4 ms·

I've held off getting a new mac for about a year already, but this 'refresh' is the first time I'm seriously considering moving away from Apple. The most intere

by mercer 10y ago

I've held off getting a new mac for about a year already, but this 'refresh' is the first time I'm seriously considering moving away from Apple. The most interesting options appear to be the XPS (13(s?)) and one of the Razer Blade laptops. What keeps me from the XPS is really bad experience with Dell and the fact that I can't seem to customize it on the Dutch Dell site. And, perhaps more importantly, I keep hearing that the trackpad sucks. What is your experience with it? The issue I have with the Razor is that it's apparently not so easy to get in Holland. Any thoughts on that? Or, for that matter, any other suggestions you can think of? I keep hearing good things about the ThinkPads, but they're too ugly for my taste...

swozey 10y ago
I've only used MBPs and Thinkpads for the last 5-10 years or so, so I can't really comment on extensive use of other laptops. I know a number of people with XPS 13s and honestly haven't heard any complaints. I'm EXTREMELY wary of Razer products as I hear nothing but complaints about their mice/keyboards breaking and the fact that they put out a laptop that gets such rave reviews and seems very well received really kind of blows my mind. Maybe someone else manufacturers it. Normally I'd say stay away from Razer, but I've watched review after review and know people with the Stealth and they love them. Thinkpads are great but their screens were abysmal for the longest time. The newer ones I believe have really upped the game but it was years and years of them offing 1368x720 or so resolution on their 12-13s with low quality TN panels. They're the ultimate "Pro" machines in my mind. They're super customizable, from docks to adding on extra battery packs, etc. With that said, I use my laptop as a desktop. I never, ever use the trackpad unless I'm on a flight or laying in bed or something so the trackpad isn't a deal breaker to me. I don't ever use gestures or anything like that. I get serious hand cramps when I'm forced to use a trackpad for more than simple quick things. Take a look at that Youtube channel I posted (MobileTechReviews) she does fantastic reviews on ultrabooks. She's a MBP user herself so she's fantastic at comparing the various competitors to it. She sounds very unhappy with Apple in that specific video I posted, though. Unfortunately I'm in the USA so I can't speak on affordability/access to the devices in Holland. I saw a breakdown of the EU prices on the new MBP + vat and it was terrible. Something like a $200-300 mark up when the pound is $1.09 to a dollar plus +$300 VAT. The guy who I watched break down the pricing is Irish and was pretty livid about Apple using them as a tax haven then arbitrarily marking up (beyond EU/$ difference) the prices for him in Ireland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQtrmjubfEo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQtrmjubfEo My last laptop was running Linux Mint and I had zero problems with anything other than a couple of useful (Popclip) small OSX apps missing and 1password has to be run in Wine but their Chrome plugin can't find the main app because it's running in Wine (there's an old fix on github but it hasn't been updated in a year or two and I don't believe works anymore). I'm actually testing running OSX in a VM now to see if it's viable for day to day development. Evidently a fix for the screen lag caused by vsync was made (it's called beam on osx).
DoofusOfDeath 10y ago
Some years back I bought Dell's Mobile Precision Workstation, with an extended support contract. The price was about that of a MBP, and its battery life probably worse. But overall I was very pleased with the purchase. At least back then, the people who provided support for their workstation-class products seemed to be a totally different group within Dell. They were far more responsive and helpful than Dell's non-workstation support people are reputed to be.

by mercer 10y ago

swozey 10y ago

I've only used MBPs and Thinkpads for the last 5-10 years or so, so I can't really comment on extensive use of other laptops. I know a number of people with XPS 13s and honestly haven't heard any complaints. I'm EXTREMELY wary of Razer products as I hear nothing but complaints about their mice/keyboards breaking and the fact that they put out a laptop that gets such rave reviews and seems very well received really kind of blows my mind. Maybe someone else manufacturers it. Normally I'd say stay away from Razer, but I've watched review after review and know people with the Stealth and they love them. Thinkpads are great but their screens were abysmal for the longest time. The newer ones I believe have really upped the game but it was years and years of them offing 1368x720 or so resolution on their 12-13s with low quality TN panels. They're the ultimate "Pro" machines in my mind. They're super customizable, from docks to adding on extra battery packs, etc. With that said, I use my laptop as a desktop. I never, ever use the trackpad unless I'm on a flight or laying in bed or something so the trackpad isn't a deal breaker to me. I don't ever use gestures or anything like that. I get serious hand cramps when I'm forced to use a trackpad for more than simple quick things. Take a look at that Youtube channel I posted (MobileTechReviews) she does fantastic reviews on ultrabooks. She's a MBP user herself so she's fantastic at comparing the various competitors to it. She sounds very unhappy with Apple in that specific video I posted, though. Unfortunately I'm in the USA so I can't speak on affordability/access to the devices in Holland. I saw a breakdown of the EU prices on the new MBP + vat and it was terrible. Something like a $200-300 mark up when the pound is $1.09 to a dollar plus +$300 VAT. The guy who I watched break down the pricing is Irish and was pretty livid about Apple using them as a tax haven then arbitrarily marking up (beyond EU/$ difference) the prices for him in Ireland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQtrmjubfEo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQtrmjubfEo My last laptop was running Linux Mint and I had zero problems with anything other than a couple of useful (Popclip) small OSX apps missing and 1password has to be run in Wine but their Chrome plugin can't find the main app because it's running in Wine (there's an old fix on github but it hasn't been updated in a year or two and I don't believe works anymore). I'm actually testing running OSX in a VM now to see if it's viable for day to day development. Evidently a fix for the screen lag caused by vsync was made (it's called beam on osx).

DoofusOfDeath 10y ago

Some years back I bought Dell's Mobile Precision Workstation, with an extended support contract. The price was about that of a MBP, and its battery life probably worse. But overall I was very pleased with the purchase. At least back then, the people who provided support for their workstation-class products seemed to be a totally different group within Dell. They were far more responsive and helpful than Dell's non-workstation support people are reputed to be.