ISO50

I’m glad you said Windows was pretty stable, because with all the debates going on about how bad Windows XP is, coupled with the fact that people are just predisposed to hating Microsoft products without due reason and most of all experience can be so annoying.

I’ve been using Windows XP for years, once you have the service pack on there, it’s pretty damn stable. I can count the number of blue screens I’ve got over the years on one hand. I understand peoples experiences can differ, but, a lot of the time, it’s normally a case of PEBKAC.

Grunts aside, I would really recommend looking into it further, I know someone with a MBP and it doesn’t perform well under the stress our line of work requires, albeit there are there are more powerful MBP solutions available. Unless you like seeing a beach ball / colour wheel. Also, the screen colour was pretty off.

just like to add.. who the hell has had a blue screen on xp? By the mac if you want a nice looking toy or buy the hp if you want the best bang for your buck.

At the end of the day it’s not about being a die hard mac or pc fanboy, it’s about getting work done and if the tools and options on the mac side are better for what I am doing, I will use a mac, if it’s better on a PC, I will use a PC.

That is exactly the ticket. Sober judgment goes much further than bias.

I have to say I used to be a mac hater, until the intel mac pro’s came out and although it was expensive I was paying to enjoy OS X as well as have the advantage of installing windows. After using both XP, OS X and now 64bit vista I’ve come to learn what ever operating system I use its going to crash. So at the moment I’m using OS X simply becuase I find its easier to swap through windows and application.

As far as the MBR is consered your paying for the design (which is amazing) and to be part of the mac world. Although if this new HP is cheaper and will run OS X and windows faster it will definitely be worth considering.

as a 17year old i was doing the full macromediapackage (the old days) plus quark (i told you) plus photoshop 7 (you see..) on a very slow windowscomputer. i drove me nuts and to the brink of i-dont-know-what. I came to my school (graphic design) with ibooks and imacs (the bowls. best ever!) Imagen my jealousy. So i decided i wanted a mac. went to look for the ibook, then discovered the powerbook. more power. hmm. interesting… So went looking after that one. After a while i discovered that i’d been looking at the old titanium version, and then set my sights on the alu G4.

bought it, and alas, i was satisfied.
now. several years later, i’ve run all the heavy stuff on it, at the same time. I’m talking adobe, FCP kinda stuff… now its slow, it has spots everywhere, more tiny dead pixels than i can count and dozens of kernal panics.

So i set my eyes on the new sh*t. MacBookpro.
No HP. Never a windows again. No multitouch trackpad. No superiour looks, hard- and software. The eye is there too… and wants some.

so, to use the words of todd bentley, on behalf of steve jobs, i’d say,
come get some!

and i’ll go refurbished! Go $600 discount for same product!

Speaking as a long-time former Windows user, I honestly don’t think you’re going to find any Mac switchers swayed by this.

The performance/tweakability benefits of dual hard drives and 64-bit apps are negligible at best for most of the work of a typical designer, and have the drawbacks of adding heat and increasing load on the system. While yes, Macs may not have bleeding-edge specs, they’re a pretty successful balance of power, reliability, technological feasibility, and price — one of their biggest selling points. It’s a pretty good counterpoint to these PC makers’ selling point of “check out these x-treme specs maannnn!”

Simpler is better. No tweaking, docking, or Star Trek-esque technology necessary. Designers got by for years without computers at ALL.

Thank’s Scott. I actually read that older article of yours but somehow quicky forgot about it :o Shame on me :)

Two things. One, I’ll never get over XP’s wonky treatment of EPS files. For some reason, XP treats my EPS files like garbage – it either won’t save them or won’t delete them when I need to. Weird.

Second, my girlfiend pruchased an HP DV9000-series laptop and it fell apart within weeks. The display stopped working (it was a documented problem – she had to send it in twice to get it fixed) and it came with Vista. Two strikes.

So I’ll hold out any hopes for HP laptops until you report otherwise. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, but I’d rather you experiment on it than have me trust it. Good luck, and be sure to let us know how it treats you.

Hey Scott, that sounded too good to be true so I looked closer…
It is the 15” model (without dreamcolor display) that starts at $1699, not the 17”. Prices for this high end model are not available yet on the site, but considering its specs I wouldn’t be surprised to see it above $3000… the dreamcolor monitors alone are more than $3000…

My Mac at work (10.4) crashes way more than my Windows XP rig at home. At the end of the day they both run the software and PCs are way more upgradeable and cheaper to fix. Plus they play games :)

Mac lust is lame. It’s about getting work done, and for me it’s windows + adobe.

after having looked into the laptop game for what seems like an eternity now and mainly focusing on the Macbooks due to their praise and appeal, this looks pretty appetizing to me for only $1700.

I also grew up on a PC and feel like I can use one inside out, but yet I feel like their is some awesome Mac club I’m not a part of and everyone is laughing at me because my computer is still on the Photoshop load screen. this laptop looks like it could be the cure to these ails and I wouldn’t have to convert everything I know and have over to a Mac.

now only for the seventeen-hundo….

Personally I’ve been rather dissapointed in my experience with macs. I’ve lost more work on them than working at home on both xp based and even (shock horror!) vista.
Just yesterday in fact at studio I work part time went to quick save – program just closed no warning. Theres many other little problems that Ive come across also – at uni often get the spinning hamster wheel of doom on a variety of programs – Still at least Force Quit works well, tested quite a bit ;) And why can you not view thumbnails of files? sounds like you can with new version quicklook..? Ive got the little fix on PC that lets you see psd thumbnails and its pretty handy seeing without having to open anything at all.
At that power and price I’d be dead keen on a 15″ version of that HP if it came out. can afford a lot more backup devices too to be extra secure! :)

PC vs. Mac aside (although I am a Mac user, I was a PC user for decades and really, both platforms pose serious problems in stability when they’re not maintained properly and/or streamlined for the tasks you’re looking to accomplish [so kudos on that platform/productivity correlation) — I’m ultimately just really pleased to see HP stepping up and filling the void of high-end, well-designed PC laptops. Too often I help my PC-based friends with their new acquisitions, even [comparatively] expensive Sony products, and am just amazed at how sub-par the construction and components seem to be.

The specs on the HP look pretty genius and while I wouldn’t swap my Mac Book Pro for much (again, only ’cause it’s worked so well for me in terms of productivity and durability), it seems appealing if you’re looking to swap up to a new PC portable. I’m a firm believer, too, that the 15″ is the way to go. Had the same debate with the 15″ vs 17″ MBP and am glad I kept my machine as portable as possible.

Cheers
-j.

hardly a MBP killer, and where are you getting the ‘half he price figure?’

my partner and i just got our second MBP, and we bought it under the education discount. neither of us is in school and they didn’t seem to check that we were. also, we got a free ipod touch for buying it under the education discount.

these are similarly priced computers.

first off, i could NEVER work on that awful glossy screen. secondly, and i am sure that as designers we can admit this to ourselves; aesthetics matter. the mac products look great as well as performing great. that HP looks clumsy, boxy, and plasticy to me.

even if that is faster, i don’t think you are going to be able to count the milliseconds. i am running illustrator, photoshop, indesign, itunes, and firefox right now and she’s purring along… quickly.

If you’re gonna buy a mac, better get hardshell protective casing. They dent so easily from bumps and short falls. The mac construction is not as robust as you think. Most people at my work who have macs also have soda-can-like dents and crumpled corners.

These new Elitebooks are extremly rugged as well.
They showed them off at university where you could get them for a steep discount along macs and lenovos (ibm). I was joking with the HP guy if they take it up stability-wise with the lenovos (which are known to have very solid cases). He said no problem: you actually can step on them. I grabbed the 14 inch model (6930p) and said ” really I can step on that right now?” – He said yes. Well I didn’t have the heart to step on a new laptop, but my friend did (70kgs).. took it, put it on the floor.. and stood on it completely.. It didn’t have a scratch. After that we went to the apple guy and asked if he would mind us taking a step on his powerbook.. he just shrieked.. :)
Well.. that little demo sold them two Elitebooks right there.. The good thing is they still look like a nice laptop not like a freaking tank like the lenovos do.