By Lucas Roberts
More questions to consider before you purchase a Mac:
4. Are you a speed demon? Do you need the fastest? The latest and greatest? Unless you are a multimedia professional or a power user, you will likely not be able to tell the difference between most current Macs (even comparing a base model to top of the line). I usually say: “It’s like the difference between a Porsche and a Lamborghini – they will both get you to the market, but one will be a bit faster.” If you are a speed demon, consider getting higher-end models or the Mac Pro tower. If you have a few seconds to spare every day, the base or mid-range model is fine.
5. How long do you want it to last? I’ve seen Macs last one year before full “write off” failure and I’ve seen them last 8+. The Mac that was the top of the line when you bought it will be considered faster for longer, near the tail end of its life. However, this is an interesting question because it assumes that the Mac will live beyond its three year AppleCare warranty (and yes, always buy AppleCare – Macs are just electronic devices too, and they can fail). I always recommend selling the Mac at around the two-year mark. This gets you the highest resale value and still provides one year of AppleCare warranty for the new buyer. Then, you can buy a brand new one!
6. A speed guide based on how you would use your Mac: Do you use your Mac mostly for email, word processing, Web browsing, with light music/video/picture activity? Any Mac will be great for you, including the base model of any machine. None of that takes much in the way of processor power, and you won’t need a lot of storage. Consider, however, that once you get a Mac, you may grow into doing more with multimedia – the Mac makes it easy and fun, and the iTunes store is very addictive. Just ask my credit card.
Do you do all that but with heavier music/video/picture activity? Any Mac with a large (and ideally, upgradeable) hard drive will be perfect. Music, video and pictures (all multimedia content) use a large amount of hard drive space, so you’ll want lots of space and the option to add more. On all Macs but the ‘Air,’ you can replace the internal hard drive with a much larger one later, and it won’t break the bank. The average 500GB hard drive is around $100, and labor is usually only an hour or two at around $85/hour, unless a custom software setup is needed.
Do you use any pro applications, like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, or do you play any high-resolution games? I would always recommend the higher speed models, but you can usually get away with even the base model for these – they just won’t last as long in the professional world (see #5 above), and they won’t feel as peppy when working hard. If it’s for a teenager, they will likely whine if they need to play World of Warcraft on a lower-end machine. I was that teenager, long ago.
Do you push your machine to the limits? Do you use all the keyboard commands, and love a high-resolution screen? Aim for the top of the line MacBook Pro or iMac in that case. They’re deluxe and speedy little devils.
Do you stop at nothing to get the highest possible output and upgradeability in all capacities, or does your business depend on very high output and amazing horsepower? Mac Pro it is. Note, however, that to actually leverage a Mac Pro’s power, you will need to be very fast with your hands, skilled with application switching and multi-tasking, and very familiar with pro applications. Or, you might just be really impressed by its monolithic aluminum appearance.
Long story short:
For most business professionals in the working world, I would recommend either the base model MacBook Pro 13″ or the base model MacBook Pro 15″, with a large 24″ third-party screen (like Samsung or LG) and an external keyboard and Magic Mouse.
For home users, the white MacBook or base model MacBook Pro 13″ is great, unless you want a larger screen. For home users wanting a Desktop machine, even the base model iMac is fine, again unless you want a large screen.
If you need a machine just for travel, then the MacBook Air is a great machine. I would not recommend anyone use this as their primary and only machine, though, unless you get the top-of-the-line unit with 4GB RAM and the upgraded solid-state hard drive. Even then, it’s a pricy toy that will grow outdated pretty fast. The processor is slow (compared to current standards), out of the box. If you have it as a secondary laptop, just for traveling or going to business meetings, it’s awesome and very sexy.
Enjoy your new Mac… And the “new-Mac-smell” that comes with it.
Lucas Roberts, President and CEO, Macinhome Consulting Inc. Lucas started his career in Macintosh sales and troubleshooting in 2000, through his 3-year employment with Mac Station, an Apple Authorized retailer in the greater Vancouver area. He loved being a trusted resource for his customers, and his sales grew through word of mouth. He continued his IT education with Hostway Corporation, providing phone and email technical support for Web and email hosting, domain name registration and all associated Internet technologies. While working at Hostway, Lucas built Macinhome during evenings and weekends, helping clients at all hours of the day. During his five-year term at Hostway, Lucas was quickly promoted to Senior Technical Support Supervisor in Hostway’s Vancouver office. In late 2007, when asked to relocate to manage Hostway’s head office in Chicago, he respectfully declined, leaving the company on good terms to build on Macinhome’s growing success. Now, he finds ways to help the Macinhome team provide the most patient and high-quality service possible, to their clients. Lucas also writes on his personal blog about how people relate with technology, “people + technology,” at: http://lucasroberts.com/ and spends his days trying to figure out how best to fix the world, one Mac at a time.