So you’ve finally been seduced by the sleek lines of Apple’s hardware or the promise of the Mac OS’ reliability, and you want to buy a Macintosh laptop? Here’s what you need to know.

STEP 1: Choose your model

Model, or supermodel? If you’re looking to buy a Mac laptop, Apple has made the choice relatively easy: it only offers two notebook product lines — the MacBook (the basic model) or MacBook Pro (the all bells-and-whistles-included model.)

However, you might wonder whether the extra expense of the MacBook Pro is worth it. Both product lines offer very good speed and storage capacity, and both are loaded up with more features than most PC laptops, including a good quality inbuilt webcam, remote control, the fastest 802.11n wireless and the comprehensive iLife software suite.

The key benefits from a MacBook Pro over a standard MacBook are:

• the ExpressCard slot, which is primarily used for adding wireless broadband cards, so you can get access to the net wherever you are, through a mobile network. (A very handy feature – and this can be approximated by using a USB adaptor on a MacBook, but it means having something protruding from or hanging off the notebook, which is a less elegant solution.)
• higher quality LCD panels and a choice of screen sizes: the MacBook Pro is available in 15” or 17” sizes (the latter being of most appeal to creative professionals who value large screen size with some portability.) The Macbook is only available in a 13.3” screen size.
• backlit keyboard – surprisingly handy for working in bed in the dark, or in dimly lit rooms.
• better graphics power – the MacBook Pro uses a graphics chip that is much faster at 3D rendering than the MacBook, and it has its own separate memory chip as well, rather than sharing the system memory. That said, this really only benefits gamers, as the MacBook’s graphics chip is well and truly fast enough for ordinary day-to-day office and creative tasks.
• larger memory capacity – if you plan on running Windows at the same time as OS X, it’s particularly important that your machine has a lot of memory. The MacBook has a maximum of 2GB of memory, which is adequate for running Windows in virtualisation, but you’ll get much smoother performance from a machine that supports 4GB of memory, such as the MacBook Pro.
• full-size DVI port for connection of external monitors – the MacBook can be connected to external monitors too, but you have to use an adaptor which must be carried with the notebook. All too often, when you need to hook up to an external monitor, you’ll find you don’t have the adaptor with you, so the inbuilt full-size DVI port of the MacBook Pro is convenient.
• the fastest connector for external hard drives and card readers – the MacBook Pro has a Firewire 800 port, which is the fastest way of connecting to any compatible storage device. It should be pointed out, though, that very few devices support the Firewire 800 standard, since most PCs only support Firewire 400. Further, the industry as a whole is settling on USB as a connectivity standard rather than Firewire, so this enhancement is perhaps of limited value except to people who know they need it for a specific purpose.
• last but not least, nicer casing. The MacBook Pro comes in sleek aluminum, while the MacBook comes only in white plastic, or a plastic that has been painted with a slightly rubbery-feeling black paint. (Both product lines look great – but some people prefer the cachet of the aluminum!)

Processor speed

At the heart of your MacBook or MacBook Pro, of course, is the Intel CPU – at the time of writing, a Core 2 Duo chip across all the models. Apple provides a variety of speed choices for each model, and usually bundles the faster speed CPUs with other upgraded features like more memory and hard-drive space.

Of course, like anything in technology, it’s worth getting the best system you can afford, especially if you want it to last a few years. There is one exception though – the top-speed model usually commands a price premium that isn’t actually worth the speed boost you get. For example, at the time of writing, Apple charged $AU2,899 for a 2.2GHz MacBook Pro and $AU3,599 for a 2.4GHz model with a slightly larger hard drive. Unless money is no object to you, that $700 certainly is not good value for money considering the marginal speed boost.

Memory

Apple’s current laptops all use Intel CPUs, and they use a software technology called Rosetta to run older software (such as Microsoft Office) that is not yet optimised for Intel chips. It’s called “Rosetta” after the Rosetta Stone, because it translates old PowerPC instructions into ones that the Intel chip can understand. It works really well, but it absolutely sucks up system memory.

For this reason, you must get 2GB of memory with your MacBook or MacBook Pro in order to get good performance out of it. Any less than that, and you’ll find that switching programs may be sluggish, and that big tasks like loading your photo library can take longer than expected.

If you want to run Windows under virtualisation in OS X (using Parallels or VMWare), add another gigabyte to your tally for smooth performance, for a total of 3GB.

Currently, there’s no great benefit in going up to 4GB – you’ll probably not need that amount of memory for any tasks that you’ll commonly be doing on your Mac.

However, unless your company is paying for the Mac, or you’re salary sacrificing it (thus saving half the cost of the unit anyway), don’t order Apple’s memory. For some reason, Apple sells memory upgrades at an extremely expensive price. You’re better off going through a Mac dealer and getting them to install some non-Apple RAM (which will be just as reliable) when the notebook arrives at the shop.

Storage space

The joy of notebook PCs these days is that they can be a true replacement for a desktop PC, without having to skimp on any specifications – even hard drive space.

You can now order a MacBook Pro with a hard drive of up to 250GB (MacBooks are only available with 200GB drives.)

However, when choosing a drive, also consider the speed rating. The 250GB drives Apple sells are only 4200 RPM (revolution per minute) drives, which read and write data slower than the 5400 RPM drives of slightly smaller capacity.

If you can bear not having the largest possible capacity, Apple offers a 160GB drive at 7200 RPM – this provides true desktop performance, though its high speed may reduce your battery life a little bit.

Disc burning

What everyone else in the industry calls “DVD burner”, Apple calls “Superdrive”. Most of its MacBooks and MacBook Pros now come with a Superdrive. Only the cheapest MacBook comes with a “Combo drive”, which is a CD burner / DVD reader.

DVD burners are actually much less important than they once were. With USB memory keys constantly dropping in price (it’s now possible to get a 16GB memory key for less than $200 – check http://www.staticice.com.au) there are easier ways to move large amounts of data around than burning a DVD. Of course, if you want to burn home movies to DVD for family members, or like the permanency of backing up your data to a disc that can be stored in a safe place, a DVD writer is a good investment.

Networking

All MacBooks and MacBook Pros come with an Ethernet port built-in so you can connect directly to a modem or home network, and they also come with WiFi (Apple calls it “Airport”.)

The latest models all have WiFi that works at the fastest speed available – 802.11n. To get the benefit of this speed, all computers in the house have to be using an 802.11n-compatible wireless networking adaptor, and you need to have a wireless router that is 802.11n compatible too.

As this is still a relatively uncommon scenario (and the 802.11n hardware required is still quite expensive) you’ll probably be using the previous generation of network at home – 802.11g. MacBooks and MacBook Pros are compatible with this as well.

A word of warning: don’t ring an ISP and say you want wireless broadband – they may try to sell you the expensive form of broadband that is delivered over a mobile network, and ironically, is not actually wireless within your own home. What you want to ask for is ADSL or cable broadband, with a modem that offers wireless home networking.

Apple makes a range of wireless networking equipment called Airport Extreme (and a lower-end unit called Airport Express.) The Extreme unit is mainly useful if you do want the 802.11n speed or if you want to add a number of networked devices over time such as a network printer, etc – as it provides ethernet ports as well as WiFi. The Express version is predominantly WiFi only, though it does allow the connection of a USB printer, so you can print wirelessly.

Warranty

Notebook repairs can be excruciatingly expensive – a faulty LCD panel can cost $1000 or more to replace. Apple sells a range of warranties that cover you for three years from the date of purchase (extending the 12 month warranty by two years). Although they’re quite expensive (nearly $600 for the MacBook Pro), they’re well worth getting, because within three years, it’s likely something will need repairing in your MacBook/Pro.

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Related:

How to buy the perfect notebook/laptop computer

Buying guide: how to buy the perfect GPS navigator

A comprehensive guide to buying a Windows notebook/laptop

How to buy the perfect LCD monitor

How to buy a digital camera

Entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 1:59 pm under Apple, Computers, Laptops, Mac, Macintosh, Notebooks.

Read more entries by Anne Ward.