5 ms·

There are plenty of comparisons online showing for the same price as a Mac you can get a PC that will edit your photos, compress your videos, render your 3D arc

There are plenty of comparisons online showing for the same price as a Mac you can get a PC that will edit your photos, compress your videos, render your 3D architecture 3x to 4x as fast as the fastest Mac you can buy. If you're a professional might be throwing money down the toilet waiting for your mac depending on your use case. Note: I'm not a mac hater. I have 2, one I use every day and love it. I also have a PC I use every day. I still found the comparison videos enlightening.

rsfinn 6y ago
I’m very curious to see whether this is still true once Apple starts shipping Pro machines with Apple Silicon processors. What if it’s not? How would that change the balance?
- Tade0 6y ago
  That's a big "maybe", because apparently for them it's just a way to stop using Intel's outdated technology. AMD is currently running circles around Intel and won't be that easy to beat, especially because they have much lower prices.
vladvasiliu 6y ago
While I haven't seen those comparisons, I did do a similar one myself. Like GP, I have a 2013 mbp. It still works perfectly and handles whatever I throw at it. As it's getting long in the tooth and it could end up not working anymore, and also because I got curious with the release of the 16" mbp, I looked a bit at the market, and also at similar offerings from Lenovo, HP and Dell. You are right, for the price of a 16" MBP with 64 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD, I could buy a maxed out Lenovo X1E with 2 SSDs, so I could dual boot windows and Linux (I use Photoshop / Lightroom for personal photography but can't stand Windows otherwise). Oh, and I'd probably have more than enough left to go on a trip somewhere and actually use the mobile part of the laptop. So yes, on pure performance numbers, I completely agree. However, that's really not the whole story. Not everybody needs absolute maximum performance. I wouldn't still be happy with my 7 yo mac if I did. I use my laptop every day for (hopefully) years and years. So I care about other things. First and most important of all, the touchpad. I've tried Lenovo (T series), Dell XPS and HP Elitebook models. They all absolutely suck compared to a mbp. A friend has a 2-3 yo Dell XPS. The palmrest plastic is all sticky, the screen is wobbly the touchpad is a nightmare (sometimes it clicks on its own). I have an HP from work I sometimes use. The junction between the palm rest and the body isn't level, so after a few hours of working on it my wrists are raw from rubbing on the body. The same laptop has a power light right in front of the screen that is blinding. I had to cover it with a piece of aluminum foil to be able to work in the evening. These kinds of annoyances make it worth it for me to spend the extra cash on a mbp that will just get out of my way and let me work.
- oblio 6y ago
  Try Razer stuff.
  - vladvasiliu 6y ago
    Isn't that as expensive as a mbp though? Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition - OLED 4K Touch 60Hz - Quadro RTX 5000 - Mercury Intel Core i7-10875H Windows 10 Pro 15.6" 60Hz OLED 4K Touch Quadro RTX 5000 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD US$4,299.99 16-inch MacBook Pro - Space Gray 2.4GHz 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory 1TB SSD storage $3,899.00
    - whywhywhywhy 6y ago
      Worth considering that Razer has a far superior GPU https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-RTX-5000-vs-AMD-Radeon-Pro-5500M/m712800vsm960765 https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-RTX-5000... Different enough that certain pro workflows (e.g GPU rendering) would be feasible on that machine that are not on the MacBook
- loxs 6y ago
  Actually, this is the wrong comparison (at least for me). I went from a 2017 15" MBP that was around 3.5k EUR to a ThinkPad T495 (with AMD hardware) for around 1k EUR and I also maxed out the RAM to 32GB for another EUR 150. I couldn't be happier. You mention the worse touch pad, and I agree, it took me a week to adjust... but on the other hand, the keyboard of the ThinkPad is so much better, in fact it might be the best keyboard I have ever used (not only on a laptop, and I have used mechanical keyboards). Also, KDE/Kubuntu seems to have progressed so far over the past 10 years (since I used it last) that it feels better than Mac OS to me currently. The only pain point remains my photography workflow, which I still haven't migrated and for that I still use the MBP... If I manage to migrate that, I don't think I'm going back to the Apple ecosystem soon. Currently I feel much more productive at my programming workflow than with the MBP. Doing mostly TypeScript, OCaml and Rust development. And that for about 1/3 of the cost.
tomp 6y ago
I've been checking the last few years, all laptops with 32G (which is my main requirement) are about the same price (2000 GBP), except that, of course, Macs have superior build quality and software.
- CRConrad 6y ago
  I bought one of these last year; the specs still look about the same AFAICS. Paid just a smidgeon over 2K€ with 64 GB RAM and 2 TB SSD. A little better than 2K GBP for 32 GB. https://bestware.com/en/schenker-slim-15-red-edition.html https://bestware.com/en/schenker-slim-15-red-edition.html

rsfinn 6y ago

I’m very curious to see whether this is still true once Apple starts shipping Pro machines with Apple Silicon processors. What if it’s not? How would that change the balance?

Tade0 6y ago
That's a big "maybe", because apparently for them it's just a way to stop using Intel's outdated technology. AMD is currently running circles around Intel and won't be that easy to beat, especially because they have much lower prices.

vladvasiliu 6y ago

While I haven't seen those comparisons, I did do a similar one myself. Like GP, I have a 2013 mbp. It still works perfectly and handles whatever I throw at it. As it's getting long in the tooth and it could end up not working anymore, and also because I got curious with the release of the 16" mbp, I looked a bit at the market, and also at similar offerings from Lenovo, HP and Dell. You are right, for the price of a 16" MBP with 64 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD, I could buy a maxed out Lenovo X1E with 2 SSDs, so I could dual boot windows and Linux (I use Photoshop / Lightroom for personal photography but can't stand Windows otherwise). Oh, and I'd probably have more than enough left to go on a trip somewhere and actually use the mobile part of the laptop. So yes, on pure performance numbers, I completely agree. However, that's really not the whole story. Not everybody needs absolute maximum performance. I wouldn't still be happy with my 7 yo mac if I did. I use my laptop every day for (hopefully) years and years. So I care about other things. First and most important of all, the touchpad. I've tried Lenovo (T series), Dell XPS and HP Elitebook models. They all absolutely suck compared to a mbp. A friend has a 2-3 yo Dell XPS. The palmrest plastic is all sticky, the screen is wobbly the touchpad is a nightmare (sometimes it clicks on its own). I have an HP from work I sometimes use. The junction between the palm rest and the body isn't level, so after a few hours of working on it my wrists are raw from rubbing on the body. The same laptop has a power light right in front of the screen that is blinding. I had to cover it with a piece of aluminum foil to be able to work in the evening. These kinds of annoyances make it worth it for me to spend the extra cash on a mbp that will just get out of my way and let me work.

oblio 6y ago
Try Razer stuff.
- vladvasiliu 6y ago
  Isn't that as expensive as a mbp though? Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition - OLED 4K Touch 60Hz - Quadro RTX 5000 - Mercury Intel Core i7-10875H Windows 10 Pro 15.6" 60Hz OLED 4K Touch Quadro RTX 5000 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD US$4,299.99 16-inch MacBook Pro - Space Gray 2.4GHz 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory 1TB SSD storage $3,899.00
  - whywhywhywhy 6y ago
    Worth considering that Razer has a far superior GPU https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-RTX-5000-vs-AMD-Radeon-Pro-5500M/m712800vsm960765 https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-RTX-5000... Different enough that certain pro workflows (e.g GPU rendering) would be feasible on that machine that are not on the MacBook
loxs 6y ago
Actually, this is the wrong comparison (at least for me). I went from a 2017 15" MBP that was around 3.5k EUR to a ThinkPad T495 (with AMD hardware) for around 1k EUR and I also maxed out the RAM to 32GB for another EUR 150. I couldn't be happier. You mention the worse touch pad, and I agree, it took me a week to adjust... but on the other hand, the keyboard of the ThinkPad is so much better, in fact it might be the best keyboard I have ever used (not only on a laptop, and I have used mechanical keyboards). Also, KDE/Kubuntu seems to have progressed so far over the past 10 years (since I used it last) that it feels better than Mac OS to me currently. The only pain point remains my photography workflow, which I still haven't migrated and for that I still use the MBP... If I manage to migrate that, I don't think I'm going back to the Apple ecosystem soon. Currently I feel much more productive at my programming workflow than with the MBP. Doing mostly TypeScript, OCaml and Rust development. And that for about 1/3 of the cost.

tomp 6y ago

I've been checking the last few years, all laptops with 32G (which is my main requirement) are about the same price (2000 GBP), except that, of course, Macs have superior build quality and software.

CRConrad 6y ago
I bought one of these last year; the specs still look about the same AFAICS. Paid just a smidgeon over 2K€ with 64 GB RAM and 2 TB SSD. A little better than 2K GBP for 32 GB. https://bestware.com/en/schenker-slim-15-red-edition.html https://bestware.com/en/schenker-slim-15-red-edition.html