I'd go with the MBP. Feature-by-feature, the MBP is cheaper than the Dell. Dell doesn't even have all the features available for their systems. Solid state drives, DDRL, battery life, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac, free office suite, free antivirus, free professional photo, movie and audio software, both Intel Iris Pro and nVidia GPU's. When you match just some of the features, the Dell machines cost $2,399 compared to $1,999.
Mac Book Pro with Retina or Dell XPS 15? (both with new Haswell processors)
by Simon 70 Replies latest jw friends
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Dis-Member
Simon.. do you seriously need help with funding to maintain the forum?
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Simon
No, that was just a joke - a lame attempt to get a solid gold diamond encrusted Mac Book :)
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LV101
Love the MacBook Pro but have to say I loved my Dell - in it's time. Remember their great ad (loved it), "Dude, you're buying a Dell" - NOT! If you travel at all you especially want to go Apple - hear it's the most compatible and stress free with their other products from friends that are quite computer savvy - semi-retired/retired and about half still in the business world who refused to give up their PCs thinking the real business folks never switch over to the ez way of Apple and finally caved and gave up the headaches and ended up with Apple computers, everything.
My child still insists Apple is for people who aren't great at computers - anyway. I do love the Dell colors.
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besty
75% of people will never buy a Mac
20% of people will compare specs between Mac and PC
5% will buy whatever shit comes out of Cupertino. <-------- Me.
Fact.
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Simon
Argh, so many decisions !!!
So I popped into staples to play around with them.
The Mac Book is definitely nice - thin and light enough (but not ultrabook) and the screen is ok but it honestly didn't blow me away as much as the hype suggests that it should and it seemed smaller than I expected (that was the 15" one - how the hell do people work on 13" and 11" laptops?!).
Also, the track-pad wasn't what I imagined. Maybe I'm just used to the synamptics ones but I like the tap for click ... having it be an actual micro-switch that you press on just seems 'off' somehow. I'm sure it's just detail that you soon get used to like all the gesture combinations and using it standing at a display (which is stupidly way too low) doesn't really give you a good feel for things.
So is it "$2500 worth of nice" ? I'm not 100% sure ... still, a nice machine and fast so I'm tempted, but ...
One of the reasons I want a non-Windows machine is because I'm doing more cloud / python development and, well, Windows always seems like the poor relation when it comes to packages and environments. But, instead of getting a local machine to run everything on I could use a remote virtual environment using something like http://nitrous.io
With that I could really just use the cheapest thing I can find, maybe even a chrome-book! There is something very appealing about only needing a $250 maching and saving 10x the cost.
Ah, the dichtomy of choice ... I appreciate Henry Ford more every day.
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Pistoff
How about a midrange Lenovo, and run ...um...Ubuntu?
You can still VM a lot of windows software, (or use Crossover) and I have been finding Ubuntu 12.04 (stable) to be rock solid, everything works out of the box.
Plus, it runs very well on even low end machines.
And free.
Did I mention free.
You can give it a trial run by doing the live CD bit.
I did on a Lenovo X300 I got for $200 (list when new, $2600) and love it.
I miss my Word macros, yes, and I really miss PhraseExpress, but am working on replacements.
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dontplaceliterature
I recently acquired a Macbook Pro w/ Retina, 15" (The $2500 one) and it is FABULOUS. It only took me a day to get used to the track pad style. I've tried using a mouse with it the last couple of days and am finding I actually prefer using the pad (because of the gestures). It's simpler and makes for a more enjoyable user experience.
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Simon
So I discovered the tap / click is configurable.
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laverite
Simon,
I have a Macbook that's about a year and a half old now. I LOVE it. I do everything on it. I would never go back. I love love love LOVE LOVE my Mac. Actually, I'm kind of obsessed with it...What a joy to use. I keep it spotlessly clean and there's not even the tiniest scratch on it. I know I sound really weird. I surely didn't expect to have such an emotional connection to a Mac after being a PC person for so many years.