Apple or Windows?

Need to buy a laptop to work on images whilst I am away on trips. Currently on Windows XP at home. Lot of pro's seem to use apple and my photo business is making good money. Thinking of Macbook Pro 15". How many people think Apple is worth the extra money?

Appreciate some expert views before I splash out.

Thanks Peter

What sort of work do you want to do. If you are considering colour critical work you might want to consider the high end Lenovo (if that's how you you spell it) W700 I think. It's not just the cost of the machine but also all the software you have to swap when you change platforms. Saying that I have a 15 inch Mac with the Mat screen and it is very nice. Really depends on what you are doing.

Agree with Andrew but after swapping to Mac I would never go back. I use both an iMac and a Macbook Pro and even an old eMac at the university office and very happy with them all. Software has never been an issue since anything I want to run that has a Windows platform I simply use 'Parallels' to do so.

Superb image quality when calibrated, and even out of the box for that matter, and very fast and reliable machines. Easy to upgrade RAM etc.. I have also found that I am using the Mac software more and more for everything from web design, image processing, work accounts and processing etc.. and many of the programs are far superior to those of the Microsoft era in my opinion. Of course most photographic processing packages are either dual platform or have a version for either platform.

In short, Mac every time..

Brett

25+ years with Macs, 'Man & Boy' love them, choose 'solid-state drive' with extras won't look back. Only issues is Software as stated, so that could be your issue? Get the fastest processor & memory you can afford, it will pay dividends later. No real issues with 'bugs' either If you do go the Mac route then get the 'Care package' too.

If you go to Apple UK you cn work out all the bolt-ons & cost so you will have no funny surprises.

Go luck

macs look great but don't understand them? hate the thought of paying over the odds for a mac i.e. double the price of equivalent spec Windows laptop

They're very solidly built. I've dropped mine, twice on concrete, and it still is as good as gold.

There's no viruses to contend with.

Pound for pound, they're more powerful, lower spec Macs beat higher spec Windows machines in the real world usage.

They're more reliable and they hardly ever crash. A statistic: there's just one tech person for every one-hundred macs in business installations, and for Windows there's an average of one for every ten.

I've a fairly good view on this - I've used both over quite a few years.

(Anyway you can always run Windows at PC speed on a Mac alongside the Mac's system if you really need it for anything)

-David

Peter,

I have considered swapping. I have humm'ed, haa'ed, err'ed and umm'ed but here is something to think about...

No real need for Virus software, it is a safer OS...
Longer battery...
Generally a better screen...

When this desktop PC gives up I am going to a Mac for home/web use.. Laptop wise, I am probably not shift in the immediate future but that is only because I get the use of them from work, and I can recommend the Lenevo Think-pad W500 - we have them at work and they are a top class portable work station. If I was buying one for myself and money wasn't an stumbling block, I'd buy the mac if you feel you need the power to process and present on the move, otherwise if it is just for storage and email etc, I buy an small netbook or wait and assess what the ipad offers?

T

Completed my switch to Mac last year... wouldn't go back.

MacBookPro is a great bit of kit - OK pricey, but they tend to be more akin to the higher end PC laptops. Let's face it - they look a darned sight cooler too with that aluminium shell. The new ones have a great battery life - managed to get 8hrs plus out of mine when I spent a week shooting on a island last year - meant I only needed to find mains power once for download/cull sessions. The old Tosh wouldn't go anywhere near that. As you can hear... I've nearly persuaded Tom to switch platforms .

My wife also likes them.... she hears far less cursing and swearing (seems to be a habit with us IT people!) than when I used PC's.

Thanks one and all. Think I'll make the switch to Apple.
Grateful for advice and comments

Peter