lazyweb: macbook or macbook pro for aperture use?

I mean, of course, if money is no object, get the most pimp-daddiest MacBook Pro with gills of RAM and stuff. But… Will the new solid aluminum case MacBooks do the trick? (and, yeah, if money truly was no object, I KNOW I’d rather get a fully maxed out Mac Pro with dual 30″ displays and terabytes of storage…)

I need to replace my antique home system, and need something that can run Aperture well (not necessarily pro speed, but well enough that I don’t want to throw the fracking thing across the room while waiting for it to catch up…). I’d initially planned on getting a 20″ iMac, but think it’ll be better to maintain mobility.

So… Will the new MacBook do the job for running Aperture (and other stuff). Just day-to-day use, and daily workouts in Aperture. Is the MacBook Pro really worth the roughly extra $1000$600 for a little more screen real estate and a real video card?

macbook_vs_pro

8 thoughts on “lazyweb: macbook or macbook pro for aperture use?”

  1. Personally, I’d go with the MacBook for portability. But, only because I have permanent desktops both at home and at work. Other than the obvious speed and screen size advantages of the MacBook Pro, the only thing you’d really be missing is FireWire, which would be handy if you shoot in RAW on the >15 megapixel SLRs and use the high speed cards and readers!

  2. thanks, king! I’d been leaning toward setting up a desktop at home, since it’ll be the main/only system there for awhile. but now I’m thinking even the lowly macbook will have more guts than the system I’m using now, so there shouldn’t be much of a problem. I mean, of course the other systems will be faster than the macbook, but it’ll be faster than what I’m used to, and possibly fast enough… hmmmm…

  4. Personally I would highly recommend the MacBook Pro – while the screens aren’t as colour accurate as a real external matte LCD I have noticed the MacBook Pro LCDs generally look better than the MacBook LCDs (at least at the Apple Store and ones I’ve seen around town).

    That said thankfully the whole Glossy / Matte issue has become much less of an issue with a much more even and dependable backlight (LED) on the new MacBooks/MacBook Pros. I’m currently using an older MBP (work provided) and really miss my LED screen I had on the MBP I personally owned before it. (Work one is a generation older).

    All that said if you plan on doing your editing on a second monitor it’s highly recommended as both the current MacBook and MacBook Pro use 6-bit LCDs – meaning they have to dither in order to display millions of colours. From my own experience the MBP seems to do a better job at dithering so it’s not noticeable compared to the MacBook.

    The new 24″ LED Cinema Display (if you were inclined to obtain that) does display 16.7 million colours (8-bit LCD). As far as I can gather Apple started putting 6-bit LCDs into all their notebooks because of cost and the lack of power conservative 8-bit LCDs, hence the “… display with support for millions of colors” instead of “Display colors (maximum): 16.7 million” on the technical specification pages.

    1. oh, wow. I hadn’t realized that the displays were dithered. that sucks! does it appear as grain? I mean, would I be fighting high ISO noise in Aperture, only to realize it was a 6 bit dithering? guess I’ll have to visit the Apple Store to see if I can play with Aperture on the MacBook and MBP (and Cinema Display) to compare displays…

  5. D’Arcy- I’m a big fan of the MacBook for portability- and connect it to a desktop monitor when needed for “real work”
    Put the money into extra RAM- bigger HD (both easy to upgrade on your own).
    I seriously question the lack of firewire in the new models- the only big question is do lighted keys make your nights?
    I wish Apple would stop trying to force people into bigger machines- or the Mini.
    They need to keep full features- in a small machine.

  6. cool. I think it’s settled. I’ll visit the Apple Store to see if Aperture on a MB makes me itch, and if not, that’s what it’ll be. thanks, all.

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