Macbook Pro for university?

[shunsuu]

Please do not get a macbook for school. As cool as it looks, it is simply not practical. I think a workhorse laptop such as thinkpad (gen 8 and above) or dell latitude models are great. What you need to be looking out for is, lightweight, native windows and a great keyboard. The macbook fails in all 3 categories.

If you want to talk about software, there are several videos on the internet which show that windows PCs can match a mac for photo editing. Even if there is a difference, the price difference is not worth the difference in performance. Microsoft Office suite (probably the most important due to all the crazy report writing and excel tasks) is ABSOLUTELY horrible on MAC. It's just not as smooth and convenient as in a windows laptop (i used a 2013 macbook pro for 3 years before selling it. Honestly, for an ordinary user, there is nothing great about a mac other than watching videos. Even that has problems as the vlc player or mx player for mac have some issues).

As some of the guys have shared, the recent xps line is plagued with lots of QC problems and you must be having a really lucky day to get a good set out of the factory.

 

[Mikemike123]

Please do not get a macbook for school. As cool as it looks, it is simply not practical. I think a workhorse laptop such as thinkpad (gen 8 and above) or dell latitude models are great. What you need to be looking out for is, lightweight, native windows and a great keyboard. The macbook fails in all 3 categories.

If you want to talk about software, there are several videos on the internet which show that windows PCs can match a mac for photo editing. Even if there is a difference, the price difference is not worth the difference in performance. Microsoft Office suite (probably the most important due to all the crazy report writing and excel tasks) is ABSOLUTELY horrible on MAC. It's just not as smooth and convenient as in a windows laptop (i used a 2013 macbook pro for 3 years before selling it. Honestly, for an ordinary user, there is nothing great about a mac other than watching videos. Even that has problems as the vlc player or mx player for mac have some issues).

As some of the guys have shared, the recent xps line is plagued with lots of QC problems and you must be having a really lucky day to get a good set out of the factory.

I'm definitely going for a windows laptop, thanks for your feedback

 

[Rock-kun]

Please do not get a macbook for school. As cool as it looks, it is simply not practical. I think a workhorse laptop such as thinkpad (gen 8 and above) or dell latitude models are great. What you need to be looking out for is, lightweight, native windows and a great keyboard. The macbook fails in all 3 categories.

If you want to talk about software, there are several videos on the internet which show that windows PCs can match a mac for photo editing. Even if there is a difference, the price difference is not worth the difference in performance. Microsoft Office suite (probably the most important due to all the crazy report writing and excel tasks) is ABSOLUTELY horrible on MAC. It's just not as smooth and convenient as in a windows laptop (i used a 2013 macbook pro for 3 years before selling it. Honestly, for an ordinary user, there is nothing great about a mac other than watching videos. Even that has problems as the vlc player or mx player for mac have some issues).

As some of the guys have shared, the recent xps line is plagued with lots of QC problems and you must be having a really lucky day to get a good set out of the factory.

You are supposed to be the master of your tools, not a slave to it.

I used Debian Linux for three years of InfoComm in uni where everything in the syllabus was Windows-based and I still got my second upper class Honours.

 

[narkizy]

You are supposed to be the master of your tools, not a slave to it.

I used Debian Linux for three years of InfoComm in uni where everything in the syllabus was Windows-based and I still got my second upper class Honours.

Creating problems that don't exist lol. Why burden yourself with an inflexible OS (MacOS) just for the sake of showing off to the world how 'resourceful' you were? An apple fanboy would take 30minutes to find dozens of workarounds to install and run Packet Tracer. I install it on Windows in about 1min. But hey, you 'got it to work'. Want a clap? And OP is clearly not in infocomm course, so the so-called 'benefits' of a unix-based OS flies right out the window. So your point right there is completely moot.

TLDR: You were a master at surviving despite making your own life difficult. Nothing to be proud of imo.

 

[Shawshankredempti0n]

Creating problems that don't exist lol. Why burden yourself with an inflexible OS (MacOS) just for the sake of showing off to the world how 'resourceful' you were? An apple fanboy would take 30minutes to find dozens of workarounds to install and run Packet Tracer. I install it on Windows in about 1min. But hey, you 'got it to work'. Want a clap? And OP is clearly not in infocomm course, so the so-called 'benefits' of a unix-based OS flies right out the window. So your point right there is completely moot.

TLDR: You were a master at surviving despite making your own life difficult. Nothing to be proud of imo.

Pretty sure every company out there uses MacOS and Linux for everyone /s

PS. That is why I ask the OP if he knows how common a MacOS would be of use in a working environment. Apparently he has no idea

 

[shunsuu]

I'm definitely going for a windows laptop, thanks for your feedback

That being said, true satisfaction is in the details. I have used quite a wide variety of laptops. There is always something that annoys me somehow. The screen colours might be horrible, the screen brightness might be low, you may prefer matte/glossy, the keyboard touches the screen when you closed the lid and causes the keyboard imprint on the screen, weight issues, battery life issues, fingerprint magnet issues, port issues, aesthetics issues, it goes on and on. Currently, im satisfied with a x1 carbon 6th gen and it also has its own set of issues. What I am trying to say is, you must be absolutely satisfied with what you buy. Otherwise, each time you use the laptop, it is hell and it sometimes affects productivity. You may not enjoy looking at a horrible screen for hours to do your report. I think you know what I'm talking about by now.

 

[rabbit1]

Don't use mac la.. I see many students with macbook having to install bootcamp and is still stuck in bootcamp forever. Must as well get a Windows laptop.

 

[Ark Law]

Not sure what the others mean by XPS having 'subpar' quality.

High failure rate prior to reaching 3 year mark. This is in business setting where warranty was extended from the default 1/2 years. 10 of 16 have had hardware issues within 3 years.

Also, serviceability is better on Latitudes than XPS. XPS BIOS have those crappy fanciful Windows Metro-like UI

 

[_Mark42]

Just my 2 cents : Dont go for razer blade stealth. The chances of getting a defective unit is much higher as their QC sucks big time. Bought their blade 15 and had to return it due to bad temp/coil whine. For stealth , the laptop itself have way less battery backup as it have poorly designed power management for its dedicated graphics card, nvidia mx15

If you're not a hardcore MacOS fanboy, I'd suggest avoiding Macbook Pro completely and just go with a good windows laptop.

Loads of premium-grade ultrabooks come loaded with multiple thunderbolt 3 ports AND SD card slots AND USB A ports(no dongle needed).

1) Razer blade stealth 2019 has one thunderbolt 3 port, one USB-C charging port, two USB A ports

2) XPS 9380 has two thunderbolt ports, a headphone jack, microsd slot, one USB-c power port

3) Lenovo's premium thinkpad line has the same as the above, plus best-in-industry(arguably) build quality compared to the other two

Both are cheaper than the Macbook Pro 13inch even when decently specced and have BETTER port selection. I suggest ditching the Macbook Pro altogether if you're not into MacOS all that much. You're losing alot of money and performance simply for the 'brandname'.



Take into account the extra premium you had to pay for an Apple product and the lower depreciation rate instantly becomes a null argument.

 

[cscs3]

Hello guys, I'm matriculating into SIT as an engineering student this year. Is a Macbook Pro 2018 suitable for my school needs or do you have other recommendation.

Reasons for choosing Macbook Pro : Big fan of MacOS ( Only use it a few times before) and the ability to run both windows and MacOS

Usage: Strictly school software and photo editing.

If you are engineering student. You should pick a notebook that runs windows. Most engineering test program available in Win environment only.

 

[Morugana]

Most probably you need to bootcamp into windows for your engineering apps.

The specific driver might not work for your USB hardware.

Better get a win10 laptop

 

[Akromaci]

Fuss-free maintenance Apple OSX is good. But a waste if only google docs or sheets

 

[watzup_ken]

Tbh, I'm only using the laptop for that 3 years of school. After that, I'm probably going to sell the laptop or give the laptop to my younger siblings. I heard the resale value for apple products is always higher than the rest if u take care of it

Although this is an old thread, I can't help but want to clarify this misconception that Apple products always have a higher resale value. The logic is simple, because you pay a significant premium for it at the start, so it makes sense that people are willing to pay "more" for it. Taking a Macbook Pro and a similar speced Windows laptop, you will definitely be paying more for the Macbook Pro, and easily by quite a significant amount if you calculate by %.

 

[tractor13]

If you are engineering student. You should pick a notebook that runs windows. Most engineering test program available in Win environment only.

for coding iwll macbook be better or windows

 

[lumpyme]

for coding iwll macbook be better or windows

I don't know how you can quantify this statement but let me share some facts.

Brew sucks. When you install anything it will load tons of dependencies. Your app will work on your PC but will fail on another. On windows you will know exactly what you need.

Android studio works better on windows than on mac and the latest features on android studio always appear on windows before appearing on mac.

Visual studio is a Microsoft product

Windows taskbar is significantly better than the window management on mac. Try having 4 visual studio code windows open and actively switching between the 4.

Windows file manager is significantly better to use as well. Try copying files between 2 folders with 4 file manager windows open. Mac is terrible.

You have putty, winscp on windows but cyberduck and terminal on mac.


I can go on and on. Debugging apps on iPhone Vs android. How safari is a useless browser to develop with.
Only if you are an iOS developer, the experience coding on windows is so much better

also because windows laptops are cheaper, for the same amount of money you'll get a much better spec computer and the windows laptop will feel significantly faster than your mac

i used to own a x1 carbon top spec and a macbook pro 13 with i5 and 8gb ram. the macbook was more expensive yet it was slower. the thinkpad that i had was the best laptop i've ever owned, it was a true workhorse.