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15 inch MacBook Pro Retina alternatives
- Thread starter yargk
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Really just look for:
2.6 GHz quad core
1GB+ video card
15 inch screen
less than 5 pounds
The rest can be done by you as PC's don't void warranties for upgrades.
There are not too many PC's at 15" that offer that i7-3720QM even as upgrade.
Easy to find 2.2GHz, 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz i7-36xx but not higher at same weight class. The difference will be marginal anyway. I like the Lenovo Ideapad y5xx. Up to 2.4GHz i7, 2GB GT650m-GTX660m, 8GB DDR3, Around 5-6 pounds.
2.6 GHz quad core
1GB+ video card
15 inch screen
less than 5 pounds
The rest can be done by you as PC's don't void warranties for upgrades.
There are not too many PC's at 15" that offer that i7-3720QM even as upgrade.
Easy to find 2.2GHz, 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz i7-36xx but not higher at same weight class. The difference will be marginal anyway. I like the Lenovo Ideapad y5xx. Up to 2.4GHz i7, 2GB GT650m-GTX660m, 8GB DDR3, Around 5-6 pounds.
its simple, in a very similar form factor only the sony s15 and the asus ux51/u500
other than that you are going to compromise on some metric
asus has some throttling issues when you are playing games, so its not a very palpable choice the way I see it. aside that asus Q&A has gone down and the warranty is at its worst point ever.
other than that you are going to compromise on some metric
asus has some throttling issues when you are playing games, so its not a very palpable choice the way I see it. aside that asus Q&A has gone down and the warranty is at its worst point ever.
Agreed! MBP's also make the best Windows machines. I will goes days at a time without using OS X and it's literally no different than if I had a "pure" PC (except for the exterior case shell).
Yeah imagine that. Apple isn't even trying. What does that say for the competition?
I guess you could run your little commercial OS on our HW.
That's easy, I knew that a couple existed, but that doesn't mean that I know all the competitors or which are best.
I see much less of a reason for your post though. ----------
Thanks to the person above who suggested the Sony S15. It's quite nice, and it has numpad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish the rmbp had one of those for what I would use it for.
However, it's still slower and as Tann suggested, not much cheaper if at all. The rmbp really is quite the machine. I like the idea of having a very powerful laptop that's very portable. And a 4.5 pound 15 inch is incredibly portable to me. I've been bringing a 6.7 pound 17 inch on international travel.
Not much cheaper? I don't know where you live but here a rMBP clocks in at 2300€. Given that you cannot upgrade anything any reasonable config has at least a 512GB SSD imo which changes the price tag to 2800€. And as quite a few who take that much money into hand would probably also go for 16GB which cannot be upgraded in a lifetime. 3000€.
The Sony S15 has only the 640M LE but a config with 512GB and 12GB RAM I calculate 1800€. That is a full 1000€ less. And you even get a 500GB HDD that you can put into a cheap external for 30 bucks.
Plus in the future you can exchange the SSD for a 1TB model or even bigger further in the future. Also there is the optical drive that can be transformed into an HDD bay if one is willing.
Obviously one should not select the ungodly expensive RAID SSDs. They don't perform too well anyway and just increase failure rate and latency for no useful gain. An aftermarket SSD goes for 400€ in 512GB. An 8GB RAM module for practically nothing in comparison. 1358€ is for the sony configuration alone. The rest is just aftermarket upgrades.
You cannot have a 2.6GHz but for anything that 2.2 Ghz will feel too slow the 2.6GHz won't change the picture.
Me personally I would prefer the Asus U500 for its faster speed (GPU) but I would consider it an alternative for those that want to or need to use Windows and probably care about gaming. The Asus is still quite a bit cheaper than the rMBP but more expensive than a Sony S15 and as non upgradeable as the Apple. The 650M with 2GB GDDR5 is just nicer for gaming and the touchpad and drivers in general for those that need Windows to often to make bootcamp an inconvenience. Bootcamp just isn't the same. It is okay if one needs it occasionally.
Okay so for the sony with the comparable battery and ssd it's $2100 here. The macbook pro retina is $2800. That's a lot. I was looking at the $2600 education number before. Plus the apple has a faster processor and better screen.