New Macbook Pro Retina vs. Windows Laptop

[needlessly_weekday]

Hi everyone,

I have a budget of around 1800-2200. If it was less, then great! I was thinking of waiting out for the new MacBook Pro Retina that is rumored to be released soon. I currently own a Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina (i5 + 16GB RAM + 500GB Flash). My main rig is an i5-6500 + MSI Gaming X 1060 6GB + 16GB RAM so I don't need a gaming laptop. I intend to use the laptop for editing photos (Lightroom, etc.) so I need a laptop with excellent color accuracy. Preferable light and thin with a good trackpad + battery life. I am looking for something around 15 inches with a 1440p screen at the very least.

 

I have used Mac laptops for as long I as can remember so I need a pretty good reason to make the switch .

 

Do you guys have any recommendations? Should I wait it out for the new Macbook?

 

Thanks

[needlessly_weekday]

1 minute ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

XPS 15?

Thx for the recommendation, but the max SSD storage is only 256GB which won't really work for me

 

EDIT: That bezel looks awesome.

Edited September 18, 2016 by spacemen13579
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[AlTech]

8 minutes ago, spacemen13579 said:

Hi everyone,

I have a budget of around 1800-2200. If it was less, then great! I was thinking of waiting out for the new MacBook Pro Retina that is rumored to be released soon. I currently own a Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina (i5 + 16GB RAM + 500GB Flash). My main rig is an i5-6500 + MSI Gaming X 1060 6GB + 16GB RAM so I don't need a gaming laptop. I intend to use the laptop for editing photos (Lightroom, etc.) so I need a laptop with excellent color accuracy. Preferable light and thin with a good trackpad + battery life. I am looking for something around 15 inches with a 1440p screen at the very least.

 

I have used Mac laptops for as long I as can remember so I need a pretty good reason to make the switch .

 

Do you guys have any recommendations? Should I wait it out for the new Macbook?

 

Thanks

I'd say Surface Book. Way better than a mac. Only problem is that it's 13.5" instead of 15". But i'm sure you can manage.

[needlessly_weekday]

3 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

I'd say Surface Book. Way better than a mac. Only problem is that it's 13.5" instead of 15". But i'm sure you can manage.

Ahhhh. Thx for your recommendation. However, one of the reasons that I am upgrading my laptop is because I need a bigger screen - I work away from home a lot.

[AlTech]

Just now, spacemen13579 said:

Ahhhh. Thx for your recommendation. However, one of the reasons that I am upgrading my laptop is because I need a bigger screen - I work away from home a lot.

It's more high resolution than your current laptop so It will feel like using a 15" mac. There's more screen real estate than the MBP Retina 15".

 

3000x2000.

[Electronics Wizardy]

12 minutes ago, spacemen13579 said:

Thx for the recommendation, but the max SSD storage is only 256GB which won't really work for me

 

EDIT: That bezel looks awesome.

You can get way more than 256gb. You can put any m.2 ssd and there are opions up to 1tb.

[needlessly_weekday]

2 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?oc=fncwx1608h&model_id=xps-15-9550-laptop 500 GB

 

Oh. I did not realize there was a 2nd page - silly me.

[needlessly_weekday]

15 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

It's more high resolution than your current laptop so It will feel like using a 15" mac. There's more screen real estate than the MBP Retina 15".

 

3000x2000.

Yes, but I am actually adamant on getting a 15inch display. My current Macbook Pro Retina already has a 2560x1600 resolution and I run it with a 'semi-more space' option so I think it's similar to the 3000x2000 resolution. 

[Enderman]

I think the mac is good.

Best trackpad in the world, good screen, good performance, great battery, nice looks and build quality.

Only things I would change is put windows on it and put some vinyl wrap on it so it doesn't look like every other macbook ever.

[needlessly_weekday]

Just now, Enderman said:

I think the mac is good.

Best trackpad in the world, good screen, good performance, great battery, nice looks and build quality.

Only things I would change is put windows on it and put some vinyl wrap on it so it doesn't look like every other macbook ever.

Hahaha. I agree with you. I was leaning in that direction too! I just want to see all the options available

[AlTech]

11 minutes ago, spacemen13579 said:

Yes, but I am actually adamant on getting a 15inch display. My current Macbook Pro Retina already has a 2560x1600 resolution and I run it with a 'semi-more space' option so I think it's similar to the 3000x2000 resolution. 

ok then.....................

 

XPS 15 or MBP 15" if you really need a 15 inch

[needlessly_weekday]

Alright, thx a lot guys. Will wait for the new Macbook Pro Retinas to be released before making my decision.

[Enderman]

14 minutes ago, spacemen13579 said:

Hahaha. I agree with you. I was leaning in that direction too! I just want to see all the options available

Btw a lot of people here hate apple no matter what

The only thing I would consider close is XPS15, so maybe go to a store and check that out a bit.

Other than a high price, there isn't anything wrong with the macbook pro, even the XPS15 costs as much or more in certain configurations.

[needlessly_weekday]

Just now, Enderman said:

Btw a lot of people here hate apple no matter what

The only thing I would consider close is XPS15, so maybe go to a store and check that out a bit.

Other than a high price, there isn't anything wrong with the macbook pro, even the XPS15 costs as much or more in certain configurations.

Haha. That's true. I will see if I can check out the dell. I really don't think that the MacBook Pro is actually overpriced considering it has a great display, great OS (in my opinion), and I am kinda stuck in their ecosystem (i.e. iPhones, iPad, iPods, etc.)

[AlTech]

15 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Btw a lot of people here hate apple no matter what

The only thing I would consider close is XPS15, so maybe go to a store and check that out a bit.

Other than a high price, there isn't anything wrong with the macbook pro, even the XPS15 costs as much or more in certain configurations.

I like OS X but I'm not gonna buy a Mac just so I can use it.

[Enderman]

5 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

I'm like OS X but I'm not gonna buy a Mac just so I can use it.

Heh if I had more money I would buy a macbook pro, but put windows on it

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, spacemen13579 said:

Do you guys have any recommendations? Should I wait it out for the new Macbook?

Yes. Definitely wait for the new one. And see how it is. I'm considering upgrading my 2012 15in first gen retina too. Word of advice. Don't skimp out on upgrades. Just pay the Apple tax/premium and get more stuff because you can't upgrade and it'll last you quite a while. I got mine specced to the balls (over 3k USD at that time), and it runs just as smooth as latest generation of Macs. Only thing that is a bit lacking is the GPU. It still has a GT650m, but honestly, on my Macbook, I don't use it to game, more like use it for it's UNIX based OS so it never really mattered. 

 

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

I'd say Surface Book.

Ugh, this thing has way too many first gen issues. The hinge is my biggest gripe. You can't even close it properly and you're scared to put heavy things on it because the hinge isn't flat. 

 

57 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

It's more high resolution than your current laptop so It will feel like using a 15" mac. There's more screen real estate than the MBP Retina 15".

 

3000x2000.

This is complete bullshit. There is no way you're going to run 3000x2000 on a 13in screen unscaled. Yes it's more screen estate than the MBP15 but completely unusable. 

 

40 minutes ago, spacemen13579 said:

Yes, but I am actually adamant on getting a 15inch display. My current Macbook Pro Retina already has a 2560x1600 resolution and I run it with a 'semi-more space' option so I think it's similar to the 3000x2000 resolution. 

It's not. the semi-more space option is 1680 x 1050 and the more space option is 1920x1200. It's just that OSX scaling is fucking amazing and you never notice issues. Windows scaling is an absolute tragedy and running anything scaled is a bloody nightmare. I rather deal with small text and run at 1620p native on my T560 and deal with Windows scaling. 

 

14 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Heh if I had more money I would buy a macbook pro, but put windows on it

Runs like trash on bootcamp. dGPU 100% always on. Optimizations gone. Issues with Window's drivers and hardware sync. So all the good things that a Macbook is, is gone on bootcamp. Terrible battery life, driver issues galore. If you get a MBP, you're suppose to run it on OSX. 

[needlessly_weekday]

4 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

Yes. Definitely wait for the new one. And see how it is. I'm considering upgrading my 2012 15in first gen retina too. Word of advice. Don't skimp out on upgrades. Just pay the Apple tax/premium and get more stuff because you can't upgrade and it'll last you quite a while. I got mine specced to the balls (over 3k USD at that time), and it runs just as smooth as latest generation of Macs. Only thing that is a bit lacking is the GPU. It still has a GT650m, but honestly, on my Macbook, I don't use it to game, more like use it for it's UNIX based OS so it never really mattered. 

 

Ugh, this thing has way too many first gen issues. The hinge is my biggest gripe. You can't even close it properly and you're scared to put heavy things on it because the hinge isn't flat. 

 

This is complete bullshit. There is no way you're going to run 3000x2000 on a 13in screen unscaled. Yes it's more screen estate than the MBP15 but completely unusable. 

 

It's not. the semi-more space option is 1680 x 1050 and the more space option is 1920x1200. It's just that OSX scaling is fucking amazing and you never notice issues. Windows scaling is an absolute tragedy and running anything scaled is a bloody nightmare. I rather deal with small text and run at 1620p native on my T560 and deal with Windows scaling. 

 

Runs like trash on bootcamp. dGPU 100% always on. Optimizations gone. Issues with Window's drivers and hardware sync. So all the good things that a Macbook is, is gone on bootcamp. Terrible battery life, driver issues galore. If you get a MBP, you're suppose to run it on OSX. 

Thanks for the incredibly detailed analysis Will probably spec out the 15 inch mbp retina once it's released. What do you think about the New Razer Blade with 1060 graphics? I know that I am kinda off topic because that's 13/14 inches but . 

[Pendragon]

1 minute ago, spacemen13579 said:

What do you think about the New Razer Blade with 1060 graphics?

This is also an absolute tragedy. Don't even consider it. It has so many issues both as the company and the product.

1) Quality Control. Shit.

2) Customer Support. Dogshit.

3) RMA Process. Basically Nonexistant 

^ company issues

 

1) Thermal design is easily the worst one in the entire laptop market. 

2) Keyboard is so subpar it's disgusting. One would think if you copied the MBP's design, they would make a decent keyboard. Nope. 

^ product issues

 

The thermal design is so bad, that running Overwatch (a game that doesn't stress the CPU hard), runs the Razer Blade up to 95C+. This is the new 1060 one we're talking about. Imagine running Witcher 3 or anything triple AAA game. Heat will fuck up the laptop so hard and kill everything inside. 

 

This is coming from someone who uses a Razer Deathadder as their primary mouse of the past 4 years. Their Deathadder mouse and company philosophy changed the market segment, but their laptops are absolutely trash. 

[Enderman]

24 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

Runs like trash on bootcamp. dGPU 100% always on. Optimizations gone. Issues with Window's drivers and hardware sync. So all the good things that a Macbook is, is gone on bootcamp. Terrible battery life, driver issues galore. If you get a MBP, you're suppose to run it on OSX. 

100% of what you just said is BS.

 

[Pendragon]

3 minutes ago, Enderman said:

100% of what you just said is BS.

That's a 13in. Doesn't even have a dGPU. And that guy has no idea what he's talking about LOL. Youtube vidoes are some of the most inaccurate cess pool of misinformation there is. Get your info from personal experience like me or from reputable tech focused sites like Ars Technica or NBC. 

 

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/04/using-the-retina-macbook-as-a-windows-pc/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7185316?tstart=0

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-10-Boot-Camp-on-MacBook-Pro-13-Analysis-and-Report.150810.0.html

 

I assume you'll get a better experience on the 13 cause no dGPU. But on the 15, it's stupid af. 

[Enderman]

11 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

That's a 13in. Doesn't even have a dGPU. And that guy has no idea what he's talking about LOL.

 

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/04/using-the-retina-macbook-as-a-windows-pc/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7185316?tstart=0

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-10-Boot-Camp-on-MacBook-Pro-13-Analysis-and-Report.150810.0.html

 

I assume you'll get a better experience on the 13 cause no dGPU. But on the 15, it's stupid af. 

First of all, you didn't even watch the video in the 2 minutes it took you to reply, and he clearly knows more than you do because he actually put windows 10 on his macbook and ran tests.

 

Second, the first link of yours isn't even running windows 10, only 8.1.

 

Third, your second link is an issue that happens to windows 10 sometimes and isn't specifically an issue with running windows 10 on a macbook.

 

Fourth, not only is the third link using a much older macbook, it doesn't mention anything about dGPU or running newer bootcamp/driver versions.

 

Fifth, the 15" macbook pro doesn't need to come with a dedicated GPU. There are multiple options fyi.

 

[Pendragon]

Just now, Enderman said:

First of all, you didn't even watch the video in the 2 minutes it took you to reply, and he clearly knows more than you do because he actually put windows 10 on his macbook and ran tests.

Yea me too. I actually have a 15in with a dGPU with Win10 on it. Hmm. 

 

3 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Second, the first link of yours isn't even running windows 10, only 8.1.

The Windows experience is consistent over 7/8.1/10. Lower battery life. Driver/performance issues. If you have a dGPU, switches over to dGPU only at 100% so heavily increased temps and lower battery life.

 

3 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Fourth, not only is the third link using a much older macbook, and doesn't mention anything about dGPU.

How does a different Macbook affect the results of the test???????????? They all run off the basic same hardware (with minor CPU changes since 2012).  None of them mention a dGPU by the way.

 

3 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Fifth, the 15" macbook pro doesn't need to come with a dedicated GPu. There are multiple options fyi.

This is true. Sure. I'm just saying if you do need 1, you're fucked on Windows. 

 

There's even more problems with MBP on the Windows side. Due to lack of OSX optimizations, the generally weaker hardware struggles on Windows. Lack of dedicated driver support also impacts performance. The stupid touchpad drivers that made it painful to use and thermal drivers that were simply rubbish. I'm not a fanboy for Apple but OS X just works better on their hardware than Windows. Touchpad gestures are also completely fucked on the Windows side. The guy in the video needs to use external drivers for the touchpad to get decent functionality. That's not stock. And even then with the touchpad driver EVEN SCROLLING isn't smooth. That's pretty much fucked. The average Windows laptop can achieve that now. It's confirmed that all hardware run hotter than on the OSX side, so at 100% load it's pretty fucking uncomfortable. Whereas on the Mac side you can use terminal and ssh directly into fan bios and allow fan curve adjust via smccontrol, on the Windows side you need to use a bad static fan controller that you need to adjust to your workload. Moreover this adjustment requires admin permissions and if you forget to shut it down on the Windows side it carries over to the Mac side which is completely FUCKED. As in if you set fans at 6k rpm on the Windows side, if you forget to set it back to native control before quitting Windows, it will carry the 6k rpm fan control onto the Mac side and you won't be able to change it with smc. Fucked. 

 

18 minutes ago, Enderman said:

First of all, you didn't even watch the video in the 2 minutes it took you to reply, and he clearly knows more than you do because he actually put windows 10 on his macbook and ran tests.

Wtf TESTS? I see no test. FYI I skimped the video to see if it was anything I didn't know. He talked about lower battery life, poor scrolling. Didn't run stress tests or try to compare performance with a similar Windows machine. Just talked off the top of his head. I actually run mine for work and I ended up saying fuck it and picked up a Windows laptop instead. I rather carry TWO laptops around than have MBP running on Windows. Sure, for the average joe who doesn't do anything and picks up the 13in MBP with the ULV chips, it's not a big deal, but for people people who need to do work, MBP on Win is a tragic mess. 

[Enderman]

8 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

bla bla bla

If you actually WATCHED the video you would know that he uses it on a daily basis and doesn't notice any different battery life from before.

You would ALSO know that he shows you how to install a FREE application to bring back all the touch pad functionality of the macbook.

And other stuff, but you obviously are too self-absorbed to bother to watch a 10 minute video of someone more experienced than you, proving you wrong.

[Pendragon]

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

If you actually WATCHED the video you would know that he uses it on a daily basis and doesn't notice any different battery life from before.

At 9min he talks about how he leaves it plugged in and rarely discharges it fully and gets around 5 hours of screen on time which is much lower than a MBP 13 retina would normally get. 

 

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

You would ALSO know that he shows you how to install a FREE application to bring back all the touch pad functionality of the macbook.

Yep and then shows you scrolling a webpage is still fucked. Yes he showed u that. 

 

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

And other stuff, but you obviously are too self-absorbed to bother to watch a 10 minute video of someone more experienced than you, proving you wrong.

You literally ignored the technical aspects of my analysis, something your guy literally never talks about. He literally does 0 testing. He talks about his experience. He doesn't talk about thermal drivers, doesn't talk about heat or temps. Doesn't talk about gaming. Doesn't talk about how dedicated graphics really fuck you over. Doesn't talk about how dedicated graphics drivers are a bloody nightmare sometimes. Doesn't talk about FCP for video editing compared to Windows. Honestly, if you're going to base your entire opinion on 1 video sure, be my guest. He only misses a dozen other topics that should be covered.