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Looking for a 15" laptop - trying to decide what to get
- Thread starter maflynn
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At least 10% increase in performance in stressed situations because of better thermal control, but maybe not in a one minute Geekbench test.
@maflynn personally I would expand your selection as your rather limiting your options given the OS is not a driving factor. I would also set a budget and see what works in that "envelope" Given this will be a secondary system I don't see a need to spend past your comfort level. If a primary system, justifications would be very different.
Q-6
Q-6
I don't think it is worth the price for most people, and the market share of MBPs shows that. For it to be worth the price it has to have some feature(s) you're willing to pay the price difference for, which means you need to be in that small demographic for whom what Apple does well or best really matters.
For the 2016 MBP vs new XPS that means OS (for some), probably build quality, screen (vs FHD, and brightness, contrast and initial color accuracy for UHD), speakers, SSD speed, port power/external monitor support, heat and sound control, size/weight, and probably battery life. Those have to overcome disadvantages in regard to price, repairability/upgradeability including up to 32 GB RAM, CPU and dGPU, and screen resolution for UHD.
None of the MBP's advantages seem to set your heart on fire, so it's hard to see why you feel the draw to it.
I have but so far for my research the Dell seems to be one of the best premium systems. I also have a good track record with them, so that goes a long way.
I like Dell and have always used Dell Latitudes or Precisions until I got my first MBP (mid 2014 15" rMBP) 18 months ago.
You said you have no need for dGPU so I would go a different route. I would get the 2015 base model. It still has a quad i7, 16GB of RAM and pretty fast SSD. Iris Pro graphics are not bad either. You can probably find one on sale for $1700. That way you still stay with macOS and are not spending $2400.
The 2014 rMBP has been my favorite laptop by far and couldn't go back to a non Apple laptop as my personal daily driver.
I was one of those who always thought the Macbook Pros were severely overpriced (still think they cost too much new
) and would never buy one but once my wife bought a late 2013 15" and I used it for a bit, I knew I wanted one too. Definitely worth the money I paid for it used.
You said you have no need for dGPU so I would go a different route. I would get the 2015 base model. It still has a quad i7, 16GB of RAM and pretty fast SSD. Iris Pro graphics are not bad either. You can probably find one on sale for $1700. That way you still stay with macOS and are not spending $2400.
The 2014 rMBP has been my favorite laptop by far and couldn't go back to a non Apple laptop as my personal daily driver.
I was one of those who always thought the Macbook Pros were severely overpriced (still think they cost too much new
) and would never buy one but once my wife bought a late 2013 15" and I used it for a bit, I knew I wanted one too. Definitely worth the money I paid for it used.
I won't go on about why to buy a MBP (my preference) as there are many other people on here that can do that. What I will mention is XPS quality. I own a 2015 MBP and have had two XPS 15's now (still use one daily). In my experience, quality is still night and day between Dell and Apple. Many frustrating issues so far with my Dells and I'm not that picky. To get them repaired I either have to send it in or wait 24-48 hours for a service tech - this is with a service plan. Big advantage in my eyes is Apple Care and the Apple Store.
Just my two cents.
Just my two cents.
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^I'd agree with that, Apple Care and then being able to walk right into an Apple Store to get it fixed = peace of mind in my opinion and that's with all products across the line. If you live close to an Apple Store you can't ignore that this is a huge benefit to being in the Apple ecosystem. Apple service has always been top notch for me.
Whilst I agree that if you are in the USA the extra premium you pay for an Apple your more likely to get or be able to use, if needed the Apple store, for those elsewhere it does not have quite the same appeal or convenience. With my youngest a Dell technician was around the next day (no special plan) to look at a potential problem, where otherwise train journey etc would be involved with Apple.
Apple care is just like any other a risk based extended warranty. If the quality was their in the 1st instance you would not need it
Apple are no better or worse than many other comparable premium build laptops over 2 or 3 years or moreYour experience is with the MBP 2015 you may of had another with the 2016
I seem to see far too many postings on hardware failures that I care for, although not personally experience but for the 1st time my son got AppleCare on the rMB I gifted him. I do not believe the same quality/robustness is there with the new KB and tiered batteries etcMany confuse the outside aesthetics with quality, whilst I like the Apple design Ali case it's probably cheaper for Apple to produce this over some of the equally premium composites and magnesium builds of other OEM's. But once inside the box Apple are like many other OEM's with the trend of gluing and sticky tape type builds and disposable one piece boards with everything soldered on.
You could actually consider Apple higher share in the premium market making them a much more mass produced platform and those lesser sales OEM's a more bespoke solution with more options, but maybe that's stretching it a bit
I disagree here. Dell's warranty repair for business laptops is way ahead of everyone else. They send someone at your location the next business day. I don't know about you but that is very impressive.
With Applecare you have to mail it in if you don't live near an Apple store or even if you walk in the store, it's a hit or miss that you will be taken care right of way. It very much depends how busy they are at that particular day. You need an appointment with a genius (silly word alawys makes me laugh
) and sometime you may need to wait hours at the store.Dell's way is way more convenient in my opinion.
I was the same back in my Windows days, used Dell/Alienware for years and got great service from them, including unbelievably huge discounts when I was chatting to the sales team. Maybe not quite Apple standard, but definitely more than acceptable.
I think if I were in the market for a Wintel system (and i did give it serious consideration before I settled on the new MacBook) the XPS would be up at the top of my shortlist.
When I'm in this kind of doubts I ask myself a simple question:
Which will you buy if you could get the most expensive one at the price of the less expensive?
for the first time i can't give an answer. I am an hardcore mac user but probably for what I'm doing at the moment I would have a lot more advantages with a pc with an nvidia GPU, but I already know that I'll not be completely satisfied with a computer that's not a mac.
But, again, I truly hate the touch bar thing, I hate it. It's a stupid gimmick that in my case will give me more headhaches than advantages (I've tried a 15 an returned it).
I'm praying for a 15" without GPU and without touchbar at the price they now sell the 2 years old retina mbp.
The best part is that you can get an xps+MacBook Air at the same price of a MBP 15"Tb.
/rant over
So, dear maflynn, I can sell you an xps (with 4K display, 97wh battery, gtx 1050 4gb, 16gb RAM, 512 gb ssd ) at X $ or a mbp (Retina display, 460 4gb, 16gb ran, 512gb flash drive) at same X $ which one would you get? If you say mac, let go with the mac even if it will cost you more, because a Mac is what you want.
Which will you buy if you could get the most expensive one at the price of the less expensive?
for the first time i can't give an answer. I am an hardcore mac user but probably for what I'm doing at the moment I would have a lot more advantages with a pc with an nvidia GPU, but I already know that I'll not be completely satisfied with a computer that's not a mac.
But, again, I truly hate the touch bar thing, I hate it. It's a stupid gimmick that in my case will give me more headhaches than advantages (I've tried a 15 an returned it).
I'm praying for a 15" without GPU and without touchbar at the price they now sell the 2 years old retina mbp.
The best part is that you can get an xps+MacBook Air at the same price of a MBP 15"Tb.
/rant over
So, dear maflynn, I can sell you an xps (with 4K display, 97wh battery, gtx 1050 4gb, 16gb RAM, 512 gb ssd ) at X $ or a mbp (Retina display, 460 4gb, 16gb ran, 512gb flash drive) at same X $ which one would you get? If you say mac, let go with the mac even if it will cost you more, because a Mac is what you want.
Thanks for pointing out some quality issues but completely skates over the other 50% of the new released MBP range that may have issues
on such a small product range this is not acceptable IMO on a so called premium product.Good battery life is subjective and it maybe true for some, only.
I think it's quite clear I was referring to my sons rMB and not MBP 2016 13" or 15".
The rMB do have tiered/terraced batteries and there are many posts about their cycle life in addition to numerous issues with KB's.
We can only hope that the 2016 MBP KB with their slightly more travel fair better but I feel there is an addition risk with these KB mechanisms over the tried, tested and proven conventional, only time will tell. As for the TB that's anyone's guess currently.
We are yet to see costs/reports on Logic Board replacements but with Apple pricing I can only feel it will not be cheap. It's actually quite funny that the number of posters who are paranoid about MS big brother and pro MacOS security now have to hand over their SSD's to be recovered
AppleCare on the new breed of MAC's is almost mandatory IMO and if more do opt in one would hope it's price would reduce, but don't hold your breath on this one with Apple
If you mean battery life varies with use, that's true, but it's not subjective. Battery life for the new 15" models really is objectively better than the 2015 models and other comparably equipped models for light to medium use.
I can't tell what you refer to as new MBPs if not the new MBPs. Do you mean recent MBPs, including the 2015s and older? And your claim is they don't have the same build quality as the ones from the good old days? I don't see any good evidence for that.
YMMV
I had to guess that you meant 2016 MBP 15" battery
No such claim from me I noted a possible risk on new mechanism
There is equally no good evidence either way that's the problem
Nothing, yet. I'm taking my time on determining what I want to do. I see no reason to rush into a decision
Nothing, yet. I'm taking my time on determining what I want to do. I see no reason to rush into a decision
Stick to your guns.
Yeah I totally understand where you're coming from, reliability is key when traveling. I am away from home more than I am home, so I upgrade every two years for peace of mind.
Nothing, yet. I'm taking my time on determining what I want to do. I see no reason to rush into a decision
Lol, no
In this case, I feel that I want take my time. If anything the only pressing issue is that if I decide to sell my SurfaceBook, I'll be better suited to do that sooner then later because of the expectation of the next generation of SBs, but short of that, I'm not in a rush.
3 posts above your post had my response of another member asking the same thing