My Girlfriend insists on getting a macbook pro. What do I do?

[aaronstyle]

for some reason my girlfriend thinks that getting a macbook pro will solve her computer problems. She complains that desktops are inadequate, because it's not portable, and anything that isn't a mac isn't as good. She surfs the web, watches a lot of movies, and shows. She also likes to play Sims, and facebook games.

All that is fine with me, but she thinks spending over $1200 on a low spec macbook, will solve her problems. the only problem I see is the fact that intels integrated graphics, wont give her the ability to play pioneervile. She loves to play it on my desktop because it runs so smooth. but she doesn't understand the concept of graphics cards, and I told her if she's going to get one, get the one with a quad core, and a graphics chip, but she says it's too much money....

So, what the hell? You want to shell out over a grand for a dual core, but you wont spend the extra money for a quad core, and graphics chip that will provide the longevity. She wont even consider other laptops, that are much cheaper, and have much better specs.

I've tried to show her solutions from many different companies, particularly the ones ranging from 1k-1.5k that nearly double the specs of the apple. For our 6 year/ christmas present she wants me to put money towards it, but doesn't want the higher end choices.

What do I do?

 

[Gamer-girl]

A) Is a stupid reason. What if your GF knew more about fashion than you, would you let her pick out your clothes? or if she knew more about nutrition would you let her plan/order your meals?

B) She is buying it herself she just wants money towards it as a xmas present, similar to a gift card if there was such a thing for the apple store.

C) lol

D) That is true looks also play a part but it is not only girls that do this.

I think some don't get B above

 

[sergeyn]

There are many ways you can deal with this:
A) Dump her, Reason: If she does not care about your opinion, and does not belive you know about this more (and you obviosly do), then that sort of GF will eventually do something more than spend your cash.

LOL, 6 years together and then he dumps her because of a difference in opinions about christmas present.

 

[kilo_17]

Let her get the Macbook, if that's what she wants. It's not worth arguing over, you most likely won't change her mind :lol:

 

[marshcorps]

Take her to a Apple store to try it out. Then get them to pack up one, with all the power cables etc. and make her tote it around for a while. I have a 17" workstation laptop for work and it is a pain to carry it around. She doesn't need a full spec gaming laptop, she needs something that can play HD movies. Also, make sure it is pink ;-)

 

[Houndsteeth]

Let her get the MacBook. Try and find the best bang for her buck, though. Take a good look at the refurbished products at the Apple Store (you can sometimes find a decent deal there) or look at some of the value-adds offered by third party retailers. You pay the same price for the hardware, but they will sometimes throw in extras like more memory, a printer, or extra battery, etc. PCMall/MacMall comes to mind for some of these deals.

For Pete's sake, don't push her into a PC just because you want her to buy a PC. You will regret it every time she complains about a virus or any kind of Windows wackiness.

Additionally, if she buys a Mac, and something should happen to go wacky, you don't have to support it. Instead, she can go down to your local Apple Store and flirt with one of the guys behind the counter to get him to fix her problem.

Of course, if you do happen to be able to fix her problem, then you're the hero, and heroes always get a reward for saving the princess, right?

 

[acerace]

In my opinion, just take the Macbook. If you're girlfriend is happy, I assume you gonna happy to right? So, happy ending.

 

[sergeyn]

Let her get the MacBook. Try and find the best bang for her buck, though. Take a good look at the Instead, she can go down to your local Apple Store and flirt with one of the guys behind the counter to get him to fix her problem.

nice one! Just don't forget to agree with your GF in advance when a flirt stops being just flirt so that she know how far she can go.

 

[nordlead]

take her to an apple store and ask the "knowledgeable" employees to show her a laptop that will play all the games she wants. If she doesn't want to buy that one, because it is too much, then it is her problem.

 

[howardp6]

Just let her buy it, if you talk her out of it and she gets something else and she does not like the computer you talked her into you lose. If you let her buy the Macbook and it does not work out for her and you keep from telling her I told you so. You win. Just get the best Macbook for the money. Do not look for an answer here, no matter, what everyone says you have to live with her.

 

[de5_Roy]

ask her this about the macbook:

can it play crysis?

;D

 

[TeraMedia]

You won't win this argument. If, at your prodding, she gets a PC, then any time ANYTHING goes wrong with it - even if it's because she dropped the thing down a staircase in the middle of a defrag process - it will be your fault, and your problem. If it gets a virus (which, let's face it, I suspect that people who buy macs are more susceptible to the types of social engineering that also cause them to infect their computers with viruses...), that will be your fault. If NV has released another bad chipset and it fails - it will be your fault.

Let her get the Mac. Explain that you won't be able to support it as well as a PC, or upgrade it as easily or cheaply as a PC (you can even offer to let her play on yours when this happens), but that you'll do the best you can. Also, it should be a bit easier for her to maintain the Mac and keep it virus-free, which - if she's asking for one in the first place - is probably what she needs.

My wife wanted a RAZR and an iPod. I first got her a pink RAZR with built-in MP3 capabilities, which I thought was pretty-darn cool. But she still wanted an iPod. The phone died in the laundry, so I eventually got her an iPod. She used it maybe 10 times, and now the battery is dead. But she no longer asks for an iPod, and she listens better to me when I suggest something to her about technology.

 

[willwayne]

This is so strange...my wife (a non-techie) was shopping for a new laptop earlier this year. I was trying to guide her into a MacBook Air (for the obvious reasons of simplicity) but she wouldn't have any of it. It was too expensive for her expectations and ended up getting a crummy HP laptop from Walmart for $500 because it had flowers on it -- and because she's comfortable with Windows and shies away from radical change.

In the end, it was obvious that she needed to make the decision and get the one she decided on for all of the reasons already stated here - if something goes wrong with the notebook YOU pick for her, you'll never hear the end of it. Doesn't matter how minor. So - several days later the battery on her new laptop dies. Not my fault! Less than a year later, her webcam is intermittent and Skyping with her mother is a real PITA / not possible. NOT MY FAULT! (actually, this didn't happen until I switched from AT&T DSL to AT&T U-Verse internet...so it's partially my fault (??). Never mind the fact that the laptop had just finished travelling to Scotland with us)


Actually, this reminds me of another story, just to drive the point home. When we were expecting our second child, we went shopping for a good used Minivan. I tried to get her to consider a Dodge or Chevy because they were more affordable - but I wanted to look at all the vans on the market, and she fell in love with the Honda. At this point, it was useless to argue against the Honda, so we looked around and finally found the perfect one (the Touring model -- naturally) at the right price and bought it.

We get the van to my parents' house (because they were close by), and we were playing with all the doo-dads like the navigation and the DVD player, etc...with the engine off to save gas.

Now, my wife and kids were heading to Disney World for vacation and wanted to take the new van. And wouldn't you know that just before my in-laws arrived, I moved to push the hazard button on the van to make sure that it worked (yes, I should have thought to check that before buying it. I didn't think of everything!) and for whatever reason, my wife says,"Don't push that button!" I'm like, "WTF not?" and I pushed it anyway.

So it turns out that I was sold a good minivan with a bad battery. Not uncommon - it probably had a great battery when it was traded in, then some poor sap bought a new battery and got the one from this van instead, and I got their old battery.

Now my wife is in hysterics, because apparently I pushed the giant self-destruct button on the 'new' van that she explicitly TOLD ME not to push, and she wasn't going to get to drive it to WDW like she had planned -- and it was all my fault!


I suppose telling her that she would have broken down on the road to WDW instead, had I not pushed the button, softened the hysteria - but I suspect she still harbors some cumulative resentment.


Buy her the damned MacBook Pro.

 

[cadder]

You could tell her that the MBP costs enough more than an equivalent PC for her to buy X number of pairs of shoes, that is something that she should understand.

Or you could post here photo here and we can tell you if she is work keeping or not.

Next it will be which apartment/house she wants, then which carpet she wants, then which sofa she wants, for the rest of your life. And the worst part of this type of relationship is that when YOU decide which item you want, she will tell you that you can't have it because it is too expensive.

 

[aaronstyle]

She will be the outcast of her group of friends if she doesn't get one. Therefore your chances of changing her mind never existed.

She doesn't hang out with her friends. I'm her only friend that she hangs out with, and I think it's a waste of money.

 

[Guest]

Just pay for the computer, but let her pick it out. That way you did something nice for her and she has only herself to blame!

 

[leaderWON]

If you care about her happiness more than yours get her what she wants. Good luck trying to convince her why a pc is better. Actually the fact that you have to convince her its better already means you failed.

 

[legendkiller]

If the $1500 is her money, let her get what she wants but just warn her that it's over priced for the Spec as Mac is for server/company user or you can say Waste of money ...

 

[brittwink90]

Ok here's the thing... I'm a female that's fairly similar to your girlfriend. I like to play simple games (the most graphically intensive I'm running now is Diablo 3), and I enjoy using Netflix and other simple applications. I recently bought a MBP because of the build quality, and because in my opinion I can't stand using Windows, so I am willing to pay the money to use OS X. And frankly, it's absurd to say your girlfriend won't be able to run pioneerville on a MBP. Integrated graphics are more than capable of running many of today's games, especially flash games. If she wants it, let her have it. My boyfriend is a hardcore PC/Linux user, and he wouldn't buy a Macnook for his own personal use, but he doesn't degrade me for my choices. Maybe you should read up a little more on graphics yourself before you make claims on a hardware forum.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

Closing this thread because of age....

All the best Brett

 

[Brett928S2]

Best answer selected by Brett928S2.