Macbook, Macbook Pro or Dell XPS 1330

[L]

Having had my laptop nicked, I've got to get another one. My previous one was an ASUS F3Ja - quite a nice machine, well specced, 15.4" and about 3kg. My only real gripe with it was the size and on occassion, weight. (lots of travel) and on occassion, the variability of speed ( even with 1.8Ghz, Core 2 Duo, 1.5Gb Ram )

So looking around, I'm sorely tempted by the macbook black, which gets excellent reviews etc. but has a crap graphics card... which made me look at the MacBook Pro 15" which has got a good card and better spec all round...
But I've never used macs before - but I'm sorely tempted because they seem to be getting excellent reviews for all manner of reasons, and especially since the adoption of Intel.

Of course, looked at PCs too and think the Dell XPS 1330 is the one for me. It too gets pretty good reviews and ticks the small and light box too...

I'll be using the machine for the occassional games (Call of Duty) but mainly office based work - I've got Office 2007 and use Outlook, word, XL and PPT along with Firefox in the main .... I'll also need to install Sage and synchronise with windows based phone.


So what do you think??

Specs as follows;
Dell XPS 1330; Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 Processor (2.2GHz,800MHz,4MB L2 cache), 13.3" screen, 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS, 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024], 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive @ £1200


Macbook; 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (4MB shared L2 cache), 13" screen, Intel GMA 950, 1Gb RAM, 160Gb (5400RPM) @ £949


Macbook Pro; 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4MB shared L2 cache, 15.4" screen, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB, 120GB Serial ATA (5400rpm) @ £1299

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

Hey,
What a coincidence!
I was thinking of different PCs including Macbook Pro.
Lots of choice here, Dell, HP, Toshiba, quite a few with Santa Rosa and 800mhz FSB.
I found the Mac shop and looked closely at the kit - all I could think of was too minimalistic, too much hype and too much hassle. Won't mention "overpriced".
Went out Thursday evening and came home with an XPS 1330, red, 2GB ram, so far, so good. Actually, delighted, screen is very bright and clear, Vista ok, even managed to get Mapsource to work using "Program Compatability Wizard".
Price about GBP800 here, but that is not much help.
Let us know what you decide,

Bin

 

[sparkplug]

I got a MacBook Pro and do all my PC stuff in Parallels on it.

Two computers in one box, and both running at the same time.

Fantastic. Can't fault it.

 

[tricky dicky]

I got a macbook 2.0Ghz 120MB HDD and 1Gb Ram March this year I think, I liked the look of it, still do (should have a design council award) and I just fancied testing out the dark side. It does the business and I use it most days, processor speed is good, and whilst the grapics card is limited and low spec and draws on the cpu, its good enough quality for a 13 inch screen. Battery life is fair.

its been fun learning mac, but its quirky and whilst mac might claim simplicity of process it can be confusing and generally I don't confuse around computers. But perhaps that's years of windows exposure or my right brain/left brain stuff and though I wouldn't say I prefer windows. I do think Windows provides a fuller experience than a Mac (no defragment for instance), but don't ask me to define 'fuller experience'.

I run OfficeMac 2004 on it,it's ok and functional but Office 2003-2007 are more sophisticated packages, though the outlook equivalent Entourage has some nice features, project centre for instance. I've actually got to prefer Safari as a browser to IE7 too even though its functionality is a lot less expansive.

So I now enjoy windows and mac, windows at work and windows and mac at home.

No regrets and I'm pleased and I'd say unless it going to mean the end of the world if you don't like it buy one but be prepared to put the learning in to a somewhat different interface.

Oh I bought mine from John Lewis, competitive price and extended warranty and the Apple Shop geniuses knew less about what they were selling than I knew from website and web research. John Lewis no bullshit, Apple all style and no substance, though their nice displays did lead me to some excellent Bose around ear headphones (not the noise cancelling ones) which I would also recommend.

 

[geek]

macbook, in black.

get vmware fusion and a copy of windows xp for the dull moments.

 

[DaveGSCymro]

Mac book in white, brilliant!!