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TyrantWD posted:My biggest issue with the iPad Pro is the price of the whole package. I had been debating picking up a Macbook and installing Windows on it, for the ~10-12 hours a week where I need to get work done and am away from my desktop, but the price for such a limited use device was off-putting (I despise all Windows laptops, and have yet to encounter one that hasn't gone to poo poo within the first 6-12 months). If the base model of the Pro came with 64GB over 32, it would be a slam dunk, but at the current price point for the 128 GB model, it's going to be the ultimate indulgence purchase - an iPad to supplement my current iPad Mini. Not to take this on too much of a tangent, but buying Mac hardware to run Windows just seems like the worst possible idea if you have anything resembling a budget to work to. Maybe look at reviews to find some that don't fail? My company has a dozen laptops bought in 2010 and the only one which has failed has been dropped. Even if you believed failure within one year was likely (it isn't), wouldn't you be best served by simply running a warranty? Asus and Toshiba laptops have a 84% reliability rate over 3 years (according to squaretrade) - perhaps check out the laptop thread for recommendations? e: Asus, Toshiba & Sony laptops all have a lower failure rate than MacBooks http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf Khablam fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Sep 11, 2015 |
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Sep 11, 2015 10:04
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EL BROMANCE posted:But if your budget allows you to buy a Mac, then why wouldn't you? If it doesn't and the laptop is something that's important to you, then maybe wait a bit and save up? You're also comparing apples-to-oranges and I'm suggesting a premium Windows laptop, not a tacky budget item. Your point about service and support is completely valid and why I name-checked squaretrade as a suggested warranty, as their service receives excellent feedback. I've bought it before, but never had to use it. I'm not against owning a MacBook (my GF has one and I use it often; it's lovely running OSX) but why you'd buy one as a windows machine is tough to understand. Unless you really want to pay for a glowing Apple logo, the performance / warranty aspects can be replicated elsewhere and still give you enough money left over to buy an iPad.
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Sep 11, 2015 17:26
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EL BROMANCE posted:(too many words to quote) I think if you're honest, you'll see writing "lol" to review a line of laptops that are empirically the most reliable isn't really fair, and leaves nothing to be really said. There are lots of very tangible reasons why someone would want a non-Apple piece of hardware - Optical drives built in especially blueray - A sensible number of USB ports - Swappable batteries - HDMI built in - VGA built in - eSATA built in - etc There's a lot of hidden costs to the mac ecosystem and I just don't know why you would do it if you didn't want to partake in the whole ecosystem (OSX) instead of just the hardware shell. I don't even know how well support for the Mac's esoteric 3rd party connectors works on bootcamp, but a brief Google suggests various issues, especially with thunderbolt which requires reboots to swap what you have plugged in. It seems you don't actually bootcamp yourself though, but use OSX? Why recommend it then? Squaretrade is a guaranteed 5-day service. I have only been witness to one claim, wherein they simply shipped a refurb that arrived 2 days later as the repair would have taken 10 days, but 5 is what they say, so. It's also much cheaper than an applecare extended warranty if you're going beyond one year. If you want to claim their support is worth the extra cost to you, then that's fine and your choice, but you are essentially paying 100's of £ for the maybe required service time. For less money, you could take your windows laptop gone wrong, and throw it in a river. You can then re-buy it (same day!) and you'd still be quids-in vs owning a similarly specced Macbook. quote:But they are? Have you done a bootcamp install on your girlfriends MacBook? quote:As said, there's a reason that Microsoft and other PC companies use Apple hardware when they do presentations and the like where stability has to be guaranteed As a counterpoint there's essentially no Mac hardware in any industry sector (except creative .. and that's specifically to use OSX) as it's too expensive for the performance, so if you really want to make that argument it's not going to go your way. Khablam fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Sep 11, 2015 |
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Sep 11, 2015 21:19
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EL BROMANCE posted:And this is where we really, really differ. I left the checkbox game years ago, and have zero desire to go back. Too long wasting time comparing motherboards against each other, "Well this one has 6 USB sockets, while this one has 4 on board SATA, but 2 of them are JMicron and they suck and... " blah. Hours of my life I'd want back. But to be specific - optical media? I have working drives in the house, and I use them maybe once a year. Swappable batteries? Only time I ever needed to swap a battery was because it was Sony built garbage that died out of the blue and needed to be replaced, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone walking around with a stack of li-on batteries in their laptop case. HDMI built in? Doesn't every Apple laptop have this? I'm sure they do. Maybe not that new MacBook (the gen 1 one) but it's pretty standard. VGA built in? Last thing I needed to connect to VGA was a Dreamcast, and I don't spend my life dealing with decrepit projectors. eSATA? holy poo poo. Well the only eSATA gear I have needs port multiplication and I have a gut feeling most laptops don't have that as part of their eSATA spec, which would make it useless to me anyway. You can sum all your post up as "I just want a laptop that works, is reliable, is high quality, is a known element, is zero hassle" and you can't really beat how well the MBPs (running OSX) do just that. I won't argue with that, in fact I will wholeheartedly agree and say it's a great ecosystem to buy into. But to buy it specifically to bootcamp? It's a tough sell. Perhaps if you were buying older hardware for reasonable prices, it would make more sense, as you're avoiding the premium cost of something you're not using. I've had a better look at this, and it seems day-to-day use would get irritating. Battery life takes a very noticeable hit, as does screen brightness control, trackpad use and using peripherals. I assume the emulated bios isn't playing well with power states? Hard to guess but it's an issue nonetheless. For the hard-lock to the integrated graphics alone where applicable, you lose a big part of the hardware you're paying for. I don't know how well it plays with the newer Iris stuff. Where you might have no use for HDMI, it's extremely common and only served by an adapter on older Macs, that uses thunderbolt, which is problematic for bootcamp. Obviously it's on the new MPB. VGA is still painfully around if your use includes any form of presentation. And whilst I get your point about not obsessing over ports, someone with multiple USB devices is going to look at 2 v 6 and instantly see an advantage, or recognise that you need to make trade-offs, or spend more. e.g. with limited connectivity my GF opted to pay instead for the larger SSD as keeping a USB occupied for an external HDD then leaves you simply swapping with one. Reliably getting a power socket on a train is a ball-ache, so yeah I do see people with spare batteries on commutes in and out of London pretty regularly. If you want MacBook performance for a little cheaper, but still with a high focus on a quality screen and build, the Dell XPS machines get high praise. For a lot less money and good performance the Acer machines are legit good now (but I don't know about their support).
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Sep 12, 2015 13:54
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