macbook pro

Warning: I AM BIASED.

I would say the MacBook Pro is a very nice laptop. However, I'll really need to know more about what you want to DO with it, exactly. What's your primary usage for a computer? If you say gaming right off the bat, you probably won't be served as well by a Mac, unless you also plan to run Windows on it also. OS X, since it isn't the dominant OS, gets a lot fewer games than Windows does, and gets them about six months after their initial release (with a few exceptions like Blizzard games, which are always developed for both platforms concurrently). Now, if you were to say that gaming wasn't a primary motivator, and you were more interested in (say) music creation or video editing or other media tasks like that, I'd recommend a Mac without hesitation.

I think OS X is an excellent operating system, and I prefer it to Windows. However, I'd also caution you to try it out first since you've never used it first. Maybe find a friend who has a newer Mac, or go to an Apple Store if there's one near you to try it out for a while. While it's similar enough to Windows that you won't be completely lost, there are many things that are different enough that it takes some getting used to. I think the best way to learn OS X is to dive right in and embrace the differences, but you might not be so flexible.

Basically, a computer isn't just its specs—you should buy a computer based on what you want to do. Especially when choosing a platform besides the norm, you need to really know a little more to make a good decision.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Onyx

I'm not a gamer so the Macbook looks extremely attractive to me. About the only gaming I do is on ZSNES and VisualBoy Advance. And I do emulation on a super low-end Windows XP computer as it is.

I can't afford a Macbook Pro, but honestly, I'm not that excited about Vista. The Macbook sounds good enough for me. I refuse to believe that it's going to solve any problems. That's why I'd like to switch to Mac. It'll be nice to still run Windows on it, too, for emulation and running certain programs that I can't run on Mac.

Can you choose your Macbook with Metal or Hard Plastic? I looked on the Apple website but I didn't see any options. My friend said the hard plastic is the best.

No, the MacBook has a plastic casing and that's it. Only the MacBook Pros have aluminum cases.

As for emulation, not sure about GBA emulators for OS X, but there is a great port of SNES9x that works great, so you won't need to boot into Windows just to play SNES games, anyway.

There's nowhere I can't reach.