MacBook Pro as a primarily Windows machine?

[Trubbles]

Im considering a MacBook Pro 13 with the TouchBar (because evidently that's the only way to get a 28W TDP CPU) because it's easily the nicest and most portable computer with that much power.

However, I primarily use Windows. I need the Windows version of office and I also Visual Studio.

I was thinking of replicating my old setup - A large partition that can be accessed via Bootcamp or Parallels. Last time, though, I was mostly using Mac applications and one Windows application.

To those who use MacBook Pro as a primarily Windows experience, how is it?

 

[leman]

First, use the search option — this question is being asked regularly.

Second, its a terrible idea. You will be stuck with low-quality drivers resulting in bad user experience and subpar battery life. There are plenty of comparable computers out there if you want run Windows.

 

[c0ppo]

Im considering a MacBook Pro 13 with the TouchBar (because evidently that's the only way to get a 28W TDP CPU) because it's easily the nicest and most portable computer with that much power.

However, I primarily use Windows. I need the Windows version of office and I also Visual Studio.

I was thinking of replicating my old setup - A large partition that can be accessed via Bootcamp or Parallels. Last time, though, I was mostly using Mac applications and one Windows application.

To those who use MacBook Pro as a primarily Windows experience, how is it?

Don't do it. Waste of money. As @leman said, lousy drivers, bad battery life + TB. You won't really get anything out of MBP, unless you go MacOS.

Parallels is one solution, but I wouldn't recommend VS with parallels and dual core processor.
There are some really great windows laptops out there. With better battery life and better hardware when you run Windows. I wouldn't even consider MBP 13" for those things that you are doing.

I am a .NET developer myself, and I have really tried all kinds of setups to see what fits my needs. I highly suggest that you skip MBP.

 

[jakespeed]

I code DotNet on a 2016 13 TB MacBook Pro hooked to a TB3 Dock every day. Everyones use cases are different but for me this setup has plenty of horsepower. I use Visual Studio in Parallels and Xamarin (now Visual Studio) on the Mac side simultaneously as we do a lot of different platforms and need to switch between code bases on all of them. I manage around 10-12 developers and give them the choice of systems since we do 95% windows or C++ stuff. They can run on a setup like mine or run a Windows only setup. About 8 of them use a similar setup to mine with a mix of 13's and 15's depending on personal preferences. Over the last 5 years, none of them have switched back to windows only machines. Very rarely we will need to boot back into bootcamp to run apps with specific hardware needs (interfacing with automotive vehicle systems typically) but it works well when we need that as well.

Having said that, if you are ONLY going to run windows get a Surface Book and be happy..it looks great too. If you want/need to work on both, the MacBook is a GREAT developer machine.

 

[Trubbles]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I should have added that my other reasons for considering it are that I'm tied to the ecosystem (Phone, watch, TV, etc) and also that I dabble in Swift. Not really for work, just because I enjoy making cool stuff to play around with on my phone.

 

[deadworlds]

I have a 2016 MBP TB and will also recommend using VMware or parallels to run Windows. I run VS studio for school and although performance is less than booting up into windows, it is still acceptable.

 

[jerryk]

Windows is pretty tolerant of hardware, but if you run windows mostly get a windows based laptop. They have support for Windows hello, finger print scanners, etc. And you can probably get something with similar performance for 2/3s the cost of a MBP.

 

[Stefan johansson]

If you want to run windows as premium software,why pay for a Mac? Either you go for a windows machine,or OS X,with windows as second choice when it's impossible to use anything else. It will be laggy sometimes,but that's what you get when running windows (especially later versions) on a Mac.

 

[BayouTiger]

I’ve been using Fusion on Macs for about 10 years with my primary work apps being windows based without issue. I’ve never used Bootcamp Nd th3 proformance with Fusion has always been outstanding. I tried moving to a Surface and other Windows laptops, but I found I wad giving up too much on the Mac side as I too have a personal Mac, iPhones, iPads, AppleTvs, etc.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I should have added that my other reasons for considering it are that I'm tied to the ecosystem (Phone, watch, TV, etc) and also that I dabble in Swift. Not really for work, just because I enjoy making cool stuff to play around with on my phone.

Do not listen to them. I use nothing but Win10 on my new MBPro 15 and Windows runs great. I love the hardware but need Windows for the Software I require. I partitioned the drive via BootCamp giving Win10 about 75% of the SSD leaving enough for Apple’s OS to do updates.

Sure you can find a Windows machine for cheaper but not better hardware than Apple’s.

I also have two late model iMacs that I did the same thing.