<p>Next year I will be a freshman art student, and after foundation year I plan on either majoring in illustration or animation. However, for the start of next year, I'm planning on getting a new computer, but I haven't been able to figure out what would be a better choice. I have emailed the school, and they say that a laptop is not necessary freshman year due to the quality of their computer labs.</p>
<p>I do own a (very) basic HP laptop right now that would do well for email/general web browsing, but I plan on doing digital art. I love the portability of the laptop, but the imac has much better specs than the macbook pro. </p>
<p>Would you recommend that I get the imac and keep my current laptop, or get a macbook pro? </p>
<p>If you love the portability of the Macbook Pro, you should go with it instead of the iMac. It’s easier to bring along when you’re on break. That being said, the iMac could provide you with a higher resolution (depending on which MBP and iMac; the rMBP 15" has a resolution of 2880x1800 whereas the 27" iMac has a resolution of 2560x1440.) They both have IPS panels so that’s a big plus for color accuracy. However, it sounds like you might be doing a lot of the work in the lab anyways so I’d lean towards a MBP, depending on the model that is. </p>
<p>(Chronology is also heavily biased in his responses and has a prejudice against Apple computers.)</p>
<p>There was no argument. There was a statement that said that animation software runs better on PC. It wasn’t relevant to the OP’s question and didn’t answer the question on hand. Besides, Macs are PCs. What is there to argue?</p>
<p>I mean, if someone created a thread asking whether they should get a British Shorthair or Munchkin cat; what’s the point of just saying that Dogs are better than cats?</p>
<p>Considering that MOST Mac users are ignorant consumers, I just gave some information related to the topic that would help choose the best possible computer for the given task. Also, I know much more about Macs(and animation software) than most(if not all) other users on this forum because I actually took the time to reverse engineer its unique features (aside from UNIX) for my operating systems class in college.</p>
<p>If it wasn’t clear already, By PC I meant Windows based, and by Mac I meant OSX based. Basically any software that exists on both operating systems is almost always better optimized on the PC. If you plan on doing work that is resource heavy, the PC is the better choice. Therefore, for animation I would recommend getting an iMac with windows installed(Or PC hardware equivalent).</p>
<p>I’ll admit that I don’t know much about computer animation since I’ve never cared much for it, but I am familiar with Autodesk products such as AutoCAD. I do like CAD on Windows better due to the interface and the fact that it has less minor glitches, mainly because the Mac version is still young. So there is that. To say that most Mac users are ignorant consumers is what I’m talking about when I point out your bias. You’re on a site where many people are not knowledgeable on computers in general which may be why you have that view towards Mac consumers or you find a lot of teenagers who get 13" MBPs, but if you go on a different site actually dedicated to technology, you will find people who are knowledgable that may prefer Mac and/or UNIX. Also work that is “resource heavy” is done in UNIX, not Windows. You won’t many servers that run on Windows or even personal “supercomputers” that run Windows. (quotes around supercomputers)
Finally, you can’t say that Apple makes bad products either. You may not like Apple the corporation or Apple’s pricing, which is understandable, but the products themselves aren’t bad. </p>
<p>You know, that last sentence of yours, “Therefore, for animation I would recommend getting an iMac with Windows installed(Or PC hardware equivalent).” is one that I actually agree with.</p>
<p>I should think that you would want a portable computer so that you can work wherever you want. I don’t know much about art, but I do know about CAD and 2D/3D Engineering design applications. You will probably want the biggest screen you can get. Perhaps the best compromise is a MacBook Pro and a large monitor that you can plug into when you are in your residence. The nice thing about that setup is that you will then have two monitors, one for your main window, and the other for palettes and tool windows.</p>