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Take any of your 15" options and try to satisfy the following requirements: * Quad core CPU * >= 16 GB RAM * >= 1 TB SSD * Retina display with resolution at

Take any of your 15" options and try to satisfy the following requirements: * Quad core CPU * >= 16 GB RAM * >= 1 TB SSD * Retina display with resolution at least as good as the MacBook 15" * Battery life at least as good as the MacBook 15" * Weight at least as good as the MacBook 15" With those requirements---if you can meet them at all, which most can't---the price gap shrinks substantially. The Razer Blade, for example, is $2700 for the QHD+/1TB option, and it's not obvious if it can meet the last two requirements. The Alienware in a similar configuration is $2600 depending on the graphics card but the best screen option is 1080p and again, not obvious if battery is good and the weight is just a joke. No amount of money is going to get me to carry a > 7 pound laptop. And that's without going into more subtle issues like build quality, track pad quality, etc.

JamesMcMinn 10y ago
Dell's XPS 15 comes closest to that, although perhaps doesn't have quite the same battery life, it does have: Quad Core i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SDD, higher resolution, approximately same weight, and a more powerful GPU.
- gshulegaard 10y ago
  I would check into the battery life. But I did recall hearing that the new MBPs had battery issues? http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life-concerns/ http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life...
  - JamesMcMinn 10y ago
    As I understand it, they fixed whatever issue was causing the battery life issues through a software patch. I've got a XPS 15 9560 and the battery life sits around 7 to 8 hours for "basic" tasks at around 30% brightness (which is still quite bright). This is running Fedora 25, so it's probably a bit longer under Windows. Not going to reach the 10 hours of a MBP, but it's still quite good.
    - thegayngler 10y ago
      I can confirm that whatever battery life issues I was seeing in my 2016 15" MBP before seem to have been resolved. I was in Xcode all day Saturday without being plugged in at all and still had like 60% left at around 6:30pm Saturday after having been on my computer since like 10:30am.
comex 10y ago
Last I checked, your last three conditions (display, battery, weight) are simply impossible to satisfy simultaneously in any of the available 15" Windows laptops, regardless of price. You mostly get to choose between 1080p with good battery life, and QHD+, which is admittedly a much higher resolution than the MBP has, accompanied with much worse battery life (Apple advertises 10 hours with light usage). Or, of course, you can get a thick and heavy laptop with everything. None of those options are to my liking, so I'd love to learn about anything that can fit the bill...
- gshulegaard 10y ago
  Hey I think I got the laptop you are looking for: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-laptop http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-la... Also regarding > Apple advertises 10 hours with light usage I heard a lot of users were reporting less: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life-concerns/ http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life...
  - josephg 10y ago
    I've been seeing about 12 hours of battery life with my 13" tbmbp, though I've switched to safari to make that happen. It really depends what you're doing. I have a cpu meter running all the time and often see electron based apps (spotify, slack, atom) idle on 5-10% cpu usage for no reason. Just having one of those programs will eviscerate your battery life - its impossible to get 10 hours if the CPU isn't asleep most of the time. That said, in fairness Atom seems to be getting better with each release. But spotify seems to keep getting worse. I've caught it pegging an entire core a couple of times in the last few weeks - just sitting on 100% cpu usage despite having no music playing. I think it was rendering an animated ad in the background or something, despite my paid account. Its really no wonder people don't get 10 hours battery life out of their machines. This shit is the new flash.
  - comex 10y ago
    According to reviews, the XPS 15 lasts about five and a half hours on battery with the 4K screen. Pass.
gshulegaard 10y ago
MBP: CPU: I7-6820HQ [1] RAM: 16 GB LPDDR3 (LPDDR3 is important here...it is "low power" DDR3...so it is under clocked for batter life) DISK: 1 TB PCIE SSD GRAPHICS: Radeon Pro 455 w/ 2GB mem PRICE: $3199 DELL Alienware 15: CPU: I7-7820HK RAM: 32 GB DDR4 DISK: 1 TB PCIE SSD + 1 TB 7200 RPM HD GRAPHICS: GTX 1070 w/ 8GB RAM PRICE: $2,999 Notes: * Build quality is subjective and the MBP is certainly thin but the Alienware r3's are sturdy and well-regarded * Battery life, the Alienware 15 r3 has a 99 whr battery that gets ~6 hr of light use [2] which I think is very comparable given the purported 3hrs of use users are reporting for Apple [3] * Every computing stat is better than the MBP by a large margin * Alienware is $200 cheaper (the unit I configured had a G-Sync panel on it so I would guess the price goes down or stays same for 4k IGZO version...) * Note: Alienware rotates the models it has on it's sight and currently the IGZO 4k screen is not available but that model is out there and will probably be back soon. The review I linked to reviews the IGZO 4k configuration. --- But hey, it sounds like you aren't a compute power focused person (like me...I am irrationally so)...so check out the XPS 15 (9650): http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-laptop http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-la... Max model is $2499 which is $700 cheaper! And, quite honestly hits every point you want...including build quality, track pad, and weight! --- [1] http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_processor/intel-core-i7-macs.html http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_processor/intel-core-i7-m... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDPs9o_L1GI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDPs9o_L1GI [3] http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life-concerns/ http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life...
karlshea 10y ago
Don't forget the speed difference between the MBP SSD and a normal SATA SSD. The MBP uses NVMe and super-fast flash chips. That one repair dude with the 4+ hour YouTube videos that's always bashing Apple did a Razer Blade/MBP comparison video and the MBP disk transfer speeds blew the Razer out of the water. I agree the MBP is super ridiculously expensive, but no one for a second should think there's an alternative in any price bracket. edit: Razer Blaze SSD test: https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2254 https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2254 MBP SSD test: https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2669 https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2669
- ikurei 10y ago
  I'm usually on the apple-defending side of this discusion, but: "MBP wins in disk speed and battery" doesn't match "there is no alternative in any price bracket". For the same price, other laptops seem to offer more power, in exchange for less battery and a few other niceties. I'm writing this from a MBP (magsafe-and-escape-key mbp) that I love. To me, it makes no sense to say "Macbooks are just like these windows pcs but way more expensive", but neither does saying "there is no alternative to a MBP". A lot of laptops are competing. Some of them are premium, expensive machines, with high price tags and nice features and quality. The macbook is one of them, with its own set of unique advantages, but also compromises. Some people think they are the best. That's it.
  - karlshea 10y ago
    > "MBP wins in disk speed and battery" doesn't match "there is no alternative in any price bracket" Disk speed, battery, build quality, and screen resolution seem to be the big ones. There don't seem to be any alternatives with the same set of features. All of the machines brought up as an "alternative" are missing one or more of those which means they aren't really an alternative. I do agree that you're also signing up for a set of compromises when you buy a MBP, but AFAIK there's not an "equivalent" machine elsewhere that I can find, which to me seems a bit strange. I hate analogies, especially car ones, but for this situation it really does seem to fit. There are three big German car makers. BMW, Audi, and Mercedes each have "equivalent" sets of cars. You can pick and choose between them and while there are might be small features that one offers over the others there are definitely "alternatives". With the MBP it feels like there's only one, and when looking for an alternative everyone's suggesting a Toyota Camry. Yes, it will get the job done but it's not really the same class of thing.

JamesMcMinn 10y ago

Dell's XPS 15 comes closest to that, although perhaps doesn't have quite the same battery life, it does have: Quad Core i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SDD, higher resolution, approximately same weight, and a more powerful GPU.

gshulegaard 10y ago
I would check into the battery life. But I did recall hearing that the new MBPs had battery issues? http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life-concerns/ http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life...
- JamesMcMinn 10y ago
  As I understand it, they fixed whatever issue was causing the battery life issues through a software patch. I've got a XPS 15 9560 and the battery life sits around 7 to 8 hours for "basic" tasks at around 30% brightness (which is still quite bright). This is running Fedora 25, so it's probably a bit longer under Windows. Not going to reach the 10 hours of a MBP, but it's still quite good.
  - thegayngler 10y ago
    I can confirm that whatever battery life issues I was seeing in my 2016 15" MBP before seem to have been resolved. I was in Xcode all day Saturday without being plugged in at all and still had like 60% left at around 6:30pm Saturday after having been on my computer since like 10:30am.

comex 10y ago

Last I checked, your last three conditions (display, battery, weight) are simply impossible to satisfy simultaneously in any of the available 15" Windows laptops, regardless of price. You mostly get to choose between 1080p with good battery life, and QHD+, which is admittedly a much higher resolution than the MBP has, accompanied with much worse battery life (Apple advertises 10 hours with light usage). Or, of course, you can get a thick and heavy laptop with everything. None of those options are to my liking, so I'd love to learn about anything that can fit the bill...

gshulegaard 10y ago
Hey I think I got the laptop you are looking for: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-laptop http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-la... Also regarding > Apple advertises 10 hours with light usage I heard a lot of users were reporting less: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life-concerns/ http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life...
- josephg 10y ago
  I've been seeing about 12 hours of battery life with my 13" tbmbp, though I've switched to safari to make that happen. It really depends what you're doing. I have a cpu meter running all the time and often see electron based apps (spotify, slack, atom) idle on 5-10% cpu usage for no reason. Just having one of those programs will eviscerate your battery life - its impossible to get 10 hours if the CPU isn't asleep most of the time. That said, in fairness Atom seems to be getting better with each release. But spotify seems to keep getting worse. I've caught it pegging an entire core a couple of times in the last few weeks - just sitting on 100% cpu usage despite having no music playing. I think it was rendering an animated ad in the background or something, despite my paid account. Its really no wonder people don't get 10 hours battery life out of their machines. This shit is the new flash.
- comex 10y ago
  According to reviews, the XPS 15 lasts about five and a half hours on battery with the 4K screen. Pass.

gshulegaard 10y ago

MBP: CPU: I7-6820HQ [1] RAM: 16 GB LPDDR3 (LPDDR3 is important here...it is "low power" DDR3...so it is under clocked for batter life) DISK: 1 TB PCIE SSD GRAPHICS: Radeon Pro 455 w/ 2GB mem PRICE: $3199 DELL Alienware 15: CPU: I7-7820HK RAM: 32 GB DDR4 DISK: 1 TB PCIE SSD + 1 TB 7200 RPM HD GRAPHICS: GTX 1070 w/ 8GB RAM PRICE: $2,999 Notes: * Build quality is subjective and the MBP is certainly thin but the Alienware r3's are sturdy and well-regarded * Battery life, the Alienware 15 r3 has a 99 whr battery that gets ~6 hr of light use [2] which I think is very comparable given the purported 3hrs of use users are reporting for Apple [3] * Every computing stat is better than the MBP by a large margin * Alienware is $200 cheaper (the unit I configured had a G-Sync panel on it so I would guess the price goes down or stays same for 4k IGZO version...) * Note: Alienware rotates the models it has on it's sight and currently the IGZO 4k screen is not available but that model is out there and will probably be back soon. The review I linked to reviews the IGZO 4k configuration. --- But hey, it sounds like you aren't a compute power focused person (like me...I am irrationally so)...so check out the XPS 15 (9650): http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-laptop http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9560-la... Max model is $2499 which is $700 cheaper! And, quite honestly hits every point you want...including build quality, track pad, and weight! --- [1] http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_processor/intel-core-i7-macs.html http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_processor/intel-core-i7-m... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDPs9o_L1GI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDPs9o_L1GI [3] http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life-concerns/ http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/03/macbook-pro-battery-life...

karlshea 10y ago

Don't forget the speed difference between the MBP SSD and a normal SATA SSD. The MBP uses NVMe and super-fast flash chips. That one repair dude with the 4+ hour YouTube videos that's always bashing Apple did a Razer Blade/MBP comparison video and the MBP disk transfer speeds blew the Razer out of the water. I agree the MBP is super ridiculously expensive, but no one for a second should think there's an alternative in any price bracket. edit: Razer Blaze SSD test: https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2254 https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2254 MBP SSD test: https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2669 https://youtu.be/bOXxyeKWd80?t=2669

ikurei 10y ago
I'm usually on the apple-defending side of this discusion, but: "MBP wins in disk speed and battery" doesn't match "there is no alternative in any price bracket". For the same price, other laptops seem to offer more power, in exchange for less battery and a few other niceties. I'm writing this from a MBP (magsafe-and-escape-key mbp) that I love. To me, it makes no sense to say "Macbooks are just like these windows pcs but way more expensive", but neither does saying "there is no alternative to a MBP". A lot of laptops are competing. Some of them are premium, expensive machines, with high price tags and nice features and quality. The macbook is one of them, with its own set of unique advantages, but also compromises. Some people think they are the best. That's it.
- karlshea 10y ago
  > "MBP wins in disk speed and battery" doesn't match "there is no alternative in any price bracket" Disk speed, battery, build quality, and screen resolution seem to be the big ones. There don't seem to be any alternatives with the same set of features. All of the machines brought up as an "alternative" are missing one or more of those which means they aren't really an alternative. I do agree that you're also signing up for a set of compromises when you buy a MBP, but AFAIK there's not an "equivalent" machine elsewhere that I can find, which to me seems a bit strange. I hate analogies, especially car ones, but for this situation it really does seem to fit. There are three big German car makers. BMW, Audi, and Mercedes each have "equivalent" sets of cars. You can pick and choose between them and while there are might be small features that one offers over the others there are definitely "alternatives". With the MBP it feels like there's only one, and when looking for an alternative everyone's suggesting a Toyota Camry. Yes, it will get the job done but it's not really the same class of thing.