[SOLVED] Help choosing a laptop

[Armagh88]

Hi all

HP ZBook 15u G6 15.6" FHD Touchscreen Mobile Workstation i7 or MacBook Pro with touch pad 2019?

My laptop has died. I had a HP Pavillion from 2014 which has an i5 processor. Anyway, I'm looking to upgrade for something reliable, durable and capable.

My main use for the PC is going to be for university work. Ideally I want something with 5+ hrs battery life and can run multiple programs at once. I'll be doing word processing, web browsing, emails, statistical analysis etc etc

I was set on the idea of getting a Mac book Pro 13" Touch pad. Then in work a colleague shouted "No! Do not fall into the apple ecosystem...it's not worth the money!" And then he introduced me to the HP zbook. Now I am unsure on what to get.

Windows annoys me with the constant updates. Infact I think one of the latest updates have caused me to have problems with my now dead laptop. The ridiculous amount of software with crap I don't need. The positives from W10 is that I am use to it although I do not like the interface. System crashes is another pet hate.

The Mac has its negatives and that is need to learn about a new OS. If I don't know how to fix or do something then I'm going to have to learn how to do it. Does Apple still do that "update" so you have no discs left on your SSD do have to upgrade or change it? The lack of customisation is about annoying but I don't think it is such a big deal. Then of course, is it compatible with Android phones? I have recently discovered that I can send links to and from laptops and mobile phones.

The positives with Mac book is that they seem straight forward to use. They have a 'clean' operating system. The design looks good and is functional - don't have to work about things breaking easily.

Which one do you think would be best or do you have any better recommendations?

 

[Lutfij]

Since your thread title was unnecessarily long, I sliced it down and added it to your thread body.

I'd pick either, IMHO. They both have options for one M.2 storage drive. You might want to read through this in case you'd like to pair your android phone to your MacBook Pro.

 

[Armagh88]

Since your thread title was unnecessarily long, I sliced it down and added it to your thread body.

I'd pick either, IMHO. They both have options for one M.2 storage drive. You might want to read through this in case you'd like to pair your android phone to your MacBook Pro.

Would it be more about price?

The HP comes in at about £1230 and the MacBook is £1299. However, I can use my student discount to get £129 off and as part of the offer apple still give me a free pair of Dr Beats headphones that I don't want. In total I could potentially be getting the MacBook for just over £1000.

I have contacted sales representatives at HP to see what they can offer.

Edit: HP have come down from £1230 to £1206.

 

[LordVile]

Would it be more about price?

The HP comes in at about £1230 and the MacBook is £1299. However, I can use my student discount to get £129 off and as part of the offer apple still give me a free pair of Dr Beats headphones that I don't want. In total I could potentially be getting the MacBook for just over £1000. Oh and obviously sell the beats because they are overpriced crap.

I have contacted sales representatives at HP to see what they can offer.

Edit: HP have come down from £1230 to £1206.

Don’t bother with the Pro get the air with more storage. For what you use a MacBook for (unless it’s video editing) the 13” pro only offers 4 cores bed 2 cores 4 threads on an air. Plus MacOS is so much better at resource management.

Personally I have a 256GB 8GB RAM MacBook Air and I haven’t had issue with it yet. I switched from barely using MacOS to using it as my general computing OS (I have a windows desktop for gaming) and I was up and running in less than a week, biggest issue is going to the top left to mess around with Windows lol.

Few more things, Windows laptops don’t come close to MacBooks mainly due to the OS not hardware and don’t install chrome because it spies on you, personally I’m using Safari for the main browser (why not) and Edge Canary for stuff that uses flash. Also don’t know what your phone state is like but if you’re due a swap I would consider the Mac + iPhone combo as it is rather magical, I can start typing an email on my phone, decide it’s going to be too long for a phone, flip open my MacBook and just carry on the same email from there. Same with texts, safari etc. Plus being able to text people on my laptop without having to pick up my phone is great too.

 

[Armagh88]

I had an online chat with some folk art Apple and we were discussing what specs I wanted. I said I was happy with i5/16GB RAM and so on. It got to the checkout and I was told it won't be ready for 2-3 weeks because of the additional ram wanted. I thought about it briefly and then went back to the HP laptop and exercised a bit of common sense.

The HP had an 8th gen i7, it has 16gb ram and very good graphics card. The storage was better and so was the connectivity. It has W10 pro meaning I can run Linux on it if I ever wanted to. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the price. It was at £1230 and I phoned HP told them I was a student and they said the workstations are not aimed at students. However, I told them I was considering a MacBook and wham, the came down £60. I told them that wasn't good enough to pursuade me and eventually they took off £130.

Apple on the otherhand were offering 10% discount with a pair of headphones worth £300 (but I don't want them and would have only really got to sell them for £150). The laptop with an i5 processor and 16GB RAM would have cost £1499 before the 10% off and headphones.

While taking to Apple I had a last minute think about my decision to buy a MacBook. Don't get me wrong I like the design of MacBooks and I do regard them as well built machines. However, the price and specs on offer with the HP were difficult to resist. The MacBook lost me on its long wait times for RAM upgrades and delivery, the poor choices for connectivity, the fact I have to buy an adapter to use USB drives, the lack of android connectivity, reported issues with keyboards (granted that isnt a general issue), no offence to anyone who uses them, they just seem bland from a customisable perspective - apple dictates how your device is setup.

Windows updates - while they annoy me, they are necessary but I'm not going to be on my computer every minute of the day so I'll schedule them in at convenient times. There are still a lot of little annoying things about W10 but there are a lot more enjoyable things to.