Going self employed and I need to buy myself a new laptop for what I do - I work in the Telecoms industry and have always had a laptop supplied by the company I work for!!
I currently have a Dell Precision M5520 as my work unit and I must say it has been excellent so I am looking at a similar spec - i7, 16gb Ram etc etc.
The XPS 15 has caught my eye as it's similar spec but a MBP has also caught my eye and I am now in a quandary as to what to buy - I have a healthy budget to play with but don't want to buy a lemon as I need to hit the floor running really when I start working for a new client in a few weeks.
Software wise I run SSH clients, good old RDP and the usual glut of Office Apps etc so nothing too tasking.
Is the Apple going to be a pain to get used to or should I stay Windows? And what would be the more reliable, dependable unit that would last me a few years?
Comments
Even if your usual software programs are available for both platforms, some details may be different. At a desktop level, Windows and OSX have the same things but put them in different places and give them different names.
Simple tasks that you can currently do on automatic pilot suddenly become the clumsiest part of your computer usage. This will not look good in front of clients.
Since Mid-2014, on any MBP, certain hardware items that you might believe belongs inside the laptop shell has to be purchased separately as an accessory. e.g. An optical media drive. The FireWire socket has gone. (Probably, little hardship to a MS Windows-compatible user.)
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I’d say stick with Windows, I use both and there was a day I used to hate Win over Mac but not so much now..
Pros for switching... are you an iPhone/iPad user? Would you use GarageBand, iMovie, Pages, Numbers, Keynote?
how does battery life compare between the 2 you are considering?
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/133742/fs-apple-macbook-pro-15-retina-995#latest
I was going to get an XPS or MBP but ended up getting a Lenovo Ideapad 720s. The XPS specs we’re not great for the money and talk of thermal issues put me off. The Lenovo was quite a bit cheaper and is great, very quick, great battery, good graphics card, 512gb SSd, quad core processor, Upgradable RAM etc. Windows has been flawless so far (a few months) so very happy. The buggest reason to pay the extra for the XPS would be the screen, the Lenovo is good, but not the brightest amd does not have the wow factor of the XPS or MBP.
If you need interoperability with other devices then go PC, it is a much easier life.
If primarily operating with creates then Mac edges it.
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Just looked at the XPS 15 configurations, they look much better than when I was shopping, originally it went from 8GB RAM to 32 and the price jumped massively.
The 16GB 512 SSD 8th Gen I7 at £1429 now looks good value and would be my pick, or £1639 for the 4K.