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Member |
For the family. I will be the 'admin' and since, given recent hateful experiences with W10, I'm leaning towards a Mac (which I've never bought before). Primary usages will be Office, browsing, email - nothing really taxing. We've been using a laptop with a touchscreen - we like the touch screen aspects and would like to continue that if possible. Questions for those familiar with Macs: 1) It doesn't seem like any of the Mac, including the new models, support a touchscreen. Correct? 2) I'm looking at the the new 13" model of Mac Pro (~$1299). I'm trying to compare it against the prior version which would hopefully be cheaper. Is there anything compelling for which I should get the new model. It's hard to compare online but nothing is popping out - seems like prior model is sufficient? In fact, prior gen may be better since it seems it still supports USB ports (new model needs an adapter to connect to external USB?) 3) Do Macs ever go on sale? 4) Can I import Windows based Word docs and not have to edit anything (including formatting)? Or is that going to be a painful import process? "Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy "A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book | ||
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Optimistic Cynic |
You can use an external touchscreen display, so it is "supported," but I know of no Mac that comes with one. The prevalence of USB-C on the new Macs requires purchase of a "dongle" or docking station to use them with "standard" USB peripherals. The newer models are somewhat faster, and have "nicer" displays, but models up to five years (or so) old are certainly "good enough." Very rarely. The Apple Store (online) sometimes has refurbs, and there are third-party vendors that sometime have discounts, try PowerMax. Absolutely. You can use MS Office for Mac (COTS), or LibreOffice (free, open source). 100% data-compatible with Windows MS Office. The Office suite that comes with a Mac, Pages+Numbers+Keynote, work well on their own, but they are not fully compatible with MS Office, they will import Office files, but be prepared to adjust formatting. I prefer Numbers to Excel for anything that doesn't require collaboration, mostly because the formatting options allow a much more attractive final product. | |||
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| Member |
If you are not using it for anything but internet, the occasional letter or spreadsheet and listening to music or watching a simple video... you don't even need the latest. MY advice - get a 2010-2012 MacBook Pro. All the parts can be changed by the user. RAM. Battery. HD can be converted to SSDs. All at a fraction of the price of a new one. And all the new stuff, you can't upgrade. The SSD and Memory is soldered to the motherboard. The batteries are glued to the case. And there are a lot of problems with battery life... so much that they removed the "battery remaining" percentage meter from the OS. | |||
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Member |
Macbook Pros seem to be different from Windows laptops (with the exception of higher end laptops like Alienware, etc) in that they hold their value longer and generally run systems longer as well. (You'll find a lot of different and enthusiastic opinions on this). Dave Bean is right. Pretty much any Mac laptop made as far back as 2010 will run OSX Sierra (latest OS with Siri). What is the kicker as he mentioned (which I'm not too keen on myself) is around 2012 Apple seemed to switch to fixed, non-removable motherboard (installed at factory) ram and solid state storage. So whatever ram you buy initially is what you have for the life of the laptop. The storage is not the same as the 2.5" SATA solid state drive profile and costs more. What I have done in outfitting kids and family is to go just back far enough in models (like the A1278 13" and A1286 15" with i5 processors) to be able to max out the ram and install affordable either solid state or large capacity 2.5" SATA drives. It is very affordable and will outlast most of the windows laptops. Best deals in the Apple store are (you have to compare) either student or refurbished prices. There was a sale earlier in the year where you could get a 2.5" SATA drive in a 2 TB size for less than a hundred bucks. Pull out the DVD and put in a caddy and you can be walking around with 4 TB of storage if you do video and editing. (Obviously you can go solid state if space isn't a factor). (Part of the longevity of product is based on care. Some folks get good life from Windows or Mac laptops by buying the "right" (for their needs) model and keeping the fans/fins clean, no moisture/spills, no crumbs in the keyboard, etc. But the Macs' thermal paste doesn't seem to dry out as much as the average windows laptop (generally a result from overheating) and cause other failures/overheating to failure/crash). Heat is the biggest enemy of a laptop (other than liquid spills and dust/debris). My own theory on this temp effect (as I use both windows and mac computers) has to do with heat dissipation. I believe the Macbooks are a bit more efficient at shedding GPU and CPU heat as most use the metal case as a secondary heatsink). | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
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goodheart |
A refurb MacBook Air would also completely meet your requirements. For what you have said you want, you don't need a huge hard drive, lots of RAM, or a fast CPU. One thing the newer machines have that makes a big difference is the Retina screen, I'd look for that. Amazon has older MacBook Airs and other older Macs Refurbished Air on Apple Store site _________________________ “Remember, remember the fifth of November!" | |||
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eh-TEE-oh-clez |
My theory on why windows laptops have a higher incidence rate of reported failure is because there are varying grades of laptop hardware. I've owned premium laptops, budget laptops, gamer laptops, and business laptops--and the quality of the components vary hugely between the price points. When people complain about their crummy windows laptop, I assume it's because they're running the $600 Costco special. Yes, Windows laptops are supposed to be cheaper than their Mac equivalents, but you still have to compare apples to apples. Pit a $2000 Macbook against a $2000 Dell, and the quality gap narrows to the point of being indistinguishable. OS quirks are a separate issue. | |||
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| bigger government = smaller citizen  |
We run about 5-8% macs in our organization. With MS Office, specifically 2016/O365, we seem to have very few issues with interchangeability with Word documents, etc. “The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.”—H.L. Mencken | |||
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Member |
Follow Dave Bean's advice-and it's the last MacBook Pro with a DVD drive. The model number is MD101LL/A. More info here: Why the 2012 non-Retina MacBook Pro still sells Note: This article was written while(2016)the non-retina MacBook Pro was still available for sale on Apple's site. But you can still by a new one from eBay for around $900(I bought mine last year from Best Buy on sale for $950). __________________________ | |||
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Member |
I'll toss in one thing I didn't see mentioned. It may or may not be important to you, but eventually every MAC will become 'outdated'. I have a perfectly serviceable MacBook Pro 15" that I bought in 2007, I think. I replaced the battery about 4 years ago and that's been the only thing I've done to it. It came with Leopard? (Whatever came before Snow Leopard). I upgraded to Snow Leopard. While it's still 'upgradable', it kills the performance with anything past Snow Leopard. I've had Maverick on it, but it was just too slow, so I went back to SL. Why is this important? Lots of things will no longer run on it, because SL doesn't support a high enough version of one thing or another. The hardware, while more expensive, can generally outlast the OS and the software you might want. Don't get too caught up with trying to cut costs. ———- Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for thou art crunchy and taste good with catsup. | |||
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| FBHO |
Do it. I got my first Mac five months ago, 27" imac, Sierra 10.12.3. Office 365, Lightroom, Firefox, everything runs flawlessly. I won't be going back to windows. | |||
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| Member |
Windows can be done with work but MS Office is 99-100% compatible between Macs & Windows. I had Office on mine and finished work at home & sent the stuff to my office Windows machine for technical documents. For me it was flawless. On an aside, do research the iPad Pro, especially the latest version. Go to Macworld.com and do your homework. | |||
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| Member |
Thanks all. Fantastic info. Other than touch screen, Mac sounds promising. I'll research 2012 models for price and availability as well. I was consider the iPad Pro. Sounds like it would be largely sufficient. But I'm not sure it would handle three needs: 1) Ability to connect to external monitor, (ergo) keyboard, (trackball) mouse, speakers. 2) Not sure how easy it would be to connect an external drive (flash or SSD) for backup purposes (ie - pictures, docs, etc). 3) I'm not sure I'm keen on the Office subscription model. Is that new for all Windows and Macs? Or just for the iPad Pro? Is it not possible to buy Office? "Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy "A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book | |||
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| Member |
I dont know if your can still find any but last November I bought my daughter a new mid- 2012 MacBook Pro. Yes, it is an older model year but it was brand new and that model is 100% upgradabnle...ram, hard drive, etc...For her it is perfect. As far as comparability, as long as you have Office or something compatible (Libre Office, etc..) you should be able to work back and fourth with no issues. | |||
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| Member |
I had a hard time adjusting to my Mac Book Pro. I didn't know what do do with all the free time when my system wasn't booting or updating. Freed up 30-45 minutes daily. (really) | |||
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Get Off My Lawn |
+1 I have owned Apple computers since 1995, still do. But I have also owned Lenovo/IBM laptops for 12 years and out of the 8 or 9 machines I have purchased, only one has crapped out hardware-wise. I can't say that about my past Apple laptops (Powerbooks, Macbooks, Macbook Pros). When I buy from Lenovo, I spend 1500-2000 on a loaded machine. I still have an IBM T-60 that was loaded to the gills, cost me a bit of money, and I still have it (Windows XP). It works great for a 12 year-old laptop. "I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965 | |||
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| Member |
My wife LOVES her iPad Pro and it does have a touch screen... but no mouse  It will do everything that you've said you want out of the your new machine. They are pricey but top notch hardware and very "portable". | |||
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Nosce te ipsum |
Last month, after "teaching" a 71 year old how to use a Mac over the phone over 20 hours (after a life of PCs for her), I finally made it over to work on the more difficult stuff. It went fairly easily. We had her Mail set up, viewing msn.com emails in Mail. And folders and such. And one important folder we made called Pre-Mac. Her PC files stayed in PreMac The rule? What resides in PreMac stays in PreMac. As soon as she opened an xls or word doc, what happens is the Mac opens the doc in Pages. When she closes, it asks if you want to save it. The document saves in Pages or Numbers with a nearly identical file name. Rule 1, rename it without the extension and underscores and such. Rule 2, save TO THE DESKTOP, then file it. Not in Pre-Mac. In a new folder with the right name. Probably the same name used in PreMac. She followed these procedures, and except for having multiple copies of one document, because she was not paying attention, it has gone smoothly. She had opened one particular PreMac doc over and over, and kept saving them ... instead of opening up the new Pages document. Some fonts are a little different, but mostly it was far smoother than I expected. She is running Sierra, while I'm on El Capitan. I think her newer version is better in that regard. So you are not really "importing" word-based docs, but they will open in Pages. The original doc will remain unchanged. Leave it in Pre-Mac. Gone are the days of "Word for Mac". I'll suggest to you what I told her: DO NOT SAVE PRE-MAC AND POST MAC DOCS in the same folder. Keep them far far apart. Whenever she calls or texts that something is screwed up, it is always operator error, and I'm always able to figure it out over the phone with a virtual screen in my head. A cool thing, I can log into her iCloud Account and go to her iCloud Drive Folder. And open her Pages or Numbers documents. The Safari browser will display her document with the application running on the browser window. So I'mm be making changes in her application version, instead of my older version. Would have saved me a headache if I had known that earlier! Buy only from Apple. Not Best Buy. Refurbs are the best deal. I hate the new power cord and lack of USB ports. Magnetic power attachment only for me. I try never to touch the screen. And let no one clean it.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Woodman, | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven! |
OP: I'd look at this Apple refurb, it's going to be factory certified refurbished with a fresh battery and warranty: $1,189.00 Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.0GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 with Retina Display - Silver $1,189.00 For your purposes this will be perfect! | |||
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Baroque Bloke |
No MacBook has a touch screen, but the track pad on the latest models is exceptionally good. And that avoids fingerprints on the very good antireflective screen. There are discounts for students and employees (or retired employees) of some companies. Ask. Serious about crackers | |||
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