Mac Advice.

Associate
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Posts
23
Good Morning Folks,

I've pretty much used Windows for my entire life of technology, I've always stuck with Android phones as well. However recently I've decided to pick up coding and photo editing as a hobby/past time.

I don't game that often anymore really and have next to no experience with Apple products though I'm seeking some advice in weather it would be worth the switch to Apple products and specifically a Mac book for coding & general day to day uses.

There's just some something about them that looks good and most people I've spoken to advise that they just run so smoothly and feel premium In terms of build quality.

Is there any advice on specs or general information you can add to this to help with my decision in either picking a Mac book or sticking to what I know?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,614
Location
Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham
I would have thought you'd be looking at a 13" MBP minimum.

Having god a 2016 base (dual core, 8GB, 256GB) model myself, i'd advise pushing your budget a bit and getting at least a quad core.

My dual core has started to struggle with some of the coding I do (similar to you I bought one purely for this reason) and looking back I shouldn't have just bought the base model.

Also should you want to do some light gaming, no reason why you couldn't get an eGPU later on down the line.
 
Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2019
Posts
885
Very poor Price/performance ratio on them, 1200 or even 1500 wont go far and you could have a much more powerful windows laptop for less.
Also do not know where folk get the smoothly or fast thing from, i suspect its subconsciously justifying there overpriced purchase.

Coding and photoediting can be done on just about anything, heck a raspberry pi would be a good place to start.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,887
Very poor Price/performance ratio on them, 1200 or even 1500 wont go far and you could have a much more powerful windows laptop for less.
Also do not know where folk get the smoothly or fast thing from, i suspect its subconsciously justifying there overpriced purchase.

Coding and photoediting can be done on just about anything, heck a raspberry pi would be a good place to start.
Lovely anti-Apple post right here.

You do realise that laptops with similar specs are not that far apart from MacBook equivalents in terms of price?
 
Associate
OP
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Posts
23
@Stephanie Peterson seems a tad negative response given its in the Apple section of the forums. I understand that you could do similar if not the same on a Windows laptop but was seeking advice on Apple Mac's for a more detailed comparison.

@Maccy I don't necessarily mind buying used, it's just a little unsure of where to go for a half decent deal and making sure it runs accordingly. I fear buying electronics from eBay can sometimes be questionable.

@JamesM What sort of coding were you doing when it began to struggle?

The idea behind this is that I'd like the device to last between 6 to 8 years, it's an investment for me. I don't want to keep chopping and changing. I also figured learning the macOS side of things would be an additional learning curve with more knowledge to gain in the software world itself.
 
Commissario
Joined
16 Oct 2002
Posts
2,656
Location
In the radio shack
As Maccy said, look at the Apple Refurb store. You get kit that someone has bought and then returned to Apple. They can’t sell it as new so it goes on the refurb store. The kit comes with full warranty and has been thoroughly checked over before sale. Sometimes you get better spec than they list as well.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Posts
23
As Maccy said, look at the Apple Refurb store. You get kit that someone has bought and then returned to Apple. They can’t sell it as new so it goes on the refurb store. The kit comes with full warranty and has been thoroughly checked over before sale. Sometimes you get better spec than they list as well.

Thanks @Feek for confirming this. I'll check it out.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,058
6-8 years for a PC is a tad ambitious.

The reality is you can do what you want to do on Windows for less money.

Apple kit is nice, nicer than what you get on Windows’s generally but at the end of the day you pay more for it. As others have said you really need to up your budget so you can get a 13” Touch Bar. The non-Touch Bar is not quadcore which is a problem in 2019.

I use both OSs and one isn’t really any better than the other, just slightly different. They both do the same thing at the end of the day. You’ll probally find somethings on OSX incredibly frustrating if you have only ever used windows, other things you will find much better/easier.

They are very well integrated with their other products and have good synergies. If you have an iPhone/iPad you will like these features.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Feb 2004
Posts
4,532
Location
Surrey, UK
My MacBook Pro Retina has been going strong since 2012. Use it for work and personal use, day and night 7 days a week. Travelled through Europe, the US, Africa and the Middle East with me - so I don't see 6-8 years as ambitious. Was punchy around the time (think it was around £2k, but that's with 15" screen, 16GB RAM and the i7 quad core).

Couple of times I've thought about going back to Windows since 10 is OK, but OS X in terms of UI and ease of use blows Windows out the water.
 
Commissario
Joined
16 Oct 2002
Posts
2,656
Location
In the radio shack
6-8 years for a PC is a tad ambitious.
For a PC running Windows, yes.

For a Mac running MacOS, it’s perfectly reasonable.

I only upgraded my seven year old iMac recently because I wanted a new one. I didn’t need a new one, it was working perfectly well and was still more than capable of running everything I wanted it to.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2007
Posts
20,503
Location
Various
My MacBook Pro Retina has been going strong since 2012. Use it for work and personal use, day and night 7 days a week. Travelled through Europe, the US, Africa and the Middle East with me - so I don't see 6-8 years as ambitious. Was punchy around the time (think it was around £2k, but that's with 15" screen, 16GB RAM and the i7 quad core).

Couple of times I've thought about going back to Windows since 10 is OK, but OS X in terms of UI and ease of use blows Windows out the water.

Agree with all of this; my 2011 MBP still flies with an SSD installed. As Feek has said, I want a new one, but am struggling to justify it.

I could go back to Windows 10 for a gaming desktop, but for a laptop which I use to be productive the MBP is far, far better than anything on Windows; the OS just gets out your way and lets you work rather than trying to update itself 3 times a day.
 
Associate
Joined
29 Jul 2013
Posts
1,367
Location
Sheffield
I have the:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
16GB
Touch Bar

Amazingly fast, the only one I can recommend though as I found my previous 8GB a tad slow for what I was using it for (extreme multitasking)
 
Man of Honour
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
29,509
Location
Surrey
If looking at a Macbook Pro then Iwould highly recommend trying one in a shop first. The trackpad is wonderful (some people complain of random touches as its so large and your hand can rest on it). But the real reason for trying it is to see whether you like the butterfly keyboard and touchbar. Some people love them but others hate them (myself included). If you find the keyboard is not for you then a pre 2016 used model might be a better bet.

Personally I can't recommend any model with the butterfly keyboard due to the reliability problems. But Apple recently extended the warranty on the keyboards so you would probably be OK.
 
Associate
Joined
31 May 2007
Posts
1,086
The MBP's are lovely bits of kit, I use a 2017 13" MBP with dual core i5/16GB/256GB SSD pretty much exclusively when I'm not at work on an ageing linux desktop machine. I do wish the quad core variants were available back when I purchased though, I spent years waiting to pull the trigger on a new laptop until I had no choice but to buy, then they released quad core 13's a year later :rolleyes:

As has been mentioned premium windows laptops can run well into Macbook Pro price territory so don't let the Apple bashers put you off. At the same time don't convince yourself you will take up coding just because you have an Apple laptop, you can do it on just about any device so its not a prerequisite!
 
Back
Top Bottom