Portable laptop, mac or windows?

[The Sweetroll]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for a portable 13,3" or so sized laptop to use for normal office work, light content creation with some sporadic and not demanding gaming. I've mainly been looking at the macbook pro retina and the Dell xps 13.

 

The macbook just looks like a solid laptop with really good battery life and a lasting design. My main concern is the OS itself and possible compatibility issues with software I might have to use in the future as I haven't used a mac for any considerable time. A macbook pro retina with a 128gb SSD goes for roughly 1350€ here.

 

The Dell xps 13 seems like the safer bet with windows and mostly positive reviews. I do worry a bit what the battery life will be like after a year or two of use. The availability is also horrendous here with the i5/8gb ram/ 256gb SSD and full-HD model being 1550€ from some lesser known shop and no big retailers offers it. Ordering one from abroad is an option but then I'd be stuck with a foreign keyboard. 

 

I would like to hear your opinions on these two laptops and perhaps I've completely overlooked another possible contender.

[exercutor5]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for a portable 13,3" or so sized laptop to use for normal office work, light content creation with some sporadic and not demanding gaming. I've mainly been looking at the macbook pro retina and the Dell xps 13.

 

The macbook just looks like a solid laptop with really good battery life and a lasting design. My main concern is the OS itself and possible compatibility issues with software I might have to use in the future as I haven't used a mac for any considerable time. A macbook pro retina with a 128gb SSD goes for roughly 1350€ here.

 

The Dell xps 13 seems like the safer bet with windows and mostly positive reviews. I do worry a bit what the battery life will be like after a year or two of use. The availability is also horrendous here with the i5/8gb ram/ 256gb SSD and full-HD model being 1550€ from some lesser known shop and no big retailers offers it. Ordering one from abroad is an option but then I'd be stuck with a foreign keyboard. 

 

I would like to hear your opinions on these two laptops and perhaps I've completely overlooked another possible contender.

 

Where's your location and what is your budget?

[JefferyD90]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for a portable 13,3" or so sized laptop to use for normal office work, light content creation with some sporadic and not demanding gaming. I've mainly been looking at the macbook pro retina and the Dell xps 13.

 

The macbook just looks like a solid laptop with really good battery life and a lasting design. My main concern is the OS itself and possible compatibility issues with software I might have to use in the future as I haven't used a mac for any considerable time. A macbook pro retina with a 128gb SSD goes for roughly 1350€ here.

 

The Dell xps 13 seems like the safer bet with windows and mostly positive reviews. I do worry a bit what the battery life will be like after a year or two of use. The availability is also horrendous here with the i5/8gb ram/ 256gb SSD and full-HD model being 1550€ from some lesser known shop and no big retailers offers it. Ordering one from abroad is an option but then I'd be stuck with a foreign keyboard. 

 

I would like to hear your opinions on these two laptops and perhaps I've completely overlooked another possible contender.

Yep, I'd like to know your top budget as well as what you'd like to spend if you can.  Also, do you have any requirements?

[stealth80]

I went from a 2009 HP laptop with AMD GPU to the latest retina 13.3 pro. And I will NEVER again get a windows based laptop, especially for use when working away

[The Sweetroll]

Where's your location and what is your budget?

 

 

Yep, I'd like to know your top budget as well as what you'd like to spend if you can.  Also, do you have any requirements?

 

Sorry for not including this. I'm from Finland so I'm guessing most of you can't really share or recommend specific deals. My top budget would be around 1500€ but it's not set in stone and noone likes spending money unnecessarily.

[Guest Johnny5g]

get a mac! they are a ton better.

[theereal]

If its just for normal office use and playing games like minecraft id say the macbook.They look nice and are easy to carry around, ofc i assume youre talking about the macbook air if youre considering the macbook pro you might aswell get a windows PC.

[Philosobyte]

Alot of people prefer Windows over OS X, including me. But if the Macbook Pro has better hardware for the money than the Dell, you can go with the Mac and use Bootcamp. 

[The Sweetroll]

If its just for normal office use and playing games like minecraft id say the macbook.They look nice and are easy to carry around, ofc i assume youre talking about the macbook air if youre considering the macbook pro you might aswell get a windows PC.

 

I've been mainly looking at the macbook pro, it looks like the better deal with the better screen and processor albeit a bit heavier.

Alot of people prefer Windows over OS X, including me. But if the Macbook Pro has better hardware for the money than the Dell, you can go with the Mac and use Bootcamp. 

 

That's something I'm a bit concerned about, that I might not like OS X. Running bootcamp has worse drivers and drains the battery a lot quicker have I heard.

[Philosobyte]

I've been mainly looking at the macbook pro, it looks like the better deal with the better screen and processor albeit a bit heavier.

 

That's something I'm a bit concerned about, that I might not like OS X. Running bootcamp has worse drivers and drains the battery a lot quicker have I heard.

I do prefer Windows over OS X, but tons of people prefer OS X to Windows. In reality there's not a huge difference. As long as the games and programs you want will run on OS X, I think OS X will serve you well. Most of your work is done in the program's interface, not the OS's interface. 

 

It'll just take a little getting used to.

[JefferyD90]

Okay, so I am going to give you 3 different options that fit your budget and your needs.  I will post them from Amazon.com, but if you need a different retailer please feel free to just search for the model number or contact the manufacture directly to strike a deal.  Even if you have to have it shipped from the US, and you have to pay all the shipping yourself, it would only be ~$80 a small price to pay to get the computer you want.

 

1)  (A $500-$600 machine that will do quite a bit more than you'd think) http://amzn.com/B00WR287L8

 

2) (A $1000 notebook that has all it needs to do what you do)  http://amzn.com/B00K2O4UUK

 

3) (A $1500 no strings attached notebook.) http://amzn.com/B00UOYQ0YW

[Philosobyte]

Okay, so I am going to give you 3 different options that fit your budget and your needs.  I will post them from Amazon.com, but if you need a different retailer please feel free to just search for the model number or contact the manufacture directly to strike a deal.  Even if you have to have it shipped from the US, and you have to pay all the shipping yourself, it would only be ~$80 a small price to pay to get the computer you want.

 

1)  (A $500-$600 machine that will do quite a bit more than you'd think) http://amzn.com/B00WR287L8

 

2) (A $1000 notebook that has all it needs to do what you do)  http://amzn.com/B00K2O4UUK

 

3) (A $1500 no strings attached notebook.) http://amzn.com/B00UOYQ0YW

He doesn't want to be stuck with a foreign keyboard. The US keyboard layout is foreign.

[exercutor5]

Sorry for not including this. I'm from Finland so I'm guessing most of you can't really share or recommend specific deals. My top budget would be around 1500€ but it's not set in stone and noone likes spending money unnecessarily.

 

http://mysn.eu/shop/schenker-s405-slim-ultrabook.html?___store=default&___from_store=default

 

Here's something you can consider. I don't think you would be playing games much anyway, so this should fit you with your budget.

[The Sweetroll]

Okay, so I am going to give you 3 different options that fit your budget and your needs.  I will post them from Amazon.com, but if you need a different retailer please feel free to just search for the model number or contact the manufacture directly to strike a deal.  Even if you have to have it shipped from the US, and you have to pay all the shipping yourself, it would only be ~$80 a small price to pay to get the computer you want.

 

1)  (A $500-$600 machine that will do quite a bit more than you'd think) http://amzn.com/B00WR287L8

 

2) (A $1000 notebook that has all it needs to do what you do)  http://amzn.com/B00K2O4UUK

 

3) (A $1500 no strings attached notebook.) http://amzn.com/B00UOYQ0YW

Thanks for the detailed answer.

 

Firstly ordering from outside the EU isn't really an option when there is the horror that is 24% VAT and customs charges, warranty would also be a complete pain.

 

I have been looking at comparable ultrabooks from lenovo/asus and acer of which there are a lot and often at cheaper prices compared to the xps 13. But the xps 13 seems to have vastly better battery life which leaves me worrying what the others would be like after years of use ( at least my old acer laptops battery life is pretty non-existent after a couple of years). I'm also unsure of how useful a touch screen is on a laptop.

 

The xps 13 just seems to blow all other ultrabooks out of the water when it comes to looks and battery life but then again it's quite expensive.

[Philosobyte]

Thanks for the detailed answer.

 

Firstly ordering from outside the EU isn't really an option when there is the horror that is 24% VAT and customs charges, warranty would also be a complete pain.

 

I have been looking at comparable ultrabooks from lenovo/asus and acer of which there are a lot and often at cheaper prices compared to the xps 13. But the xps 13 seems to have vastly better battery life which leaves me worrying what the others would be like after years of use ( at least my old acer laptops battery life is pretty non-existent after a couple of years). I'm also unsure of how useful a touch screen is on a laptop.

 

The xps 13 just seems to blow all other ultrabooks out of the water when it comes to looks and battery life but then again it's quite expensive.

If you're that worried about degrading battery life, buy a business notebook, for which battery replacement (or even traveling with multiple batteries) is routine practice. Batteries are sold for at least several years after launch and oftentimes the same batteries are reused in future models.

 

Unfortunately, the performance/price ratio for business notebooks is substantially smaller than for consumer notebooks. Availability tends to be pretty bad, too. 

 

Lenovo Thinkpads have the most established ecosystem, but I don't like that the keyboard/trackpad gets shiny after a year or two of heavy use. Other people will think it's from skin oils.

Dell Latitudes are good all-around, but are more expensive than Thinkpads. 

HP Elitebooks tend to be way overpriced compared to the Latitudes, at least in the U.S., and have bad screens. 

 

There are other business notebooks too, like certain Acer Travelmate notebooks, Asus B series, Toshiba Tecra, etc. but I don't remember them very much. Look them up on the review site Notebookcheck.net. 

 

I don't know anything about consumer laptops, so I don't know what else you could look at.

[PaulKolby]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for a portable 13,3" or so sized laptop to use for normal office work, light content creation with some sporadic and not demanding gaming. I've mainly been looking at the macbook pro retina and the Dell xps 13.

 

The macbook just looks like a solid laptop with really good battery life and a lasting design. My main concern is the OS itself and possible compatibility issues with software I might have to use in the future as I haven't used a mac for any considerable time. A macbook pro retina with a 128gb SSD goes for roughly 1350€ here.

 

The Dell xps 13 seems like the safer bet with windows and mostly positive reviews. I do worry a bit what the battery life will be like after a year or two of use. The availability is also horrendous here with the i5/8gb ram/ 256gb SSD and full-HD model being 1550€ from some lesser known shop and no big retailers offers it. Ordering one from abroad is an option but then I'd be stuck with a foreign keyboard. 

 

I would like to hear your opinions on these two laptops and perhaps I've completely overlooked another possible contender.

i would go dell xps 13 it is an amazing laptop and with windows ten its even better

[vembutech]

Dell xps 13 is really a good choice to go for..