Thinking about ordering a Macbook Pro

[MrChad]

I'm thinking about getting my wife a 13" Macbook Pro for her birthday. Her current laptop is getting a little long in the tooth, and she has wanted a Mac for a long time. A few questions for our resident experts:

1. Discounts seem to be hard to come by. My wife was a teacher but now stays at home with our kids. I've read that the developer discount was canned. Am I pretty much looking at full MSRP?

2. Is AppleCare worth it?

3. If MS Office worth it, or is there bundled software that will read her Office files?

 

[nerp]

1. Unless you get an employee discount (I'm very lucky in this respect) you're looking at MSRP. There may be educational discount if your wife can somehow finagle it but I wouldn't bet on it.

2. Yes. It spares you some trouble when your warranty expires and something goes wrong.

3. Pages is quite good for a basic office suite. I actually prefer it over Office for Mac in many respects. The much lower price is hard to argue against, too. I can live without the mail client bundled in Office because Mail, which is included in OSX, is quite good. The new version of Office for Mac might be a major improvement over Office 2008.

 

[silverpig]

1. You can get an education discount. You're not supposed to, but if you go to the apple site, you can select the education discount option, input her old school, and no one will check.

2. If you have a problem, it is apparently DEFINITELY worth it. They do all sorts of great stuff for you if you have AppleCare. I don't have it myself...

3. You can get iWork for $99 that does a good job with office stuff. For full compatibility you'll need MS Office (2011... 2008 is not nearly as good). Of course there's the free OpenOffice route too.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

You can get a MBP at a discount at Macconnection.com. That's where I bought mine.

Applecare is worthwhile, and you can get it at a huge discount through eBay or Amazon.

I like iWork just fine (and the free NeoOffice) but if I were constantly using my Mac for work, rather than for play, I might buy Office if I were regularly collaborating with PC Word users.

 

[Tequila]

1. You can buy refurbished macs at the Apple store for about $200-300 discount
2. Up to you. Keep in mind you get the first year free even with refurbs and can add more later before the first year is up. I haven't had any issues with my current macbook or my previous one but I've met others who were glad they had AppleCare beyond the first year.
3. iWork is fine if you don't collaborate with windows users. Otherwise, wait for MacOffice 2011 coming out October 26th. The full Outlook support instead of that crappy Entourage in 2008 is well worth it as well as other improvements. See http://www.microsoft.com/mac/office2011features/features-you-will-love.mspx

 

[dmw16]

I'm thinking about getting my wife a 13" Macbook Pro for her birthday. Her current laptop is getting a little long in the tooth, and she has wanted a Mac for a long time. A few questions for our resident experts:

1. Discounts seem to be hard to come by. My wife was a teacher but now stays at home with our kids. I've read that the developer discount was canned. Am I pretty much looking at full MSRP?

2. Is AppleCare worth it?

3. If MS Office worth it, or is there bundled software that will read her Office files?

1. Discounts are tough to come by, but you do have a few options. You could just enter your wife's former school as previously mentioned (they don't check). You could check the FS/T section of the forum. You could go with eBay (be sure seller has great feedback. Or lastly you could go with an Apple Refurb. Personally I like the refurb option. It requires no lying and you are getting a product with a complete Apple Warranty.

2. That depends on you. If you plan to keep the laptop I long time then it's probably worth it. As another poster said, you can get great discounts on eBay (again check the feedback).

3. I think MS Office is worth it, but it depends what you do with your computer. If it's your only machine I can't see NOT having Office. MS Office is the accepted standard and I think it's a must have.

 

[alkemyst]

You can get a MBP at a discount at Macconnection.com. That's where I bought mine.

Applecare is worthwhile, and you can get it at a huge discount through eBay or Amazon.

I like iWork just fine (and the free NeoOffice) but if I were constantly using my Mac for work, rather than for play, I might buy Office if I were regularly collaborating with PC Word users.

Macmall/macconnection are both places that usually have prices equal to the education discount plus bundles on things like Parallels.

My wife loves her late 2009 13". It was one of the only choices in a true Japanese keyboard.

She runs Windows 7 Ultimate in convergence mode mostly just for Office 2010. The latest Mac Office is supposedly a lot better as far as compatibility and feel of the Windows version.

 

[Ns1]

MS office is terrible if you use the intermediate/advanced features on a daily basis.

I'd rather go into bootcamp and use office xp.

 

[suklee]

MS office is terrible if you use the intermediate/advanced features on a daily basis.

Is this comment based on Office 2008?

I'm just disappointed they don't have Publisher on the Mac...

 

[Emulex]

office 2011 is awesome. sorry you can't use that comment on 2008 anymore. it's not the same app. it works. outlook works. excel macro's works.

i do not see a need for bootcamp at all - what works flawlessly (touch pad etc) - works crappy in win7

microcenter sells the new mbp 13" for $999 daily price, and 10% off for open-box returns. current generation.

but a women would like a MBA 11.6" because its 2.3lbs (1/2 the weight of mbp) and fits in her purse.

 

[alkemyst]

no optical though on the air...which can be a deal breaker for many.

Microcenters aren't near everyone. At $1149 the MacMall price isn't bad and you can get it bundled with a free after rebate printer and Parallels 6.0.

We didn't get the printer at the time (I have a Epson 1400 stylus already), but we got a bag, some clipart, Parallels, and some other application free.