Hi all,
Short version –
If you had £600ish to spend on a laptop, and could buy from the US, what would you get?

Long version –
Laptop has been lost/stolen out here in the US, so need to start thinking about getting a replacement, either out here or back home in the UK.

Laptop will be used for a variety of stuff – standard word processing/internet, but also photo and video editing, maybe a bit of cad work. My old laptop was a Dell Vostro with i5 processor and 8GB ram – it was fine for most stuff but was pretty slow for video editing and cad – was always a bit confused why given the fairly decent spec.

I’d really like to try a Macbook Pro, been wanting one for a while and now seems a sensible time if the price is OK. I will hopefully be able to spend around £600 which obviously puts new or even refurbed from Apple Uk out. However refurb from the US, UK refurb from non apple, buying new from non apple, or the same but in the US might be options. I have the optiob of getting the educational discount but think tthat even with that it’ll be out of NY budget. I’ve seen current models in 13″ (what I want) with decent enough spec for £700 ish new which seems really good, ones like this;
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=291087309867&alt=web

Is that too good to be true? I’m assuming there would be similar places in US with cheaper prices? Any recommendations? Whats the deal with a US laptop in the uk? I’ve got poor internet so can’t do as much looking around as I’d like.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated! Or should I stop being silly and get another windows laptop?

Thanks,

Duane.

I have had quite a bit of Apple gear and personally wouldn’t buy through EBay.

If you can use the a Education store then go that route. I have done this on 3 occasions now and the savings are very good.

I bought a MBP around 4 years ago but have just got a MB Air for my daughter and would question why you need a Pro?

I have a late 2012 MAcBook Pro and it’s ok for most things. I do heavy photo editing of large RAW files and really the memory needed expanding to make this remotely manageable. With 16GB of RAM it works ok but it could be faster. Video work is tiresome but doable.

With the new retina display versions I don’t think you can upgrade the memory outside the factory. I wouldn’t order a new one with less than the full complement of memory on that basis especially if you’re doing photo and video editing. If you’re buying a refurb that might suggest a non retina display model which I believe you can still upgrade and memory from Crucial.com is cheap and easy to fit.

The main reason you’d go for a Pro rather than an air is internal storage. I’m not a fan of relying in external storage for laptops simply because it gets complicated managing where things are stored. Music anew film is a good example. Store everything externally and the next time you’re away and want access you can’t get it. That said the flash based storage in the airs is very fast and makes a big difference to performance.

As above I personally wouldn’t buy any type of PC via eBay. Just to much risk involved.

Word of warning about buying Apple stuff in the USA: if your bag is checked at the UK border and they find a laptop with a US keyboard, they’ll assume you’re importing it and charge you the duty and VAT.

Happens on quite a regular basis, I believe.

but was pretty slow for video editing and cad

Laptops have quite slow hard drives which slows up anything using large files. Swap the HD out for an SSD and the difference will be amazing (done this on my 2010 MBP and it flies through 10s Gb of photos).

Word of warning about buying Apple stuff in the USA: if your bag is checked at the UK border and they find a laptop with a US keyboard, they’ll assume you’re importing it and charge you the duty and VAT.

Happens on quite a regular basis, I believe.

Never, ever, had anyone check my laptop (or luggage) on entry to the UK and I’ve got over a million air miles from business trips…

Can only pass on what I’ve been told by higher authorities at the airport.

Thanks for all the replies.

Figured I’d prefer a MBP over an Air due to what I’ll be using it for – my mate has an Air and thinks I’d be better suited to a MBP.

Fair enough about being careful on eBay – but those sellers seem fairly legit, loads of feedback, and a year apple warranty.

Don’t think even with the educational discount I can afford what I’d want 🙁

So, £6-700, pretty keen on a MBP, what would people recommend? I could try by a second hand one from eBay/Gumtree/a mate but that’s even riskier.. Or am I being naive thinking I can get something decent in that price range?

Ta,
Duane.

Duane,

I am a fully signed up Apple “fanboi” and for what you want a MacBook Pro is an excellent choice. Do you know any students ? The educational discount at 14% cannot be matched elsewhere and you also can get Apple care for £48 for 3 yrs (full price £200).

As for spec definitely get 8GM RAM, as posted above the new machines its hard to upgrade later. At your budget the retina screen is going to be a struggle. Likewise the best spec machines now have SSD’s – super fast non mechanical disks – but price is going to be a factor.

Storgae is very cheap these days and a modern USB3 external drive runs as fast the disks inside the machine. These MacBook only have relatively small drives and I would rather have a 256 SSD with external storage than 500GB internal harddrive (especially running at 5400rpm when better disks these days spin at 7200)

Prices in the US are much lower, and if you have the machine delivered from “out of state” I believe you pay no state sales tax either.

So a 13″ 8GB MBP is approx. £790 (equiv in the US) whilst the retina is £900. The retina has the better screen and it has a fast 256GB SSD vs the MBP with a (slow these days) 500GB hard drive. In my mind the extra money is very much worth it between these two machines.

The issue is both of these are quite a bit above your budget. Mac is best but if you cannot stretch your budget you need to buy used (inc refurb), there are often good machines for sale but you need to know what you are buying as the specs change annually and you cannot know for sure how well they have been treated, most are actually looked after as they are expensive purchases.

The other factor to consider is that if you look after the machine you can sell it after 2 years to upgrade. In my experience Windows machines are worthless after 2 or 3 years whereas a MacBook you can sell for 50%-60% of what you paid for it quite easily.

Good luck

Jambalaya – thanks!

My brother has said he might sell his MBP. It’s a 2011 13″, 96gb SDD, 1tb HDD, 2.3ghz processor. Older than I was hoping for but will obviously be a lot cheaper than buying new.
My brother doesn’t know what its worth (and neither do I) – any thoughts?

Ta,
Duane.