[GTO]

Thanks a ton, guys ! Guess its between Lenovo & Macbook going by the posts.

- Usage is basically business & Team-BHP content creation. Nothing too heavy like picture or video processing, but I have a lot of programs running simultaneously (right now, it's Chrome with 25 tabs + iTunes + Excel + Word + Firefox + GDrive + Dropbox + etc.).

- Lenovo - Which model? If X1 Carbon, which generation? Am seeing 6, 7 & 8 on their website. If ThinkPad, which model or series in particular?

- Macbook - Okay to run Windows?

- Macbook - 13" or 16"? Is 13 too small & 16 too big?

[rdst_1]

Frankly, for the usage you have mentioned, buying an X1 carbon and a Macbook Pro would be a complete waste of money. I easily accomplish these tasks on my 6 year old basic Lenovo laptop with an i5 that I bought for 35k back in 2014 and upgrade ram to 8gb.
Any laptop from Asus, HP and others in the 50-70k range and sporting upwards of Core i5 8th gen and 8GB of ram should be more than enough. Do take a look at LG Gram as well in the 14 inch guise. It has extra slots to expand both RAM and storage and comes with a 3 year warranty by default. It used to be available for around 68k but shows 74k to me currently on Amazon.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by rdst_1

Frankly, for the usage you have mentioned, buying an X1 carbon and a Macbook Pro would be a complete waste of money. I easily accomplish these tasks on my 6 year old basic Lenovo laptop with an i5 that I bought for 35k back in 2014 and upgrade ram to 8gb.

If we were to go by pure functionality, then I wouldn't need anything more than a Dzire either . But I want a laptop with a top-class build, premium finishing, a high quality screen etc. Would prefer to have more power than less .

[AMG Power]

The MacBook Pro is certainly the best quality around but I wouldn't advise it. You are as of now, fortunate of not getting trapped within the Apple ecosystem. Remain that way.

I am trying to get out of the Apple ecosystem now having been trapped (yes, that is the right word) within it for more than 10 years. The amount of redundancy being intentionally built in even into every area (you can't interchange chargers, cables, even earphones for the iphone) And it's not as if the changes are for the better but for the purpose of making the earlier (in several cases better one) obsolete and more importantly forcing consumer money into Apple's bank account.

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by GTO

No real budget as this is going to be a work tool. Quality, reliability & uptime are top priorities. Imagine how it feels to have this stupid Dell Latitude hang up in the middle of an Official Review!

I strongly suggest you escalate this issue, go for a replacement and invest in a Dell XPS, year 2020 models. XPS is a direct competitor to the MacBook Air and is of strong built quality. The only downside is that it costs twice the price of another Dell laptop with almost same specs. XPS series is their flagship product and really excellent. I bought my XPS 9500 with 4K OLED touch screen from the US in excess of 2000 dollars but its worth it.
Views may differ here, but at least you must get your current laptop replaced. And if you opt for Dell to Dell, then replacement may be faster.

[Thermodynamics]

As far as service network is concerned, Dell is probably the best. However their machines are unreliable.

Of all laptop brands I used, ACER lasted 1 year, ASUS 2 years, Dell 4 years, but my very first purchase Lenovo has lasted 14 years and still kicking healthy with an Intel Celeron processor . It also featured a finger print sensor back in 2006. However, the hardware is so much outdated now, that I bought a Dell latitude E-6440, which is working fine since 4 years, but the screen has developed dead pixels.

[Turbanator]

In the past decade, I have always used a laptop for all of my work needs I.e. no Desktop. But I don’t do any heavy work. Over the years, I have now settled from an X series Thinkpad to Microsoft Surface and an Apple MacBook with windows. There was a time when ThinkPad service was top-notch, even after IBM sales to Lenovo, they kept service for a few years but later on started finding loopholes to avoid warranty.

I shifted to Microsoft 3 years ago and am a happy user or Surface book 2 -15 inch. There was an issue on a track pad with the right click not being recognized, and they gave me a brand new sealed unit at the stores after running in some checks. They used to have stores in Canada where you can buy 3 year warranty and laptops directly from Microsoft and they will give you a priority service. Not any longer I guess as they had planned to close all such stores. For whatever reasons, I have always had an Apple MacBook Pro as well and almost all of them had to be repaired in the second or third year of ownership. Most repairs have been very expensive and unlike Microsoft, Apple does not give you a new replacement. They will change everything if required, but won’t give you a new or refurbished piece. In between I had bought a Dell premium laptop and just like GTO had multiple repairs before I gave to someone.

Both Microsoft and Apple are expensive in India if we compare with US or Canada prices and I will pick from overseas with extended warranty. But if someone has to buy locally, Apple with extended warranty will be my choice. Add windows and one can enjoy best of both.

[Alpha8118]

If you want to go the MacBook route, you will have to purchase a whole plethora of dongles and adapters as MacBooks only have USB C ports ( Air has only 2 ports). Also you cannot have direct compatibility with most of your other devices unless they are in the Apple ecosystem. If this is not going to be a problem, then the MacBook Pro is the best productivity laptop there is (if purchased in a powerful spec).

If you go the Windows route, I will recommend ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS G14 which is famously known for being the most powerful 14 inch Laptop in the world. HP Elite Dragonfly is yet another great option.

I would recommend you to stay away from Dell as I too have had a very bad experience with a laptop which costs above 1.5 L.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks a ton, guys ! Guess its between Lenovo & Macbook going by the posts.

- Usage is basically business & Team-BHP content creation. Nothing too heavy like picture or video processing, but I have a lot of programs running simultaneously (right now, it's Chrome with 25 tabs + iTunes + Excel + Word + Firefox + GDrive + Dropbox + etc.).

- Lenovo - Which model? If X1 Carbon, which generation? Am seeing 6, 7 & 8 on their website. If ThinkPad, which model or series in particular?

- Macbook - Okay to run Windows?

- Macbook - 13" or 16"? Is 13 too small & 16 too big?

I have a Thinkpad X1 carbon gen 6 as a work laptop and for a hand-me-down, it has held up exceedingly well. For my personal use, I have a Levono Yoga and an iPad which has desktop class Safari. I will tell you that I LOVE safari. Apple takes privacy seriously as my experience interacting with websites is the smoothest in Safari. So much so that I'm planning to buy a MacBook as my next personal machine.

Considering you usage pattern and the fact that you use iTunes, I think it might be time to jump ship the MacOS. Even if you aren't keen on MacOS, I'd suggest a MacBook Air with Windows considering the eye-watering prices of the Lenovo X1 carbon range in India.

However, two things to note if you use Windows on a Macbook:
1. Macbooks have the control, option, and command keys instead of control and alt. Takes a few days to get used to.
2. Windows partition takes a lot of space which can be a hassle in the 256 gb versions.

My suggestion is buy a Macbook and try MacOS for a few weeks. If it really bugs you, buy a copy of windows and install it.

Regarding size - it purely depends on your usage. If most of your work is on a desk with a monitor, 13" should work. If you travel a lot, larger screens are a better choice. Do note that Macbooks have better displays (sharper & brighter) that most other products.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by GTO

- Macbook - Okay to run Windows?

- Macbook - 13" or 16"? Is 13 too small & 16 too big?

Go for Macbook Pro 13" running OSX. It is perfect. Consider it as your "who moved my cheese" moment and leave the Windows behind

I know of programmers who are still using 2008 Macbook Pro as their primary workhorse - they did update SSD/RAM, etc. but still amazing.

[indrasis_gun]

I am using Macbook Air 2017 model running Windows 10 from last 2.5 years without any problem. This week I have upgraded the SSD to 1 TB SSD. Compared to my Lenovo Ideapad having better specs than the Macbook Air, I find the Mac to work smoother and absolutely trouble free whereas Lenovo got keyboard replaced twice. I am a heavy user.

So you can use Win 10 in Macbook without any trouble.

[gusfring]

MacBook is good. But points are you will definitely need a larger internal storage (in Apple speak, that's a small premium over lower storage versions). Apple quite advertises Windows being supported on their devices

And using MacOS will certainly be a tiny learning curve, but it's nothing someone even a little tech-savvy can't figure out...

The size, well... The 16 inch is incredible, but has older generation processors. The 13 inch has been updated to the 10th gen Intel. If that's a deal breaker the 13 inch is better. Else, the 16 inch is better overall, with exceptional speakers, display, etc.

Also if you can wait or something, Apple is expected to release an updated 16 inch Mac sometime in the next couple months. They will get a better webcam than the current shitty ones

[Hayek]

I think you have 3 options:

1) For the best reliability, I would go with a ThinkPad. They are practically bulletproof. However, I have a bias against Chinese owned brands - and hence am not willing to buy one
2) I am currently on our family’s third HP, a Spectre- we had bought a very basic Pavillion for our son, and an Envy for my wife, which we gave to our son when schooling moved online, and my wife bought a MacBook Air. I recently replaced my 7 year old Vaio with a Spectre - which is just fantastic though it is only 4 months old yet.
3) My wife thinks the Mac is far superior to the Windows PCs she used earlier - I still find it hard to use and have some windows only software - hence I would not go down that path.

I would agree with those who recommend a dongle over the SIM in the laptop - laptops tend to last much longer than mobile technology - and you don’t want to have to replace a laptop two years from now because you want to use 5G networks

I would go with a 13 inch screen since I prioritise light weight in laptops - you can always connect to a larger screen in the office.

For windows, go for a 10th Gen core i5 or Core i7 with as much RAM as you can afford.

[Vid6639]

I use both Mac and windows interchangeably. My office PC is a Dell Lattitude but my personal home machine has always been a Mac since 2011.

I used a 2011 Macbook Pro from 2011 to 2020. The macbook was working fine and had no issues but I figured 9 years was a good time to upgrade.

I was thinking of getting a new MAcbook Pro 13inch but at the time the 13inch had the old problematic keyboard and I was wondering whether I really needed 2 laptops to carry around when traveling.

I realized that my Mac was primarily used at my desk and the only times I wanted something more portable was when travelling. A laptop was too bulky in flight to open up.

So what I did was get a Mac mini cause I wanted to stay with Apple. This was with the new Core i5 processor and I got an iPad Pro. So now when I travel I carry my office laptop and my iPad Pro. For short trips I carry just the iPad. Best decision so far.

If you absolutely need a laptop which I know you do then get the MAcbook Pro 13inch new one with the 10th Gen CPU. Link:

https://www.flipkart.com/apple-macbo...mc348a3a8c2c1d

There are discounts running on this and you may get it for lesser than 1.8L finally.

The 16inch is also good but it is due for a mild refresh in Nov/December. The CPU and some config will be updated with same prices.

[Lowflyer23]

Sir If you can make a change to IOS from Windows it would be well worth it. It might take a bit getting used to but then there is no looking back, the MacBooks are super reliable quality products which last for years. The hardware and software integration is also the best as it is totally designed by Apple only.

However getting your custom settings and softwares might not be possible, in that case if you really need a Windows laptop then the Microsoft Surface series is my choice.