Macbook Pro 15" 2016 vs Surface Book i7 (the new one) vs Dell XPS 15

[SilveriX]

9 hours ago, JettaGetUpandGo said:

I have another notebook to throw into the mix, the Lenovo Yoga 910: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-yoga-910-2-in-1-14-4k-ultra-hd-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-512gb-ssd-silver/5579125.p?skuId=5579125

 

My 2011 13" MacBook Pro was due for replacement.  I waited for the new MacBook Pro announcement and was very disappointed with the lack of power and high price (typical Apple, but it seemed extreme this time).  The OLED bar seems gimmicky.  I like the physical buttons for volume and brightness.  For daily use I prefer the Mac OS due to how seamlessly it works with the iPhone.  I also have a PC for gaming and 2D Autocad (work).  Because of the price of the Apple products and the ability to use Autocad on a Windows notebook, going back to Windows made more sense.

 

The XPS 13 and 15 are both highly recommended on this forum.  I really thought the XPS 13 would be my next notebook after lookignat options online.  I stopped at Best Buy to check out the 15 (only XPS they had).  With the thin bezel around the screen it really felt like a 14" laptop and made me think the 13" might feel too small.  I went into it not caring about the touch screen (I've never had one).  After playing around with it for a few minutes I enjoyed it, but wasn't sold on it.  Also, the soft touch carbon fiber finish around the keyboard showed some wear and lots of oily fingerprints.

 

I wandered around the rest of the laptop section I stumbled across the Lenovo Yoga.  The 910 has only been out for a few weeks so there is little information on it.  The specs are very comparable to any of the others (4k display, i7-7500U, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM).  It's all aluminum and built like a tank.  While the XPS felt solid, this felt even better.  The 14" screen has a very small bezel and is very close in size to my 13" MacBook Pro (but much thinner!).  The big selling point for me was in addition to the touch screen, the screen opens a full 360 degrees so it can be used like a tablet.  USB C for charging and it still has a single USB 2.0 port.  For less money than both the MacBook Pro and the XPS 13 this seemed like a very easy decision.  If you are ok with onboard graphics, this is a bargain compared to the Surface Book.  If you need a larger display the Yoga 710 has a 15.6" display (1080p), same processor/ssd/ram, and costs less.

 

I literally just ordered the 910 tonight and won't have it for a few days.  Out of all of the options in this range of specs and price it's almost silly not to consider it.

I somehow completely forgot about the Lenovo yoga series. Gotta take a look at this.

[Pendragon]

13 hours ago, SilveriX said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think any of these are great in terms of battery life.

waat these things are kings of battery life LOL.

[SilveriX]

3 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

waat these things are kings of battery life LOL.

Yea, I realized after seeing a laptopmag review of those.

[jasonwj322a]

Anyone know how long does the 4k xps 15 last? I plan on getting it 

[SilveriX]

1 minute ago, jasonwj322a said:

Anyone know how long does the 4k xps 15 last? I plan on getting it 

Averages around the 6 hour mark.

[jasonwj322a]

2 minutes ago, SilveriX said:

Averages around the 6 hour mark.

Thats not too bad. Thanks

[Pendragon]

18 minutes ago, jasonwj322a said:

Anyone know how long does the 4k xps 15 last? I plan on getting it 

Lemme warn you beforehand. Don't. 4k is shit without scaling and proper program support. If the program you use happens to not work with scaling you are 100% fucked. There are a FEW reasons to get a 4k panel. For photo or video work the 4k panel in the XPS offers a wider gamut and better color so that's one. And that's about it. LOL. There is not much reason to get the 4k panel on a 15in laptop. I have a 4k panel on my laptop. If the program doesn't work properly I just give up and pull out another laptop LOL. 

[jasonwj322a]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

Lemme warn you beforehand. Don't. 4k is shit without scaling and proper program support. If the program you use happens to not work with scaling you are 100% fucked. There are a FEW reasons to get a 4k panel. For photo or video work the 4k panel in the XPS offers a wider gamut and better color so that's one. And that's about it. LOL. There is not much reason to get the 4k panel on a 15in laptop. I have a 4k panel on my laptop. If the program doesn't work properly I just give up and pull out another laptop LOL. 

Any example as to what you're talking about because I have zero clue about it. Wouldn't 4K also make gaming experience much better?

[Pendragon]

Just now, jasonwj322a said:

Any example as to what you're talking about because I have zero clue about it. Wouldn't 4K also make gaming experience much better?

Wat. No. Firstly, 960m can't even push 4k. So no. Secondly 4k = 1080p x 4. Its just more pixels. Yes more pixels can make the gaming experience better but that's only if your GPU is capable. Textures quality, shadows, draw distance and other things matter FAR more than resolution. You would only need to worry about resolution if you're running a Titan XP on 1080p. At that point, you can crank out ALL the settings to whatever and you'll still get like 200fps. At that point then higher resolution will make gaming better cause you'll get good FPS with the same settings. For the XPS15 the 960m can barely push 1080p at med-high in current gen. 

 

Also 4k is 4x the resolution of 1080p. So just imagine how small your icons would be without enlarging. If the program doesn't enlarge properly, you're left with pixel sized icons that makes it impossible to use. 

[79wjd]

10 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

Lemme warn you beforehand. Don't. 4k is shit without scaling and proper program support. If the program you use happens to not work with scaling you are 100% fucked. There are a FEW reasons to get a 4k panel. For photo or video work the 4k panel in the XPS offers a wider gamut and better color so that's one. And that's about it. LOL. There is not much reason to get the 4k panel on a 15in laptop. I have a 4k panel on my laptop. If the program doesn't work properly I just give up and pull out another laptop LOL. 

It's unfortunate that more laptops don't have QHD displays. 1080p doesn't offer enough screen space for me, so I would personally never get a laptop <QHD. 

8 minutes ago, jasonwj322a said:

Any example as to what you're talking about because I have zero clue about it. Wouldn't 4K also make gaming experience much better?

A laptop (not the xps 15 anyway) doesn't have the power to run 4k gaming. And things look incredibly (unreasonably) small. 

[Pendragon]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

It's unfortunate that more laptops don't have QHD displays. 1080p doesn't offer enough screen space for me, so I would personally never get a laptop <QHD. 

I feel you. None of my laptops have 1080p screens since 2012 LOL. 

[jasonwj322a]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

I feel you. None of my laptops have 1080p screens since 2012 LOL. 

 

3 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

It's unfortunate that more laptops don't have QHD displays. 1080p doesn't offer enough screen space for me, so I would personally never get a laptop <QHD. 

A laptop (not the xps 15 anyway) doesn't have the power to run 4k gaming. And things look incredibly (unreasonably) small. 

So besides words getting smaller there's no other big issues right?

[79wjd]

Just now, jasonwj322a said:

 

So besides words getting smaller there's no other big issues right?

The entire UI of every program you use becomes incredibly small to the point where it's practically unusable. (plus battery life is worse)

[SilveriX]

3 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

It's unfortunate that more laptops don't have QHD displays. 1080p doesn't offer enough screen space for me, so I would personally never get a laptop <QHD.  

What kind of work do you do that requires so much screen real estate? Video/Photo editing?

[Pendragon]

1 minute ago, jasonwj322a said:

So besides words getting smaller there's no other big issues right?

Yo please just listen and read what we're saying. Like @djdwosk97 mentioned, programs become literally unusable. 

 

1 minute ago, SilveriX said:

What kind of work do you do that requires so much screen real estate? Video/Photo editing?

excel. ppt. excel + ppt on the same screen. 1080 is not enough real estate for me. 

[jasonwj322a]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

The entire UI of every program you use becomes incredibly small to the point where it's practically unusable. (plus battery life is worse)

Why does basically every review on the 4K xps 15 rates it at as really good laptop/display.

[jasonwj322a]

Not to mention losing the touch capability on the 1080p version 

[79wjd]

6 minutes ago, SilveriX said:

What kind of work do you do that requires so much screen real estate? Video/Photo editing?

No, just a lot of multitasking. 

 

4 minutes ago, jasonwj322a said:

Why does basically every review on the 4K xps 15 rates it at as really good laptop/display.

Because it is a really good laptop with a really nice screen.....except when you run into some UI scaling issue (which are common). 

 

1 minute ago, jasonwj322a said:

Not to mention losing the touch capability on the 1080p version 

Blegh, I've never once had the desire to use a touch screen on a laptop with a good trackpad. 

[Pendragon]

5 minutes ago, jasonwj322a said:

Why does basically every review on the 4K xps 15 rates it at as really good laptop/display.

it is a great screen LOL. I'm just saying 4k is shit for laptops unless you have a Mac. Apple has got their scaling software down. 

[jasonwj322a]

 

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

it is a great screen LOL. I'm just saying 4k is shit for laptops unless you have a Mac. Apple has got their scaling software down. 

That's a bummer. When do you guys think things will get fixed? I really want the 4k model

[jasonwj322a]

4 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

No, just a lot of multitasking. 

 

Because it is a really good laptop with a really nice screen.....except when you run into some UI scaling issue (which are common). 

 

Blegh, I've never once had the desire to use a touch screen on a laptop with a good trackpad. 

 

2 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

it is a great screen LOL. I'm just saying 4k is shit for laptops unless you have a Mac. Apple has got their scaling software down. 

How future proof would the 1080P version be?

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, jasonwj322a said:

 

How future proof would the 1080P version be?

Resolution isn't really a future proof thing. A lot of (cheap) laptops still comes with 1366x768 displays. If 1080 offers enough space for you, then 1080 is fine. Although, if Windows ever gets it's scaling in order, then 4k will look nicer and offer more space. 

[jasonwj322a]

 

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

Resolution isn't really a future proof thing. A lot of (cheap) laptops still comes with 1366x768 displays. If 1080 offers enough space for you, then 1080 is fine. Although, if Windows ever gets it's scaling in order, then 4k will look nicer. 

What do you mean by real estate?

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, jasonwj322a said:

 

What do you mean by real estate?

More space on the screen for windows. (i.e. you can fit more/larger windows on a 4k screen than you can on a 1080p screen).

[SilveriX]

Guys I'm going for the Dell XPS 15 1080p version. i7, 16 GB ram, 512 SSD. Getting a free 22 inch monitor with it for free (not that it was a factor in deciding). 

 

Thanks for all your help guys.