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I dread this because it makes the model I bought last year feel outdated! I can't see upgrading something like an MBP more than once every two years, though. Th

I dread this because it makes the model I bought last year feel outdated! I can't see upgrading something like an MBP more than once every two years, though. That's reassuring since I know whatever that model is, it will be fantastic by current standards. The only time my MBP breaks a sweat as it is, though, is on games: Half Life 2 and the PlayStation 2 emulator make the fans come on like it's trying to dry my hair. I'm not 100% sold on my next laptop being an Apple, though. While my MBP is very impressive, it is also a quite expensive piece of hardware... and I'm not impressed by Apple's policies regarding iOS and the App Store. But what is the alternative? It doesn't seem like there is any other manufacturer successfully designs elegant, high performance luxury notebooks.

mquander 16y ago
I have been pretty satisfied with my HP Envy 15 purchased last March, for roughly the same price that a MBP would have cost me. Differences between it and a MBP: Slightly lighter. No cool magnetic charger thing; instead, power brick. Battery life is comparatively awful -- I usually get about an hour and a half. (I don't personally care about battery life.) Envy has better resolution at 15" -- 1920x1080. Envy has what appears to be slightly better graphics card. (That is, a slightly better graphics card a year ago as opposed to what the new MBPs have today. It kicked the crap out of the last-generation ones.) Envy has SSD+HDD instead of having SSD + built-in optical drive. I'm personally much happier with it, since resolution and being able to play games on it are a big deal for me. Not sure what HP's offerings look like today. Other laptops that don't appear to suck, but which I have no personal experience with, include IBM ThinkPads and some of Sony's Vaio series.
bphogan 16y ago
Don't feel out of date. I've had the same macbook pro I bought 4 years ago. It's gone on trips with me, it's been knocked off the couch by my kid, and it runs my unit tests just as fast as my friend's newer model. I paid $1900 for my core2duo macbook pro and got four years and counting out of it. Before that I was buying new Windows machines every two years. They were half the price, but didn't last as long. My next machine, when this one dies, will definitely be a mac. :)

mquander 16y ago

I have been pretty satisfied with my HP Envy 15 purchased last March, for roughly the same price that a MBP would have cost me. Differences between it and a MBP: Slightly lighter. No cool magnetic charger thing; instead, power brick. Battery life is comparatively awful -- I usually get about an hour and a half. (I don't personally care about battery life.) Envy has better resolution at 15" -- 1920x1080. Envy has what appears to be slightly better graphics card. (That is, a slightly better graphics card a year ago as opposed to what the new MBPs have today. It kicked the crap out of the last-generation ones.) Envy has SSD+HDD instead of having SSD + built-in optical drive. I'm personally much happier with it, since resolution and being able to play games on it are a big deal for me. Not sure what HP's offerings look like today. Other laptops that don't appear to suck, but which I have no personal experience with, include IBM ThinkPads and some of Sony's Vaio series.

bphogan 16y ago

Don't feel out of date. I've had the same macbook pro I bought 4 years ago. It's gone on trips with me, it's been knocked off the couch by my kid, and it runs my unit tests just as fast as my friend's newer model. I paid $1900 for my core2duo macbook pro and got four years and counting out of it. Before that I was buying new Windows machines every two years. They were half the price, but didn't last as long. My next machine, when this one dies, will definitely be a mac. :)