[Sebring]

On the 16 inch the keyboard keys are a bit sorted. Travel is better. You know the 'clickety klack' noise from the scissor type they introduced, (that can be quite irritating). Look out for a comfy keyboard, that's really important. I really wish you'd tried the Dell XPS once

Originally Posted by GTO

I have decided to move to the Macbook.

[poloman]

Laptops are for portability. It is difficult to carry around bigger than 15" laptops if you are a highly mobile person. So buy a 13" or 14" laptop and get a good >24 " monitor. This serves the purpose of mobility as well as bigger screen for content creation and consumption purposes.

People who get used to the lower keytravel keyboards will find the soft key ones uncomfortable. Vice versa as well. So it is a matter of getting used to.

Thin and light laptops have compromised thermals. C and D skin temperatures can go really high. So keep the bottom ventilated with an approx 3% tilt. This can help cooling the laptop.

[landcruiser123]

Just a suggestion @GTO: Unless you're a person who uses chrome to transfer tabs between your computer and phone/tablet, I'd recommend trying Safari. I feel it is the more superior browser.

[Sebring]

Just read your post further on, where you've decided on the MBP 16 inch. Good choice

Originally Posted by GTO

I'm going with the 16 because:

[Manoj2268]

I'd suggest not to go with the macbook. It is a poorly designed machine with randomly failing T2 chips and poorly designed circuitry(think 50v line right next to a cpu vcore line), exploding tantalum capacitors on the board and soldered ram and HDD. Adding to that, the liquid detectors on the board turn red even when the laptop is operated in high humidity environment and the 'genius' bar will reject warranty in the blink of an eye.

Go with a high end Dell or a Lenovo.

[Amien]

Originally Posted by Manoj2268

I'd suggest not to go with the macbook. It is a poorly designed machine with randomly failing T2 chips and poorly designed circuitry(think 50v line right next to a cpu vcore line), exploding tantalum capacitors on the board and soldered ram and HDD. Adding to that, the liquid detectors on the board turn red even when the laptop is operated in high humidity environment and the 'genius' bar will reject warranty in the blink of an eye.

Go with a high end Dell or a Lenovo.

Possibly a fellow Louis Rossman fan?

Somewhat valid points though. I order a ton of hardware for my organization, everything from servers to client machines. When you have a sample size extending into the thousands, one tends to have a very different perspective re: ideas of reliability.

Even with the best parts/products, its mostly an illusion of control type fallacy. Any high end computer/part from an experienced mark is probably not going to be garbage. Apple just ends up collecting more reliability points as they make fewer products, most of which are high-end.

The Apple stuff we do buy is for developers who need a MacOS environment for their work. These days however, the most reliable Macs are the ones running in a virtual machine on hardware far superior to anything Apple sells you (and far cheaper).
We're still buying Macbooks, mainly for licensing/compliance reasons and because turning a regular laptop into a hackintosh requires control over hardware choice, while opening up a ton of potential issues.

TL/DR: buy a Macbook, not for how reliable it is but because you want it, want a great out-of-box mac experience, because you like something about its look and feel, maybe the screen (although there are some OLED laptops that I would put up against any 'retina' display), or simply because the overall package appeals to you personally. For the asking price, they had better be in the top percentile for reliability.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by saisailendra

Anyway, there are some high quality windows laptops too out there, which won't give up on you. Some which you can get only from the USA.

Originally Posted by Manoj2268

Go with a high end Dell or a Lenovo.

Originally Posted by Amien

Somewhat valid points though. I order a ton of hardware for my organization, everything from servers to client machines. When you have a sample size extending into the thousands, one tends to have a very different perspective re: ideas of reliability.

Guys, please share the make + model names of Windows laptops you recommend. Am sure there are many others in the same dilemma who are looking for a high quality, reliable laptop. Your answers will help all of us . Thank you!

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, please share the make + model names of Windows laptops you recommend. Am sure there are many others in the same dilemma who are looking for a high quality, reliable laptop. Your answers will help all of us . Thank you!

In Dell, the XPS series. A direct competitor to Apple and physically strong as well.
Check out the new XPS 17 series, one of the best 17 inch laptops currently.
Better to get it from the US (if possible) as there is a huge price difference in the high end ones.

[saisailendra]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, please share the make + model names of Windows laptops you recommend.

I've been using the microsoft Surface Pro 2. Main usage has been internet browsing, photoshop and Lightroom. It's a reasonably able tablet, can be quite handy with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Never gave me a problem. The only thing I don't like about it is, it's not at all user upgradable.

My dream laptop which I intend to buy at some point in my life is Dell XPS 15. But now since the 17 is out, I guess that'll be my target. They're user upgradable for storage and memory, look great, built great and have excellent cooling mechanisms.

Uncle uses a MSI Workstation for CAD and his architecture works. He's been using it as a daily system without any other desktop, full time, for a couple of years now. It gave no issues. It's large and heavy, but it's very powerful and very reliable. MSI builds real workhorses with very high specs. It's got 1 TB SSD, 32 GB of RAM, i7, with 4GB dedicated NVIDIA graphics. As far as I know, it costed him less than a MacBook of similar specs. He's a rough and tough user and it survived his ownership quite impressively. If portability isn't an issue, my blind choice would be MSI !

[aargee]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, please share the make + model names of Windows laptops you recommend

First of all I think you might've got a lemon piece is my opinion. I use the same 7490 for the same 2.5 years & it's touch-wood even after upgrading from Windows 7 to 10. So IMHO, if you get a XPS or even Mac, you can reduce the probability of owning a lemon piece that's all. Lattitude is one of the best performance oriented series is what I would say. Additionally, you'll have to watch out for the number of useless processes (especially that Superfetch nonsense) that Windows keeps running in the background, keep atleast 25% free space on C:\ (although recommended is 10%), having SSD instead of even 7500 RPM HDD, adjusting for best performance, having a Firewall at router (or switching ON at laptop when required), running a low memory consumption antivirus, updating O/S with a reliable security patch instead of immediately available ones are some of the unwritten guidelines to follow for best performance.

Edit - Oh!! Although I've no proven stats, having a clean keyboard (inside-out), clean screens, wiping laptop once a week, helps the laptop to age less. Also draining the battery to 10% everyday helps to give a longer battery life as well. I used to have about 7 hours couple of years ago, which has come down to nearly 5:15 hrs now a days.

[CarNerd]

Dell is absolutely horrible. I had a Dell Inspiron whose HDD failed in 3 years, the left bezel was cracked, the battery & charger failed & finally the display was gone. I spent enough repairing that stupid laptop and I just got a new Acer laptop. I will never buy a Dell again. I suggest you have a look at the Acer Swift 5 SF514-54T-54DM which is a very light weight 14" laptop with a bright display. It also comes with an Intel core i7 option.

[Pontiac]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Can you elaborate the customizable part

Display resolution for instance.

The best resolution apple support is still way behind on their most higher end laptop. Even 16" ($2399) only supports a resolution of 3072 x 1920. This is basic when compared to an ASUS Zephyrus 15" ($1649) that supports a 4K resolution of 3840 x 2160

I use large monitors at home and for work and the most common and basic 4k resolution is 3440 x 1440p. A 4K laptop can be scaled down to match this resolution easily. With a MacBook Pro, this is impossible, and I always end up cropping up the screen which is a nuisance.

Apple need to catchup on the displays they offer on their devices.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by Pontiac

Display resolution for instance.

The best resolution apple support is still way behind on their most higher end laptop. Even 16" ($2399) only supports a resolution of 3072 x 1920. This is basic when compared to an ASUS Zephyrus 15" ($1649) that supports a 4K resolution of 3840 x 2160

I wont argue this because it is not as simple as this. More pixels dont always mean a better display.

Originally Posted by Pontiac

I use large monitors at home and for work and the most common and basic 4k resolution is 3440 x 1440p. A 4K laptop can be scaled down to match this resolution easily. With a MacBook Pro, this is impossible, and I always end up cropping up the screen which is a nuisance.

Apple need to catchup on the displays they offer on their devices.

I am not sure if get you. The laptop display has got nothing to do with the connected display. The display scale settings for the connected screen are completely different from the settings for the laptop display. Officially 16inch MacBook Pro support two 6k display simultaneously. You could connect any display whether it is 1080p, 4k or 6k and the display should scale automatically or of your choosing. For example my MacBook Pro 15 is connected to a 1080p display and I can either run it at 1080p or 1600x800 which basically makes the text bigger. Are you sure you are doing it right?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, please share the make + model names of Windows laptops you recommend. Am sure there are many others in the same dilemma who are looking for a high quality, reliable laptop. Your answers will help all of us . Thank you!

I will vouch for the HP elitebook 840 G1 and G2 (very old, but can vouch for them personally) - both are available refurbed for 25-30K which are amazing deals. add an SSD and another 4GB RAM, and you have a laptop which can beat any 40-50K machine.
Any users for their later generations ? (G3 onwards?)

[GTO]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

I will vouch for the HP elitebook 840 G1 and G2

Any users for their later generations ? (G3 onwards?)

Am hearing lots of good things about HP . My sister is senior management @ Deloitte and had a lot of trouble with her Dells, even though she gets a new laptop from the company every 2 - 3 years. She is on her 2nd HP (HP Elitebook X360 1030 G4) and loves it.