Why I went back for Mac and why

Hi,

after stressing myself out for a while I finally concluded to go back to Mac, nobody asked for this thread and opinion, but maybe some of you like to have some guidance in choosing the best device for yourself.

What did I go for? A Macbook pro 13 from 2016, 512 GB storage, 16GB RAM, no touch bar!

For real power I got a desktop with a 8700k, 32GB RAM, GTX 1080ti

So, I sold my (still beloved) Macbook Pro Retina from 2013, I only had 8GB of RAM, I am using Virtual Machines a lot, so I went for a hunt last year, checking out the following devices:
- Alienware 15R3, GTX 1070, 7700HQ a.s.o - It ran hot, display was ok, but the tripod design on it caused it to have an uneven contact to the CPU die which I couldn't fix by any manners, I got rid of it
- Dell XPS 15 9560 4k - nice machine but the keyboard was mushy, trackpad was misaligned, bad speakers, coil whine

I took my decisions then and went for a MBP 15, 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage, Touchbar, for 3.300€ which is a lot of money. I used it for one year and noticed that I hated to use the touchbar, and for me especially, using vim a lot, the Escape key is crucial, mapping it to the Shift lock key didn't help a lot there, still hitting ESC on that damn touchbar, also during simple typing, I hit it, heard the "fault" noise a lot
The top of the nightmare started when I noticed that my screen is getting stains from the Keyboard, some of them even made scratches. And I used a cloth EACH time I used it, washed my hands before any usage, even dried them specially....

I thought for myself: Enough is enough, sell the damn thing, you are starting to hate the "features" of it way too much.

Did that, tried an Alienware again, 15R4, same issue, hotter processor, went back. Alienware 13R3 - very nice machine, but came with a nick on the bottom, out of the production plant...went back.

After much of reading and thinking I went for an XPS 13 9370, same specs as the MBP 15 before (of course with a i7 8550u, no 45W CPU. Loved it until I started to notice the flimsy USB-C Ports, even the charging cable falls out...the screen has very nice still images but has a big load of ghosting and scaling that screen in Linux is a nightmare (I need and want something Unix/Linuxish natively running) even with fractional scaling in Gnome, KDE scales nicer, but this was showing horizontal strange lines when typing in any text editor when scaled properly for that screen. Aaaand the ghosting

Bought a GS65, very nice, fast machine, a bit loud, but the casing was so terribly miserable, creaking even when just staring at it, trackpad was fine, keyboard too, I liked the screen, no bleed, no ghosting etc.

But if you are spending so much money, or at least me spending so much money: I want to feel it. I want to feel it in every detail. Yes Apple has keyboard issues, yes I hate the damn touchbar. I thought about buying a 2015 15 Model, but the price and the rather old CPU wasn't anything for me actually, not in 2018 (ok, the recent Macs are not on spec too now, but hey, that CPU is at least 3 years old)

Where were my choices? I want quality, something that works, something that can scale it's screen perfectly, something that has a good feel to is and that is stury, not creaking, software and gui wise - yeah I use Windows 10 on my Desktop, mostly for gaming or running linux for my VMs - scaling is easy, 27 inch @4k - double resolution - fine. But on notebooks things are not the same, and this is were Apple starts to shine:
Software which is working. Software that is working perfectly with the hardware. No issues, just start it up, put it to sleep, actually never reboot, because you don't need it.

I thought for myself - the cheapest model, not for it's price, but for it's simplicity, without the touch bar, is perfect. It's just a fine machine to use, nothing more, nothing less.

Ok, doing some VMs might take a bit longer, fine, but hey, I spend less time in finding THE device

I am not a fanboy, believe me, but for me it's the best device.

 

The best setup is a Macbook Pro and a gaming desktop. Gaming laptops are simply not reliable, and for the most part the average person isn't nearly as mobile as he/she thinks they are where a desktop would suffice. In fact some desktops (Gaming Desktops) have gotten so small that they themselves are nearly as portable as a 17 inch gaming laptop. For instance the Corsair One.

I've owned nearly 6 gaming laptops and have finally come to Mac and I couldn't be happier with the decision of going to that combo. I have yet to touch a notebook anywhere close to as reliable as my macbook pro, the additional features the macbook provides like sync with imessages and even phone calls make the macbook even better as a portable machine to use in bed or on the go.

 

Agreed, Gaming laptops are MEH. They are ugly for the most part, super heavy, always have heat issues and the list goes on. I would never want to game on a laptop. It's bad enough using a 24" screen on a desktop. I prefer to do other things on my notebook, and game using xbox and PS. As for the macbook, I cannot get with the macbook in any way in it's current form. They NEED to move towards the future and produce a 2 in 1 with touch and pencil support. I find myself constantly finger punching my macbook screen and nothing happening. It's crappy. Only then, will I move to a macbook. My dell computers are much more functional for what I do. I can edit videos and photos much faster on my dell with touch, I use touch SO MUCH that I cannot even use a windows computer without it now. It's infuriating.

 

Switched to a Macbook Pro in 2015 and never went back. I tried a few PC laptops (mostly Dell XPS and Latitudes) but nothing compares to a Macbook for everyday computing.

 

If you want a portable computer that works Macbook pro is the one. For me, I personally dislike Macs because of limited connectivity ports and less upgradeable parts.
Thinking of getting an old MBP 15 for my sis since her Lenovo which is barely used is sort of broken.

 

Water Cooling the Macbook 2015 - Increased performance or dead Macbook!?
Linus Tech Tips
Published on Jun 9, 2015
I'll admit - this is NOT an advised way of cooling your Macbook 2015, and you should NOT try it at home... But does it provide a tangible performance benefit?

 

Gaming laptop is more an aesthetic calling than performance guarantee / threshold.

A mobile workstation is practically capable of nearly everything a "gaming laptop" advertises.

A precision with a 980m installed doesnt just become a gaming laptop, but a laptop that can play games while retaining the build quality of its class.

Im not advocating this as a general rule, but an exception to what seems to be the consensus building up in the thread.

That said OP as long as you're happy with your machine then more power to ya!

I'd like to get a 2012 (?) macbook just to play with and familiarize around Apple but may never happen lol, life works in odd ways.

 

You guys must have bad luck with these gaming laptops. Every gaming laptop I have owned has been solid for the most part.

Then again I've owned Alienware M15x/M14x/M17xR3/M18x/M18xR2/13 R3/17 R1 and Clevo P570WM/P870DM/P870DM3. Only big heavy ones, not really any small light ones except the 13 R3.

I actually have a Macbook Pro right now too LOL. Late 2013 2.3Ghz i7, 16GB, 512GB SSD, nVidia Geforce GT 750M along with my M18xR2. Kinda given up on new stuff for now.

Macbook is pretty solid but I still prefer using my M18x. There's two apps only for mac I use, so I keep it around.

 

I've tried twice to get into having a mac as my laptop and leave my gaming on my consoles and desktop PC. But, for me I've had the opposite experience than you guys. I've had some great experiences with gaming laptops that anything less is beneath me. And they keep getting better. They're nearly as thin as macbooks these days and are alot more powerful. Mac still wins with build quality and their trackpads are the best you can get. But, I think the biggest barrier for me is the OS. I've been a windows user for my entire life. So over 25 years of being a Windows user. I'm definitely stubborn and just don't want to learn it. lol

If I was a content creator and made youtube videos I'd probably give Mac a serious look and try to learn Final Cut Pro.

 

I wish I could say the same, but after the debacle I had with the 2011 15" MBP, Apple has scorned me for life as far as computers go.

However, iPhone continues to be my mobile of choice as they happen to be the most powerful and secure phones on the market. There's a reason why iPhone brings in 73% of Apple's revenue (not sure if this figure remains accurate, this was circa 2015). From what I gather, Apple continues to push away its mac consumer base with horrible design choices.

Dell hands down has the best PC warranty. I paid 200$ for an extended warranty, my GPU failed, and they replaced with with a brand new computer 1 model year newer. Meanwhile, under Apple's recall program, I was disqualified from the free repair because my MBP had a dent in the case near the power jack. That kind of crap I find completely unforgivable.

 

Yep. That being said, my son broke his iPhone last year, and the “genius” on the phone quoted me the wrong price for the repair, after my phone was sent, he called to inform me of the mix up. He also advised me since he screwed up, I do not have to pay anything for the repair. I cannot complain about that.

 

You cannot be serious. I get the bad speakers, trackpad etc. argument, but keyboard and temperatures is not an argument for the macbook. The new keyboards are absolutely garbage and teh temperature on the macbook is insanely bad. It doesn't have proper cooling at all.

I have a macbook myself and honestly without the mods I did to it I am pretty convinced it would have died on me years ago. MacOS is a disaster as well, at least linux supports macbooks decently.





The list goes on, apples crapbooks are not worth the money. Your mistake was to go for a thin and light gaming notebook, you simply took the wrong route. Honestly go for a business class notebook and you'll never want to go back. You should give those beasts a shot.

HP for instance makes some extremely nice business class notebooks, which absolutely crap on macbooks in build quality, thermals, performance etc. They feel increadibly premium and are worth every cent, the support is absolutely amazing, and the notebooks are absolutely perfect for non gaming.

Macbooks are good for people who do nothing else but facebook and youtube. That's it. Despite modding my macbook I do not really want to do anything demanding on it because despite my modding the temps are downright scary and the logicboard is absolutely garbage.

 

Which Business class HP laptop(s) would you recommend?

 

None...I wouldn't recommend HP to my worst enemy. Pro grade, go Dell precision or lenovo thinkpad

 

Thinkpads. Dell should be last option these days because the cooling department is a disappointment on consumer and enterprise grade laptops.

 

WIthout budget, needs etc. there is no way to tell.

Personally I used a HP Zbook Studio G4 with a dreamcolor display and it was amazing. The machine feels extremely premium and is perfect for video and photo editing. However it comes with a pretty high price tag.

Lenovo and Dell are pretty meh compared to the zBook, however when you want most bang for the buck and look for something on the cheaper end, then it's probably more in direction of a Lenovo thinkpad, Dell should generally be avoided. Since 2015 they do an extremely poor job on creating new notebooks.

 

Budget is unlimited. I think the Z4 is good but not great. It’s battery is too small and that alone would kill it for me (there are cheap 15w CPU laptops with a higher capacity) - but there has also been mention of PWM and lack of Optimus (further draining battery?). Price wise I think it is a poor investment.

 

It has optimus.....The battery is 90WH battery which is quite big....

idk where you got your sources but it is clearly not correct.

https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-zbook-studio-g4-mobile-workstation---customizable-x5e42av-mb

SImply select 92.4H battery when purchasing.

however, if you need the color profiles etc. then this is important:

 

Looks like the options in my country are far more limited than that of the US site when I compared.

Whats your view on the G5?

 

If you're reffering to probook G5, i'd say it's pretty poop.

 

The new Zbook Studio G5 (8th gen model).

 

Sadly I don't have experience with the model. I'd have to do some research on it before having an opinion.

 

I would check temperatures beyond CPU. Apple laptops have always been notorious for being the hottest on the market with their enclosed design restricting airflow and ventilation, which explains why their mainboards experience premature component failure more often. Which they then just replace the entire mainboard with a refurbished board instead of spending 20 minutes to remove and solder on a new chip, mail your old board to get refurbished and continue the cycle. Unfortunately that ssd is soldered onto the mainboard so thats gone and if you don't have a backup 99 out of 100 times you will just be out of luck. A CPU running at 60c instead of 70c won't affect the lifespan of the CPU in any measurable way. A mainboard chip at 90c instead of 60c will likely fail much sooner. Without real ventilation dust and gunk just piles up inside that macbook even moreso than a well ventilated laptop. And a well ventilated laptop will pile up with **** that needs to be cleaned out every once in a while which depending on the model is either pretty easy or extremely easy to do.

And it generally makes sense why the cpu runs hotter from a performance or age point of view. 7700hq performs much better than the I5-7267U and draws more power. The current 8700 in laptops perform much better than the 8259U in the current macbook pros, and draws more power. and again it all comes down to cooling, a 8700 in a poorly ventilated laptop will run hotter than the 8259U because it's pulling a lot more power. You have a laptop like I have with an 8086k at 4.8GHz and I am chilling at 36c and prime 95 in low 70s because it is well ventilated. The 82xxU series chips look good from a data standpoint in comparison anyway, but performance in a macbook pro is considerably worse because the 8250 can't even keep a 3.4GHz clock speed for more than a few seconds because of thermal throttling, there is no way the 8259 could keep a 3.8GHz clock speed.

Image is of a i5-8250U running cinebench r15

 

Been using Mac Laptops from 12" PowerBook and on. For me, my personal workflow in MacOs keeps me coming back. My latest 2016 15" MBP Touchbar has been okay, but always keeping an eye out there. I do have an affinity for the Thinkpad line. Thinkpad X1 Extreme? MacBook Killer?

 

Meatyocre, There are many MacBook killers out there now. The thinkpad is a great device.

 

Oh, and through a lot you had to go through
Well, on loading cars, you certainly need a powerful machine. I think fresh MacBooks would do it, but the question is how do you deal with physical discomforts. I would suffer

 

Uh, Matthew Moniz video on YouTube with the 2018 MacBook Pro beating some pretty stiff PC competition in Adobe Premiere. Can someone explain to me how this can be?

 

Because it's doctored. I just watched numerous videos where the xps is faster than the 2018 mbp.

 

I feel better now. Thanks!

 

HA HA HA.....Too funny!

The best line is "I don't own a macbook or imac" meanwhile his profile photo shows him with a macbook pro on his lap. It was probably given to him by apple to use and return every year for a new one so they get youtube time. HA HA HA.