Laptop recommendations, please

"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo) 10/31/2017 at 17:14 • Filed to: None

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I need to buy a laptop. I have been using Mac machines for years, and am trying to decide whether to stay Mac.

Chihuahua love for your time.

Captain of the Enterprise > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 17:16

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What do you do with it and what is your budget?

My citroen won't start > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 17:20

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If you work with design, architecture, photography or anything similar there is no choice but Mac.

Most other fields of work it won’t make much of a difference.

Do you like ugly things? Not a Mac

Do you like pretty things? Mac

Edit: Wasn’t paying attention, you are the OP. I have a Mac for leisure use (because Iphone and all the nice design and IU) but I need something with Microsoft for work, because most Judicial Circuit websites/programs and whatnot only work with Microsoft.

Nibby > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 17:23

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avoid them, new ones are completely impossible to upgrade or work on... If anything breaks, you’ll have to pay out your ass to fix it. RAM, processor, etc. are soldered on. oh, and they require dongles just to connect basic things like USB drives, printers, smartphones, tablets, external monitors, etc.

And they have these nice looking displays but with gimmicky high resolutions so they’re not fully compatible with some older websites and software. The newer keyboards are TERRIBLE to type on and the newer force-enabled touchpads are nowhere near as good as the older Macbook ones. And they keep releasing things with gimmicky features... Example, the MacBok Pro touchbar replacing the F keys which are super handy for shortcuts, dev work, even for function things like brightness and volume with this unintuitive and slower touchscreen bar.

Oh and they’re insanely overpriced for what you get. Hardware, they’re not even that impressive.

I personally just stick to HP EliteBooks and Dell Latitudes... I don’t really like the newer ThinkPads as much. But you should look at EliteBook 840 G4, (or 820 G4 is you want smaller), the Latitude 7000 line, and possibly the ThinkPad X270 or T470 (T470s if you want a slimmer one). Make sure you configure them for 1080p screens and SSDs, at least 8GB RAM. All of these machines are user serviceable.

Nibby > My citroen won't start 10/31/2017 at 17:25

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your apple bias is showing

PS - PLENTY of designers, photographers and architectures use Windows... and tons of professional video editors have ditched Apple for Windows machines since Apple has completely ignored the power video editors who swore by Apple for many years since they have an aging desktop lineup (Mac Pro has 2013/4 hardware, high end iMacs are at Xeon-level workstation prices for less power and no expansion).

benjrblant > My citroen won't start 10/31/2017 at 17:27

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I can list zero professional architecture firms that do their drafting on a mac.

My citroen won't start > benjrblant 10/31/2017 at 17:30

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Huh, all my architect friends work with Macs, I could be mistaken about the architecture thing tho.

notsomethingstructural > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 17:32

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If you are on Mac, and don’t NEED to be on PC, and can afford a Mac, this isn’t much of a question.

ttyymmnn > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 17:33

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Find a later model used Mac and stay with Mac.

My citroen won't start > Nibby 10/31/2017 at 17:33

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I am know for style over substance.

This comes only from person experience (my current gf works with contemporary art and studied cinema, they all use Mac according to her and what I’ve seen) and my friends in marketing and design all use Macs.

I could be mistaken about the whole picture, but this is what I see.

benjrblant > My citroen won't start 10/31/2017 at 17:34

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How many of them are gainfully employed at a firm? Not being a jerk, but in college, most of my friends found a way to get the job done on their mac to justify a $2500 laptop. Now that they all work in a firm, it’s 100% windows. Revit isn’t even available for mac.

My citroen won't start > benjrblant 10/31/2017 at 17:37

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They all work in firms, to my knowledge.

ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 17:37

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If you don’t play games and there’s no specific software you need, you’re in Chromebook territory. High-end Chromebook territory. For real.

Montalvo > benjrblant 10/31/2017 at 17:56

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I can ditto that for pretty much every architectural firm I have worked with in NYC.

Textured Soy Protein > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 17:57

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I was a longtime Windows user and jumped ship to Mac when Windows 8 came out because Windows 8 was such garbage.

Since then, I’ve had Windows 10 on work computers and while it doesn’t annoy me that much in day to day use, I don’t love it. The only things I like about Windows more than Mac are how maximizing windows on Mac is kinda weird in that it creates a separate workspace for the maximized window. I’m glad Mac finally added a split screen mode a while back, Windows has had that since like 7 or Vista or something.

I don’t like how Windows 10 buries certain things in the “desktop mode” crap like control panel is separate from the settings menu and some settings are in control panel only, not settings, and some things are desktop apps, it’s just messy and cluttered. Or like you go to save a document in Office, and there’s the built-in browsing window in the save pane, but to do real browsing you have to hit the little ‘more options’ button to get a regular file browser window. Too much redundancy for no purpose.

(I’m willing to put up with more OS chaos than Apple, for example all my mobile devices are Android, but I just get irritated by Microsoft’s needless duplicating of things.)

Apple on the other hand has gone all dongle-fication, where now the only ports on Macbooks are USB-C/Thunderbolt 3. That’s not a huge deal to me except for I wish there was a SD slot still. I have a 2014 MBP so mine still has the SD card reader.

If there were a Windows machine with all the stuff I want for significantly cheaper than Mac, I might consider it. But I don’t love it.

Xyl0c41n3 > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 18:10

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Three things:

1. I like your Yokohama stickers! I currently have Yokohamas on my car.

2. Fur babies!!!! Give all the fur babies tons of love for me, please.

3. I recently got a new laptop. An HP Envy x360 . There are several different configurations available.

I’d previously been kinda wary of HP laptops, but this one changed my mind. Like a MacBook, it’s got a unibody aluminum construction. But, you can also flip the screen over so it’s like a tablet. And the screen is a smart touchscreen, so it’s compatible with smart styluses, which means you can use them in various graphics programs.

It’s got a nice, large track pad that feels really nice underneath your fingers. The keyboard keys aren’t as nice as a MacBook keyboard, but it is a full keyboard layout, meaning it’s got the number pad on the right side, which was a laptop essential for me (I use lots of keyboard shortcuts).

It’s HP’s middle-of-the-road version of their “premium” line of laptops. It’s at a cheaper price point than a MacBook, but it has very similar usability and utility. And they’re pretty beautifully designed.

Their more top of the line model, which looks (outwardly) very similar, are their HP Spectre laptops. And even their most expensive configuration is still hundreds of dollars cheaper than a MacBook.

I love Apple. I love my iPhone. I have been, and continue to be, an avid iPhone user, but I don’t think Apple can really claim laptop superiority anymore the way they used to. The market has largely caught up, especially since Steve Jobs died.

Now, mind you, I’m not talking smart phones or desktop machines. I’m talking laptops only. I think there are other manufacturers who can provide as good an experience as MacBooks do. It all comes down to which OS you prefer (or need to use) and your stylistic choices. But even with the stylistic considerations, I think HP has really done a good job of creating a laptop that’s as sexy as a MacBook.

benjrblant > My citroen won't start 10/31/2017 at 18:16

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I attended an art and design school, It was almost entirely macs. The industry that one works in seems to be a hard divider for mac vs pc.

CaptDale - is secretly British > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 18:36

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I love my Mac Book. I have had it for 7 years and she is still going strong. I love Mac computers, but I hate their phones.

My friend just got the new 15" Mac Book Pro from his work and my god is it beautiful. On the other had, his wife has one of the new surface pros and while it is pretty she has has to send 2 back for warranty exchanges and has had a host of other issues.

C62030 > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 18:52

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I have a 2017 MBP and I love it to death. I still firmly believe it’s one of the best laptop designs of all time, if not the best, and the butterfly keyboard is fantastic. I’m indifferent to the Touch Bar, although Touch ID is miles handier than I thought it was going to be. If you invest in a USB-C hub or a few $5 stub adapters you’ll have all the ports you need.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 19:56

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I absolutely love my Dell XPS 15. Tons of power in a small package for a 15 inch laptop. It is the perfect laptop for me.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 21:07

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I’ve had a 2017 12” Retina MacBook for about a month now. It is amazing. I can elaborate more, but simply put I’ve had to reconfigure my brain to believe the size and battery life. If you’ve used Maca in the past you owe it to yourself to at least try the latest MB and 13” MBP even if you end up returning it.

Discerning > notsomethingstructural 10/31/2017 at 21:20

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Why pay more for a Mac just because he can afford it?

If cost isn’t an issue, then Dell offers a better product than anything Apple can offer. This is an objectively true statement. Feel free to look it up if you don’t believe me. :)

Discerning > ImmoralMinority 10/31/2017 at 21:23

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Dell offers all sorts of configurations and their prices and build quality are good. Want to have the best of the best? Get an XPS. Want something more affordable? Dell Chromebook. You can select from a lot of different configurations for any level of performance.

notsomethingstructural > Discerning 10/31/2017 at 21:53

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The issue isn’t dell its Microsoft. Until Microsoft arbitrarily limits hardware configurations and/or abandons 30+ year old notions like the registry it will never ever be able to compete with the Mac software experience. They’re two separate business models so I don’t see it resolving.

In the meantime I’ve found I have to call IT / helpdesk at least 5x more often when I’m on PC than on Mac doing the same kind of work on the same software, and that’s on an enterprise build designed specifically for one of 4 PC’s my company uses, with all software packaged on the image. That’s as good as it’s gonna get for windows and it’s still nowhere close to OSX.

ETA: put differently, I’ve had less problems bringing in my own Mac and integrating it with the office software, than using the office software on the hardware they gave me.

pip bip - choose Corrour > ImmoralMinority 11/01/2017 at 07:24

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iMac again

Textured Soy Protein > ImmoralMinority 11/01/2017 at 09:14

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I just did a search and if you don’t mind stepping down to a 1080p screen, there are several Windows options that are in the $1000 range and have sufficiently good specs. If you want a higher resolution screen like the Apple retina screen then the Windows options start around $1700 and in that case I’d go Mac.