Those who are leaving the rMBP, what will/may be your replacement & why?

[gooseta]

Just wondering what everybody is thinking of doing, especially those who currently don't have a laptop that fully meets their needs (12" MB in my case). Personally really interested in the Surface Book, as even maxed out is around 25% cheaper than the equivalent rMBP (15"), and the trackpad is almost Apple-level, with really good build quality all around and the stylus/tablet are somewhat useful to me as a student. I was considering the XPS 15 but the unreliability/QC/Customer service issues combined with poor build quality and materials mean if I could only afford the XPS 15, I'd look for an older rMBP.

This is not an Apple bashing thread. I've been an Apple fan for the last few years but the price simply doesn't reflect the product anymore, especially due to the vast increase in build quality and temperature/noise in Windows laptops, coupled with the fact that Apple feel the need to increase prices by nearly 50% across Europe. Personally I feel that the Surface Book offers performance as good as the 15" rMBP, especially if you don't need 4 physical CPU cores. The battery life has been vastly improved and the 965M should easily be better across the board than the 450/55/60, as well as the benefit of CUDA cores for those who use the laptop for professional work.

edit : My use case is quite average, typical student work which I hope to incorporate the stylus into, moderate gaming (bf1/civ 6 @ 1080p hopefully), light Photoshop and lightroom work.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Considering moving to an iPad Pro once there are enough pro apps for it to be as useful as a MBP. Otherwise I'll be looking at a 13" MacBook Pro. Going to even play around with the MacBook and see how that feels performance-wise but I doubt it's enough. Every time I consider Windows I find myself missing a lot of the features and UI of Mac OS.
[doublepost=1477891964][/doublepost]The Surface Book i7 at $2,399 actually provides less for the money than a 15" rMBP, by the way.

 

[gooseta]

Considering moving to an iPad Pro once there are enough pro apps for it to be as useful as a MBP. Otherwise I'll be looking at a 13" MacBook Pro. Going to even play around with the MacBook and see how that feels performance-wise but I doubt it's enough. Every time I consider Windows I find myself missing a lot of the features and UI of Mac OS.

Until the iPad pro gets a better OS or iOS finally implements proper multitasking and support for more powerful tools I don't think it can quite replace a rMBP. I'd say the rMB, from my own experience is like an iPad pro running os x, which can sometimes lead to performance hiccups.

 

[NickPhamUK]

The price in Switzerland is close to one in the US. Strong Swiss Franc + 8% tax. I'm going there for the exchange studies and will buy a Mac there with a student discount, hopefully Apple will lower prices a bit by then (after realizing they priced their products too high).

I was tempted by an Asus ROG, which has 17" screen, 1080p, 6700 Quad i7, 16GB RAM, GTX 970, 128 SSD + 1 TB HDD for €1699. Sleek design, it is only 2.5kg.

Somehow ASUS is the "go-to" brand here in Finland, most stores has (many of) them. It's harder to find higher-end Dell or HP.

 

[dk808]

Honestly if you're still gonna spend that much (assuming you're buying a surfacebook) i'd rather just get the new mbp

 

[Rkuda]

Apple didn't give me a quad core Kabylake CPU, 64GB RAM, 512GB SSD and GTX 1080 MBP for $1,999 and I've ever only used OSX the past 15 years.

So I bought:

Surface Book with Performance Base - 256GB / Intel Core i7
Release date: 11/10/2016
$2,399.00

Choose device: 256GB / Intel Core i7 - 8GB / dGPU

Luckily MS is here to cater to my needs. Unlike EVIL and GREEDY ****s at Apple!

Report Tim Cook and Jony Ive to the UN human rights commission!!!!!!

 

[gooseta]

Honestly if you're still gonna spend that much (assuming you're buying a surfacebook) i'd rather just get the new mbp

If there were decent dGPUs in the 13" rMBP, I'd have ordered one the second it came out. However, I'd need a 15" machine for a decent GPU, especially since they didn't go with iris 580 chips, so

Surface Book i7,512,16gb,965m - approx. £2k after student discount.
15" rMBP i7,512,16GB,460 - £2,510 after student discount

That's a huge difference.
[doublepost=1477892433][/doublepost]

Apple didn't give me a quad core Kabylake CPU, 64GB RAM, 512GB SSD and GTX 1080 MBP for $1,999 and I've ever only used OSX the past 15 years.

So I bought:



Luckily MS is here to cater to my needs. Unlike EVIL and GREEDY ****s at Apple!

Report Tim Cook and Jony Ive to the UN human rights commission!!!!!!

It's not an apple bashing thread mate, no need for salt. In my case the 13" rMBP would be perfect but no dGPU is a deal breaker, and the price isn't even that competitive anymore. In addition the SB offers the 2 in 1 and stylus, which I find useful. This thread is about individual use cases...

 

[dk808]

If there were decent dGPUs in the 13" rMBP, I'd have ordered one the second it came out. However, I'd need a 15" machine for a decent GPU, especially since they didn't go with iris 580 chips, so

Surface Book i7,512,16gb,965m - approx. £2k after student discount.
15" rMBP i7,512,16GB,460 - £2,510 after student discount

That's a huge difference.

The surface book is dual core compared to quad core mbp, thats a huge difference

 

[gooseta]

The surface book is dual core compared to quad core mbp, thats a huge difference

This thread is about individual use cases...

I don't need 4 cores. The gaming I do isn't that CPU intensive and the games that are (Civ, FM), I've run on lower powered chips before. I value the pen, 2 in 1 functionality, and massive price gap over 2 cores that I'll never fully use as even my most CPU bound tasks (Lightroom and PS) are used very rarely.

Not to mention that the high powered CPU combined with the reduced battery capacity on the rMBP is going to lead to worse battery life, which is something I find extremely important.

 

[dk808]

I don't need 4 cores. The gaming I do isn't that CPU intensive and the games that are (Civ, FM), I've run on lower powered chips before. I value the pen, 2 in 1 functionality, and massive price gap over 2 cores that I'll never fully use as even my most CPU bound tasks (Lightroom and PS) are used very rarely.

Seems like you're more into just the gaming aspect then. I think the Razer Blade will provide a lot more bang for your buck

http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-blade

 

[gooseta]

Seems like you're more into just the gaming aspect then. I think the 2015 Razer Blade will provide a lot more bang for your buck

My dream is a Razer blade that actually works. The blade is plagued by massive numbers of QC complaints, gets very hot and very noisy, and support is basically non-existent outside of America

 

[Ghost31]

Ha....oddly enough despite loving laptops for so many years and swearing i would never use anything different, I've been laptop less for about a year using my iPad Pro exclusively as my main computing device. Once I switched to the cloud for all my files and pictures and video and everything else and streamed all my content, I didn't...need anything.

I remember back in the day I would have pictures on my phone and every now and then I would hook it up to my laptop and important all the pics. Then erase all the pics on my phone. Or try to sync my music between all my devices and sometimes certain songs or albums weren't on everything. Now....none of that. I take a picture, boom. Its in the cloud and on every single device I have. I add an album to my album music. Its on everything. I wanna watch a movie. Same.

So I know it probably doesn't help you because you're probably interested in laptops, but for me anyway....I hate to say it but I've fully converted to iPad Pro and enjoy it much more than my laptop. And back when I bought my 15 inch MacBook I paid $2200. So you'd think I would try to justify that purchase and be biased towards the laptop. I just can't. Whenever I used it, I missed using my iPad.

 

[gooseta]

Ha....oddly enough despite loving laptops for so many years and swearing i would never use anything different, I've been laptop less for about a year using my iPad Pro exclusively as my main computing device. Once I switched to the cloud for all my files and pictures and video and everything else and streamed all my content, I didn't...need anything.

I remember back in the day I would have pictures on my phone and every now and then I would hook it up to my laptop and important all the pics. Then erase all the pics on my phone. Or try to sync my music between all my devices and sometimes certain songs or albums weren't on everything. Now....none of that. I take a picture, boom. Its in the cloud and on every single device I have. I add an album to my album music. Its on everything. I wanna watch a movie. Same.

So I know it probably doesn't help you because you're probably interested in laptops, but for me anyway....I hate to say it but I've fully converted to iPad Pro and enjoy it much more than my laptop. And back when I bought my 15 inch MacBook I paid $2200. So you'd think I would try to justify that purchase and be biased towards the laptop. I just can't. Whenever I used it, I missed using my iPad.

It's sad to think that the iPad is now better value than the rMBP.

 

[Ghost31]

It's sad to think that the iPad is now better value than the rMBP.

I'll put it to you another way. I've tried the new macbook in store

IT'S SAD THAT THE SHALLOW IPAD APPLE SMART KEYBOARD FEELS BETTER THAN A NEW MACBOOK PRO KEYBOARD

 

[PhoneI]

The Surface Book trackpad is not anywhere near MacBook quality.

 

[gooseta]

The Surface Book trackpad is not anywhere near MacBook quality.

Have you tried it? Because I have and I think it is. It's subjective. I hate force touch, whereas many here like it.

 

[Queen6]

Microsoft Surface Book to replace my 13" 2014 rMBP; SB offers far more utility adding Pen, Touch, Tablet & reversed display. Apple`s 2016 MBP remains to be a basic clamshell design with an interesting feature "Touch Bar". The trade off for the Retina`s 28W CPU vs the Surface`s 15W CPU is more than made up by the Surface`s dGPU, more so now with the recently released "Power Base"

The 15" rMBP remains to be seen, new 2016 may prove be too impractical/compromised, 2015 currently way overpriced for what it offers. My own 2012 15" rMBP is in dire need of replacing, same as the 13" the Windows environment may offer better solutions. Right now I have decided to sit it out, wait until something better is released and or 2nd Gen new MackBook Pro is released for multiple reasons.

12" Retina MacBook, seriously considering the new 2016 base model 13" MBP without Touch Bar with 512 SSD as this would represent a significant boost in performance, without overly compromising portability. This may very well be my only Apple computer employed professionally...

Desktop solution, without any doubts Surface Studio, not a priority, however it`s very much on the cards.

Q-6

 

[gooseta]

A surprising amount of votes for the razer blade considering their awful customer service and track record of QC issues. . It's a good machine but you may struggle to get a fully working one

 

[ag29]

It's hard for me to consider an alternative besides another mac. The reason I got a mac was because I was sick of using Windows so I don't wan't a Surface anytime soon.