MacBook or windows laptop purchase advice
Discussion
Scrumplet the elder’s ancient windows laptop has finally given up on life so time to purchase a new one.
She is hoping to go to university next year so it will hopefully see her through her studies.
I am okay with understanding windows laptops and have narrowed down the choice to a few at about the £500 mark with 14inch screens, i3 processors, 4 or 8GB and 256 SSD.
She however would like a MacBook. Here is where I am out of my depth. It looks like over twice the price, even the Apple refurbished store prices start at almost £1000.
I would rather she stays with windows, because I can help fault find, she has a lifetime copy of Office for windows and the purchase price is a lot more palatable.
Help me understand MacBooks, which one to go for and where best to purchase.
Also any pointers to good deals on suitable laptops would be welcome.
TYIA
She is hoping to go to university next year so it will hopefully see her through her studies.
I am okay with understanding windows laptops and have narrowed down the choice to a few at about the £500 mark with 14inch screens, i3 processors, 4 or 8GB and 256 SSD.
She however would like a MacBook. Here is where I am out of my depth. It looks like over twice the price, even the Apple refurbished store prices start at almost £1000.
I would rather she stays with windows, because I can help fault find, she has a lifetime copy of Office for windows and the purchase price is a lot more palatable.
Help me understand MacBooks, which one to go for and where best to purchase.
Also any pointers to good deals on suitable laptops would be welcome.
TYIA
Nope - cannot make the decision for you. But....
In favour of a Mac Book
Latest Air, starting at £999 - I'd have one in a flash
Will last 5-6 years easily through rugged construction and updatable OS and apps.... that's coming down to <£200 per annum... now we're talking value
Battery life on new version should be brilliant
More than powerful enough - even if you put a heavy duty video editor on it. which means it should be quite future-proof for your average applications even if they become bloated. And a punchy Strat up and get productive experience
They've got nice keyboards to use (back again)
Easy and plenty of You Tube tutorials on how to do stuff
Comes with all the "stuff" you need to get going anyway - no going out to get other software, but easy to access more if needed
If you're in the Apple system, the compatibility is great - so hand off to what's going on on iPhone etc is brilliant. OK so the more geek and get compatibility working across anything, but Apple is set up and forget
But, if you were going to tinker around going away from Apple apps and have needs that are only on Windows - nah don't go there
But I've got everything Apple and am caught in the Apple Quicksand to be fair....
More balanced criticism will come along - and some haters - any minute now...
In favour of a Mac Book
Latest Air, starting at £999 - I'd have one in a flash
Will last 5-6 years easily through rugged construction and updatable OS and apps.... that's coming down to <£200 per annum... now we're talking value
Battery life on new version should be brilliant
More than powerful enough - even if you put a heavy duty video editor on it. which means it should be quite future-proof for your average applications even if they become bloated. And a punchy Strat up and get productive experience
They've got nice keyboards to use (back again)
Easy and plenty of You Tube tutorials on how to do stuff
Comes with all the "stuff" you need to get going anyway - no going out to get other software, but easy to access more if needed
If you're in the Apple system, the compatibility is great - so hand off to what's going on on iPhone etc is brilliant. OK so the more geek and get compatibility working across anything, but Apple is set up and forget
But, if you were going to tinker around going away from Apple apps and have needs that are only on Windows - nah don't go there
But I've got everything Apple and am caught in the Apple Quicksand to be fair....
More balanced criticism will come along - and some haters - any minute now...
I have a six year old MacBook Pro .
It is in use all day every day .
It performs as well as the day it was first fired up.
We are a Mac family .
2 iPhones , 2 iPads , 1 MacBook Pro , 1 iMac.
Never had a problem with any of them !
Perhaps we are just lucky or perhaps they are just quality products ?
Regards
It is in use all day every day .
It performs as well as the day it was first fired up.
We are a Mac family .
2 iPhones , 2 iPads , 1 MacBook Pro , 1 iMac.
Never had a problem with any of them !
Perhaps we are just lucky or perhaps they are just quality products ?
Regards
Compared to the Wintel platform, even the entry level Macs have a fairly decent spec and will last a long time.
I'm another one who only uses Mac/Apple. My day job sees me working with multiple operating systems and different hardware platforms but at home, I only use Mac... It's just easier.
As for MS Office, it is available on the Mac. I personally don't like the subscription approach to the licensing these days, so I'm still using a copy of Office for Mac 2011. Unless MS change the licensing structure (which they won't) my next move will be to Libre Office, when I upgrade to Big Sur.
HTH
M
I'm another one who only uses Mac/Apple. My day job sees me working with multiple operating systems and different hardware platforms but at home, I only use Mac... It's just easier.
As for MS Office, it is available on the Mac. I personally don't like the subscription approach to the licensing these days, so I'm still using a copy of Office for Mac 2011. Unless MS change the licensing structure (which they won't) my next move will be to Libre Office, when I upgrade to Big Sur.
HTH
M
Depending on your daughter's Uni you may well find that both Windows and Office are free for student use, eg. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/services/software-hardwa...
We're a Mac family but my daughter thought that Windows would be easier for her course work, so went for a Dell XPS 13 which is still going strong on her second degree course. Check the Dell refurb store for deals. Something tells me that if you buy a laptop for £500 you may end up paying for a second one before she graduates
We're a Mac family but my daughter thought that Windows would be easier for her course work, so went for a Dell XPS 13 which is still going strong on her second degree course. Check the Dell refurb store for deals. Something tells me that if you buy a laptop for £500 you may end up paying for a second one before she graduates
Dell and HP make some nice laptops but absolutely ruin it by installing Windows. Microsoft really have screwed up and ignored the core function of an operating system and instead hog your disk with unnecessary update files, screw your cpu with various things like the indexing service. They ruin what could have been a reasonably good interface, and that's before you get onto the security issues. You also need a lot more cpu and memory to run Windows than macOS.
Apple Intel hardware is better but not especially so, but the new M1 chip devices are going to be fantastic. Couple that with a sensible, useable and reliable operating system and you've got a really great experience.
Apple Intel hardware is better but not especially so, but the new M1 chip devices are going to be fantastic. Couple that with a sensible, useable and reliable operating system and you've got a really great experience.
miniman said:
Once you’ve had Mac you’ll never go back.
This is very true. Ease of use and reliability are far ahead of any Wintel machine. I bought my first Mac in 1990. The only Windows machines I’ve had have been issued by my employers, and none has been as reliable as the Macs. The kids are using my 2011 model for school work and it’s still going strong and performing well.Agree with most of the above. I dont do too much heavy usage, the odd bit of photo/video editing but nothing too much. Mainly internet stuff and google docs but I got fed up with windows stuff a long time ago. I always got pissed off with the 'bloatware' they came with and always felt like they were struggling after a year or two.
Mrs treated me to a MBP back in 2012 so it's 8 years old now and it's still performing as well as the day I bought it. Even the battery still lasts a decent amount of time. I couldn't imagine going back to a windows PC, the few times I've used them everything feels like a faff on it, ctrl-alt-del everytime it s
ts itself. I don't think my mac has ever needed to be rebooted.
They're certainly not cheap but they last well in my experience and they always seem to run quicker than the equivalent windows computer running the same hardware.
Mrs treated me to a MBP back in 2012 so it's 8 years old now and it's still performing as well as the day I bought it. Even the battery still lasts a decent amount of time. I couldn't imagine going back to a windows PC, the few times I've used them everything feels like a faff on it, ctrl-alt-del everytime it s
ts itself. I don't think my mac has ever needed to be rebooted. They're certainly not cheap but they last well in my experience and they always seem to run quicker than the equivalent windows computer running the same hardware.
Another vote for a MacBook, I have just got the new MacBook pro and its very good but my previous MacBook air was still as fast as new for 8 years - unfortunately it wasn't waterproof!
I run Parallels when I have to use a windoze program like AutoCad and it works faultlessly as a virtual machine and you just swipe sideways to go back to the mac screen.
I run Parallels when I have to use a windoze program like AutoCad and it works faultlessly as a virtual machine and you just swipe sideways to go back to the mac screen.
Currently using a 2106 MacBook Air that’s still going great, (had a new battery but that was my fault) will do the Big Sur update overnight, still have my 2008 MBA & although it won’t update anymore still gets used for running audio occasionally, before that a white MacBook and Clamshell before that so I’m fairly familiar with them.
As someone said above only ever had windows laptops form work apart form a Samsung netbook I use for diagnostic software and the difference is staggering, I like the stability and lack of fannying about, best bit is the connectivity, the fact that laptop/phone/iPad/ TVs all just work with each other.
Only thing I’ve been disappointed with is AirPods, been through two sets, one under warranty, one not and now they are failing I’ve replaced with B&O E8
As someone said above only ever had windows laptops form work apart form a Samsung netbook I use for diagnostic software and the difference is staggering, I like the stability and lack of fannying about, best bit is the connectivity, the fact that laptop/phone/iPad/ TVs all just work with each other.
Only thing I’ve been disappointed with is AirPods, been through two sets, one under warranty, one not and now they are failing I’ve replaced with B&O E8
miniman said:
Once you’ve had Mac you’ll never go back.
I did 
(After 15yrs using Macs, and forever before that on Windows (/DOS 
)).Mainly because I hated the keyboards on the new ones and was fed up with the price increases. I was also getting peeved with the incessant software updates
After a few false starts I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon. It's a great machine with an excellent keyboard. Very pleased with it (but they aren't cheap - any decent quality machine isn't).
Mac have now changed from the butterfly keyboards and the new Airs seem like good value now. As and when it becomes time to change (hopefully a good few years yet) I'll take another look at them. But the choice is no longer the shoe in it once was for me.
IMO the difference between MacOS and Win10 (Pro, not Home) is negligible - each has some things better than the other, but generally they are much of a muchness. That was also not the case 20yrs ago and the then new OSX was streets ahead of Windows. Times change.
seveb said:
Dell and HP make some nice laptops but absolutely ruin it by installing Windows. Microsoft really have screwed up and ignored the core function of an operating system and instead hog your disk with unnecessary update files, screw your cpu with various things like the indexing service. They ruin what could have been a reasonably good interface, and that's before you get onto the security issues. You also need a lot more cpu and memory to run Windows than macOS.
Apple Intel hardware is better but not especially so, but the new M1 chip devices are going to be fantastic. Couple that with a sensible, useable and reliable operating system and you've got a really great experience.
Dell and HP sell laptops with Ubuntu Linux pre installed. Apple Intel hardware is better but not especially so, but the new M1 chip devices are going to be fantastic. Couple that with a sensible, useable and reliable operating system and you've got a really great experience.
plasticpig said:
seveb said:
Dell and HP make some nice laptops but absolutely ruin it by installing Windows. Microsoft really have screwed up and ignored the core function of an operating system and instead hog your disk with unnecessary update files, screw your cpu with various things like the indexing service. They ruin what could have been a reasonably good interface, and that's before you get onto the security issues. You also need a lot more cpu and memory to run Windows than macOS.
Apple Intel hardware is better but not especially so, but the new M1 chip devices are going to be fantastic. Couple that with a sensible, useable and reliable operating system and you've got a really great experience.
Dell and HP sell laptops with Ubuntu Linux pre installed. Apple Intel hardware is better but not especially so, but the new M1 chip devices are going to be fantastic. Couple that with a sensible, useable and reliable operating system and you've got a really great experience.
Murph7355 said:
I did (After 15yrs using Macs, and forever before that on Windows (/DOS )).
Mainly because I hated the keyboards on the new ones and was fed up with the price increases. I was also getting peeved with the incessant software updates
After a few false starts I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon. It's a great machine with an excellent keyboard. Very pleased with it (but they aren't cheap - any decent quality machine isn't).
The software update comment is surely a bit ironic? A slight exaggeration perhaps but lately my Windows Pro ThinkPad T14 seems to need to do a restart to install some update or other most days. (After 15yrs using Macs, and forever before that on Windows (/DOS )).Mainly because I hated the keyboards on the new ones and was fed up with the price increases. I was also getting peeved with the incessant software updates
After a few false starts I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon. It's a great machine with an excellent keyboard. Very pleased with it (but they aren't cheap - any decent quality machine isn't).
Cost-wise, though, Lenovo machines at this level aren't going to help the OP - he might as well get the Mac his daughter wants.
Scrump said:
Thanks for the replies.
A clear consensus for Mac.
Looks like I may have to put my hand a bit deeper into my pocket.
Is it worth waiting a few days for Black Friday? Do Apple do Black Friday discounts?
I'd wait a few days just because they're literally brand new so I'd want to see some reviews and wait for any immediate gremlins to be be highlighted but that's just me.A clear consensus for Mac.
Looks like I may have to put my hand a bit deeper into my pocket.
Is it worth waiting a few days for Black Friday? Do Apple do Black Friday discounts?
I'd be surprised if there were discounts but in a very unusual year for retail I'm pretty sure if I didn't absolutely need it now I'd be waiting too.
Scrump said:
Is it worth waiting a few days for Black Friday? Do Apple do Black Friday discounts?
No - not on the latest models just being releasedEducation discount is your potential friend. Otherwise consider:
a) not skimping. Get the latest for longest possible enjoyment and replacement cycle, or
b) refurbished - which are just last years' models boxed up and absolutely as good as new and with same aftercare, direct from Apple (search at the bottom of an Apple page for "Refurbished and Clearance"), or
c) hang around and see if you can get a discount (but possibly not on the very latest models) from the likes of Costco etc - some good deals pop up from time to time, but do you want to hang around waiting, or just get the best/latest for your money now, see above?
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff