Macbook Pro

[Baconator]

ended up with a refurbished 13" retina macbook pro. Went ahead and did the Applecare, just in case, and was all said and done for under $1,500. Thanks for the recommendation on the refurbished model. Looking at the retina iMac for the house, there is a refurbished one available. I figure with the applecare and the refurbished coming out cheaper than new, even with the education discount, what could go wrong. Still learning all of the shortcuts I was used to on windows (i.e. ctrl c for copy and now command c. etc.) I ordered a time capsule to connect for backups and to share my printer over the network, again refurbished.

Slowly leaving the pc life.

[NinjaNinja]

ended up with a refurbished 13" retina macbook pro. Went ahead and did the Applecare, just in case, and was all said and done for under $1,500. Thanks for the recommendation on the refurbished model. Looking at the retina iMac for the house, there is a refurbished one available. I figure with the applecare and the refurbished coming out cheaper than new, even with the education discount, what could go wrong. Still learning all of the shortcuts I was used to on windows (i.e. ctrl c for copy and now command c. etc.) I ordered a time capsule to connect for backups and to share my printer over the network, again refurbished.

Slowly leaving the pc life.

As a grad student myself, and let me say: Macbooks are worth every penny. GL, OP!

[Albs]

Once you go Mac, you'll never go back.

[scbauer]

Once you go Mac, you'll never go back.

^^^ Seriously was just typing the same thing.

Honestly, I was PC only for years until work forced me to get a MacBook Pro 4 years ago. I now own 2 MacBooks (15" Pro and 13" Air) for personal use and have another MBP for work. I love them. I actually considering buying a Mac Mini just to have as a media center in my living room.

Once you go Mac you never go back. Seriously.

Good Luck!

-Scott

[Bobby Ricigliano]

I have been a long time Windows user. Windows 8 has been literally the biggest steaming load of dung I have ever tried to use. The ugly "tiled" interface is ugly, confusing, and the gawdy loud colors are nauseating.

I will hold on to Windows 7 as long as possible then probably buy a Mac. Going back and forth with phones, I just dumped my Note 4 for a iPhone 6S plus and so far I am loving it. Apple IOS might be a bit dumbed down compared to the Android platform, but the speedy user interface and more logical menus make up for it.

[stphnman20]

I've had my MBP for almost 6year now. (Mid 2010) Still going strong. The only thing I did was add more RAM and changed the HD to an ssd. If you have an iPhone and have friends and family with iPhones, you can text them on the Mac. Huge plus for me since I'm always on my Mac.

[cowboy777]

Once you go Mac you never go back.

[the86d]

Wow, you can get 2 i5 Lenovo notebooks with 256GB SSDs for less ($525 ea) than you are willing to pay for the iOSuX device, so you would have a backup device.

Hell, you could even learn a Linux Distro on the second one...

[Baconator]

I have been a long time Windows user. Windows 8 has been literally the biggest steaming load of dung I have ever tried to use. The ugly "tiled" interface is ugly, confusing, and the gawdy loud colors are nauseating.

I will hold on to Windows 7 as long as possible then probably buy a Mac. Going back and forth with phones, I just dumped my Note 4 for a iPhone 6S plus and so far I am loving it. Apple IOS might be a bit dumbed down compared to the Android platform, but the speedy user interface and more logical menus make up for it.

I am the same, went from the Note 4 to the 6s plus. I know that the android phones pack a lot of power and flexibility but I appreciate everything just working on the iPhone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[waawaaweenie]

I have a 2011 MBP i5 13". I got it from Apple through their refurbished store. I changed out the HD to a SSD and maxed out the memory at 16GB

I use it with a Hengedock at home which has everything including power, USB and monitor hookups and take it with me in my truck on the road. It has been perfect except they had a recall on the battery when it was about 1 year old and the "super geniuses" at the Apple store had that changed out in about 10 minutes.

I have bought a lot of Macs as refurbs and they all come with the exact same warranty and have never given me any problems at all. and will buy from them again

I also use virtualbox which is free to mount an old copy of WinXP to run an OBD software for my car and it runs like it is native to the computer. and with virtualbox, you can run unlimited other OS's such as Linux and many others if you need to run some obscure software

[sd_shooter]

Congrats! I'm also a believer now and will likely never buy another PC laptop again.

Compare/Contrast my work laptop and my home laptop, both put into service at the same time: 3 years ago

Work:
- HP pro grade machine w/ Win 7 Enterprise. Maintained by IT dept.
- 8G RAM, 256G SSD, some fast Intel processor
- Time to wake up from sleep & login, discover USB mouse, have network up: 30 seconds

Home:
- 15" MBP w/ Retina. No maintenance to speak of, I upgraded to latest OSX but that's it.
- 8G RAM, 256G SSD, some fast Intel processor
- Time to wake up from sleep, and continue running the youtube video I was watching: 1 second (0 seconds to just bring up the desktop - it's as fast as a phone)

Mac HW is great, but the software is what really makes it shine. Several years later is still works like the day I got it, whereas the Windows machine progressively gets worse and worse with every software update.

I used to think that Mac owners were just a bunch of rich fanbois, but now I see that they just wanted a reliable tool and were willing to pay for it. Worth every penny!

[Bobby Ricigliano]

I am the same, went from the Note 4 to the 6s plus. I know that the android phones pack a lot of power and flexibility but I appreciate everything just working on the iPhone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a conspiracy theory that many people who brag about the power and flexibility of the Note don't use any of it for anything. Just a talking point.

Additionally, the expandable memory slot in the Note sucks because it is way slower than the flash memory. Also every Samsung phone I've owned has developed excessive wear around the charging port, in one case to the point of breakage where the rim split and it wouldn't charge anymore.

I do still have a Samsung Tablet that I like a lot though..

[DirtyRussianAmmo]

I drank the Apple Koolaid about six years ago...

So far, no aftertaste.

[roostersgt]

Once you go Mac you never go back.

Was a builder and enthusiast of PC's since 1995, but switched to Apples last year because of inlaws good luck and praise of them. I would never ever go back now. No viruses, despite no anti-virus protection and almost no spam / pop ups etc....

Spend the money, it's worth every damn penny.

[-hanko]

I picked up a refurb'd MBP retina in early September...500gb sad, 16 gB Ram. Went to the local apple store the following weekend for a macbook-for-boneheads class...I learned a ton. Used AMEX to buy it and that added another 1 year to the warranty. The only other goodies I picked up for the laptop were simply a DVD/CD drive and a 3gB WD backup drive, as well as a protective plastic cover,

Absolutely zero regrets after around 35 years of Windoze machines. Refurbished mb's come with a new battery and case...not possible to tell from brand new.