Buying macbook pro (retina) for windows primarily - pro/cons.

[aquablue]

I'm thinking of buying a MacBook Pro 15 inch retina display, but I want to know whether it is worth it to run Windows 8 as my primary OS through bootcamp instead of OSX. I have some software that runs better on Windows and also I am just more comfortable with staying with what I know at this time.

What are the disadvantages of running windows bootcamped as your OS on a macbook pro retina display versus buying a dedicated windows laptop? Touch is not an issue for me.

I heard there are issues with:

a - power managment - battery life
b - fan noise
c - text size too small in windows due to the Retina display and fuzzy scaled text (i like decent sized text)
d - lack of hybrid graphics in windows --> more heat/noise
e - driver issues?
f- poor trackpad control in windows?

Are these real issues?

I love the macbook pro hardware and screen and I can't find anything similar on the PC side that is of reasonable weight and comparable performance with a great screen (do not require such high resolution, but it is nice). (the Asus is good but apparently it is noisy and the Dell is too heavy).

So, what do you think?

Thanks
Aqua

 

[rockyroad55]

How about building your own desktop and buying a 13 rMBP? I built mine for about $800 and a rMBP 13 costs about $1400 for a refurb. Those two together puts it right at the 15 retina cost. You'll have a powerhouse windows and a great MacBook.

 

[Stetrain]

I personally wouldn't choose a 15" rMBP (or cMBP) if my goal was to primarily run Windows. The main reason would be the graphics switching issue which is going to seriously hurt your battery life.

The 13" rMBP would be a better choice because it doesn't have the dual graphics system.

As far as I know there really isn't much out there as far as similar screens in a Windows notebook. The best you could probably find would be 1920x1080.

My personal favorite PC notebooks are the Lenovo Thinkpad line. They tend to have pretty nice build quality, trackpads, and keyboards. I believe that you can configure some of them with 1080p displays.

 

[FWRN]

I used Windows probably 70 percent of the time on my machine over the last several months. In all honesty, my eyes really hurt at the big resolution. Sure, it's nice to have it all on one screen (I had a game server + game forums + news + messenger open), but because it's little text, it strains the eyes a lot. Other than that, Windows runs amazing on my rMBP.

 

[tillsbury]

I have Windows 8 on Bootcamp, and would suggest that a and d are the issues. Text is fine, if you don't like it small then use Windows to increase it. Performance and functionality appear great to me. Similarly the trackpad, while not quite as good as when in OSX, is still excellent compared to most trackpads on Windows laptops. And the build quality, specifications, and display are obviously streets ahead.

I would not think you were mad to do this. Although I would think you were mad not to subsequently try out bits of OSX and perhaps be open to the idea of running the machine as a primarily OSX computer, with Windows 8 running in bootcamp (either exclusively or virtually, as I now do)...