Why shouldn't I get a Lenovo W520 as opposed to a Macbook Pro?

[JoyceACopeland]

Unless I'm mistaken, I can get exactly the same hardware in a Lenovo for half the price of a Mac. I really am partial to Apple products, especially their software, but saving a thousand dollars for basically the same thing is pretty appealing.

Somebody please prove me wrong!

Here are the Lenovo features

And here are Apple's

Edit: I went with the Macbook Pro 13". So far it's awesome! Thanks for all the input.

 

[laurihoefs]

Huh?

W520 was available in 2011, the current model is W540. The basic configurations are around $1500, but to get a high-resolution IPS screen, an SSD and more than 4GB of memory, you'll end up paying just as much, or even more than a Retina MacBook pro with the same specs would cost (the same if you upgrade yourself, more if you buy the upgrades from Lenovo).

With the W540 you gain a good selection of service packs and detachable batteries, but you also have to carry a whole lot of extra weight. You also gain the Quadro GPU, but loose hours of battery life. The Lenovo has Windows 7 or 8, the MacBook Pro has OS X. And so on, and so on... Get whichever seems to best suit your needs.

But you probably already realized all this, as you then you say you got the 13" MBP.

 

[12dylan34]

You can't get the same hardware for half the price. When you add the high res screen, SSD, more RAM, etc., it's about the same or more. If those things aren't important to you, I wouldn't recommend the Lenovo. Otherwise, the Mac.

 

[MagicBoy]

We were getting the W520 at work 2 years ago. They've long since been replaced by the W530 and now the W540.

It uses the old Sandy Bridge platform. They're big, heavy and come with a 170W brick of a power adaptor. Oh and the standard 1366x768 screen is crud as is the battery life. Spec them up with a high res IPS screen and all the other toys and they cost as much as an MBP when new.

Nice workstation machine for CAD, but not a patch on an MBP.

 

[leman]

A W540, configured with 512GG SSD and 16GB RAM, as well as bigger battery and the high res screen is 2.596,98 € in the german lenovo store. A 15" rMBP with similar specs is 2.599,00 €. I can't look up the US store, because the website is not working for me.

So, given the equivalent price, the MacBook is over 0.5kg lighter, has faster storage and faster WiFi. The Lenovo is more flexible in respect to the replacing its internal components and also has a workstation-class GPU (which only matters if you are using particular 3D modelling suites). Both laptops have good build quality and deliver excellent performance for the same price.

So why shouldn't you get the Lenovo? I really wound't know. It solely depends on what your needs are. You are a engineer that works with Solidworks and needs to work on the move? Then Lenovo is a better choice. You are a web designer? Then I'd recommend the Mac.

But the Lenovo is certainly not 'the same hardware for half the money'. There is no laptop that could claim that. And yes, sure, you can get a gaming laptop for around $1600 which would blow the rMBP out of the water. If ultimate performance is what you want, the Mac laptops are definitely not for you.

 

[TechZeke]

The "Macs are overpriced compared to PCs" myth really needs to go the way of the Dodo bird.