Why A PC Diehard Bought A (Used) MacBook Pro (Op Ed)

[burkhartmj]

All of you are dicks, seriously. He bought a computer. Get over it. Maybe he was shedding light on being open minded. Not close minded idiots who aren't ok with something that they don't like.

Sure there are people here being dicks, but this article wasn't well written enough to shed light on anything. I have no clue why he bought a Macbook Pro, the only real reasons he put forward was that it was better than his Surface RT [duh], he's "fed up" with MS and their products, without giving any reasons or examples, and that the MBP feels 'special' and has some mystical force.

If you love your Macbook Pro, more power to you, but don't write an entire article about it without giving even a shred of explanation, especially on a site geared towards other platforms. This also goes for everyone who keeps saying to get off his back because he likes his MBP. He wrote an article and put it on Tom's Hardware, it's explicitly game for criticism.

 

[stevenrix]

I had a Mac Mini, that I paid top dollars 2 years ago, and I HATED and I sold it.

 

[Christopher Gehlke]

why not just buy a asus ultrabook? they are sleek, slim and built well. some of them even come with a free year of accidental warranty and zero bright dot guarantee on the LCD. Apple's macs are just PC's but with proprietary hardware. They still use intel chipsets and cpu's, UEFI bios's (which PC's have now). I had one of the asus ultrabooks, it had an aluminum metal palmrest and it was virtually indestructable. Apple charges way to much for their products. I know of a guy who was fixing a 27" iMac (late 2011) and the LCD connector on the board busted. Guess how much that motherboard is to replace? 600$!!. It's just stupid to spend money on something that isn't worth it. PC's can run OSX just as good if not better.

 

[Nashten]

I don't get the point to this article. I mean, I do, but I don't. The way the author went about his journey before ending on the MacBook is flawed in the very least and what I got from it is this:

"I bought a Windows RT Tablet knowing that it wasn't a full Windows experience, and I bought it knowing it was a tablet and not a PC... then I had a really bad experience with it and decided to hate Microsoft and Windows because of my own mistake in choosing products."

If you write for a community such as Toms, shouldn't you at least know what you are getting yourself into with every tech purchase? The Surface Pros are fantastic devices, albeit expensive. Better yet, getting a nice used PC laptop also works. A used Dell Latitude off Ebay for $300 - 700 will convey the same point as the MacBook: Quality and durability, but with the "perk," if you will, of being a Windows machine and you'll still be able to get work done. My Latitude with the extended battery can pull off 7 - 9 hours of battery life in school.

Either way, an article like this shouldn't be on the front page of Toms. Definitely in a dedicated section for user opinions and stories, though. My paranoid side had the momentary thought: "How much did you get paid to advertise Apple and your glowing experience with them?"

 

[burkhartmj]

I agree that MBP's are over priced for their specs but try finding a laptop that is 2kg or less, 14-15', backlit keys and most importantly, a good trackpad. Bonus if you can find a program like BetterTouchTool. And i'm in the market for a new laptop so i'm seriously open to suggestions.

At the moment I run a 15' macbook and built a PC desktop for gaming. I bought a MSI GS60 2QE in Dec which is about the same price as the latest MBP 15' but sent it back because the trackpad was rubbish and had horrible screen bleed. Now i'm looking at getting the new Razer blade when it's released in Aus, but if that turns out to be lacking, I really can't find any other laptops that meet my requirements.

A direct competitor from Dell would be the Dell XPS 15.Other than hard drive, it seems to match the MBP 15 on every front, plus it has a touchscreen, all for the same price [lowest tier version is 1080p, not a direct comparison]. I didn't spec it out, but another competitive Dell would be the Precision M3800. Looks comparable in most specs, while actually being notably lighter than the Macbook Pro.

 

[Nashten]

In addition to my original comment: I had a MacBook Air once upon a time as my mobile writing machine. But then I sold it to upgrade to a Thinkpad W520 for "mobile" architectural design and whatnot. The Thinkpad doubled as my writing machine as well. But then I sold it and built my workstation PC.

Now I have an iPad for internet and ebook use while out and about and a Nexus 5. By no means am I prejudiced in the Windows/OS X departments.

It was a fun transition in my life. My writing while out and about is done exclusively by fountain pen now. I type my documents out on the workstation.

 

[SkeeteRX8]

Linux Mint + used think pad W500= everything this guy wanted for 400 less.

 

[godmodder]

Could have gotten a brand new surface pro 3 for just a bit more. The i3 version is just 800 bucks here

 

[CGarison]

The MacBook Pro price is right in line with the high end ThinkPads so to me, it was not a hard choice to pick up a Mac to go with my PCs when my employer decided to start producing iOS products.

 

[Solandri]

I'm sorry, but if Apple can't even get something as simple as a txt file right, I'm not interested.

The problem is, the "right" format depends on the originating system. OS X is based on FreeBSD, which like all other Unixes uses LF to indicate a new line. Windows uses CR + LF to indicate a new line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline

Any decent text editor will let you flip between these modes (and others, like unicode) to allow it to display any format correctly. Unfortunately, the notepad app included with Windows is not a decent text editor. Try Notepad++ or PSPad.

 

[Guest]

This is textbook shilling.

 

[2jzmoe]

I would of just gotten a decent laptop with the money, put Linux on it, and have a few more years of good use out of it.

 

[DavyJ]

"I wanted a sleek, durable MacBook Pro. Knowing that Apple products are very well-manufactured and seem to last as long as you need them to..."

Uh... okay? Good luck!

 

[LiquidAMD]

Disclaimer: Due to its content, should not be read by anyone! Better still- delete!!

HP ProBook+, Dell Latitude+, Toshiba Satellite Pro+, Thinkpad (some series) superior to any Apple from similar timeline dollar for dollar. After all, we are talking about factory fully assembled options and not customised builds.

Win 7 + Win 8.1 superior to anything from Mac too. As a 'PC' gamer my bias is clear, Apple will never top any benchmark scores as long as MS remains the top 3 content facilitators (including Google) and the PC master race remains Wins not a Mac.

The only reason in my book people buy the apple book is for the gratification of recognisability that other people afford them seeing them carry Apple devices. It's a subconscious social acceptability flocking mentality. The lack of true individual (not outwardly perceived) expression that Apple makes one suffer these days is nauseating. I am forever happy to have my custom hardware Windows experience and I will always thank MS for it. Apple is for moneyed up bottom feeders and I cringe internally at the obvious lack of content in the top shelf of Apple users because for what it allows them to do- 'it just works'.

My disdain is for Apple, not their users- Apple is the enabler. Their success into the future is still guaranteed. I would have loved to own some Apple stock 15 years ago and still maintained the same viewpoint. Comes across as hypocritical- for sure. They are the commercial benchmark and for that have my support. MS will always have my product dollar in the PC industry, Apple can give me some of theirs to spend on the MS ecosystem!
This is a subjective rant all said at the end of the day, just like the article itself

 

[slyu9213]

I got my Macbook Pro when I couldn't find a buyer for my PS4. Traded over my PS4, Accessories & Games for a 1 year old MBP with an i7 (only IGP), 8GB of RAM. I love it for what it is. A non-flashy, elegant laptop with OSX. The simplicity of the OS, the uber touch/mousepad, less security issues/updates all go well for non-gaming uses. Additionally with this I have access to Mac only software without having to go to my University campus or putting a hackintosh together.

That being said I don't think any of Apple's product is worth it's full retail price. There are too many better/powerful options for Windows based PCs. Also the rare times I find a bug/issue with my MBP I hate the limited access I have to the computer hardware/setting (BIOS)/OS, etc. OSX feels as closed as iOS, while Windows is like Android. More customizable choices. I could sell this a year or two later and still get $500-600 at least which is enough for a new console, a top of the line graphics card, decent/good monitor, etc.

I love Macs for their aesthetic/quality look (design,aluminum,screen), simplicity for general use, fairly good battery life, brand power, Final Cut Pro, etc. #1 reason = touchpad. I can honestly work with the touchpad on the MBP and use Photoshop, etc., with the line/pen tools almost as efficiently with an actual mouse. Can't say the same about any non-macbook laptop I have ever used/tested. No laptops scrolling feels and works as smooth as the MBP/MBA any time I mess with my laptops or any laptops at electronics stores.

I love building my own Windows based desktops and Windows based laptops for their power vs price, more control over the OS and system, lots of program compatibility.

.:edit:.

Also PC Diehard & FX 6300 doesn't seem to go together that well. I guess you can be a diehard fan with budget parts though. I mean I am/was the same way

 

[06yfz450ridr]

i will never own a mac never, they seem to run forever though but for what you are getting you can get a much better pc.

for me macs are horribly un user friendly, trying to do anything IT related on a mac takes me 20x longer.

and the whole macs dont get viruses thing haha sure. it has changed, yes at one point that was almost true but now it is not.

 

[Reepca]

I can identify with the author, since I have done the same. I have run both mac and pc side by side for quite some time. I just find mac requiring less maintenance an generally out of the way. Only when I need demanding hardware that my mac can not handle I fire up my big bad pc, My experience has been that for productivity the simplicity of mac i just better for most folks. Specially the less technically inclined.

P.S. I bought my 79 year old father macbook air, because he was looking at mine with appreciation. He picked up using it in 2 days. Took him months to start using a pc comfortably about 12 years ago.

Much of the knowledge gained from using a pc can easily apply to using a mac. It's like comparing the difficulty of someone learning a language at age 20 with no prior knowledge of any language whatsoever to the difficulty of someone learning a second language after spending their entire life conversing in English. Also, if he was looking at yours prior to the purchase, he probably picked up a decent amount of the needed information in advance.

That said, good for him.

 

[ludikraut]

I did the same thing about a year and a half ago - bought a used MacBook Pro (i7, 15" screen). It's a great notebook, and I figured I'd give OS-X another chance after ditching it in favor of XP about 10 years ago. But guess what, after the initial new-gadget excitment wore off, I realized that, other than running a bunch of Linux and Windows VMs, I had no use for the thing, and so it sits collecting dust. I just can't get used to the clunkiness and idiosyncrasies built into OS-X. As far as a Windows 7/8.x alternative it's simply a non-starter. I find that if anything some Linux variants are starting to close the gap to Windows (as I'm typing this on a Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon VM on a Windows 8.x host). If Microsoft gets too cloud-happy, I know where I'm going ...

l8r)

 

[codo]

advocating apple is a great way to make sure no one ever takes your tech opinion serious again.
I have my surface pro 3 for when I'm away from my desktop, a 1-2 punch that's near impossible to beat

 

[BadBoyGreek]

There's a reason why PC still dominates the desktop / laptop space. 'Nuff said.

 

[ET3D]

I'm not an Apple hater by any means, but I agree, this article feels rather pointless. It's tl;dr is: I decided to buy a Mac and I like the aesthetics. And that's pretty much all there is to it.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Though this article does not give actual reasons as to why the writer purchased a Macbook Pro, its comment section quite amply showcases the personalities that frequent this site, which was perhaps the writer's intention?

I think the comments to take note of are the ones directed at the quality of the article, and the fact that some people that commented on that, are/were regulars here. Its more like a post you would find in the forums section of someone expressing the thoughts of a hardware purchase. If it was to trigger personalities of mac haters, then the Forum is a better place for a poorly justified article. I actually read it and just closed my toms hardware tabs i had open, i was truly shocked.

This is textbook shilling.

I had to look that up for the double meaning. I will add that to my vocab, thanks.

 

[amrgardner]

I challenge anybody here to show me a Windows laptop that is more than 20% cheaper than a MacBook with very closely matched specs? (No clearance deals pricing allowed!

And I will tell you now, the improved engineering (not design) is well worth that premium, in hardware and to some extent in software. For example, the engineering of the battery systems and controllers on MacBooks are worth that premium alone. Every single laptop manufacturer implements batteries poorly, with a possible exception of Samsung, but even then ... On a MacBook, the batteries are carefully placed to keep them away from heat sources, so they are always cool, even when performing processor heavy tasks. The charging is carefully controlled to further prolong their longevity, allowing them to last for years, and Apple has invested large amounts of time and money developing their own chemistry and cells.

There are similar stories to be told with regard to the trackpad, the keyboard, the screen, even the chargers. All of this together makes for likely some of the very best laptops out there at any performance level by quite a margin.

Having said that, when considering system that do not benefit from the careful engineering for portability, for example Mac Pros, then the argument for the Apple premium falls apart. A very nice micro-ATX build with extremely high specs can generally cost 50% less than a Mac Pro with noticibly inferior specs. In these scenarios, your paying a large premium for OS X and a compact proprietary tower design with quite limited upgradability and customisation options.

Why the writer decided to buy a Surface RT tablet is beyond me. His story about how he couldn't do anything much on a tablet is no surprise - how many of you went through that? Tablets are basically for watching movies and where apps are well implemented, some shopping; maybe reading off a super bright screen!; possibly games, but yuk/painful! People who have adopted tablets as their daily drivers didn't do much on computers in the first place.

 

[palladin9479]

Yeah ... even though this is an OP:ED, it's a very poorly written one. It comes off as something a student or intern would write, which is what I'm thinking he might of been. Whomever he is, he doesn't belong at an enthusiast hardware site until he can learn his audience and understand what exactly those technical specs mean.

Firstly, all Apple notebook / desktop computers are Personal Computers. EVERY Mac is a "PC" so stop with the artificial segregation. It was a successful marketing campaign by apple to attempt to separate itself out of the crowd of IBM PC clones back in the 90's and somehow Mac sheeple have kept on using it as some sort of badge. It's an ignorant statement and something I would expect out of the liberal arts / journalism majors I have to frequently instruct on how to import / export outlook contacts.

Secondly comparing Windows RT to an Apple Macintosh is beyond dumb, two radically different products for different market segments. It would be been better to compare a Dell Inspiron / HP Envy or one of the many models from Asus, Sager or Leveno. I happen to have a Sager 15.6 inch notebook I recently purchased and it's beyond amazing, I absolutely love it, and there are many here who would say similiar things about their own purchases.

Anyhow this article is mostly an anti-microsoft / pro-apple pitch that's been disguised as an OP:ED written by someone who really doesn't know his target audience.

 

[Calculatron]

I recently purchased a used Microsoft Surface Pro 2 for much the same reasons, so I understand the mentality behind the purchase.