Macbook V Windows Laptops

Rooky007 said:
Which you prefer the Mac or the dell
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They're all quite different machines really, the 12 rMB is a fantastic machine for traveling when I'm away for a day or two but I need a more powerful machine for day to day at home or if I'm away for a week.

The 15" rMBP is pretty much perfect for everything else. The Dell is OK, does it's job and was a cheap refurb (£600ish from Dell direct for a Broadwell i5 / 16GB / 250GB SSD / 1080p screen), battery life is fairly poor and it's showing wear and tear far more than the macs. Given the choice again I'd spend the extra on an XPS13 which is a better machine. If I had to give up one though then the Dell would easily be the first to go...
 
I swapped out the HD in my MBP (2011 13") for an SSD and bought a caddy for the CD/DVD slot to replace the optical drive with the original HD. Boots/runs pretty quick and works perfectly for my photographic needs.
 
I never sleep my machine.. I think it's force of habit but also it boots so quick I don't feel the need.

Perhaps I'm weird :D
 
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Wait. You'd be mad to buy one now when they are begging to be updated.
 
EVH said:
I never sleep my machine.. I think it's force of habit but also it boots so quick I don't feel the need.

Perhaps I'm weird :D
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Do you not have lots of stuff open?

I generally have a fair few windows open at all times for ongoing research/work so shutting down would be a massive pain.

Windows stopped slowing down noticeably in windows Vista, Windows 7 built on that and basically never needed reinstalling. 8 and 10 obviously made it even better. My old XPS 13 (from 2007) would open from hibernation in a few seconds (and had a 7 hour battery), although my Air is entirely better with the instant on after sleep. That said the Surface Pro of my other half is no worse than my Air.

All in all though I wish my Air (2011) would startup in 5 seconds. It takes about a minute to load from a reboot, longer than my old windows 7 machine at the time, and certainly slower than my W10 machine.

Unfortunately Windows has always suffered from the "lowest common denominator", the £300 no name 15" beast of a laptop with so much bloatware, horribly cheap plastic chassis and battery the size of a AAA battery. You get what you pay for, and most windows laptops that cost similar amounts to MacBooks aren't much different to MacBooks in many respects, and leagues apart from the cheap nasty laptops most people have.
 
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I've not used a Windows laptop yet with a trackpad as good as the MacBook Pro. And while I am sure that it's possible for a PC maker to build a laptop that works seamlessly with Windows and the two work hand-in-hand to ensure the maximum battery life is attained, it never quite seems to work out that way.

My work laptop is a new Dell XPS, and the system tray is littered with helper apps for things like the audio jack settings and keeping third-party drivers and firmware up-to-date. The Mac doesn't have these sorts of problems by design, and it just makes for a far more seamless user experience.
 
The solution to the helper apps is to just install a clean version of windows. The vast majority of the time they just don't need those "apps" and they are just a waste of space. The ones you may actually need usually have the option of hiding the icon in the tray (so they can still be reached through the start menu/box/whatever it is called now).

You're right though, the trackpad is never as good, but the build, battery life and general usability is usually very dependent on the price you pay for the windows laptop.
 
If I don't have the Dell Update application running then I miss out on things like the Thunderbolt firmware update and the UEFI updates that seem to be really important for keeping a new XPS 13 usable.

Windows also has horrific issues with display scaling (still) that Mac OS seems to handle without issue. It's better than some Acer POS but it's still not as much of a seamless experience as using a Mac is - and I understand why.
 
Amp34 said:
Do you not have lots of stuff open?

I generally have a fair few windows open at all times for ongoing research/work so shutting down would be a massive pain.
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Not really.. If i'm editing photos for a wedding I might have Bridge and Photoshop going but I tend to Cmd + Q apps that I'm not actively using. I typically keep mail, Safari and messages open and even then I'm only running 2 or 3 browser tabs.

If I'm writing an assignment and I find a good webpage I'll bookmark it or even use the "restore last session" option. There's something about leaving it sleeping when I know I'm going to be in work for 10hrs that just doesn't sit with me.

I'd like to say the boot speed is a primary reason but to be honest this is how I've always used my Mac. Also... Have you used exposé with more than 5 apps open? It's carnage. I don't use spaces either :p
 
Amp34 said:
Windows stopped slowing down noticeably in windows Vista, Windows 7 built on that and basically never needed reinstalling. 8 and 10 obviously made it even better. My old XPS 13 (from 2007) would open from hibernation in a few seconds (and had a 7 hour battery), although my Air is entirely better with the instant on after sleep. That said the Surface Pro of my other half is no worse than my Air.
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Really depends on the user. I've never had issues with slow down, even during XP times, outside of a disk defrag every once in awhile. However my dad installs all sorts of crap and even to this day has issues with speed. He has my old laptop that has an i7 quad core with HT, 6990m, 16GB ram, Samsung 830 SSD, and it gets slow after 1 year of usage on W10, such that I re installed it.

EVH said:
Not really.. If i'm editing photos for a wedding I might have Bridge and Photoshop going but I tend to Cmd + Q apps that I'm not actively using. I typically keep mail, Safari and messages open and even then I'm only running 2 or 3 browser tabs.

If I'm writing an assignment and I find a good webpage I'll bookmark it or even use the "restore last session" option. There's something about leaving it sleeping when I know I'm going to be in work for 10hrs that just doesn't sit with me.

I'd like to say the boot speed is a primary reason but to be honest this is how I've always used my Mac. Also... Have you used exposé with more than 5 apps open? It's carnage. I don't use spaces either :p
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I close the lid with all sort running, VMs on Docker at work, all my IDE, 3 chrome windows, Safari, Firefox, iPhone simulator etc etc. I come back after a weekend and its at 95% battery life and just turns on right away. I only restart my laptop with OS updates and so far its been awesome, I like the idea of just opening my lid and everything is right where I left it.
 
I love Windows, but in laptop form MBPs are still in another league unless gaming is your thing.

OS X vs Windows 10 though, my 5k iMac gives me more issues than any of my other Windows based PCs in the house.
 
Dooksy said:
I love Windows, but in laptop form MBPs are still in another league unless gaming is your thing.

OS X vs Windows 10 though, my 5k iMac gives me more issues than any of my other Windows based PCs in the house.
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What issue you having with your iMac over the Windows system pls
 
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