Laptop advice.

Phil Young

Phil Young

Messages
6,584
Name
Phil
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi folks.

My wife has her heart set on a MacBook pro but the price and me in her ear saying she can get the same specs for less money if she wants to migrate over to windows...

Anyway, I've been given the task to look for laptops so here's my list of essentials, if anyone has any models it would be appreciated!

Used for:
General web browsing and document making, photo editing and HD video editing.

Must have's:
-13" screen ideally.
-fairly light as my wife is very small!
-full HD screen to meet the "wow" factor of the 'retina display' apple has.

Price:
Under £1000 new.

Thanks for the help in advance!
 
Tried looking at the Dell UK site to spec one yourself?
 
Phil Young said:
Nope!

Will take into consideration though.
Click to expand...

Reading my reply, it sounded a bit rude ... it wasn't meant that way, I meant that you could select screen size etc, processor, RAM to suit her needs - sort of self-design to budget.
 
Blimey - you are brave persuading the wife to wife to switch platforms. Does she have much experience with Windows compared to Apple?
 
Phil Young said:
My wife has her heart set on a MacBook pro but the price and me in her ear saying she can get the same specs for less money if she wants to migrate over to windows...

Used for:
General web browsing and document making, photo editing and HD video editing.

Must have's:
-13" screen ideally.
-fairly light as my wife is very small!
-full HD screen to meet the "wow" factor of the 'retina display' apple has.

Price:
Under £1000 new.
Click to expand...

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=462399

If she's happy with OS X, why try to change her to another platform?
 
Phil Young said:
That is incredible, the screen is a compromise but for £600 it's really worth considering, thanks!
Click to expand...
It's also the ultra-low power i5 which might struggle a bit with video.... A desktop i5 (3470S) is around 2x the performance.

daugirdas said:
Yeah, it's a bit like substituting meat for beans...
Click to expand...
Which is probably a good thing if you're a vegetarian ;) :p All roads do not lead to Apple.....
 
Not really when you compare who Apple's competitors are - HP/Dell - and a like for like product.
You do pay for industrial design and materials that the products are made from, but once you factor in resale value in 3 years time, for example, you're no more expensive in reality - you only need to fork out a bit extra up front.
 
PJ S said:
Not really when you compare who Apple's competitors are - HP/Dell - and a like for like product.
You do pay for industrial design and materials that the products are made from, but once you factor in resale value in 3 years time, for example, you're no more expensive in reality - you only need to fork out a bit extra up front.
Click to expand...

So I won't be successful in finding a much cheaper version in windows of the same spec? You must have an apple.

Edit: completely didn't realise I was talking to the same person selling the apple!!! That's me not paying attention!
 
Last edited:
PJ S said:
Not really when you compare who Apple's competitors are - HP/Dell - and a like for like product.
Click to expand...
Nope. When I bought my full HD i7/8G Dell XPS 18 months ago, the equivalent Apple was 50% more expensive - except it wasn't as Apple were still on the 1st gen i7s so I couldn't get like for like....
 
Ok so which win laptop has similar aluminium shell and full retina ips screen? I7 just doesn't matter if the prior isn't satisfied. If we got so far how do the prices compare?

If I remember correctly ms were crying that oems build "cheap" laptops and therefore decided to bring out surface. Except the specs are pretty low, screen inferior but the price is high
 
<sigh> Not going to get drawn into this.

Suffice it to say Apple protagonists tend to view the world through rose tinted glasses. That's fine, but it doesn't make it correct.

IMHO of course....
 
daugirdas said:
Ok so which win laptop has similar aluminium shell and full retina ips screen? I7 just doesn't matter if the prior isn't satisfied. If we got so far how do the prices compare?

If I remember correctly ms were crying that oems build "cheap" laptops and therefore decided to bring out surface. Except the specs are pretty low, screen inferior but the price is high
Click to expand...

Misinformed.

Laptop manufacturers have got stuck in rut, producing the same crap with a new chip in for the last 10 years with no real noticeable improvement.

My last laptop was a dell XPS15z. Very MacBook esq but quite a bit cheaper, full HD screen, 8Gb, 2nd gen i7, 750Gb and 6 hour real world battery life. But outer shell was soft and bad design on lip of laptop. I also realised that 15" isn't really portable enough.

My new baby is a 13.3" touchscreen windows 8 with ivy bridge i5, 500Gb hd with 24gb ssd for most common used files and 12Gb RAM from Samsung for £750

EDIT: forgot the 8 hour battery life on the Samsung :)
 
Last edited:
A very quick google search has found that apple use the same oem parts as others but make their design unique... oh and of course, has the apple registered trademark of arrogance.

That appears to be why they their products are more expensive. Apple enthusiasts are fair to like the products, but saying they are not more expensive like for like is simply wrong.
 
Phil Young said:
So I won't be successful in finding a much cheaper version in windows of the same spec? You must have an apple.

Edit: completely didn't realise I was talking to the same person selling the apple!!! That's me not paying attention!
Click to expand...

What?
Who's selling Apples?
I'm not a green grocer!
And what's with the multiple !'s?
Is you Shift 1 key stuck?
That's you not opening your eyes and looking! :wacky:
Go click on the link again, and this time pay attention to the info of the member who created the thread - it's on the left hand side!
Try not to be distracted by the shiny object pictured in the posts.......that's where you went wrong last time!!11!1
 
Phil Young said:
A very quick google search has found that apple use the same oem parts as others but make their design unique... oh and of course, has the apple registered trademark of arrogance.

That appears to be why they their products are more expensive. Apple enthusiasts are fair to like the products, but saying they are not more expensive like for like is simply wrong.
Click to expand...

I hope your search of Windows-based PC laptops also included MagSafe power technology and Thunderbolt connectivity. ;)

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/tech/how-it-works
 
PJ S said:
I hope your search of Windows-based PC laptops also included MagSafe power technology and Thunderbolt connectivity. ;)
Click to expand...
Why would it? I can't see me needing Thunderbolt on a laptop - a native gigabit Ethernet port is FAR more useful... and whilst MagSafe is quite cool, it isn't exactly a USP.

Next.
 
PJ S said:
I hope your search of Windows-based PC laptops also included MagSafe power technology and Thunderbolt connectivity. ;)

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/tech/how-it-works
Click to expand...

I didn't - for me it's not a argument of windows vs apple. I was just curious as to why apple products are always so expensive in comparison.

Maybe apple has something that no other laptop / pc manufacturer can replicate. Perhaps they have intellectual property rights to the most amazing technology in the world...but I haven't been able to find that in the few question / answer pages I've found so I can only conclude what I've read - and am fairly satisfied that they do not actually have anything that much "better" over windows systems spec wise.

It doesn't matter to me weather she gets a macbook or a windows based system, I'm not the one using it. It boils down to money. If she can get the same specs for £700 that she would for £1000 and save herself some money, I'm sure she would love to hear about it.
 
Dale_tem said:
Misinformed.

Laptop manufacturers have got stuck in rut, producing the same crap with a new chip in for the last 10 years with no real noticeable improvement.

My last laptop was a dell XPS15z. Very MacBook esq but quite a bit cheaper, full HD screen, 8Gb, 2nd gen i7, 750Gb and 6 hour real world battery life. But outer shell was soft and bad design on lip of laptop. I also realised that 15" isn't really portable enough.
Click to expand...

An interesting option indeed

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15-l521x/pd (new version)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6103/dell-xps-15-l521x-detailed-first-look/6

neither cheap nor it contains IPS panel, nor magsafe, nor TB port... At £1679 I could buy 15" rMBP and I can't see why not. I believe OP's mrs clearly understands that, and might be a bit annoyed to receive a pricey surrogate

You could argue that none is that important and you probably want an external display... Fine, a mac mini does a fantastic job for a fraction of price

Btw I don't have any for sale :)
 
Phil Young said:
If she can get the same specs for £700 that she would for £1000 and save herself some money, I'm sure she would love to hear about it.
Click to expand...

Specs are only one element of the overall equation.
There's customer service, reliability, aesthetics, usability, interface, integration with various hardware, integration with Apple software (iTunes as an example), and the residual value after a number of years.
All of this boils down to a total cost of ownership that transcends whether Apple or Microsoft have their OS installed at the relevant factory, and I notice you've not even acknowledged the residual value that offsets the extra upfront cost you're alluding to.
I've also foregone the usual trojan and viruses aspect to Windows usage, but it is a concern, and if you do use something, please make sure it's not the resource sapping Norton stuff.

I don't understand why she's leaving it to you to decide what new computer she should buy, given she already managed to buy her existing one without your assistance (presumably).
And given I've outlined many aspects, not least the value of the item when it's deemed time to change again, that you seem intent on switching her from an OS she's comfortable and familiar with, to one she may not be.

In car analogy terms, this would be the equivalent of trying to convince a Lexus owner that their next car should be a BMW or Mercedes, and not the current Lexus, all because you don't want a Lexus on the driveway.
 
daugirdas said:
neither cheap nor it contains IPS panel, nor magsafe, nor TB port... At £1679 I could buy 15" rMBP
Click to expand...
Except you don't have a 512GB SSD in that one.. The 512GB rMBP costs £2280... Got to laugh when people tell you that box x has better features, then fail to mention that box y has better features in some areas...
 
arad85 said:
Why would it? I can't see me needing Thunderbolt on a laptop - a native gigabit Ethernet port is FAR more useful... and whilst MagSafe is quite cool, it isn't exactly a USP.

Next.
Click to expand...

Are you looking for a laptop too?
I thought it was Phil's missus?

My point, which I'm quite sure you understood, was like for like comparison when shopping.
Given MagSafe won't be found PC laptops, nor a machined aluminium body, then maybe now it's becoming a tad clearer not all laptops are the same, even if they both have an i5 Sandybridge and 8GB DDR3 RAM, etc, etc!
Some things just cost more because they cost more to produce - but when you truly analyse the price of a comparative Dell/HP (Apple's true competitors, not Rock or other such bit part companies) then you will see there's not a whole lot of difference.
Factor in the residual value, and your beloved non-Apple branded PC is more expensive to own, even though you paid less at the outset for it!
 
Okay going onto the residual value thing for a minute. I was working on a 2006 MacBook last night. It needs - new hard drive, new thermal paste, half the plastics are broken, needs a damn good memory upgrade etc. Wouldn't say that's any extra value for money over a 7 year old pc laptop.

Then you have our fleet of Alu MacBook pros.. That are all dented and scratched (particularly easy to do), one we've scrapped this week where the screen hinge is wrecked and at least the DVD drive is borked. Another the bottom is falling out and the air card is trashed. That one won't be far behind.

Our fleet of dells is serving us better for longevity and robustness.
 
Oh and the two other point..

Thunderbolt - completely pointless at the moment with the lack of affordable peripherals. Fine if you're spending your days professionally editing masses of HD video, but useless for most. Storage on tb is pretty useless too (unless you're connecting a fibre backed array or something daft with mental throughput).

MagSafe - okay it's useful.. However don't get me started on lost MagSafe adapters for retinas. Which leads me (back) to the retina and its thunderbolt adapters.. A complete arse, especially when each individual adapter/tb screen has a separate MAC address and you run dhcp reservations for your macs. Bring back native Ethernet :LOL:
 
Last edited:
With respect Neil, your experiences outlined above are not the norm.
You're talking about a corporate set up, where your colleagues don't give a toss about the hardware since they didn't pay for it.
Most users tend to be a lot more careful and less blasé about how they handle theirs, which was paid for out of their own pocket.

As Phil's not made any reference to mishandling by his wife on her current Mac, your point is misplaced in the context of this thread, and only serves to demonstrate that you can't be objective, since at no point did anyone here convey that MacBooks were tolerant of abuse or being handled by complete klutzes.
 
Last edited:
daugirdas said:
An interesting option indeed

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15-l521x/pd (new version)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6103/dell-xps-15-l521x-detailed-first-look/6

neither cheap nor it contains IPS panel, nor magsafe, nor TB port... At £1679 I could buy 15" rMBP and I can't see why not. I believe OP's mrs clearly understands that, and might be a bit annoyed to receive a pricey surrogate
Click to expand...

My XPS 15z cost me £1022.15 from Dell (I can show you the invoice if you want) and as stated you chose the expensive option with a large SSD and compared to a machine without an SSD which would then be at the same price.

As stated USB3 is on the PC and can do 250Mb/sec At this speed the limitation is not the connector but the hard disks. The test below shows that Thunderbolt outperforms USB3 with normal hard disks by about 50%, but to get the silly speed throughput they needed 4 SSDs in a RAID0 configuration. Interestingly they didn't display the test results for the USB3 setup with SSD. It wouldn't be as high, but it still would of been interesting.

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/thunderbolt-vs-usb-3-0-the-definitive-showdown/

Thunderbolt is currently overkill unless as stated you have OTT storage at the other end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top