Alternative to Macbook Pro?

[smjpl]

Hi all,

 

A friend of mine asked me for some advice. He wants to get a Mackbook Pro and he was wondering about the upgrades. Naturally I told him, "don't pay twice as much to get them to do the work" so he asked me to have a look at his options. I spec'd it as follows:

 

13" Macbook Pro (non Retina) with i5 3210M (I think), a Samsung Evo 256GB ssd and 8GB Crucial PC3-12800
 204pin. Total cost = €1500 incl delivery. He could possibly make a few quid on the stock 500GB hdd & 4GB ram that will come out to make room for upgrades. (http://store.apple.com/ie/configure/MD101B/A)

 

I would like to give him some alternatives as I am not the biggest apple fan. I don't think they are bad but I do think they are over priced and I believe better options are available for similar price. I know more about desktops so I need your help pointing me in the right direction.

 

Note: He does use Photoshop and other editing software a bit so I would like to see if I could get a quad core into his budget which is €1500.

 

Cheers

[felixbearpig]

tell him to get the basic model and add a 2.5" ssd and more ram, that is really the only thig you can do to any laptop. any ddr3 sodim can fit as well 

 

 

edit: i upgraded mine with 256 vector and 8gb 1866 vengance for about $275

[JORDANonPC]

tell him to get the basic model and add a 2.5" ssd and more ram, that is really the only thig you can do to any laptop. any ddr3 sodim can fit as well 

OP already said he was doing this he wants to know of other laptop options all together though

[Kirihuna]

In terms of build quality, Macbooks are the best. Also, there has been a lot of rumors (none confirmed) that Apple gets binned components. Meaning they get better i7s or whatever processor than the competition does, which is why they sometimes have higher prices for CPU upgrades. Same goes for RAM apparently.

 

Alternative to them I guess would be the Aspire S7 or the Asus Zenbook whenever that comes out. Thought, both of those have iGPU. MBP has a dGPU for now.

 

Also, is he in college? Go to the education store on Apple.com. You can save up to $300 on a Macbook. Or go refurbish.

[felixbearpig]

 MBP has a dGPU for now.

 

 

mbp 13 has an igpu 

the 15" is what you are thinking of

[Kirihuna]

mbp 13 has an igpu 

the 15" is what you are thinking of

Didn't even see he meant 13". All I saw was MBP lol. My b.

[Glenwing]

In terms of build quality, Macbooks are the best. Also, there has been a lot of rumors (none confirmed) that Apple gets binned components. Meaning they get better i7s or whatever processor than the competition does, which is why they sometimes have higher prices for CPU upgrades. Same goes for RAM apparently.

 

Alternative to them I guess would be the Aspire S7 or the Asus Zenbook whenever that comes out. Thought, both of those have iGPU. MBP has a dGPU for now.

 

Also, is he in college? Go to the education store on Apple.com. You can save up to $300 on a Macbook. Or go refurbish.

 

Binning has zero impact except for overclocking potential, which is not a factor here.  

[smjpl]

Also, is he in college? Go to the education store on Apple.com. You can save up to $300 on a Macbook. Or go refurbish.

 

Yeah he is but the education store only sells the Macbook Air which probably isn't powerful enough to really handle heavy editing projects (correct me if I am wrong though).

 

 

 

Alternative to them I guess would be the Aspire S7 or the Asus Zenbook whenever that comes out. Thought, both of those have iGPU. MBP has a dGPU for now.

 

The Acer S7 was my first thought (and only thought). Linus loved his S7 but looking at it further, I am not too sure if it is worth it. The i7 3517U (S7) is marginally less powerful than the i5 3210M (Macbook) (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html). The ssd would be a generic ssd and wouldn't compare to a Samsung Evo. Also I would be unable to increase the ram to 8GB. It has less battery running hours 6hrs (S7) vs 7hrs (Macbook). All of this for a saving of 13% or €200. The apple build quality, branding (therefore depreciation) should make up for this in the future. The S7 does weigh a good bit less. 2.87lbs compared to the MBP at 3.7lbs (estimated weight with ssd) but is that a reflection on build quality?

 

If it was my money I think I would be forking out for the extra €200 to get the Macbook Pro (can't believe I just said that ). It just seems like the better deal. Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

Thanks for all suggestions so far

[ccaian]

Don't get anything but a macbook for a laptop. Trust me I've switched to mac for laptops and its unbelievable. You should get a macbook pro 15 inch WITH the higher resolution display. Then, go find some used RAM and SSDs online for cheap and put it in the macbook. 

[smjpl]

Don't get anything but a macbook for a laptop. Trust me I've switched to mac for laptops and its unbelievable. You should get a macbook pro 15 inch WITH the higher resolution display. Then, go find some used RAM and SSDs online for cheap and put it in the macbook. 

 

What laptop were you coming from? Most people buy a €400 laptop, hate it, then buy a €1500 mac and think laptops can't compare. They don't compare like with like.

 

Any particular reason why you are saying to get the 15" Retina display? It does add €900 to the price of it and it blows the budget to shit.

[Kirihuna]

Yeah he is but the education store only sells the Macbook Air which probably isn't powerful enough to really handle heavy editing projects (correct me if I am wrong though).

 

 

 

The Acer S7 was my first thought (and only thought). Linus loved his S7 but looking at it further, I am not too sure if it is worth it. The i7 3517U (S7) is marginally less powerful than the i5 3210M (Macbook) (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html). The ssd would be a generic ssd and wouldn't compare to a Samsung Evo. Also I would be unable to increase the ram to 8GB. It has less battery running hours 6hrs (S7) vs 7hrs (Macbook). All of this for a saving of 13% or €200. The apple build quality, branding (therefore depreciation) should make up for this in the future. The S7 does weigh a good bit less. 2.87lbs compared to the MBP at 3.7lbs (estimated weight with ssd) but is that a reflection on build quality?

 

If it was my money I think I would be forking out for the extra €200 to get the Macbook Pro (can't believe I just said that ). It just seems like the better deal. Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

Thanks for all suggestions so far

I got my rMBP through education store. All products are in the education store. MBA has the smallest discount though.

 

Macbooks are like luxury cars. Even two years later, they only lose like 5 to 15% of their value instead of like 50% for some laptops. 

[smjpl]

I got my rMBP through education store. All products are in the education store. MBA has the smallest discount though.

 

My apologies. I was in the education store and didn't even know it. It is only a saving of €75 but it is still better than nothing.

 

 

Macbooks are like luxury cars. Even two years later, they only lose like 5 to 15% of their value instead of like 50% for some laptops.

 

So would you recommend anything else other than a MBP? So far I can't find a better deal. 

[Kirihuna]

My apologies. I was in the education store and didn't even know it. It is only a saving of €75 but it is still better than nothing.

 

 

So would you recommend anything else other than a MBP? So far I can't find a better deal. 

I love my MBP. But it's definitely a premium buy. You don't buy a BMW or Mercedes unless you have the money and you know you want it. Macs are the same way.

 

There is always an alternative. I used to have a Samsung Series 7 Chronos. 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM, and GT 650M 2GB. It goes about $1000 refurbish at Best Buy in the US right now. Don't know if you can find it online in Europe though.

[rashdanml]

The Thinkpad T series (T430 or 530) is a good alternative to a Macbook. Lenovo makes pretty rugged and durable laptops. 

[ccaian]

What laptop were you coming from? Most people buy a €400 laptop, hate it, then buy a €1500 mac and think laptops can't compare. They don't compare like with like.

 

Any particular reason why you are saying to get the 15" Retina display? It does add €900 to the price of it and it blows the budget to shit.

 

Not the retina model, I mean the standard macbook with the 1680x1020 resolution which is more than the standard 1440x900. It doesn't matter what laptop i came from, which is a hp envy by the way. The mac is not meant for gaming, the OS is made so that everything is feels silky smooth and theres no need for raw power. The OP said photoshop and editing, so a good GPU is not the priority here.

 

Bonus points for the mac being cool and sexy too. The OS has gestures and an app store and other things which just makes more sense on a portable device. I'm sure windows 8 is great but do you really want that over a mac? He's going to college, not an office.

[pcman2000]

Sony VAIO Pro?

Also, the S7 has 2 SSDs I believe, in RAID 0.

[CwGoh]

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w530/

 

This, plus about $100 for an SSD, would be about $1400 USD.

[smjpl]

Not the retina model, I mean the standard macbook with the 1680x1020 resolution which is more than the standard 1440x900. It doesn't matter what laptop i came from, which is a hp envy by the way. The mac is not meant for gaming, the OS is made so that everything is feels silky smooth and theres no need for raw power. The OP said photoshop and editing, so a good GPU is not the priority here.

 

The 13" MBP comes with a 1280x800 res display which is actually pretty poor considering the Acer Aspire S7-391 comes with a 1980x1080 touch screen display. The 15" has the 1680x1020 screen but it goes almost €600 over budget. Again, any particular reason why you are saying to get it (other than the obvious, more res is better)? Can't justify price increase though.

 

I didn't say anything about gaming??? With regards to your "no need for raw power" statement, yes the OS (not too sure if still true since win 8) might work better with less power but the editing programs sure as hell won't. They need the power and they will benefit from it.  Anyway this has nothing to do with it as majority of viable options have similarly powered cpu's and run HD4000 integrated graphics. Also, having a dedicated gpu would definitely help for photoshop.

 

Bonus points for the mac being cool and sexy too.

 

Not really. Both look equally well.

 

 

The OS has gestures and an app store and other things which just makes more sense on a portable device.

 

So does Windows 8 and the app store makes shit all of a difference. The App store seems like a marketing gimmick to me (maybe not though and let me know if and why I'm wrong).

 

I'm sure windows 8 is great but do you really want that over a mac? He's going to college, not an office.

 

This is a very biased statement. Highlighting the "really" in italics just made you seem like a pretentious hipster (I'm not saying you are) but I feel you've just lost some credibility. I personally much prefer Windows OS to Apple's OS. I'm not saying everyone should but at least I am looking at the two systems objectively.

 

I am still leaning towards the Mac but only because I think it is a slightly better deal. Not because I think Macs are better. To be honest, if the S7 came with 8GB of ram or the ram was upgradable, I think it could be the better deal. 1080p touch screen that costs €200 less and weighs a lot less making it more portable and desirable. The 4GB or ram is the only thing letting it down. On all other aspects they are reasonably even.

[smjpl]

Sony VAIO Pro?

Also, the S7 has 2 SSDs I believe, in RAID 0.

 

Would you recommend a VAIO? My sis had one and it was a ball of shit. Granted is wasn't the highest spec and it was an 09/10 model I think. I don't think the S7 is a better deal. The 4GB of ram really lets it down.

 

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w530/

 

This, plus about $100 for an SSD, would be about $1400 USD.

 

Yeah Lenova seems to have some good deals. Decent hardware for less money? What's the catch? I have to do some more research on them as they seem unusually cheap for the hardware specs. Hopefully it's just economy of scale. The Thinkpad has been the business laptop of choice for quite some time if I'm not mistaken but I thought they'd cost more.

[ColemanR]

Hackintosh a normal PC laptop

[pcman2000]

High end VAIOs have always been very reliable for me. As with all manufacturers, the bottom end cheap laptops that you find at big box stores are probably all pretty terrible.

[chaozbandit]

Lenovo ThinkPad U310?

[CwGoh]

Would you recommend a VAIO? My sis had one and it was a ball of shit. Granted is wasn't the highest spec and it was an 09/10 model I think. I don't think the S7 is a better deal. The 4GB of ram really lets it down.

 

 

Yeah Lenova seems to have some good deals. Decent hardware for less money? What's the catch? I have to do some more research on them as they seem unusually cheap for the hardware specs. Hopefully it's just economy of scale. The Thinkpad has been the business laptop of choice for quite some time if I'm not mistaken but I thought they'd cost more.

 

They are the biggest seller of laptops, a Chinese company so I guess they save on labour and logistics. I've had no problems with their ThinkPad series although their IdeaPad line can be wonky. I personally use a X201 and since the main frame is metal, it has stood the test of time well. Regarding your second question, my observation is that Lenovo rips you off the accessories, (eg. docks, extended batteries) rather than the notebook itself.

[smjpl]

My mate went with the 13" Macbook Pro in the end. I don't necessarily know if it was the all out best choice but it is still a really really good choice. Thanks to all for your contributions.