn't to sure where to place the question to be honest, thansk for moving to the right place.

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class77 said:

Why don't you get her a refurbished Mac Air? It's a lot more elegant than a Macbook and you'll get more bang for your buck

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Just emphasizing the main points.

class77 said:

Why don't you get her a refurbished Mac Air? It's a lot more elegant than a Macbook and you'll get more bang for your buck

Click to expand...

Just wondering, how is the Air in any way better than a regular MB or MBP? Yea you'll be getting it for a lower price but if you don't need the extremely low profile I don't see how getting a refurbished one would be better than getting a refurb Book or Pro.

Refurb MBP. Not much more money than a Macbook +$100. She'll love the slick MBP.

I really like my macbook pro 2010 model and the ipad 2 16gb. I would go for either the macbook/pro. The macbook would probably do fine for what she is wanting to do with it.

rabbitjetta said:

The macbook would probably do fine for what she is wanting to do with it.

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Without a doubt it would.

If price isn't an issue, I'd op for the MacBook. My $.02.

I went for the MacBook Air. I was looking for a lightweight device primarily for surfing the 'net and e-mail, but my web use is primarily on forums like this, so I decided that a real keyboard was important enough to warrant the notebook over the iPad. Now that I have the ability to tether my iP4, I may pick up an iPad for work anyway though.

Good choice, and I second the iPad idea too!