Macbook vs HP tm2

[DMilardovich]

Hi all!

Well, I am about to buy a new laptop for university, travelling and personal use.
I am not gaming on anything, but it would be nice if it can run some tittles, if not, its not a problem!

I cant decide between

HP tm2 (12.1' Intel SU7300 1.33Ghz, ATI 4550 512Mb, 4Gb (up to 8Gb) DDR3 1333Mhz, HDD 320Gb, 1.8Kg, W7 Home Premium 64Bits, 7 hours of battery, Touchscreen) - 999 dolars

Macbook MC516 LE/A (13.1' Intel CD2 2.4Ghz, 2Gb (up to 4Gb) DDR3 1066Mhz, Nvidia 320M ¿¿256Mb??, HDD 250Gb, 2,1Kg, OSx Snow Leopard, 10 hours of battery) - 1133 to 1354 dolars (depending on discount)

Macbook Air (11' Intel CD2 1.4Ghz, 2Gb (up to 4Gb) DDR3 1066Mhz, Nvidia 320M ¿¿256Mb??, SSD 64Gb, 1Kg, OSx Snow Leopard, 7 hours of battery) - 1133 to 1354 dolars (depending on discount)


Im in Argentina, theese are far the lowest prices here.

I want something to last as much time as possible (arround 5 years), to be trustable, powerfull enough to avoid buying a desktop also and portable.

I already have the money.. I only have to decide!! What do you think? which should I get??

Thanks!!

 

[johnnyq1233]

I like the HP...and 7hrs of battery time is awesome! The touchscreen is a nice bonus too...HP has a good service life support as Apple tend to discontiue models 1 or 2 yrs after release..making support very challenging.
Also the Mac only has a shared memory onboard graphics card, where as the HP has a dedicated 4550 with 512MB or ram..much more powerful than the 320m.
So, if the processor speed is a big concern then you might be able to see how much more the next level of processor is for that HP....JQ

 

[DMilardovich]

remember that the MAC´s Nvidia 320M is not the same as the normal Nvidia 320M
the ATI 4550 512Mb (up to 1.9Gb) is still better? what about the CPUs?


I love the quality of the Mac (both of them, but specially the Air one which is made of aluminium)
But on the other hand, the HP tm2 with 8Gb DDR3 and a good SSD sounds really cool..

I really dont know which one to pick

 

[Maziar]

If you don't need touch screen then there is no need to get TM2.
Between the other 2,my vote goes to MBA 11,although it has a slower CPU(compared to Macbook),it's build quality is much better

 

[joshyboy82]

This is a civilized forum. I'd say between the three you selected, go with the Macbook. The HP processor is too weak to be usefull for long. It's pretty much a dual core netbook, same as the Air, but the Macbook is (as much as my body is telling me not to type this...)the best decision. Whew, an unbiased opinion based merely on fact. More people should try this.

 

[DMilardovich]

How big is the difference in the built quality between the 13.3' Mac, the 11' Air Mac and the HP tm2?

I think its an important fact that I should ask!

 

[Maziar]

Macbook air has unibody aluminum construction so it's much better than macbook(which is made of plastic)

 

[DMilardovich]

I decided to say no to the macbook

because I want a laptop to be portable and durable
Macbook's 13.3, 2.1Kg and a plastic body is no way better than tm2' 12, 1.8 and aluminium body or Air´s 11.6' 1.06kg and unibody aluminium body

So now the desicion is between HP tm2 and Macbook Air 11.. any opinion to help me to decide?

 

[Maziar]

Like I said,if you need a touch screen laptop,go with TM2;otherwise,go with MBA

 

[UniqueName]

I decided to say no to the macbook

because I want a laptop to be portable and durable
Macbook's 13.3, 2.1Kg and a plastic body is no way better than tm2' 12, 1.8 and aluminium body or Air´s 11.6' 1.06kg and unibody aluminium body

So now the desicion is between HP tm2 and Macbook Air 11.. any opinion to help me to decide?

The unibody plastic macbook's don't have the same problems as the previous ones. I haven't seen cracked cases or anything like before. Not really sure what you mean by durable. Any laptop, aluminum or plastic is probably going to break if you drop it or smash it with a hammer. Backups would be the best thing. Maybe the MBA's SSD is the next best thing.

You haven't stated what you want to do with it but in my opinion none of these are good enough to replace a desktop with desktop meaning 3d games and professional apps.

 

[spidy]

Personally i really hate the touchpad on HPs right now. the buttons are part of the pad, so you have to be very careful when clicking and moving the mouse. very annoying.

 

[DMilardovich]

Can I upgrade Air´s ram?
I mean, buy it with 2Gb and upgrade to 4Gb

 

[Maziar]

No.You can only customize it from Apple's website.The RAM isn't user upgradeable

 

[DMilardovich]

What about Sony Vaio S serie (new one)?

http/www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644768015

 

[Maziar]

That's also good

 

[joshyboy82]

Bringing that Sony into the equation changes my vote. The Sony is RAM upgradeable and has a better processor than all of the previous mentioned. With discreet graphics and a nice battery life, I'd say that would be the winner. Sony = winning!

 

[DMilardovich]

Bringing that Sony into the equation changes my vote. The Sony is RAM upgradeable and has a better processor than all of the previous mentioned. With discreet graphics and a nice battery life, I'd say that would be the winner. Sony = winning!

I like very much that Sony.. the problem is I cant get it here! :S
Sony is only selling the old S series here.

The most similar to it I can buy here is the Somy YB15.. what do you guys think about it? AMD APU E350, 2Gb DDR3, 500Gb HDD, 11.6'.. its obviously lower end, but cheaper also

 

[joshyboy82]

To bump some life into this thread, based on you previous statement about the Sony, I revert back to my previous statement of the Macbook Pro of the choices you supplied. Personally, I'd take my laptop money to HP, but that wasn't part of the deal.