7 ms·

There are plenty of 1000$+ laptops you can purchase these days with good specs that compete with Apple’s lineup of MacBooks.

elric 5y ago
Are there? There's Thinkpads, and pretty much nothing else. Everything else either has awful specs, awful hardware, or awful support. And don't even get me started on awful keyboards, those are now almost universal.
- kcb 5y ago
  Dell XPS and Surface
  - zdragnar 5y ago
    I'm always surprised that the XPS gets so much love. Everything about it felt sub-par to me. I was pretty happy with my surface, while it lasted anyway. Ended up with a defective touch screen that couldn't be replaced, so I just got a full refund (thank you extended warranty).
    - Varriount 5y ago
      For me, the big thing I've liked about the XPS is that it has a good balance of powerful hardware, weight, battery life, and looks. I especially enjoy the fact that it has a dedicated graphics card, since usually only gaming laptops have those. The only laptops with comparable specs (gaming laptops) are either too heavy, have poor battery life, or are just plain ugly. That being said, the touchpad on it is just barely "ok"-level and the webcam (on my older model) is just awful. The friction on the touchpad is so high my wrist becomes sore, and the webcam is located on the bottom of the screen (with a microphone on the bottom front edge near the trackpad!). Even though these flaws have required me to switch to a wireless mouse and external webcam, I'm still pretty satisfied. For my next laptop, I'll likely either buy the newest XPS model (the newer ones have webcams at a usable position), or try the Razor again (the one I previously tried had quite a small battery life). (I would love to know the series of events that led a high-end laptop to have a webcam placed at a position that is only optimal for looking up one's nose.)
evilduck 5y ago
Name them please, because I've looked and there seems to be a slew of compromises in every option that make them worse than a MBP.
- travisporter 5y ago
  Loving my XPS 13 running ubuntu since 2018. Trackpad is great and I still get enough battery life to use for browsing at work all day edit: sorry, I just remembered -- I did have to replace the SSD on this thing when it conked out in 2019! fortunately I bought it refurbished with a warranty of some sort and they shipped a new one fast.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    I have an XPS 15 of a similar age, and the battery has swollen to the point that it's pushing the trackpad out of the case.
  - evilduck 5y ago
    Thank you for replying. I don't mean this as a dig at you or your choices but from a cursory glance that model has a significantly worse screen, a weird nose-and-finger webcam on the bottom of the screen, negligible price and spec differences (or probably a much worse value proposition compared to an M1 if you're ok with macOS and ARM), a touchpad which is pretty certain to be worse than Apple's, and a plastic body it looks like. I think it wins on port options, the aesthetics you could argue as personal preferences, and optioned up it has the potential for maybe a better screen and a digitizer but at that point it loses badly on price. It's not a bad computer, but it's clearly a compromise on several issues and not really beating Apple enough at the stuff it does better that would compel a switch from purely a hardware or value standpoint. I think it's fine if you wanted to avoid Apple or macOS for software reasons, but that's about it. I've also had a pretty good track record with Apple hardware lasting ages while I watch peers with PCs that drop like flies every few years. This is the point that many of us feel stuck with Apple. Every time I research Apple's alternatives I feel like I've wasted my time.
    - 5y ago
Octoth0rpe 5y ago
Not if you care about a good screen (which is a lot more than just dpi, though that's a big part of it). Not if you care about a good trackpad. Definitely not if you care about running *nix with full vendor support.
- kcb 5y ago
  Those requirements rule out Macbooks as well.
discordance 5y ago
We have a 2012 Macbook Pro 13" that's been handed down from me, to wife to kids. Incredible to think this machine is near 10 years old, and even with how much abuse it's been through it is still going strong. Although I don't think Macs between 2014 - 2019 are as well built (have had a string of issues with those), I haven't had any other PC/Macbook last as long as that 2012 MBP. Some of my old Thinkpads still work, but have coil whine, noisy fans etc.
- jcuenod 5y ago
  I'm still using my 2014 Lenovo (G50-70) as my daily driver. Upgraded RAM and SSHD (to an SSD) since then moving it from a 8GB / 512GB SSHD to 16GB / 512GB SSD. Both really worthwhile upgrades that have given this laptop legs I didn't expect it to have or need.

elric 5y ago

Are there? There's Thinkpads, and pretty much nothing else. Everything else either has awful specs, awful hardware, or awful support. And don't even get me started on awful keyboards, those are now almost universal.

kcb 5y ago
Dell XPS and Surface
- zdragnar 5y ago
  I'm always surprised that the XPS gets so much love. Everything about it felt sub-par to me. I was pretty happy with my surface, while it lasted anyway. Ended up with a defective touch screen that couldn't be replaced, so I just got a full refund (thank you extended warranty).
  - Varriount 5y ago
    For me, the big thing I've liked about the XPS is that it has a good balance of powerful hardware, weight, battery life, and looks. I especially enjoy the fact that it has a dedicated graphics card, since usually only gaming laptops have those. The only laptops with comparable specs (gaming laptops) are either too heavy, have poor battery life, or are just plain ugly. That being said, the touchpad on it is just barely "ok"-level and the webcam (on my older model) is just awful. The friction on the touchpad is so high my wrist becomes sore, and the webcam is located on the bottom of the screen (with a microphone on the bottom front edge near the trackpad!). Even though these flaws have required me to switch to a wireless mouse and external webcam, I'm still pretty satisfied. For my next laptop, I'll likely either buy the newest XPS model (the newer ones have webcams at a usable position), or try the Razor again (the one I previously tried had quite a small battery life). (I would love to know the series of events that led a high-end laptop to have a webcam placed at a position that is only optimal for looking up one's nose.)

evilduck 5y ago

Name them please, because I've looked and there seems to be a slew of compromises in every option that make them worse than a MBP.

travisporter 5y ago
Loving my XPS 13 running ubuntu since 2018. Trackpad is great and I still get enough battery life to use for browsing at work all day edit: sorry, I just remembered -- I did have to replace the SSD on this thing when it conked out in 2019! fortunately I bought it refurbished with a warranty of some sort and they shipped a new one fast.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  I have an XPS 15 of a similar age, and the battery has swollen to the point that it's pushing the trackpad out of the case.
- evilduck 5y ago
  Thank you for replying. I don't mean this as a dig at you or your choices but from a cursory glance that model has a significantly worse screen, a weird nose-and-finger webcam on the bottom of the screen, negligible price and spec differences (or probably a much worse value proposition compared to an M1 if you're ok with macOS and ARM), a touchpad which is pretty certain to be worse than Apple's, and a plastic body it looks like. I think it wins on port options, the aesthetics you could argue as personal preferences, and optioned up it has the potential for maybe a better screen and a digitizer but at that point it loses badly on price. It's not a bad computer, but it's clearly a compromise on several issues and not really beating Apple enough at the stuff it does better that would compel a switch from purely a hardware or value standpoint. I think it's fine if you wanted to avoid Apple or macOS for software reasons, but that's about it. I've also had a pretty good track record with Apple hardware lasting ages while I watch peers with PCs that drop like flies every few years. This is the point that many of us feel stuck with Apple. Every time I research Apple's alternatives I feel like I've wasted my time.
  - 5y ago

Octoth0rpe 5y ago

Not if you care about a good screen (which is a lot more than just dpi, though that's a big part of it). Not if you care about a good trackpad. Definitely not if you care about running *nix with full vendor support.

kcb 5y ago
Those requirements rule out Macbooks as well.

discordance 5y ago

We have a 2012 Macbook Pro 13" that's been handed down from me, to wife to kids. Incredible to think this machine is near 10 years old, and even with how much abuse it's been through it is still going strong. Although I don't think Macs between 2014 - 2019 are as well built (have had a string of issues with those), I haven't had any other PC/Macbook last as long as that 2012 MBP. Some of my old Thinkpads still work, but have coil whine, noisy fans etc.

jcuenod 5y ago
I'm still using my 2014 Lenovo (G50-70) as my daily driver. Upgraded RAM and SSHD (to an SSD) since then moving it from a 8GB / 512GB SSHD to 16GB / 512GB SSD. Both really worthwhile upgrades that have given this laptop legs I didn't expect it to have or need.