Are Apple laptops really the only one's that WORK?

[Yuki Core]

I have been on a hunt for a laptop, for light usage, mainly. But I sometimes use some advanced apps, but I have a desktop for that. Though it would be better to have an option, just in case.

I was looking at Chromebooks, great prices, but they seem to suffer from many issues, mainly the consistency of the newly implemented Google Play Store functionality. And there are other issues specific to some laptops. And they're quite slow, with limited functionality for advanced users.
A bummer.

Windows laptops are very much hit and miss. But most importantly the laptop experience suffers when using a laptop running Windows. Desktop processors handle everything just fine, but the mobile processors often struggle with just the OS. Plus the many inconveniences of using Windows OS in general.

I was unfortunate to purchase a HP Spectre X360, which I took months to send back for multiple RMA's, later to without solution had to give it all up. It had driver issues, the HP was not up to fixing, because apparently they move on to the next device, and completely forget about anything made before

Apple's are expensive, though I've never owned one. Are they really worth it. Is that really the only choice, if I want a stable and comfortable experience while using a laptop?

 

[captaincharisma]

Macbooks are never worth it unless you are looking for something that looks good and even then there are windows laptops that look better that are cheaper. but if that is what yopu are look for then look at dell's inspiron 15 line of laptops or lenovo thinkpads. but stay away from anything made by HP or acer

 

[Trender]

Nah I'd say there overpriced, using cheap intel processors with integrated graphics

 

[delaro]

HP Spectre X360 took "Years" To RMA? That launched in 2015 with Win 10 and it shouldn't have been to hard to fix if you do a little surfing, Win 10 has very few issues with drivers that can't be solved.

At this point Apple devices only differ from others with just the Screen quality and the OS which I personally hate. Mobile devices struggling with just running windows? Well if you pay $199 for one that might be the case but nothing I have seen about $800 has much issues at all unless your trying to run high res games at max settings.


This is a example
...........................
Apple 13.3" MacBook Air Laptop Computer (Early 2015) $800
1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 (Broadwell)
8GB of 1600 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
128GB PCIe-Based Flash Storage
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 6000

Vs

ASUS GL551 15-inch Gaming Laptiop [2014 Model] $730
i7-4720HQ 2.6GHz (Turbo up to 3.6GHz)
GTX 960M gaming graphic card
8GB RAM
256GB SSD Storage

You get much better hardware for the price and you will find this with nearly every Apple product. There are plenty of mobile devices out there that offer a great experience it just depends on what you are looking for?

 

[Rhinofart]

You guys should sell the stuff you're smoking.
To answer the OP. It depends on what you're doing, and what your definition of WORK is.
I have a 17" MBP that I bought back in 2010. It's NEVER crashed. I have had no hiccups on it at all. I use it for both of my professions.
IT pro (I have Oracle Virtualbox installed on this unit that I have a small domain running 2 x Windows Server 2012R2, 1 x Win7 1 x Win8.1 1 x Win10 1 x Kali Linux 1 x Tails and 1 x Sophos UTM)
Professional DJ - I use Pioneer Rekordbox to store my Music library, Cue Points, etc, and hook my MBP up to Pioneer DJM2000 Nexus and a pair of CDJ-2000 Nexus decks.
I've played many clubs and festivals, and guys who use windows based laptops for doing the same thing I do (on the DJ side) always crash. I've been playing in so many shows with other guys who run windows laptops who crash in the middle of a show. How friggin embarrassing is that!!! I always save the day, cause I have my MBP always on the ready to take over until they have sorted out their issues.
On the IT pro side of things, this puppy has been rock solid. The only thing I have done is change the cooling fans (thanks to dusty festival and club environments), bumped up to 16Gb RAM, and swapped my 512GB SSD out for a 2 TB one.

Haters gonna hate, but I love my MBP. When this thing finally dies, I will be replacing it with a brand new MBP in a heartbeat.

 

[Yuki Core]

Macbooks are never worth it unless you are looking for something that looks good and even then there are windows laptops that look better that are cheaper. but if that is what yopu are look for then look at dell's inspiron 15 line of laptops or lenovo thinkpads. but stay away from anything made by HP or acer

Care to expand on why You think I (or anyone else) should stay away from HP or Acer? Not that I don't agree with you, totally agree on the HP part, never had a HP product that worked without any issues at some point, often quite major.

Macbooks, well... they seem to be more reliable. And for laptop it's very important to have well optimized system, to reduce unnecessary drainage, because of background or foreground processes.

Nah I'd say there overpriced, using cheap intel processors with integrated graphics

They are priced high. Overpriced - depends. I think that well optimized functionality is almost priceless. However I would not calmly spend 2000€ on a laptop.

It bugs me very much how they often use generation hardware, but the thing is. It is usually implemented flawlessly, everything that there is, is there for a purpose, and always does what it is intended to do. On Windows machines they stuff a lot of good hardware, but it often fails to deliver a good overall experience, and the system doesn't work very well with all the hardware.

I will repeat, though, I haven't used Macbooks much. So I don't know how they hold up in daily usage.

HP Spectre X360 took "Years" To RMA? That launched in 2015 with Win 10 and it shouldn't have been to hard to fix if you do a little surfing, Win 10 has very few issues with drivers that can't be solved.

At this point Apple devices only differ from others with just the Screen quality and the OS which I personally hate. Mobile devices struggling with just running windows? Well if you pay $199 for one that might be the case but nothing I have seen about $800 has much issues at all unless your trying to run high res games at max settings.


This is a example
...........................
Apple 13.3" MacBook Air Laptop Computer (Early 2015) $800
1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 (Broadwell)
8GB of 1600 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
128GB PCIe-Based Flash Storage
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 6000

Vs

ASUS GL551 15-inch Gaming Laptiop [2014 Model] $730
i7-4720HQ 2.6GHz (Turbo up to 3.6GHz)
GTX 960M gaming graphic card
8GB RAM
256GB SSD Storage

You get much better hardware for the price and you will find this with nearly every Apple product. There are plenty of mobile devices out there that offer a great experience it just depends on what you are looking for?

Sorry, I meant months. There was a hardware issue, I believe. The audio would make "pop" sounds when system was under load, or the audio was suddenly played, or video's were skipped. It was annoying as hell.
The trackpad was absolute garbage. So large, yet so uncomfortable. Touchscreen was very underwhelming to use in Windows 10. The laptop often froze up.

Problem with powerful Windows 10 laptops is that they often draw too much power, and are very heavy. The system you compared air weighs 2.7 KG's, compared to Air's 1.45 KG
The Air can achieve 10hours and 20 minutes of Wi-Fi web surf, Asus can only do 1/2 of that. Almost the same battery capacity.

You guys should sell the stuff you're smoking.
To answer the OP. It depends on what you're doing, and what your definition of WORK is.
I have a 17" MBP that I bought back in 2010. It's NEVER crashed. I have had no hiccups on it at all. I use it for both of my professions.
IT pro (I have Oracle Virtualbox installed on this unit that I have a small domain running 2 x Windows Server 2012R2, 1 x Win7 1 x Win8.1 1 x Win10 1 x Kali Linux 1 x Tails and 1 x Sophos UTM)
Professional DJ - I use Pioneer Rekordbox to store my Music library, Cue Points, etc, and hook my MBP up to Pioneer DJM2000 Nexus and a pair of CDJ-2000 Nexus decks.
I've played many clubs and festivals, and guys who use windows based laptops for doing the same thing I do (on the DJ side) always crash. I've been playing in so many shows with other guys who run windows laptops who crash in the middle of a show. How friggin embarrassing is that!!! I always save the day, cause I have my MBP always on the ready to take over until they have sorted out their issues.
On the IT pro side of things, this puppy has been rock solid. The only thing I have done is change the cooling fans (thanks to dusty festival and club environments), bumped up to 16Gb RAM, and swapped my 512GB SSD out for a 2 TB one.

Haters gonna hate, but I love my MBP. When this thing finally dies, I will be replacing it with a brand new MBP in a heartbeat.

That's amazing. I would totally buy a Macbook, if there was a updated Macbook Air with USB-C ports and IPS panel. But they don't release it. Because apparently Macbook Pro's are making better profit for them.

The prices are very sad to look at. And at the same time you see the hardware is not the newest either. But they just seem to work, and you can actually spend your time to work productively, rather than mess with Windows problems.

I've been a Windows user for my whole life, only at times I have used MacOS, but I just see how it just glides through everything, hassle-free. It makes me sad. Windows probably can't evolve, because evolving would mean ruining the backwards compatibility.

Don't however get me wrong, it's not 100% bad with Windows, when you get it working it does just fine. But whenever a problem arises (and it most definitely will at some point), you will most likely will have a hard time resolving it.

Only reason, that I stick with Windows is - Price and Gaming. Otherwise I would have jumped into Apple world immediately.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you don't care about running games, or having lots of ports or easy to work on chassis or saving money, then Apple is a good pick in laptops. Then again a $400 basic laptop can do what a $1,000 Apple can so up to you really.

 

[Mendozer03]

I have a desktop pc, a laptop pc, and a macbook pro from 2013 and I'm on my mac 80% of the time. They aren't great for gaming, obviously, but they are extremely well built with a solid user friendly OS. If you treat it right, they'll last for years without any need for repair. Anyone who says macs are trash has probably never owned one. IMO they are worth the premium.

 

[Rhinofart]

I have a desktop pc, a laptop pc, and a macbook pro from 2013 and I'm on my mac 80% of the time. They aren't great for gaming, obviously, but they are extremely well built with a solid user friendly OS. If you treat it right, they'll last for years without any need for repair. Anyone who says macs are trash has probably never owned one. IMO they are worth the premium.

I've had mine in night clubs and festivals all over the world, and she's by no means been treated with the utmost of kindness, and she's still rock solid. I agree with you. I think they are worth the "premium".

 

[Yuki Core]

So...
Macs for comfort,
Windows for raw horsepower (But I don't personally think that you should buy a laptop for that, it loses the portability(weight) and battery life - the most important thing in a laptop)
Chromebooks for... both? but lacks options for advanced features and programs.

Anyone has experience with Chromebooks?

 

[Yuki Core]

I decided to purchase Xiaomi Air 12 laptop. I made a purchase for 450€ including shipping. Which, in my opinion, is a very good price for what it's offering.
Hopefully everything will work as intended.
4GB ram is too sad. But SSD is fast, and has 1 free slot for expansion.
CPU is just a tiny bit slower than that I had in the 1000€ HP Spectre. http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-5200U-vs-Intel-Core-M3-6Y30

 

[Yuki Core]

I've been using this laptop for about 2 weeks now. It's really great. I installed an additional PCI-E NVMe SSD.

There are few bad things I can say about this laptop. Even after searching the web right now, it's hard to find anything better, this light-weight, this good looking, with passive cooling, especially considering the price. I had to pay customs, so I've spent a total of ~550€ + 120€ SSD on this laptop.

To drag a few negatives out of this.
* Processor is not the greatest, but it does pretty well for light use.
* The trackpad is not as good as Apple's in OSX, but it's close, better than HP Spectre X360 by far. This has one of the best I've ever used
* Battery life is about 4-6 Hours
* You have to re-install the OS in English, and need a new license
* Audio is mediocre through 3.5 jack, and I have audio defects at high volumes for the speakers (But seems to one faulty speaker for my device, haven't seen anyone else complaining)
* Only 1x USB-C and 1x USB 3.0 ports
* 4GB RAM
* No media key shortcuts on keyboard

And that's about it. Otherwise it's the best laptop I've ever owned. I've spent way too much time trying to find a laptop, I've been looking for about 1 year now, reading news and reviews almost daily. I'm glad I chose this one.

I'm not sure why there isn't any other good laptops similar to this one. Well there are, but they're either bad or too expensive.

 

[jsmithepa]

Hope it works out for you.