Hey friends,

I've been using a Lenovo Thinkpad E420, nothing special. It's time to get a new one, and I'm considering finally making the move to Mac, even though I've been with Windows my whole life.

I use my laptop constantly for work, and daily for internet surfing, watching TV/Movies. Lots of writing and excel spreadsheets. I occasionally use photoshop/illustrator for work projects, but those are informal flyers and stuff. My anecdotal observation is that my girlfriend's mac never has the virus/buggy/slow performance issues that plague my laptop.

Is it worth the price bump or is there some Dell/Lenovo/Asus that's half the price and just as good?

Thanks for your help!

Don't trust me, I'm biased as hell, I think Apple Inc is the spawn of the friggin' devil and represents all kinds of things about the country going to hell that Stoner doesn't want people talking about here.  (Even if you regret it later, getting one means you're still gonna do time in Purgatory.)

But, speaking just about performance, there's zero reason why a Wintel laptop should suffer compared to a Mac... none...  it's just a matter of having a laptop that's properly spec'd...

The main thing you do with a laptop is look at its screen while it's waiting on you.  Therefore my priority #1 is the screen.

The thing you do 2nd-most with a laptop is input stuff into it.  Therefore priority #2 is the keyboard and trackpad.

The thing you do 3rd-most with a laptop is carry it around.  Therefore priority #3 is carryability (modulo priority #1).

Then, of course, you care about:

#4: cpu

#5: ram

#6: disc

As a general rule, you can upgrade the latter two but none of the first four.

Which means you're deciding about #1 through #4 as things you're gonna live with.

Then #5 and #6 are just shopping decisions re: do it now vs. do it later (and maybe cheaper later).

.

So, what size screen do you want?

I'm a whore for Mac and will never buy a windows based system again.  All the stuff Shack said about Mac, I believe about windows. 

+1 on McNulty's comment. I got the 15" MacBook Pro back in December. I'll never go back to Windows.

I'm a whore for Mac and will never buy a windows based system again.  All the stuff Shack said about Mac, I believe about windows. 

We can agree that Microsoft used to be the devil.

We apparently disagree about who now has the crown.

Don't trust me, I'm biased as hell, I think Apple Inc is the spawn of the friggin' devil and represents all kinds of things about the country going to hell that Stoner doesn't want people talking about here.  (Even if you regret it later, getting one means you're still gonna do time in Purgatory.)

 

But, speaking just about performance, there's zero reason why a Wintel laptop should suffer compared to a Mac... none...  it's just a matter of having a laptop that's properly spec'd...

 

The main thing you do with a laptop is look at its screen while it's waiting on you.  Therefore my priority #1 is the screen.

The thing you do 2nd-most with a laptop is input stuff into it.  Therefore priority #2 is the keyboard and trackpad.

The thing you do 3rd-most with a laptop is carry it around.  Therefore priority #3 is carryability (modulo priority #1).

Then, of course, you care about:

#4: cpu

#5: ram

#6: disc

 

As a general rule, you can upgrade the latter two but none of the first four.

Which means you're deciding about #1 through #4 as things you're gonna live with.

Then #5 and #6 are just shopping decisions re: do it now vs. do it later (and maybe cheaper later).

.

So, what size screen do you want?

I'm a whore for Mac and will never buy a windows based system again.  All the stuff Shack said about Mac, I believe about windows. 

Is Apple a more immoral corporation than the other big ones making laptops? I've been working under the assumption that they're all doing bad things in the world, and therefore just focusing on comparing the performance/price of their products.

I'm looking for something sturdy, not too huge cause I bike around with the laptop in my backpack frequently. No bigger than 14 inches.

Full disclosure, I'm NOT an Apple fan. That being said some of their products are great, and if you go all in on Apple and coordinate everything, you could be a very happy person.

If you use a different kind of tablet, phone and streaming services you aren't going to get your full moneys worth though. I use Amazon for my media, have a kindle and ipad, and android phones, so it makes no sense for me.

Laptops are laptops and have pros and cons, some of the cons, come with paying more for a name, which Apple completely does. Can't blame them, they have a great brand, but for what you want to do, it's not like it's going to be a huge thing for you.

The best advice I can give is that the big 3 don't play well together, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. So if you are using a bunch of excel and Office like I do, Apple won't necessarily be the smoothest for you. If you ALSO in fact use Office that runs through the Google interface (gmail as email provider etc.) it's really going to be a shitshow.

NOW, that being said, as far as graphics/photos/web design etc. Apple is on point, so if that's a primary thing you are going to do, it could be great for you.

Getting back to what Shack said, the keys to a computer are CPU, RAM and the amount of pre installed software they cram into your stuff, so my real advice is to stay away from the "big" name brand PCs like HP, Dell, etc. They load so much of their own software/interface in, it's like having malware out of the gate.

I'd recommend Toshiba, you can get good deals daily directly through them, or through Best Buy, get one with the best processor and RAM you are comfortable spending (you can get a REALLY good one south of $600) and then spend $100 bucks and buy a Toshiba Solid State Drive HD and swap out the default HD they give you. It will run MUCH faster. As far as viruses and such, it's about the software you run, Apple gets a good rep because their iOS and Safari have good built in blocking of the crap that tries to weasel in there, unfortunately, they are also harder to recover if they do pick something up.

Windows is vulnerable to a point, just nature of what it is, but IE as a browser is REALLY vulnerable, so I wouldn't use it. I use Mozilla Firefox, with an add on called No-Script, which blocks all javascript from running in the background until you specifically allow it. So you can go one by one and allow the sites that try to run on every page, and it REALLY keeps out the bugs. I haven't had a virus in like 10 years with that combo. Getting Malware Bytes and running that every so often will clean up the rest of junk and keep out the annoying ad stuff.

Hope this helps, drop a line if you need more specific help on anything.

Is Apple a more immoral corporation than the other big ones making laptops? I've been working under the assumption that they're all doing bad things in the world, and therefore just focusing on comparing the performance/price of their products.

 

I'm looking for something sturdy, not too huge cause I bike around with the laptop in my backpack frequently. No bigger than 14 inches.

In some people's eyes, BIG = BAD. All of these tech manufacturers are pretty much the same when it comes to exploiting cheap overseas labor. Hell, there's almost nothing on the market of any kind of product you can buy with a clear conscience.

That said, I think you have the right approach....look for performance vs value in what meets your needs. In addition to size, the 15" Macbook is probably too much for what you want to do....I work a lot with big multimedia files, so it's perfect for me. Maybe look at the newer MacBook (Not 100% sure, but I think they no longer distinguish between the 13" and the Air....they've become one-and-the-same).

As someone who is relatively agnostic--I use Windows at home, have used Macs a little bit in school and owned both an IPod Touch and an Android phone--I think the primary thing is to stick with what you are comfortable with and what you are most likely to need at work. From what you say, that sounds like Windows.

Is Apple a more immoral corporation than the other big ones making laptops? I've been working under the assumption that they're all doing bad things in the world, and therefore just focusing on comparing the performance/price of their products.

 

I'm looking for something sturdy, not too huge cause I bike around with the laptop in my backpack frequently. No bigger than 14 inches.

They're a supposedly-American company that;s been selling out America for years... and making supposedly-liberal yuppies love them. Now, while I agree there is some benefit in exposing supposedly-liberal yuppies as being vacuous and superficial, I don't see anything positive whatsoever in selling out American society. 

Plus they want to lock you in to their over-priced walled garden.  They don't want you to have what you want, they want you to have what they want you do have. If people knew what the word "fascist" meant, I'd use it... but since lotsa folks think it's a synonym for Hitlet, I won't.

But it's a free country (more or less, so far anyway)... so each person should do what they want.
 

13" vs 14" is an important decision.  13's are more plentiful, but 14's give a whole lot more space for not much more size.  

Using a 14 just feels a whole lot bigger than using a 13.  If it was me, I'd pick 14 all day long...  

I forget who, but somebody's making a thin-bezel 14" that's pretty much the same size as a 13.

Never mind.

Thanks for all the quick and thoughtful advice yall, due to my heavy office/google/android phone use, I'm now leaning away from Apple.

Its still tough for me to decipher the difference between all these acronyms and numbers when looking at the specs. Jeremy and others, any thoughts on the difference between:

http://www.toshiba.c...Z30/Z30-BST3NX3

and

http://www.toshiba.c...a/Z40/Z40-B1410

350 dollars more for the latter, can't tell how much more computing power I'm getting for that though. Also, I hated Windows 8 and would want to use 7 or whatever the new 10 is as long as it's not another smartphone style setup.

I've used both Apple and Windows.

Both can get porn. 

The best advice I can give is that the big 3 don't play well together, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. So if you are using a bunch of excel and Office like I do, Apple won't necessarily be the smoothest for you. If you ALSO in fact use Office that runs through the Google interface (gmail as email provider etc.) it's really going to be a shitshow.

Apple wants you to be their prisoner... and they want you to not only volunteer but also pay extra for it...

I agree that manufacturer bloatware is annoying... but it's not worth making a decision based on that... you can get rid of it right away, in just a few minutes... it's become part of the "let's get started" ritual...

I've used both Apple and Windows.

 

Both can get porn. 

Well, at least you know what the hell you're trying to do... these days lotsa people don't...

One of the nice things about Macbooks is that you can use it for four years and then sell it for more than half what you paid for it on Craigslist.

Thanks for all the quick and thoughtful advice yall, due to my heavy office/google/android phone use, I'm now leaning away from Apple.

 

Its still tough for me to decipher the difference between all these acronyms and numbers when looking at the specs. Jeremy and others, any thoughts on the difference between:

 

http://www.toshiba.c...Z30/Z30-BST3NX3

 

and

 

http://www.toshiba.c...a/Z40/Z40-B1410

 

350 dollars more for the latter, can't tell how much more computing power I'm getting for that though. Also, I hated Windows 8 and would want to use 7 or whatever the new 10 is as long as it's not another smartphone style setup.

Like this, http://www.toshiba.c...Z30/Z30-BST3NX4 has a

• 256GB mSATA solid state drive

And the one I posted before http://www.toshiba.c...0/Z40-B1410 has a 

• 500GB (7200RPM) hard drive

Which is more GBs but not a "Solid State Drive"

So which is better?!?!?

Thanks for all the quick and thoughtful advice yall, due to my heavy office/google/android phone use, I'm now leaning away from Apple.

 

Its still tough for me to decipher the difference between all these acronyms and numbers when looking at the specs. Jeremy and others, any thoughts on the difference between:

 

http://www.toshiba.c...Z30/Z30-BST3NX3

 

and

 

http://www.toshiba.c...a/Z40/Z40-B1410

 

350 dollars more for the latter, can't tell how much more computing power I'm getting for that though. Also, I hated Windows 8 and would want to use 7 or whatever the new 10 is as long as it's not another smartphone style setup.

The former is a better deal. Same processor and memory, but has SSD already included, it'll be faster.

The windows thing is going to be a free upgrade to 10 if you have 8 anyway, so don't fall for paying for 7 (they'll stop supporting it soon anyway)

If you get 8 and are stuck with it for a few, find the desktop tile and just set that as your default, you won't notice a huge difference from 7 at that point.