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Why would anyone buy a Retina Macbook Pro vs Dell XPS 15?
- Thread starter Starfyre
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Based on my family's experience with Dell support in the past, just say no to Dell.
Dell runs Windows. Also just say no.
As for Battery life, is it just Dell's statement or is there real testing to support better battery life. Of course if you really care that much about battery life, get a MacBook Air.
As for the weight and size differences. That's so small that it could be a measuring error. Or Dell rounding down and Apple rounding up.
Dell runs Windows. Also just say no.
As for Battery life, is it just Dell's statement or is there real testing to support better battery life. Of course if you really care that much about battery life, get a MacBook Air.
As for the weight and size differences. That's so small that it could be a measuring error. Or Dell rounding down and Apple rounding up.
Well I have just spent a year with a Lenovo W530 which I got to replace my previous cMBP. I know this isn't the Dell being talked about but I can't wait to get back to a Mac and most of the reasons apply to this Dell as well.
I just find that day to day use of a Windows machine isn't as smooth as using OSX. Doing things like taking screenshots quickly, switching between apps, full screen app changes, multi-touch swishing and swiping all work far more smoothly on a Mac than the Windows counterpart.
Backups - did I get a rude awakening here. There isn't an equivalent backup tool to time machine available for Windows - period. You can either have a full drive image with everything in it or a file by file backup. But you can't have a nice boot-able image with just the bits you specify in it.
For instance, I was using a tool called Macrium Reflect which was about the best one but you can't elect to say exclude Virtual Machines from the image. Apparently this is down to restrictions in the shadow copy technology in Windows and so it will never change.
This was just one of many day to day niggles that turned using the machine into a chore rather than the pleasure in using a MBP.
Now specifically to the Lenovo, the explorer process in Windows crashes a *lot*, and this is in Windows 8 and 8.1. Looking into it, it seems to be some part of the NVidia drivers to blame. Bear in mind this is a brand new installation of Windows 8 with the official Lenovo driver download tool getting the proper drivers for the graphics card. These are WHQL certified drivers for a "workstation" class card in the form of a K2000m and they still used to crash all over the place.
It will be interesting to see how well these new larger trackpads are working on the newer Wintel machines, the nasty little one on my Lenovo makes me want to scream.
How is it that on a Mac the multitouch and scrolling etc works perfectly inside VMs in either VMWare Fusion or Parallels yet multitouch in VMs on Windows doesn't work at all? Still a problem several years after first being reported.
Apple being in charge of the software and hardware means it all works with a level of integration that none of the other manufacturers can manage. I mean how could they, they have loads more models to support. Comparatively Apple can put a lot more resource on getting it right for the far smaller range of computers they have.
I just find that day to day use of a Windows machine isn't as smooth as using OSX. Doing things like taking screenshots quickly, switching between apps, full screen app changes, multi-touch swishing and swiping all work far more smoothly on a Mac than the Windows counterpart.
Backups - did I get a rude awakening here. There isn't an equivalent backup tool to time machine available for Windows - period. You can either have a full drive image with everything in it or a file by file backup. But you can't have a nice boot-able image with just the bits you specify in it.
For instance, I was using a tool called Macrium Reflect which was about the best one but you can't elect to say exclude Virtual Machines from the image. Apparently this is down to restrictions in the shadow copy technology in Windows and so it will never change.
This was just one of many day to day niggles that turned using the machine into a chore rather than the pleasure in using a MBP.
Now specifically to the Lenovo, the explorer process in Windows crashes a *lot*, and this is in Windows 8 and 8.1. Looking into it, it seems to be some part of the NVidia drivers to blame. Bear in mind this is a brand new installation of Windows 8 with the official Lenovo driver download tool getting the proper drivers for the graphics card. These are WHQL certified drivers for a "workstation" class card in the form of a K2000m and they still used to crash all over the place.
It will be interesting to see how well these new larger trackpads are working on the newer Wintel machines, the nasty little one on my Lenovo makes me want to scream.
How is it that on a Mac the multitouch and scrolling etc works perfectly inside VMs in either VMWare Fusion or Parallels yet multitouch in VMs on Windows doesn't work at all? Still a problem several years after first being reported.
Apple being in charge of the software and hardware means it all works with a level of integration that none of the other manufacturers can manage. I mean how could they, they have loads more models to support. Comparatively Apple can put a lot more resource on getting it right for the far smaller range of computers they have.
I have an rMBP right now and I have an XPS 15 on the way. I am a silver member at BBY, so I have 45 days to bring back the rMBP and then 21 days to return the Dell. My delivery date is sitting at 11/18 for the Dell so I hope to do a side by side comparison here.
Chances are I am going to return both and get a BTO rMBP with 1TB, but we'll see.
Chances are I am going to return both and get a BTO rMBP with 1TB, but we'll see.
Thank you for this! I've been waiting to get more specific information of the display, and really appreciate the research you've done
What calibration hardware and software did you use? How are the viewing angles? Does the display exhibit any glow or discoloration in extreme angles? How are luminance and color uniformity?
I understand your reaction. I've never heard of anything like yours, though not a few endured the cracked palm rests on the ThinkPads.
being from Austin, I was a Dell customer for 15 years. I've bought laptops, desktops, printers, etc. My last Dell purchase was 2.5 years ago for an Inspiron One 23". I've seen customer service decline, and although I've enjoyed my Inspiron One, I was forced to buy it with the AMD chip instead of the Intel chip, because they weren't selling that config in the US even though they were overseas. Plus, I refuse to upgrade past Windows 7 b/c Windows 8 blows.
Really the only reasons I held off from jumping ship until now were the need for MS Office compatibility (for work and school), and that's since been resolved (Office for Mac $10 through EPP). Plus, I've got 2 iPhones, an iPad, Apple TV, and AirPort Express, and I want it all to integrate well.
My rMBP arrives this week, and it will replace a Dell laptop (Inspiron 11z) and the Inspiron One.
Really the only reasons I held off from jumping ship until now were the need for MS Office compatibility (for work and school), and that's since been resolved (Office for Mac $10 through EPP). Plus, I've got 2 iPhones, an iPad, Apple TV, and AirPort Express, and I want it all to integrate well.
My rMBP arrives this week, and it will replace a Dell laptop (Inspiron 11z) and the Inspiron One.
Nope. Read Radiating's post again. Extrapolation/anecdotal evidence hardly proves anything, not to mention a whole load of very opinionated points. If anything, theotherbokeh was much more objective in his posts, and Radiating responded directly to only three comments made by bokeh, sidestepping the other dozen.
I actually rather enjoyed the debate between the two, and I feel a lot of people don't actually realize how good Windows laptops have become. Of course, hardware fragmentation will always lead to problems, but the hardware itself (Zenbook, XPS, past Envy lines) have come close (not yet though) to Macbooks.
While your other points are mostly valid, this is simply incorrect information.
Windows ME (post Windows 98) was the last Windows product to utilize the old 'DOS' code.
Starting with Windows XP, Microsoft shifted to using the NT (New Technologies) core that evolved through NT4.0 and into Windows 2000 (incidentally, best OS I think MS produced until Windows 7).
Vista introduced an 'evolved' codebase, also from the NT codebase. AS a matter of fact, Vista work started BEFORE XP was released.
It was still garbage, however. LOL
Windows 7 is what Vista should have been released as. It's a *much* better OS than XP or Vista, and a worthy successor to XP.
Just wanted to clear that up. OS X and Linux are both better than Windows, still
Yet they destroyed it again Windows 8. Metro doesn't make much sense, and even on a touchscreen its a bit clunky!
I also abhor the Windows 8 interface and the forced full-screen apps (which I never use). Luckily ClassicShell eases almost all my issues with W8. However, W8 under the hood is an improvement over past versions.
And while we're discussing software tech., Apple's HFS+ is a dinosaur and lacks several data protection features compared to NTFS. HFS+ by today's standards is, as Torvalds put it "utter crap." Every OS X release, I hope for something better and more reliable like ZFS.
I would not have understood this before I recently entered the Mac world with the rMBP and experienced the multi-touch trackpad.
What the actual **** was OP expecting here? Go on a dell forum and everybody says 'dell'
It just seems to be a circlejerk of "i couldn't possibly associate myself with that heathen of a machine because i'm not used to it."
I used mac for 2 years and then went straight to Windows, no problem. If you can't stand Windows, you will not get far.
It just seems to be a circlejerk of "i couldn't possibly associate myself with that heathen of a machine because i'm not used to it."
I used mac for 2 years and then went straight to Windows, no problem. If you can't stand Windows, you will not get far.
Most people were saying the same things about phones before 2007. Just saying...
True but still a lot more personal than a desktop. I've never owned a touch screen laptop before so I'm not speaking from experience. But that being said, there are plenty of uses where I can see the touch screen being extremely useful.
My take is: why would any one buy Lexus ES if you can buy Toyota Camry for lot less. Both can do the same. Dell XPS is a good laptop, I prefer to buy MacBook Pro. Build quality and ecosystem is what I am going after. You can't compare the build quality of Mac to any other laptop, just like you can't compare Lexus to any of the Toyota quality-wise.
Toyota owns lexus.
I know. I was just trying to compare the two as close as I can.
That used to be true but it's not clear that the m3800's build quality is inferior since Dell tends to take the Precision line more seriously (they both use the same chassis). If there was one clearly best laptop I'd completely agree with your take.
xps 15 is really a good choice, it will be my next notebook if I need a new one since apple discontinue the cMBP. Currently I have lenovo y500 and imac2011 27' and 2 dell pc towers at home, it is enough for me at least for the next year.
os is not a big problem for me, every software I use is multi-platform supported except games. so there is no a single company can force me to pay more.
os is not a big problem for me, every software I use is multi-platform supported except games. so there is no a single company can force me to pay more.