MacBook vs Thinkpad vs Pavilion vs Latitude - Please help !

[Laura-1]

After reading one of the threads linked in my other post (here) I am seriously thinking of getting the Lenovo T440s or HP/Dell, as this Plasma Deposition seems to be quite fragile from what I'm reading.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1772389/

But I just noticed Apple are still selling the older MacBook without retina? can anyone advise if this could handle Windows 8 via Parallels and 4 years of future proofing for university?

 

[Laura-1]

So it turns out that Dell and Lenevo can't be arsed to answer their phones at the weekend and HP are having a problem with the phones. Great start guys! The old MacBook looks like my only option.

 

[maflynn]

I wouldn't buy an older laptop just because its not retina. You're spending a lot of money on older technology.

Lenovo is a great model, take a look at those, and my company uses HP and I'm happy with the quality I see from HP. While not a laptop, I ordered an AIO HP for my wife.

I don't know if that helps, as you may have specific questions regarding their models. I suggest you don't rush into a purchase but wait until those questions can be addressed.

 

[TriBruin]

Stay FAR away from Lenovo these days. Their latest laptops are crap. Three years ago I would have recommended them over any other laptop (except Apple, if you were willing to pay the extra.) Now, I can't believe how far they have fallen. You will hate the trackpad in no time.

Dell are solid, but not spectacular. Right now, I would go with an HP laptop. I use one at work and it is very decent. The trackpad is "almost" as good as my MacBook Pro. Look at the 9480m series. They are well built.

 

[Laura-1]

Thank you both for your advice. There does seem to be a lot of negative reviews about the new Thinkpad trackpad, with no buttons. The screen brightness is pretty poor too.

I had a look at the Dell 15" 7537, mixed reviews, here's the specs.

Inspiron Notebook 7537
Windows 8.1 Pro (64Bit) English
16GB 2 DIMM (2x8GB) DDR3L 1600Mhz
Backlit Keyboard
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 750M 2GB DDR5
1TB 5400 rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB Cache
Intel® Wireless-N 7260 BGN + Bluetooth 4.0
1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
Wireless Wan Card Mobile Broadband not included
4-cell Lithium Ion (58WHr) Battery
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4510U processor (4M Cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
LCD Back Cover - Silver (Touch Screen)
15.6" LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and FHD resolution (1920 x 1080)
McAfee® LiveSafe Consumer 12 Month Subscription
90W AC Adapter
No CD/DVD Drive

It's on offer right now at £814, click here.

After looking at the above specs I agree that buying the older MacBook may not be good value for money, unless I needed OS-X (I do need container/volume encryption).

However, there are a large number of negative reviews for many of the Dell laptops. So HP is my current favorite. I looked for the 9480m but it does not seem to be available in the UK?, same with the Envy 14 I have no idea why. But the HP Pavilion 15-p100na looks to be a good laptop. The screen and lack of backlit keyboard are not so good, but the DVD drive I would use for university.

Windows 8.1 64
Intel® Core™ i7-4510U with Intel HD Graphics 4400 (2 GHz, 4 MB cache, 2 cores)
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3L SDRAM (1 x 8 GB)
15.6" Diagonal HD BrightView WLED-backlit (1366 x 768)
802.11b/g/n (1x1) and Bluetooth® 4.0 combo (Miracast compatible)
Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN
SuperMulti DVD burner
1 TB 5400 rpm SATA
User-replaceable battery
2.27 kg

http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=K0W62EA&opt=ABU&sel=PCNB#merch-tech-specs


Or this HP ENVY at £799

Windows 8.1 64
Intel HM87 Core™ i7-4700MQ with Intel HD Graphics 4600 (2.4 GHz, 6 MB cache, 4 cores)
12 GB 1600 MHz DDR3L SDRAM (1 x 4 GB, 1 x 8 GB)
Memory slots 2 user-accessible
15.6” diagonal FHD BrightView LED-backlit touch screen (1920 x 1080)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 840M (2 GB DDR3 dedicated)
Full-size island-style backlit with numeric keypad
Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN Wireless
802.11ac (2x2) and Bluetooth® 4.0 combo
1 TB 5400 rpm SATA with Flash cache 8 GB
User-replaceable battery
2.56 kg


And since I won't have FileVault or Disk Utility I would also need to purchase an alternative to TrueCrypt, such as: BestCrypt which annoyingly, is subscription based, so very expensive.

The quest continues...