Hi,
I am in serious need of a mac laptop for uni studies but I am afraid I cant afford buying the brand new one. My budget is around $500. I am a bit skeptical buying laptops from Ebay or Gumtree! Please, your advice is highly appreciated.
Cheers
Any reliable online second hand (used) Mac laptops store?
[Deactivated] on 23/10/2014 - 07:20
Comments
Given that OP only has $500 to spend, I'd suggest a windows notebook as well, but that's hardly a reason to put down macs.
Love them, hate them, you still have to admit that macbooks are amongst the best, if not the best built notebooks on the market. Battery life is also unparallel. Run bootcamp or vware for windows and you have best of the both world. Obviously they aren't cheap, so look elsewhere if you want value for money, especially specs wise, but specs aren't everything. It's just like saying I can get the same specs on a dell inspiron to that xps, so why would I pay the premium for xps.
"but that's hardly a reason to put down macs"
Nothing that I said was untrue.
Their technology is dated and overpriced
Every time you need to do almost anything, it seems you need a new cable,spend more money on something or take a convoluted roundabout way to do the most simple of tasks."so look elsewhere if you want value for money, especially specs wise,"
So you do agree they are poor value for money and have poor specs.
I wonder then why you claimed they are "amongst the best, if not the best built notebooks on the market"Their technology is dated and overpriced
They may not be the latest and the greatest, but I would hardly call it dated. Macs do come at a premium so I won't argue with you there about the price.
Every time you need to do almost anything, it seems you need a new cable, spend more money on something or take a convoluted roundabout way to do the most simple of tasks.
I use both macs and pc, more on my pc for the quadro card, but 95% of the things I want to do on my pc can be done on my mac. So what you said is not true on my end. Obviously macs aren't made for gaming, so get a pc if you want to game. The OP is looking for a notebook for uni work, and from experience, macs will take everything you throw at it minus the very niche. The battery life is also great for portable use, I'm able to get a good 7-8hrs out of my macbook on full charge.
Is he going to find a macbook in good condition for $500? Very unlikely. Which is why I also suggested a windows notebook. But that's not the point of our argument here.
So you do agree they are poor value for money
Each to their own on value for money. Comparatively speaking, macs have lower specs to pc's at a similar price point, so I do agree that macs aren't the most cost effective option. But to me, the specs is just one component of the whole package. It is important, but not everything. This is true not just between macs and pc's, but also between different pc models. Going by your logic, companies should stop releasing models with a premium price tag because you can find equal spec'd system for cheaper on one of their lower end models. As I mentioned earlier, a top end inspiron can match a XPS in specs at a far lower price, so you'd be suggesting that no one should touch the XPS right?
and have poor specs
If by poor specs, you mean by comparison to pc's you can find at a similar price point, then I'll give you that. Otherwise, they are more than capable of handling your everyday activity.
I wonder then why you claimed they are "amongst the best, if not the best built notebooks on the market".
Well imo, the specs they're shipped with are more than capable of satisfying the need of majority of computer users. The build quality is almost second to none. Obviously given the premium price tag, macs aren't for everyone. You don't have to agree with me, but if price wasn't an issue, I truly believe macs are amongst the best notebooks on the market for your average user.
@iChopstick: "They may not be the latest and the greatest.
Macs do come at a premium"So you have less and pay more??? yeah that might make perfect sense to a fanboy but not me.
"Well imo, the specs they're shipped with are more than capable of satisfying the need of majority of computer users."
From my personal experience with several ipad/iphone users, a $30 pedopad would have been more than capable of satisfying their needs.
They were caught in the marketing hype, nothing more.
Why Mac?
I have opted for Mac simply because of its build quality - I have had HP, DELL and Toshiba and I don't think I can buy them anymore!
You're not going to get far with $500 buying macbook, not even in the 2nd hand market. You will be much better off specs wise buying a windows notebook, new or manufacturer refurbished. Is there a particular reason why you must have a macbook?
I may be able to increase my budget a bit should I be able to find a reliable mac laptop online store. I am stuck with Mac because I wanted to buy something strong (hardware-wise) and I cant think of any laptop that beats mac.
What do you need the laptop for? What course are you studying?
I need it for surfing the web, writing assignments and all other uni-related small activities - I am doing PhD in education but soon will be going back home -so I wanted a laptop with a strong build up design to survive for some years in a developing country.
A $500 second hand Mac? Mate, it can't be done.
Reliable Mac - there's a laugh.
Considering mac is ridiculously overpriced for dated gear to start with and they then rape you for every_little_thing afterwards,you would be better off spending the $500 on a better spec win7 machine IMHO