I’m getting a laptop

I used to be in the "you'd be an idiot to pick the Mac" camp, but my opinion was based solely on the virtually 95% of computers at every company I worked for being Windows OS systems. Why buck the trend? Well after my personal Windows laptop slowed down to a crawl several times and each time I had to reinstall Windows and finally even with all the bells and whistles anti-virus I got ransomware that just could not be deleted, I tried a Mac and it's been perfect. I'm not a hipster I don't sit around the local coffee shoppe for hours looking bored and in angst at the same time, sipping my iced cappa-whatever with my earbuds plugged in doing nothing more than surfing the net. I'm a 62 year old IT guy. I use my Mac for work at home. I used it last two years getting my MFA, research, writing, thesis, and capstone. Zero 0 nada issues in 5+ years. No way a Windows-based computer would perform like that. Plus the litter bugger kinda knows what I want to do and goes ahead and does it. Like newly installed wireless printers. Any new device it detects. New apps. It is a machine built for people, not IT professionals. It's worth the additional costs.

 

BayouTiger, have you spent extended time with a PC since Windows XP days?

I think a late Windows XP update or Windows Vista made gesturing track pads standard for PCs. The perceived "advantage" in this area that you discuss went away at least 10 years ago. As for your statement about touch screens, it's honestly laughable. Don't mean to insult, but it's just funny that you feel that way. Nobody's forcing you to touch the screen. Why is even having it as an option such a "detestable" thing? Here's a great article (from 5 years ago!) that discusses the issue:

Why Doesn’t My MacBook Have a Touch Screen?

Yup. Windows bloating and slowing down was pretty much fixed in Vista. And starting with 10 it's comically simple to reset your computer to either a clean OS or a clean OS with keeping your data.

Currently with Windows 10, honestly probably starting with Windows 8, unless you're running specific specialist hardware, 90%+ of all users could re-install with little or no "digging for drivers".

 

FYI why have we spent 9 pages discussing computer purchase on an Audio Hardware forum. Most of the responses seem to be like mine and have little to do with audio and music.

 

Great thing about modern laptops is that most of them have good audio! It used to be that laptop audio or built-in audio for systems was poor and you had to get some kind of dongle or interface for decent sound. Not any more!

 

Question: I just realized that by my responses I'm contributing to this, but why have we spent 9 pages discussing the merits of computers and purchase advice, when most all of the responses have nothing to do with music and audio. This is an audio hardware forum. We do like to argue, don't we lol.

 

In that article there is plenty of objective evidence to show the zenbook is more powerful, and is almost 20% cheaper. Subjectively it was deemed better by the reviewer.

 

....and on and on and on and on and...........

 

tbh the OP has bought his laptop, so its not like the thread is being derailed, and someone searching for a question about laptops in the future might find the discussion useful.

 

I am typing this on a PC (Lenovo X1Carbon Gen5). I've owned The last Dell XPS 15 and 13, The Surface Pro 3 and 4, Two HP Envy's, an HP Spectre 360, and maintain a network of 20+ Windows 10 desktops as well as a dozen Server 2012R2 machines. I am very familiar with both platforms, I also have had every generation of MacBook Pro, as well as Mac Pro Towers and Trash Can, every generation of iMac and multiple Mac Minis. I am not invested in either Mac or PC as religious artifacts, but as tools.

I find the FUD on both sides to be pretty silly, Mac people think that Windows is the same as it was back in the XP or even Win8 days, PC folks think the all the old Mac stuff is the same (had a guy tell me the other day that he couldn't live with a 1 button mouse and hated that there were no logging or command line). They also think that Win10 now has all the features that make it equal to MacOS - unfortunately it has most of them in theory, but they just don't work as well. Search/Cortana is Ok, but not nearly as useful as Spotlight, Explorer windows can not do a decent preview, but not even close to QuickLook, Windows has multiple desktops, but not nearly as slick and smooth as Expose. OTOH MacOS is still limited a bit in the workplace with Active Directory and Group Policies.

The whole dongle thing with current Apple laptops is crazy overstated. I carry a stack of Dongles whether I am on the Mac or the Thinkpad and have for years. My wife is a more normal user and she has never once plugged in anything except a power supply to her MacBook. Same for my outside sales guys that have Surface Pro's They get plugged into their dock on the desk and that's it.

As to the touchscreen vs trackpad, yes the PC's have multitouch trackpads, but they are nowhere as smooth or useful as on the current MacBook Pro's, touchscreens are a personal preference, as are 2in1's. They are just not for me. Maybe detest is too strong a word. When I've had them they don't get touched except accidentally and that can be aggravating in the field. Hell my favorite trackpad implementation in the PC world is the Thinkpad with the buttons at the top . I don't use the eraserhead much (though I am glad it's there for when I do).

 

Objectively like a less bright, less colorful, lower resolution screen? Bigger, solid-state trackpad? For some people, the trade off of no fan and better ergonomics outweigh the "more power" argument, for some.

 

I tried Mac for 6 months and sold it, I found it unintuitive and managing photos with iPhoto was a mess !
Plus the random bug where the OS would just become inoperative, leaving me with a turning wheel and reboot as only solution ...

This plus some incompatibility with a few peripherals and software, I just had to get back to Windows.

This just to say that every user has a different experience: I like things that work from scratch without having to fiddle around, I don't want to spend hours doing technical stuff on my computer.

 

Curious how long ago that was. I've not seen such issues, but Photos is miles better than iPhoto was. That said, I barely use either, I used Aperture for years and then played with Lightroom, but am now moving everything to CaptureOne.

As I said before, these are tools, you should use the one that suits you best.

 

I find that the discussions after an Op's question has been answered are generally more interesting than the original topic. And yes in most of our worlds our PC is one of the most important piece of audio gear we own.


And I am always looking for the ultimate laptop. I will likely order an X1Carbon Gen6 soon and with quad core in the small form factor, I think it will be very close (My Gen5 is pretty awesome!) If they would find a way to offer a 16x10 screen, it would be damn near perfect. The Machine that Apple should have built. 2xTB3, 2xUSB3, HDMI, uSD slot, LTE, 2.5lbs, Carbon Fiber durability, and 14" screen in a 13" footprint. No Ethernet, but a connector for a dedicated dongle.

I'm running the onboard screen along with an LG 3440x1440 34" and a Dell 27" 4K via the dedicated TB3 dock and it's pretty damn nice (most of the time!).

 

If you need a more bright, more colourful, higher resolution screen then pay the extra ~ 20%. Having said that the human eye is hard pushed to notice any difference at those resolutions anyway. Re: the fan, not sure what your point is regarding that review/comparison. For some people the trade off of an apple icon outweigh the "more power" argument.

 

I should also say the requirement of "no fan" compromises power no matter what make laptop you go for. I assume that is a requirement as you use it as a media server, in which case there are other options if you are concerned about noise.

 

For most folks, any laptop made in the last 5 years is fast enough. I’ve used nothing but i7s but my next machine will likely be an i5 to minimize the fan.

 

I don't like the way the Mac iOS predicts what I want to do. I want to tell the OS where I want to put something, not where it thinks I should put it.

I also have no major issues with Windows. I have been using the same installation of Windows on my Vista laptop for the last 10 years! I'm using the same installation of Windows 10 on this desktop since W10 was released. If you want to go further, I installed it over Windows 7, and that had been in place since 2008. I never had malware screw up my machine, never had ransomeware, and everything just...works, as the Mac people used to say. I plug things in and they work.

A lot of Mac people haven't looked at Windows in years, so they don't know how far it has come along. Many Mac users still act like it's 2001.

 

Well, tell the moderators that this thread should be moved to the Off-Topic section.

 

The OP is a she, not a he. Since Mikaela has gotten her new laptop, perhaps this thread should be closed, but that is up to her and the mods. The thread is degenerating into little arguments and is veering off-topic, and most of us are guilty of that.

 

I'm not using it as a media server. I don't like a fan because I don't like it making noise when it's on my lap, when I'm surfing on the coach. If I need to do heavy-duty computing, I have a desktop.

No one pays more "for an Apple logo". I pay (actually not necessarily "more") because a better screen is really better. I look at it 100% of the time I'm using the computer! I pay for all-aluminum chassis, a solid state trackpad, the fastest SSD speeds available in any laptop. That's just the hardware. The software integrates better, in my particular usage.

What I don't understand is the pervasive "Apple buyers pay more for less and they're ignorant" attitude. No one goes into the Windows thread and calls people out because they're too stubborn to realize that the quality and software benefits of a non-Windows system. This is not a rhetorical question.

I have built more Windows desktops/servers over the past 20+ years than I can remember. I've had my fair share of both cheap and expensive Windows laptops. So I've seen the good, and the bad. I really wonder if anyone who hates on Macs has actually used them for more than a day?

One final anecdote: Last year, I got a 13" MacBook Pro for work. My company has 100K+ employees, and probably 95% of them use Windows. Whenever I see a coworker who notices I have a Mac, I often get the inevitable question: "How do you like it, I'm considering getting one for myself because this Dell/HP/Toshiba is a POS". We're on leases, so every employee can pick a new laptop every 2-3 years. So then we talk about the pros and cons of having Mac hardware/OS. Never have I had a coworker with a Mac tell me "This thing sucks, I can't wait to go back to Windows".

 

I LOLed.

 

It's going on nearly 20 years that 2-button mice have been compatible with Apple machines yet I get that comment every once in a while as well.

 

I’m a bit baffled by this. I’ve never had any of my macs try to make me put anything anyplace in particular. Unless you are ralking about the iTunes or photo databases. Then it’s for. Convenience, but you can set it up to put stuff wherever you want, but makes it very easy to screw it up. My recommendation to folks that don’t like the Photos apps is to make your own folder structure and just use Finder and Quicklook.

However one of the aggravation’s for Office 365 is trying to force you to save to OneDrive. You have to go out if your way to save locally.

 

I still hear comments from people: "I could never use a Mac, I need to use Outlook and other Microsoft programs".

To be fair, Office for Windows does have a few niceties, including 'recent docs' when you're trying to attach a file to an email, and more UI options when viewing your calendar + inbox at the same time. Minor quibbles. But I do believe Microsoft has said that the feature set/UI for Office for Windows vs. Mac is handled by disparate teams. Which is baffling to me!