Surface Laptop, Blade Stealth 13.3", MacBook Pro w/out touch bar

[Mikailk]

Hi, so I'm stuck between these 3 options. My gripes with each one:

 

Microsoft Surface Laptop

• Only one USB port
• Not great SSD speeds

Razer Blade Stealth 13.3"

• Thick bezels, not as portable as the others
• Not a good laptop in a professional setting
• Comparatively not great battery life

Apple MacBook Pro 13.3" No Touch bar

• No touch screen.
• Would have to buy windows.
• No bio identification

Heres what I like about them!

 

Surface

• Super portable
• Beautiful design
• Touch screen 
• Great and cheap extended warranty plans
• Windows Hello

Blade

• RGB keyboard
• More storage 
• More port options
• Touch screen 

Macbook

• Amazing screen
• Great OS
• USB C
• Super portable

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on this? It would be used for college. This will be a computer I use for a long time. My budget is $2500 after tax. Apple and Microsoft have student discounts. Not sure about Razer. 

[comicsansms]

Why are those your only laptop choices?

1st off, Razor laptop's are poorly designed and will die out of nowhere, so that's a no. 2nd off, the Surface Laptop is ifixit's worst tested laptop for repairablity, so it is a no since there is really nothing that you can easily repair at all. Lastly, I don't like how the Macbook also isn't very upgradable, but IMO it is the best out of the 3 and would be the one I would buy if I had to buy one of those 3.

[dizmo]

I concur, I think you should look at options. Have you considered the Zenbook Pro? It has a massive 73wAh battery. In college, battery life should really be utmost on your list. No one likes the group member thats battery dies and he can't do anything.

 

Welcome to the forum

[Colexd]

Yea as they said there are other options out there. Check out the xps and zenbook pros.

 

[Mikailk]

2 minutes ago, Colexd said:

Yea as they said there are other options out there. Check out the xps and zenbook pros.

 

I own a zenbook currently. I don't like the plastic feel of the xps. 

[anonvx]

12 minutes ago, Mikailk said:

Hi, so I'm stuck between these 3 options. My gripes with each one:

 

Microsoft Surface Laptop

• Only one USB port
• Not great SSD speeds

Razer Blade Stealth 13.3"

• Thick bezels, not as portable as the others
• Not a good laptop in a professional setting
• Comparatively not great battery life

Apple MacBook Pro 13.3" No Touch bar

• No touch screen.
• Would have to buy windows.
• No bio identification

Heres what I like about them!

 

Surface

• Super portable
• Beautiful design
• Touch screen 
• Great and cheap extended warranty plans
• Windows Hello

Blade

• RGB keyboard
• More storage 
• More port options
• Touch screen 

Macbook

• Amazing screen
• Great OS
• USB C
• Super portable

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on this? It would be used for college. This will be a computer I use for a long time. My budget is $2500 after tax. Apple and Microsoft have student discounts. Not sure about Razer. 

I have a surface pro 4 (which I am typing this on). Its okay, I have thermal throttling issues. I recommend you get the i7, 8gb version. 4gb of ram is not enough if you plan on heavier tasks. Out of all of them I would go MacBook if it needs to last for a long time. If you can I would spend $1600 on the surface. Get a warranty and case. Then save the money and try to put a little money into that savings every now and then. And wait for a really good laptop to come out.

[Mikailk]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I concur, I think you should look at options. Have you considered the Zenbook Pro? It has a massive 73wAh battery. In college, battery life should really be utmost on your list. No one likes the group member thats battery dies and he can't do anything.

 

Welcome to the forum

I have but I never really found one that appealed to me in terms of design. 

[Mikailk]

9 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Why are those your only laptop choices?

1st off, Razor laptop's are poorly designed and will die out of nowhere, so that's a no. 2nd off, the Surface Laptop is ifixit's worst tested laptop for repairablity, so it is a no since there is really nothing that you can easily repair at all. Lastly, I don't like how the Macbook also isn't very upgradable, but IMO it is the best out of the 3 and would be the one I would buy if I had to buy one of those 3.

For $120 I can get a Microsoft coverage plan. If something terrible happens to it, it's a 50 dollar repair. I could fix the screen 14 times if I wanted to with that coverage. It's also 50 dollars if I want to replace it. So repairability isn't an issue. 

 

I'm not looking for upgradeable. Just something powerful and sleek. Is there any form of notoriety of the razer claim? I just don't see that being an issue with those laptops

[The Sloth]

21 minutes ago, Mikailk said:

Microsoft Surface Laptop

•  

for normal use, go for it. 

21 minutes ago, Mikailk said:

Razer Blade Stealth 13.3"

•  

poor engineering and shitty support 

 

21 minutes ago, Mikailk said:

Apple MacBook Pro 13.3" No Touch bar

•  

Dongle book pro, not really worth getting, too many sacrifices for a thin design. 

[Mikailk]

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

for normal use, go for it. 

poor engineering and shitty support 

 

Dongle book pro, not really worth getting, too many sacrifices for a thin design. 

I didn't know razers weren't a great build! I'm leaning toward the surface. Any personal preferences? My number one thing is design with a laptop. 

[The Sloth]

Just now, Mikailk said:

I didn't know razers weren't a great build! I'm leaning toward the surface. Any personal preferences? My number one thing is design with a laptop. 

XPS 13 is solid, Surface devices have excellent build quality. 

Just now, Mikailk said:

I didn't know razers weren't a great build!

nope, too many poor choices when designing it 

[comicsansms]

3 minutes ago, Mikailk said:

I didn't know razers weren't a great build! I'm leaning toward the surface. Any personal preferences? My number one thing is design with a laptop. 

I like the Elitebook HP lineup, they are well built and look nice IMO. I rekon you should consider them. 

[Gamerguy207]

Try the lg gram it's got everything you want

 

or the xps 13

[Mikailk]

8 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

XPS 13 is solid, Surface devices have excellent build quality. 

nope, too many poor choices when designing it 

The inch bezel is gross

[Droidbot]

Check out the X1 Carbon from Lenovo. 

Great build, weight, design, warranty, etc 

[Mikailk]

2 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Check out the X1 Carbon from Lenovo. 

Great build, weight, design, warranty, etc 

The keyboard is probably great, but it looks like it's from 2005. Otherwise a great computer internally!

[Mikailk]

6 minutes ago, Gamerguy207 said:

Try the lg gram it's got everything you want

 

or the xps 13

The LG Gram could be a better build quality in my opinion. Plastic bezel, things like that.

[Mikailk]

15 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

I like the Elitebook HP lineup, they are well built and look nice IMO. I rekon you should consider them. 

I was skeptical, but that Folio does look dang good... The only thing is that it's unfortunately 6th gen Intel, not 7th.

 

Edit: it's a core M series ewwwwwwwww

[dizmo]

24 minutes ago, Mikailk said:

The inch bezel is gross

Inch bezel on what? The XPS is near bezel-less.

[Mikailk]

Just now, dizmo said:

Inch bezel on what? The XPS is near bezel-less.

Oh on the razer

[Jacey]

17 hours ago, nerdslayer1 said:

Dongle book pro, not really worth getting, too many sacrifices for a thin design. 

dongle book pro ? absolutely

[Jacey]

18 hours ago, Mikailk said:

Hi, so I'm stuck between these 3 options. My gripes with each one:

 

Microsoft Surface Laptop

• Only one USB port
• Not great SSD speeds

Razer Blade Stealth 13.3"

• Thick bezels, not as portable as the others
• Not a good laptop in a professional setting
• Comparatively not great battery life

Apple MacBook Pro 13.3" No Touch bar

• No touch screen.
• Would have to buy windows.
• No bio identification

Heres what I like about them!

 

Surface

• Super portable
• Beautiful design
• Touch screen 
• Great and cheap extended warranty plans
• Windows Hello

Blade

• RGB keyboard
• More storage 
• More port options
• Touch screen 

Macbook

• Amazing screen
• Great OS
• USB C
• Super portable

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on this? It would be used for college. This will be a computer I use for a long time. My budget is $2500 after tax. Apple and Microsoft have student discounts. Not sure about Razer. 

surface book, nearly prefect except outdated. if u dont need pen 2in1 touchscreen gaming.. etc get xps 13 and save ur buck

[Not_Sean]

I Really Like the Razer Blade, but even I would take the XPS over it, really impressed with it. 

[ErrystioT]

Like others said, why not XPS 13? Or the new ZenBook Pro UX550 with 73Wh battery and GTX 1050? or the new X1 Carbon?

 

There are also many more like LG Gram 2017, Samsung Notebook 9 15" with GT 940MX, HP Spectre x360 2017 with Pen, Yoga 720 13/15, etc.

 

Although I'm not saying that your current options are bad. They are good in their own way and have drawbacks of their own. But if you're looking for best bang for your buck, you might want to look at other options as well. And I'm curious as well, why Razer Blade Stealth 13.3" as a choice?

[Mikailk]

2 hours ago, ErrystioT said:

Like others said, why not XPS 13? Or the new ZenBook Pro UX550 with 73Wh battery and GTX 1050? or the new X1 Carbon?

 

There are also many more like LG Gram 2017, Samsung Notebook 9 15" with GT 940MX, HP Spectre x360 2017 with Pen, Yoga 720 13/15, etc.

 

Although I'm not saying that your current options are bad. They are good in their own way and have drawbacks of their own. But if you're looking for best bang for your buck, you might want to look at other options as well. And I'm curious as well, why Razer Blade Stealth 13.3" as a choice?

the razer blade honestly for the rgb keyboard and 4k screen. I think the battery life is awful though. 

 

I'm not a fan of the plastic in the xps and the gram. The spectre is too gold for me and the ports are in a terrible location. The yoga 910 is a nice option but it has a huge footprint. The samsung notebook i won't get because i want 12-14" screens.