Should I buy a MacBook Pro and why?

what software do you use?

Adobe Creative Suite 3 and Office

well, for those apps i’d just advice gettng a macbook 2nd model (the 2.4) and maybe putting in another gig of 2 of RAM if you want higher performance, i mean, the pro line is realy nice, but office even runs on m ibook G4 ;)

i don’t do graphic design, but i have 2 friends that do and they both love their macs. i have a macbook pro myself (which i just use for everyday student stuff), and i find it to be great…better than my previous pc.

According to PC World, the MacBook Pro was the fastest notebook to run Microsoft Vista (as tested thru 10/25/2007).

Not that I’m recommending you run Vista (the chrome has worn off that turd) on it… but it does help illustrate the quality hardware going on with the MacBook as it wasn’t designed to be optimum for Windows and yet still trounces the competition.

yes, the macbook rpo IS great, but the question is…will he be using all that power, will he get the benefits of an external video card? i personaly don’t think so, he asked if he should buy it, and the anwser is “a regular macbook is good enough”

@iwa, you’re on a valid track of reasoning… I was just answering the question as it was originally posted, and which I interpreted as a wide-open polling for any reasons the Collective would consider as positive for buying a MBP.

Great answers guys, thanks for the feedback.

I think I would go for a MacBook Pro if getting a Mac, reason being I’d want at least 15” screen and I’d probably get the 4Gb ram. What I was debating over was is there any real big advantage (or disadvantage) to getting the MBP over a Dell or similar PC laptop?

In short, there’s no disadvantage at all (as it can run the same OS those others do.)

Advantages are lengthy and diverse. Folks should keep posting their fave MBP features for your evaluation. I myself could go on and on about design, materials, design, unique features, design, OS X, design, battery life, design, et cetera…

If you are a web designer I highly reccomend a MPV. With virtulization software like VMWare Fusion you can run Mac, Windows, and Linux simultaneously. This lets you test webpages in all major operating systems and browsers quickly and easily.

I really can’t add much to what robmandu said, except: the look and feel of it, the portability, the integration of all apps and system, the keyboard (so much nicer than any PC keyboard I’ve come across).......I think that’s me done.

If the debate is between getting a PC and a Mac, then yes you should go with Mac. I don’t necessarily know what sort of workout a web designer gives his or her computer, but you might consider a MacBook. They are a lot less expensive and with the new Penryn chips, your main advantage with the MBP is the GPU. And make sure to buy RAM not from Apple in any case.

I took a deep breath and dropped my dual G4 tower in favor of a MacBook Pro over a year ago. It’s been a great machine for doing exactly what you mention (web development). CS3 performs well and setting up virtual server for testing is a snap (using MAMP or a ‘true install’ of PHP and MySQL). As someone else said, add VM Ware and a cheap OEM copy of Windows and you have 2 machines! Niiice.

The ability to run another, larger monitor, was reason enough for me to get the Pro version.
Do get the largest hard drive you can. I would recommend buying your maximum memory from another company. Apple charges an insane amount of money for RAM.

and to save a little money over vmware, http://virtualbox.org.

And for the record, I love my MacBook. The PRO is even better!!!!