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Slashdot Asks: Which Windows Laptop Could Replace a MacBook Pro?
Last month, Apple unveiled new MacBook Pros, featuring an OLED Touch Bar, Touch ID, and all-new form factor that shaves off roughly 3mm in thickness. There are three base versions of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Intel Core i5 processors and 8GB of memory (upgradable to 16GB RAM and dual-core Intel Core i7 processors) for $1,499, $1,799 and $1,999. The base model 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with Core i7 processors and 16GB of memory for $2,399 and $2,799. Of course, adapters and AppleCare support are sold separately. The new laptops are great for Apple users -- but what about Windows users? Is there a Windows laptop that matches the new MacBook Pro in terms of build quality, reliability, and performance? Jack Schofield via The Guardian attempts to help Patrick, who is looking for a PC that matches Apple's new offerings as closely as possible. "I use my Mac for all the usual surfing, watching videos, listening to music and so on," Patrick writes. "I also use Adobe Photoshop pretty heavily and video-editing software more lightly." Schofield writes: The Dell XPS 13 and 15 are the most obvious alternatives to MacBooks. Unfortunately, they are at the top of this price range. You can still get an old-model XPS 13 (9350) for $950, but that has a Core i5-6200U with only 4GB of memory. The latest 9360 version has a 2.5GHz Core i5-7200U, 8GB of memory and a 128GB SSD for $1,050. If you go for a 512GB SSD at $1,150, you're only saving $420 on a new 2.0GHz MacBook Pro. HP's Spectre x360 range offers similar features to Dell's XPS range, except that all the x360 laptops have touch screens that you can rotate to enable "tent" (eg for movie viewing) or tablet operation. The cheapest model is the HP Spectre x360 13-4126na. This has a 13in screen, a Core i5-6200U processor, 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD for $1,050. You can upgrade to an HP Spectre x360 13-4129na with better screen resolution -- 2560 x 1440 instead of 1920 x 1080 -- plus a 2.5GHz Core i7-6500U and 512GB SSD for $1,270. Again, this is not much cheaper than a 2.0GHz MacBook Pro 13. You could also look at the Lenovo ThinkPad T560, which is a robust, professional 15.6in laptop that starts at $800. Do any Slashdotters have any comparable Windows laptops in mind that could replace a new MacBook Pro?
$1699 fully loaded w/ coupon - 6+ hours battery life out of the box on default Fedora 24 install! Everything "just worked". Windows seems fine, too.
Dell XPS 13. Generally nice build quality. Sadly the "nice" 3200x1800 screen is rather reflective and very power hungry (about half the battery life). If you go with the 1080P option you have limited CPU/GPU/ram options. Also note the kaby lake version (2016) does NOT have the IRIS. So if you want faster graphics get the 2015 version with the IRIS graphics. Also the "nostril" cam is a common complaint.
Lenovo Ideapad 710S (13") is also quite nice. Aluminum unibody, chicklet keyboard, looks kinda apple like. They have an ugly hack for some weird RAID driver (despite there being a single storage device). They disable ACPI which breaks microsoft and linux install media. So you have to use their install media (unless hacking install media is your thing), so you can't do a fresh install to get rid of whatever rootkit/malware/crapware that lenovo includes. They did (finally) release a bios to reenable ACPI, but seem to REALLY not want windows folks to use it, it's explicitly unsupported for windows. Makes you wonder why lenovo REALLY doesn't want users reinstalling the OS. The good news is it does have the IRIS graphics (like the macbook pro 13" and the 2015 dell XPS), but can get gotten with a top spec (i7 and 16GB ram) and still get a nice matte 1080P screen. I'm all for more pixels, but don't really think that 3200x1800 is worth it on a 13" screen screen, especially if it significantly impacts battery life.
Git-bash for Windows is fine.
This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
That system has a slower processor and slower GPU than the MacBook Pro 15". Also slower RAM and storage.
Both have 16GB RAM, the nVidia 965m is rated as approximately the same as the Radeon Pro 455 (which is the fastest one available for the MacBook) and with the performance base is claimed to have a 16 hour battery life. I can't find the CPU specs for the surface book but the chips are the same generation. While the MacBook has a touch bar the Surface has a touch screen plus a pen and can function as a tablet as well but only a 13.5 inch screen. In Canada it also costs ~$500 less than the 15" MacBook Pro with maxed out GPU. It also has a USB-A port.
Of the two I would go for the Surface and I say that as someone who has used Macs for around a decade now - it's far more like a Mac used to be than the new MacBook Pro. However I'm waiting for the refresh of the Dell XS 15 which, if it comes with a Kaby Lake CPU and a 10-series nVidia GPU will be what I'll probably get.
Having already upgraded my desktop to Windows 10 (after getting fed up of waiting for the Mac Pro to be updated) I've found it is nowhere near as bad as Windows XP (which was the last time I seriously used Windows) and frankly it is faster and more responsive than OS X - that maybe the old hardware I am running it on but since Apple has not updated the Mac Pro for 3 years that's hardly my fault. With modern machines it is easy to spin up a Linux VM for programming and data analysis - although the Linux subsystem for windows might even avoid the need for that too soon.
I've been very happy with the Dell Precision line since the MacBooks stopped being Pro machines (thus a Precision M4500 (first gen i7, 16GB RAM, Dual 250GB SSD, Quadro FX 880m replaced my original 2006 MacBook Pro, even though I would later buy a refurbed 2012 (non-retina) MBP as a lightweight machine). Plus they have docking stations. I've run Linux on the M4500, M4700, and M4800 without issues - the Quadro and FirePro cards seem to work just fine, especially if you use the closed source drivers.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.