Need help finding an alternative to my 2011 Air - story inside

[Poly]

I bought a Macbook Air in Mid2011 and oh boy does it feel slow these days. Especially the GPU. I was eager to grab a new Pro or maybe an Air if Apple were to update it. I paid like 1200€ for the 2011 Air back then after student discount and I actually planned to spend around 1700€ for a new laptop to replace the old one. Sadly, Apple outpriced me and I also don't want to jump onto USB C at this very moment since both my iPad, iPhone and Desktop PC are 100% USB A.

First of all, I do not use the MBA for "Apple-y" things! It's for browsing, little gaming like Hearthstone and lots and lots of Microsoft Office tasks. My desktop PC is my dedicated gaming machine, check my flair.

I now have two options:
A) Buy a 2015 Macbook Air 13"
B) Buy a Windows laptop

I have mixed feelings about option A since Apple is still heavily controlling the prices and thus makes me overpay for more than 2year old heardware.

When choosing option B, what would be decent choices? I am heavily tending towards the Razer Blade Stealth with Kaby Lake i7 7500U (intel HD620) and 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM for only 1520€ (student discount).... it even comes with a free wireless mouse and mouse pad. But does it also come with bloatware? Any other recommendations? I don't care about convertables or touch and iTunes will work with Win10 as well. The thing I do care about is build quality!

 

[Pugly]

How much do you like macOS, how much do you like Windows 10? That's really the deciding factor, since you can get decent hardware at all kind of price points in the Windows side... but if you choose macOS you need to slot into one of the computers Apple has decided to build. You often get great computers sticking to a Mac, but sometimes you get old merely okay computers.

If you love macOS, get the Macbook Air... it's still good and perfectly usable. If Windows is okay get a Windows laptop.

 

[Mrbobb]

In a similar boat except I feel my 2011/4ram still OK for surfing, that's all I do, no gaming, lightweight office which require no GPU. I have of course Safari, plus Firefox+Chrome on my box and prefer to use Safari as my daily browser because I feel Apple just make their software "mate" with their hardware. Once in a while I have to fire up the other browsers because of site incompatibility etc but they feel so clunky. I am not married to OSX in fact I hate some aspects of OSX like Finder, but for everyday navigation, I just feel OSX smoother.

Another reason am sticking with OSX is, (yes Apple locked me into their ecosystem), my calendar/reminder/contacts blah-blah sync seamlessly across iCloud to my iPhone, and when I say seamlessly, they just happens without fuss. Am sure I can replicate most of these in a Windows platform, but that mean me spending tons of time, and these days I have better things to do, and it's worth the Apple Premium$$ to me (Apple, you got me) to stick with them. YMMV.

But yes I hate the new MacBooks, I hate they took out MagSafe, I hate single port USB-C, I hate no lighted cover logo (a classic Apple). If I have to upgrade, I would buy the latest available classic Air and hold on to it until the end of time.

 

[pika2000]

Sounds like you are a gamer, so my vote is for the Razer blade stealth. Buying anything else, Macs or Windows, will only leave you wanting for more in terms of GPU power, so might as well get it right from the get go.
Most Windows 10 laptops are not bad in therms of bloatware these days, and you can simply uninstall them, so not a big deal.

 

[Poly]

I am surprised most votes are for the 2015 Air...with an i7 and 512 SSD it will also cost 1520€ with student discount, has less RAM and lower resolution as the XPS or Razer one.

There still is the option to get the 256GB SSD version and use the Nifty Minidrive. In that case, which Macbook would be better suited for occassional gaming like Hearthstone or Diablo? Air with i7 or the Pro with i5? The Pro has to drive almost twice the pixels.....