Ok so for a while now i've been thinking about purchasing a MacBook (2.4GHz, 2GB ram, 160GB hard drive). I basically just wanted a portable equivalent of my computer, but thought it would make sense to get a Mac since i've never used one and would prefer to have a change.

 

However, as you may all know. Macs are a little on the expensive side and for a poor student like me, £829 is a lot of money. Therefore what i'd like to know is: Would it be worth it me buying a MacBook? or would I be better off just getting myself something like a £399 Dell?

 

I really just want something I'll be able to take to uni and use for design work. I've heard macs are much more reliable, better designed and better for doing design work etc etc etc.

 

I may be going to buy one a little later on so could anyone who has experience with Macs help me out on this?

 

Thank You.

get the mac for sure... better performance, better looks, better investment

I am being biased but I haven't regretted my mac at all it is a mac mini with 1gb of ram and it does everything I need, can run photoshop, coda, illustrator and upload to web at the same time no problems compared to my 2gb PC which can barely open photoshop and illustrator at the same time...

 

But like you say cost is an issue, so I can't see why a dell wouldn't be good enough for you.

Can you not get student discount?

 

I recently bought an iMac and love it, based off of that I would say mac all the way now.

 

I am a converted apple nerd

Apple do offer student discount so i would assume you could use that

Or buy a refurbished mac direct from the apple store. If you are going to buy a new one then I would definitely wait a few months. There is heavy speculation that apple are about to refresh their entire range of laptops In the near future (many people guessing September). Check out TUAW for more info.

You can't compare a cheap Dell to a Mac.

 

If you want a good laptop from Dell/Sony etc you are going to be paying the same price as the Mac anyway. I suggest you go down to an Apple store and play around with a display model to see if you get on with it, if so then go for it. If you are a student you can get a discount.

Yeah the student discount is pretty good. £829 drops to about £713 according to the discount I get as part of Oxford Uni. I think they're all the same.

 

Also you should wait until the end of september. New ones are imminent and should be announced in the rumoured Apple keynote speech around the 23rd when the updated iPods also get an airing.

I managed to get a 7% student discount when ordering my iMac online, it's definitely worth trying.

 

As for should you get a MacBook: My answer is a big yes, but wait until the product announcements later on this year. If you really can't wait then get a Mac Mini to tide you over until then.

Can I jump in and suggest Alienware? Like the Macs, they're on the pricey side, but they can also handle pretty much everything you want to throw at them.

 

And they're gorgeous.

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys. I went ahead and bought it as i'm really in need of a replacement for my computer before going back to uni. I am using it to type this reply now.

 

I would have gone with the student discount but the problem was that I had been given a Currys/PC World gift card with some money on it which I was planning to use to take off some of the amount, therefore I was unable to use a student discount from Apple.

Congratz on your wise choice. I have one and absolutely love it!

I have had my macbook for a little over a year. It is a lovely laptop, great styling and lovely user interface. I would go for the macbook. if I was going to pick a windows laptop then look at toshiba laptops, they are feature rich and perform very well.

Rumour has it all the new stuff is being announced on Sept 9th.

Rumour has it all the new stuff is being announced on Sept 9th.

 

So i guess i probably should have waited then..?