Macbook or Refurb MBP?

I currently have a 17" HP windows machine, but its quite enormous and it runs windows, so i want a mac as my secondary. i need to keep my windows pc for programming so i'm looking for a cheap mac laptop. I'm torn between a new macbook or a refurb MBP. the price difference isnt too much so i cnat decide what i want. could anyone offer me a suggestion?

It depends on what you want it for. If you want to do graphics and other related things I would go for the Macbook Pro with the 256mb video card. If you do alot of office work or writing then I would go for the Macbook.
But make sure that you get at least 160-200gb HD so you can run windows on it as well.
Then you will have two computers for the price of one.
Just remember that you need a windows OS with SP2 on it to install on the mac's.
All the MBP and MB come with the new intel core 2 duo chip now.

Similar Messages

Can't decided on glossy or matte for new/refurb MBP

I'm going to be getting either a previous generation new or refurb MBP. I can't decide on the matte or glossy screen though. I've got a white iMac(matte screen) that I really like and a PB G4 15" with a matte screen also that is getting dim.
I will mainly use the MBP for stuff like web surfing, email, photo editing, ect. Nothing high end.
I've never seen a MBP matte that is LED backlite. How does that compare to the white iMac screen?
thx
lenn

I will mainly use the MBP for stuff like web surfing, email, photo editing, ect. Nothing high end.
Indoors or outdoors? Reflections can be tolerated indoors. Outdoors, they will overwhelm the screen and tire your eyes. The glossy screen has a lot brighter colors, which can throw off your color perception, so many people dislike the glossies. However, Steve Jobs seems to think they're the wave of the future; let's wait till he's older and with failing eyesight and ask him then...
I've never seen a MBP matte that is LED backlite. How does that compare to the white iMac screen?
Brighter + instant illumination, no warmup period.

Refurb MBP questions

Hey all! I just got a "new" MBP and I have to say that so far, I love it! I just had a couple quick questions because I am comparing the MBP running Leopard to my old PBG4 running TIGER:
When the display sleeps, the LED near the open latch is on but very dim. When the MBP goes to sleep, then the LED pulses. I know the pulsing is normal, but is the dim LED thing ok?
Also, the problem with the first letter input being ignored, but I see Apple is working on it.
Because it's a refurb, I think I am a bit lucky: I ordered a 160gig HD and got a 200gig HD—but only 4200rpm. Has anyone had any issues with the 4200rpm drive? I was a bit disappointed in the information about the speed but have noticed no significant performance lag. I am thankful for the extra room, of course...
Has anyone else ordered a refurb and get extra "goodies" in their hardware??
Thanks for your time.

I recently purchased a new refurb. 2.2 GHz 15", running Tiger. I bought it off eBay for a further discounted price, yet it included the drop-in Leopard DVD. I haven't installed Leopard yet, for I'm afraid of running into issues with it. Maybe when 10.5.2 is released.
Regarding the LED on the latch, I have had the same experience. A little alarming at first, but I assume its just a MacBook Pro thing. I also upgraded from a Powerbook.
Other than that issue, I've noticed the trackpad is a little crazy when the computer is cold and sometimes it wakes from sleep a little sluggishly. This only happens when I close the screen, then open it again within a few seconds. Oh, and I have 2 dead "red" pixels. I intend to call Apple about this in the near future.
Regarding your hard drive, I'm not surprised you are having a positive experience. I have read that the new 4200RPM drives can be "just as fast" at 5400RPM drives.

Updated MacBook Air or MBP with Retina Display?

Hello guys.
I am planning to buy a Macbook, but I don't know which model.
Actually, I am thinking of buying the updated MacBook Air 13 inches, 256 GB Flash Storage etc, because it is really really slim and it has just updated , so it would be a purchase that would last as "the new model" for a longer time.
On the other hand, the model I really like is the MBP with Retina Display, but my problem is that I assume it will be updated soon. I was hoping that it would be updated during the Apple's last keynote(as it happened with the Air model) but this didn't happen.
I want to hear your thoughts. Is the MBP with Retina Display so much more powerful than the new MacBook Air that would worth the time waiting for an updated model to come?
I am really looking forward to buying a MacBook for myself , but should I wait for the updated model of MBP with Retina Display or go straight ahead and buy the updated MacBook Air model?
Thanks in advanced for your answers!

No one has any thoughts? :-(

Macbook VS. MBP power source

Dear all,
My Uncle has just lost his plug/battery for his MBP.Is it possible for him to use the Plug/battery from My Macbook??
regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul,
sorry but no.
The MacBook uses an 60W power adaptor, whereas the MacBook Pro needs an an 85W power adaptor.
Therefor the MacBook power adaptor does not supply enough power for the MacBook Pro.
Sorry
Stefan

Can I buy a refurb mbp from America for UK use?

What else would I need to buy (power cable, keyboard, etc)?
Is it legal?
Would my guarantees/warrantee/rights be the same?
What about delivery costs and customs fees?
The UK refurb store MacBook Pro I want is going for £420 ($700) more than the same machine in the US (and it probably is actually the same machine!).

It is legal and it will work. (But you will not be able to buy it yourself, have to get someone in America to do it for you and then ship it to you)
Customs and Shipping will probably cost more than the UK model though.

Pages on refurb MBP

I bought a Macbook Pro earlier this year which was a Refurb from the online Apple store. I didnt realise it didnt come with Pages already installed on it until i tried to use it, called tech support and they advised that i would have to pay and download it from the app store.
I have tried opening the pages app which is shown in my dashboard and it says error. I have tried downloading it from the app store and it says unable to download as aready installed on mac. The point it i cant open pages, i have not downloaded it, and i cannot download it.. anone got ani ideas how to help?
Thanks.

Check Pages preferences & make sure "Automatically use spell checker suggestions" is not checked.

Setup Assistant problems - 2006 MacBook to new MBP

I have a 2006 MacBook 1.83Ghz (A1181) running OS 10.7.5 and I am trying to migrate to a new MacBookPro via SetUp Assistant.
I use the 2006 MB to run a business.
My initial attempt at SetUp Assistant via machine-to-machine ethernet failed, hanging @ Less Than a Minute Remaining (Transferring Apps) for over 12 hours.
2006 MB has energy settings set to "Disk never sleeps" and wifi off.
I then tried SetUp Assistant via Target Disk Mode to the old machine, but the new MBP didnt like the FW400 to FW800 connection and did not recognize the source (TargetMode) disk. I have an adaper to convert the FW800 cable (new MBP) to FW400 (2006 MB). The cable works fine with other uses with the adapter.
I then tried SetUp Assistant via Time Machine backup, hanging @ Less Than 12 Minutes Remaining (Transferring Apps) for over 12 hours.
I then reformatted the new MBP drive various times, reloaded the OS from the Recovery partition and tried only migrating User files (not apps). Still hanging.
I called Applecare and was instructed to go thru SetUp Assistant and create a new user (ie do not migrate data), update the OS to 10.8.3 then invoke Migration (not SetUp) Assistant. I was able to copy over Users after another apparent hang of 6 hours. At the end of the UserFile migation, it complained of not migrating some files due to incompatibility (Parallels). This approach now left me with 2 users and Time Machine created a new backup (not leveraging my previous backup). Apple says that I can still access the old Time machine backup, but Spotlight doesnt index it so I'd need to manually hunt thru backups.backupdb for files desired (not ideal!)
I went back to my 2006 MB and removed Parallels, and any other (stale) app that no longer works with 10.7.5 (represented by the circle-slash icon overlaid on app icon). So another reformat of the MBP, OS re-install and SetUp Assistant run via ethernet leaves me hanging @ Less 17 Minutes Remaining (Transferring Apps) for over 12 hours.
Being that I am upgrading hardware to support a business, I want the new machine to be identical to the old with Time Machine with one user allowing me to use the existing TimeMachine data with the new machine (as mentioned here on Pondini: http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrationProblems.html )
Has anyone come across this challenge? I have read thru the Message Boards here and have not tripped over an apparent solution.
I am more than happy to manually copy files over from old to new, but want just the one (2006 MB) user with existing Time machine working seemlessly on new machine in the end.
Thanks in advance.
RedFox

Yes - let's compare migration assistant/time machine to Carbon Copy Cloner. Migration Assistant is only useful to transfer files. Other than that, forget it. Craps out at "less than a minute to go" when trying to lay down an image. Better to use Recovery in Disc Utility or Super Duper/Carbon Copy Cloner to copy an image if you have multiple accounts, password-protected disc images, partitions. Seriously Apple, why do you have to suck at exection of something so simple and standard - laying down a disc image? Why even put people through your useless migration assistant? Oh right, we need to buy some additional cables to do so.
Neal

Why is my refurb MBP 2011 so slow in comparison to an identical model?

Hello dear community.
I purchased my macbook pro early 2011 from the refurb store about four months ago.
When I use a browser and a few (1 - 3) regular programs (office, itunes, acrobat) along the side the OS sometimes starts lagging.
At first I was using chrome and as soon as I had it running for a while or with more than a few tabs i found it was getting really slow and i got the loading ball on the regular. I felt this couldn't really be it as the macbook should be running like a charm. I googled issues and found that in some cases chrome might be bugged and using up all the ram. Reluctantly I switched to Firefox & Safari which I both find to be lesser browsers in terms of usability. As it turns out this doesn't really solve the problem. Running aperture or final cut is still a pain and still takes so much longer than I would think.
2 weeks ago I used a friends identical macbook pro 2011 and it runs a lot smoother than mine.
Could this be related to the refurb purchase or did I do something wrong? My startup is not clogged, I always keep everything clean & tidy, I use progs such as clean my mac etc. pp.
Would love to get some advice on this
thx ahead!

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software -- potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions -- they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.
Below are several lines of text in monospaced type, which are UNIX shell commands. They’re harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of running these commands, search this site for other discussions in which they’ve been used without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
To begin, launch the Terminal application; e.g., by entering the first few letters of its name in a Spotlight search. A text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” (without the quotes) and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Copy or drag -- do not type -- the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:
kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/ {print $6 $7}'
Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.)
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple/ {print $3}'
This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.
Step 3
launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple/ {print $3}'
Step 4
ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null
Important: If you synchronize with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, change it to something like “[email protected]” before posting.
Step 5
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get the name of every login item'
Remember, steps 1-5 are all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer -- no typing, except your password.
You can then quit Terminal.

A macbook c2d or mbp c2d ?

i had a 2 15" mbp cduo and 1 17" mbp cduo and i returned them due to the whine and heat issues. i ended up settling for a cduo 20" and im happy with it. my questions is im a photoshop student and also a phot0 assistant. i been travelling alot more and using my 20"imac less. should I buy a c2duo macbook or mbpro? i know the mbp has the power but not sure if i should spend the extra thousand or so that it would cost? as a photoshop student can the mbook handle what i will be doing for a bout a year or so?
peace,
logan

The MacBook will handle Photoshop fine, even under Rosetta if you put enough RAM in there. I'm sure once the universal version of CS3 is released it'll run it great. I think the issue you should consider with Photoshop is screen real estate. I use photoshop on a 20" cinema display and on the MacBook and I do find the MB screen can be a little bit restrictive. You definitely notice the difference in having those extra pixels on a bigger display.

JUST ORDERED MY REFURB MBP WISH ME LUCK

seems like a great deal
1gbram
100gb HD
256 Vid Card
and all the other wonderful things mac has to offer for 1399.99!!!
Did anyone else buy this refurb model?

Congrats on your purchase. It looks like you got a sweet deal. That configuration is not even listed on the Special Deals link at the Apple Store. The others for the same price, have a lesser configuration.
Enjoy it as it will be a great machine.
Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120GB 5400, 2GB DDR2 SDRam Mac OS X (10.4.8) 5G iPod, 20" ACD

Need help with firewire problem with white macbook to new MBP...

Hello...I purchased a new MBP 13.3 inch with retina display a week ago because my old white macbook from 2008 has a cracked screen, rendering it unusable. I would very much liek to get some files off of it and onto my new MBP or onto an external drive. I bought the firewire to thunderbolt apple adapter, but I then saw I need ANOTHER cord or adapter to go from the old macbook to the adapter. Is this doable? What is the best one to use? are they all the same and which one will fit the adapter and the right end fit my old Macbook? So confusing and it's been hard to try to find an answer online. I am assuming I can boot the old Macbvook into Target mode and transfer the data. Thanks for any help.

This is the other cable and adapter you'll need http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7990ZM/A/moshi-firewire-800-cable-with-firewi re-400-to-800-adapter?fnode=51
You may be able to fine it cheaper somewhere else though.

12GB already used on out-of-the-box refurb MBP?

Hi-
Just a quick question--
My refurbished 15-inch MBP (2.2 Ghz, 120 GB hard disk) just arrived. I took it out of the box, started up and registered, and was planning to shift things from my old Powerbook G4 in Target disk mode, etc, but haven't done ANYTHING else yet. Out of curiosity I clicked on About this Mac, and saw that my HD has a capacity of 111.47 GB (I understand that "120 GB" probably means about 111 GB in reality), but that there is only 99.05 GB available, and 12.42 GB already used. Is that how much is needed for the basic Tiger (10.4.10) and applications that came preloaded on my MBP? If not, any ideas why 12.42 already used? Should I do an erase-and-install with Tiger OS? Do you think Apple didn't fully clean or erase the disk?
Thanks,
Samantha

When Apple says "120 GB hard drive" they mean 120 billion bytes. But strictly speaking, 1 GB is 10243 bytes, not 10003 bytes.
So when Finder says "111.47 GB capacity", it means 111.47 gigabytes, which is 111.47×10243=119.69 billion bytes. So your question is actually what happened to the missing 296 MB (or 0.31 billion bytes), and the answer is one of rounding error, disk overhead, or an extra partition on the hard drive used for booting. (The Boot camp forum has comments about an "extra" 300MB partition on the hard drive.)
Unfortunately, the misleading "x GB hard drive" label for what is really an x÷1.0243 GB drive has become an industry standard, and is always stated in the fine print.

Bought refurb MBP with Superdrive set to region 6. What to do?

Hi everyone,
I bought a refurbished Macbook Pro and found out that instead of the drive having no region set and 5 changes left, it's set to region 6 and there are 4 changes left. Having set it for region 1 left it with 3 changes remaining.
I thought Apple would have reset the Superdrive...

It was probably an oversight. Take it back to the Apple Store and have them replace the drive. They may just replace the computer for you. Anyways, it is covered by the Warranty.

Which Macbook Retina refurb?

Which of the following am I better off buying?:
Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 with Retina Display
Originally released October 2012
13.3-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2560-by-1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
128GB Flash Storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
Intel HD Graphics 4000
or
Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Dual-core Intel i5 with Retina Display
Originally released October 2013
13.3-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2560x1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch
4GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
128GB flash storage1
720p FaceTime HD camera
Intel Iris Graphics
As I understand it, it's a toss-up between more RAM or better graphics (and therefore performance?)

If going for the first one, there's another option for £60 more, same spec, higher flash storage:
Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 with Retina Display
Originally released October 2012
13.3-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2560-by-1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
Intel HD Graphics 4000

Macbook or Refurb MBP?

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