My current employer furnished me with a MacBook Pro for the last 2 years, and I've really enjoyed it. I'm a software developer so it's pretty high spec so I can run Windows VMs, but I've been quite happy with MacOS itself.
As of Friday I won't be working for them any more, and won't get a laptop in the new job. I don't have a personal laptop or even a decent tablet.
I want something for the usual domestic duties of email, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, Wikipedia, Spotify etc. But also something with enough grunt to run Microsoft Visual Studio and things like Docker.
I was looking at the MBP 13 (2015) which is what I have at work, and available for just over £1000.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Laptops/Apple-MacBook-13-inch-Laptop-Intel-Core-Graphics/B00UY2U93WI wondered what people would recommend as a Windows machine, that's similar or better spec for the money. £1000 would be the upper limit really.
I quite like the Yoga things that
@Sporky talks about.
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I have Sporky's old Yoga 2 Pro, which has a 4th gen i7 CPU and the same screen...it's bloody wonderful. If it died for whatever reason, I wouldn't hesitate to get another.
That might be the decision made, nice and easy!
The interesting part is that the Yoga 2 Pro is better than the Yoga 3 Pro, owing to the i7 processor instead of the Core M processor you get in the Yoga 3 Pro. Everything else is basically identical, except you only get one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port (I don't find this a particular handicap, mind, even for recording).
Yoga 2 Pro
Yoga 3 Pro
Yoga 900
Basically, it's the latest and greatest. @Sporky has one, I believe (he upgraded when I bought his old one).
Best laptop I've had. It goes round the world with me, light, fast, 4k screen, robust. Ticks every box, at least 10 hour battery life too. I use it for database work, as well as the usual office stuff, so it gets a moderate amount of hammer.
And the case is aluminium, which is ever so nice to run your fingers over, lol
CentOS is my favourite distro, I don't use Linux but have it in a VM because it can be useful sometimes.
I think KDE is nicer to look at than GNOME, but both are a lot better than Unity.
Works very well with Reaper and an RME interface when recording too.
Not sure the high spec XPS machines will come in under a grand? Worth a look though.
You have to be quick though cos they get snatched up quickly.
http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukdfh1/campaigns/splitter?ST=dell outlet&dgc=ST&cid=41142&lid=1069631&acd=239715600720560&ven1=sYAF5A1Bx&ven2=e
Do you run Linux and Windows? Dual boot or something? Is that feasible?
Dual boot is feasible, but you'll probably need a sizeable SSD to make it work. The SSDs in the Yoga 2 Pro are 42mm ones, which are a little harder to come by...don't know about the Yoga 900's SSD.
Of course, there's an alternative - install Windows to the hard drive, then get an external SSD and install Linux on that. Hell, you could get a tiny 128GB USB 3.0 stick and install to that; some of those memory sticks have phenomenal performance.