Windows vs MacOS laptops

[Bradley Prior]

Windows vs MacOS laptops

There are multiple Windows-based laptops which offer the same or better specifications than an Apple MacBook Pro at much cheaper prices.

 

[s0lar]

Misinformed headline, most buy Mac for the OS and associated productivity tooling. Us MacBook users most have a windows PC for gaming with way higher specs. It’s a work tool, not a gaming toy.

 

[system32]

While it remains to be seen how this chip performs against the Intel processors, the current MacBook Pro models using it are much cheaper than their Intel-based variants.

Already seen, no need to wait, the benchmarks are out for a while now.
The M1 demolishes all the laptops in TFA in terms of CPU and battery.

Just Google it.

 

[charlieharper]

Misinformed headline, most buy Mac for the OS and associated productivity tooling. Us MacBook users most have a windows PC for gaming with way higher specs. It’s a work tool, not a gaming toy.

Agreed.

I could never have the same productive workflow on Windows as I do with MacOS.

Worth noting, sure Apple is expensive, but what Core Group / iStore sells Apple products for are way more expensive compared to buying from Apple directly in the US, Malaysia or Singapore.

Some time ago I got a quote from iStore for the regular 16" Macbook Pro + 32gb RAM.... their quote came back something like R75,000.
Same model in Singapore (the worlds most expensive country btw), 32gb RAM and 1tb SSD (which I didn't include at iStore) would cost S$4400, which is like R49,000 on current exchange rate.

South Africa seems to be a terrible place to buy Apple products, possibly due to the fact that Apple isn't officially operating here.... or iStore buys their products at consumer prices from abroad and then resells them at a margin - unlikely, but possible I guess.

 

[Johnatan56]

Already seen, no need to wait, the benchmarks are out for a while now.
The M1 demolishes all the laptops in TFA in terms of CPU and battery.

Just Google it.

TFA?

This was because the MacBook Pro has a rather unconventional resolution that slots in between HD and 4K/UHD.


This resolution was not available on any of the laptops we found, which meant we had to step up to 4K in each instance.

There is a lot more to a display than pixels.
I still don't understand why 1440p isn't way more popular for 13" and 15" laptops, 4k the resolution is way too power consuming while always requiring pretty high scaling, while 1080p you can still recognize pixels, at 1440p you get most of the clarity of 4k with way less power usage.

I'm still wondering why the hp envy wasn't added to this lineup, it's probably one of the better ultrabooks in this range.

And as others have said, Apple's M1 chip has already been shown off, it's great in that form factor for probably most user's use cases.

 

[RedViking]

Both very good. Both very expensive.

Macbook Pro / Windows XPS15

XPS 17

Mac. Don't look at spec vs spec as Macbook generally seem to perform great for the software it runs, specially for multimedia. While a Windows machine with better specs might not always. Mac looks great. Mac have great resell value. Warranty and support questionable. Upgrading very expensive and limited option depending on region.

Dell. Brilliant quality and onsite warranty. 3-5 years if you want. More flexibility in terms of upgrades (mostly ram and hdd) at a lower cost. Better software support if in the Architectural industry.


I won't mind having both for different software and workflows.

 

[Johnatan56]

Both very good. Both very expensive.

Macbook Pro / Windows XPS15

XPS 17

Tbh, still don't get the comparisons, they're not really competing. We're at that point that most who can spend that already are in the MB or Windows ecosystem and most Windows laptops have been solid for a few years now, but Apple is having a problem with people jumping over to Windows instead over time now due to lack of innovation/major selling features. The M1 chip will probably be a major hit for them.

Mac shipments down 21% year-on-year in global PC market shrink | AppleInsider

Mac shipments declined in the first quarter of 2020, analysts claim, but while PC shipments overall went down by 8% year-on-year, Apple's annual decline in the PC market is more than double that of the global average.

appleinsider.com

If anyone has Q2 2020 numbers, would be nice, since that's when the global boom happened in PC sales, so Mac should have followed suit. Would also guess a lot swapped to the iPad, I do wonder how many who the M1 MacBook Air targeted were lost to it.

 

[RedViking]

Tbh, still don't get the comparisons, they're not really competing. We're at that point that most who can spend that already are in the MB or Windows ecosystem and most Windows laptops have been solid for a few years now, but Apple is having a problem with people jumping over to Windows instead over time now due to lack of innovation/major selling features. The M1 chip will probably be a major hit for them.
View attachment 986270

Mac shipments down 21% year-on-year in global PC market shrink | AppleInsider

Mac shipments declined in the first quarter of 2020, analysts claim, but while PC shipments overall went down by 8% year-on-year, Apple's annual decline in the PC market is more than double that of the global average.

appleinsider.com

If anyone has Q2 2020 numbers, would be nice, since that's when the global boom happened in PC sales, so Mac should have followed suit. Would also guess a lot swapped to the iPad, I do wonder how many who the M1 MacBook Air targeted were lost to it.

Both the Macbook Pro and XPS are great machines.

 

[Gazg]

Meh.......

 

[konfab]

Misinformed headline, most buy Mac for the OS and associated productivity tooling. Us MacBook users most have a windows PC for gaming with way higher specs. It’s a work tool, not a gaming toy.

Might have been the case a few years ago, but with WSL2, there is no reason for any developer to use an iProduct unless if they need to develop for the ecosystem.

As for the dedicated iTooling, they can keep it. When I used a Mac for my work, I did everything I could to stay away from the Mac applications as they are evidently designed for people with a double digit IQ.

Besides, best thing I have ever done is switch to a gaming PC for work.

 

[genetic]

Misinformed headline, most buy Mac for the OS and associated productivity tooling. Us MacBook users most have a windows PC for gaming with way higher specs. It’s a work tool, not a gaming toy.

This. I have my MacBook Pro for mobile productivity, and a desktop Windows PC for productivity and gaming.

 

[quovadis]

Apple Silicon *cough* ... Intel and AMD need to up the game or else they'll be going the way of the dinosaurs.

 

[Bryn]

What an absolutely awful article that will likely push people to make the incorrect buying decision for their needs. The current Intel-based 16" MacBook Pro is virtually obsolete at this point. A spec refresh is rumoured to be very close, and the 16" MBP will be relevant again once it has an M1 chip (or more likely, a successor to it or enhanced version of it).

What you should be comparing are the 13" M1 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. And you'll find that the value for money, especially the R20k MBA, is probably the best on the market. The speed, battery life, display quality, build quality etc. are phenomenal and handily surpass any laptop for R20k or less you can buy with Windows locally.

 

[s0lar]

Might have been the case a few years ago, but with WSL2, there is no reason for any developer to use an iProduct unless if they need to develop for the ecosystem.

As for the dedicated iTooling, they can keep it. When I used a Mac for my work, I did everything I could to stay away from the Mac applications as they are evidently designed for people with a double digit IQ.

Besides, best thing I have ever done is switch to a gaming PC for work.

Totally do not agree. I tried this for a few days. Found the windows experience clunky.

Also for a power user like myself not having access to things like the proc file system forced me to run win 10 and virtual box. Was not fun, felt like a square peg in a round hole trying to get simple things like wsl2 native docker to mount in win hypervisor. Possible but at a cost of my time and in turn productivity. This all elegant on OSX and just works (tm).

Each to their own in regard to the tooling.

 

[charlieharper]

What is cheaper in south africa except bear and wine?

Most things actually... except health care and tech.

 

[genetic]

What is cheaper in south africa except bear and wine?

Where do you buy bears?

 

[backstreetboy]

What an absolutely awful article that will likely push people to make the incorrect buying decision for their needs. The current Intel-based 16" MacBook Pro is virtually obsolete at this point. A spec refresh is rumoured to be very close, and the 16" MBP will be relevant again once it has an M1 chip (or more likely, a successor to it or enhanced version of it).

What you should be comparing are the 13" M1 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. And you'll find that the value for money, especially the R20k MBA, is probably the best on the market. The speed, battery life, display quality, build quality etc. are phenomenal and handily surpass any laptop for R20k or less you can buy with Windows locally.

Lol the article is geared towards pro users that'll want more than 1 free usb type c port (the other one is essentially a charging port).

 

[Bryn]

Lol the article is geared towards pro users that'll want more than 1 free usb type c port (the other one is essentially a charging port).

And Pro users aren't going to drop cash on the outdated 16" model. The ports on MBPs haven't been ideal for years already, so owners should know they need one of those snazzy expansion blocks that connects into both ports.

Considering the battery life of the M1 laptops, you will have both ports available nearly all of the time.

 

[TedLasso]

Having just spent the last week sorting out my wife's MBP, I honestly can't understand what is so great about MacOS. I made a time machine backup to the NAS, which was successful. Upgraded (fresh install) to MacOS Big Sur and then tried to get her data back from time machine . Nope not working can't use with big Sur. You would have thought they would at least allow you to open old versions. Thankfully, Had also made a backup of docs and desktop using onedrive.

Then told my wife that she should just use OneDrive as her doc storage location. Fsck knows what Microsoft has done with OneDrive client for MacOS. 8 hours later, only 6GB of docs downloaded out of 35GB. The Windows PC downloaded that in 2 hours.

Also what the F is wrong with Mac os , why are all emails saved as individual files instead of in a container like PST, etc ?

Anyway , gave up on OneDrive for MacOS and now anted up for iCloud 200GB storage. Seriously believe Apple ensures that other providers like Outlook and OneDrive don't work well on their OS. Told my wife, if she continues to want support on her tech, this is her last Mac and iPhone.

However, the hardware is amazing. She won't let me put win10 on it .haha

 

[SauRoNZA]

Having just spent the last week sorting out my wife's MBP, I honestly can't understand what is so great about MacOS. I made a time machine backup to the NAS, which was successful. Upgraded (fresh install) to MacOS Big Sur and then tried to get her data back from time machine . Nope not working can't use with big Sur. You would have thought they would at least allow you to open old versions. Thankfully, Had also made a backup of docs and desktop using onedrive.

The problem is most likely the NAS running an old version of Time Machine needs updating and hence it doesn’t interface with Big Sur.

Then told my wife that she should just use OneDrive as her doc storage location. Fsck knows what Microsoft has done with OneDrive client for MacOS. 8 hours later, only 6GB of docs downloaded out of 35GB. The Windows PC downloaded that in 2 hours.

Again, sounds more like a third party problem.

Also what the F is wrong with Mac os , why are all emails saved as individual files instead of in a container like PST, etc ?

Because massive files like PST’s **** the bed and get corrupted and duck themselves up all the time.

Anyway , gave up on OneDrive for MacOS and now anted up for iCloud 200GB storage. Seriously believe Apple ensures that other providers like Outlook and OneDrive don't work well on their OS. Told my wife, if she continues to want support on her tech, this is her last Mac and iPhone.

Quite honest doesn’t sound like she needed any support in the first place. All the problems were caused by your support.

Why did it need a clean install of Big Sur? That’s broken Windows logic right there.

None of the other issues would be present without your intervention.

Could it just maybe be that your lack of understanding is making it seem like it needs special support?

The fact that it’s taken a week kind of says it all...