The dreaded switch from OS X to Windows. Is it that bad?

[Domo]

My Mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina has just recently thrown in the towel. It has been an absolute workhorse and extremely dependable. However, I’m now faced with the decision of buying the base 13” MacBook Pro (i5 | 8GB | 256GB) for £1299 or a 2020 Dell XPS (i7 | 16GB | 512GB) for £50 more provided the current discount Dell are offering. I’m not as flush as in the old contracting days and £2k+ laptops are a thing of the past.

I have 8 years worth of Apple purchases but we do have iPads and iPhones in the house so I remain in the Apple ecosystem to some extent.

So why is it I can’t find the strength to click Buy against a Windows laptop? I’ve been dwelling on this for a week now.

Not seeking answers. It feels therapeutic putting it up on here but I do wonder if any of you have faced the same dilemma and what you decided in the end?

 

[montymint]

You'll regret the move to the Dell, 100%.

 

[UnworthyBean]

In your scenario I'd get the MacBook, if you're already in the Apple ecosystem and you're used to it, it seems silly to spend over a grand buying something you quite possibly won't like.

If you had a specific reason to want Windows or jump ship from Apple then that would change things.

 

[MrRockliffe]

Yes, it is, on a laptop.

I went from a 13 inch 2013 retina to a 15 inch Alienware R3, which was horrendous, to an XPS 15 fully specced out, which was equally bad to a 15 inch 2017 MBP. Never looked back.

Then, for my final year of uni, I decided to try a 15 inch surface book, so sold my MacBook for one and I’ve hated it. Great for notes, not as good for everything else.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good machine, but it’s not as good as a Mac if that’s what you’re used to.

 

[Domo]

I'm very much used to Macs. I'm using a temp Lenovo Yoga Windows laptop now and it's bloody awful (it is old an poorly spec'd). Windows never seems as responsive as OS X. A client provided me with a loan Dell Latitude some time ago (i7 + 16GB) and that didn't make for a good experience either.

The main reason for the jump is affordability vs. performance. My current Mac is an i7 + 16GB RAM and although not very often I have had to run VMs off it (we've pretty much shifted to AWS now so running VMs should become redundant).

When I look at the spec of the XPS vs. the Apple it seems like a no brainer, on paper at least. Plus the base MacBook has the 8th Gen Intel i5 vs. Dell's 10th Gen i7 which makes the MacBook feel old despite it's the 2020 model.

Ideally I'd extend my budget by a few hundred but that's just not possible. Hence the dilemma.

 

[manic111]

My Mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina has just recently thrown in the towel. It has been an absolute workhorse and extremely dependable. However, I’m now faced with the decision of buying the base 13” MacBook Pro (i5 | 8GB | 256GB) for £1299 or a 2020 Dell XPS (i7 | 16GB | 512GB) for £50 more provided the current discount Dell are offering. I’m not as flush as in the old contracting days and £2k+ laptops are a thing of the past.

I have 8 years worth of Apple purchases but we do have iPads and iPhones in the house so I remain in the Apple ecosystem to some extent.

So why is it I can’t find the strength to click Buy against a Windows laptop? I’ve been dwelling on this for a week now.

Not seeking answers. It feels therapeutic putting it up on here but I do wonder if any of you have faced the same dilemma and what you decided in the end?

I've just made the switch from an MBP I've had since 2011.

I was deciding between the new base MBP, the news £1800 MBP, an XPS 13, and Lenovo Ideapad 5 with the Ryzen 4700.

For me the base MBP was just too much of a disappointment in terms of its specs and longevity, and I couldn't bring myself to spend £1800 on a laptop. Equally, I was reticent to spend £1300 on a Windows laptop having found Windows nothing but a frustration in the past.

The Lenovo, though, cost me £700 and I'm very, very impressed with it for that price. It's got a much better screen than my old MBP (albeit I miss Apple's aspect ratio, and it won't be as good as Apple's newer screens), the build is decent albeit not Apple levels, the keyboard is very good, and the touchpad is fine but probably the biggest difference between Apple's laptops and anything else.

I've installed Ubuntu which I enjoy using as much as OSX, except that wake from sleep isn't always that reliable, and use that for productivity and Windows for games.

If I was spending £1200 plus, I'd get a MacBook and probably bite the bullet on the higher end one. But for a saving of over a grand for a perfectly functional laptop which feels like far less of a compromise than I expected, the Lenovo is great.

 

[UnworthyBean]

If you do end up going the Windows route it may be worth the time to give it a fresh install of Windows. Usually gives a better experience and most manufacturers have a habit of installing unnecessary crap on there.

 

[shiver]

Yes they're pretty expensive but (assuming you bought it in 2012) a ~8 year life for the MacBook Pro is pretty decent!

The cost over time may well be comparable to the cheaper laptop options likely needing to be replaced earlier.

 

[manic111]

Yes they're pretty expensive but (assuming you bought it in 2012) a ~8 year life for the MacBook Pro is pretty decent!

The cost over time may well be comparable to the cheaper laptop options likely needing to be replaced earlier.

Yeah completely, I don't begrudge getting almost a decade out of my MacBook at all, but I think the disparity between price and specs is just growing at the moment, and paying £1800 for a laptop matched in terms of performance by my £700 Lenovo seemed a step too far.

The other reason I went cheap this time were the (now confirmed) rumours about Apple switching to ARM chips. I thought that if the ARM chips perform, I can keep the Lenovo for 3 years then switch to an ARM MBP, and not feel like I've wasted money on a stop gap laptop.