OT - May Need New Laptop. Apple or PC?

It depends if you like the Apple Operating System. That's basically what you're paying a lot more for, nothing fancy. An apple computer with the exact same specifications as a PC computer can cost almost double.

For $1300 dollars you could get something like:
OS: Windows 8 Professional
CPU: Intel 4th Generation i5
RAM: 8GB DDR3
HDD: 64GB SSD, 500GB SATA
Graphic: Integrated or a reasonable dedicated GFX card if you want to play video games or render etc.
Screen: 13-17 inch, whatever you prefer

Note: I'm Australian, the above may be cheaper or more expensive in the US, I'm not sure

Get a chromebook. I love mine

I am in the same boat, trying to decide between a MacBook pro and a Lenovo yoga2 pro. I am leaning toward the Mac, but I have always used pcs except at work.

If you don't like the Windows 8.1 start menu you can always get classicshell.net it's free and I love it on my Windows machine.

I have a MacBook Pro and really like it. My son uses Chromebooks at school and I like those as well. My vote would be for a macbook.

I have a Toshiba Satellite. Very good laptop, dependable, etc.

Sue

I've used cheap computers and home-built high-end gaming ones and they all last a long time. I get 5+ years out of everything I've used (from $400 laptops to thousands of dollar high-end rigs). Although, I've replaced computer innards a few times to keep them going, if a component burns out though (including openings up laptop cases though). Replacing components within a 3 year+ old pc is easy with eBay and such.

My cheapo Toshiba satellite is still going strong after 3 years. I recently replaced both the battery (which died) and the power cord (which busted), but apart from that it's been fine.

Not sure what I'd get if money were no object. Apple products look sleek as ****, but I'm not too impressed by their functionality. Everyone I know who has an iPad or iPhone just seem to have endless problems with getting it to do what they want it to do. My 8-year-old nephew has the least amount of trouble, but then he's got no interest in things like synching.

For tablets/phones, think I'd always go with Android from now on. For laptops, Windows if I wanted to be practical; Apple if I wanted to be a hipster.

I've had my MacBook Pro for six years and it's going strong. The only problem I've had was when the hard drive burned out (??) around 2 years ago. Te repair person at the apple-authorized repair shop managed to get Apple to pay for a replacement even off warranty.

I'd never go back to a PC at home because the Mac is so reliable. With all of my old PCs, they would eventually get slower and slower and then conk out well before 6 years. The boot up time was ridiculous! Also, if MSFT comes out with a crap operating system, as they seem to do every 2-3 years, you could run into issues.

The Mac is worth it. You could try a refurbished model to get a lower price.

Thanks all. I have enough ideas from you now to help guide me. I'm still using my laptop here, with it's tilted to the left screen from the broken hinge and such... haha.

Imagardener: I'm not heavily into anything graphic wise I don't think, though I occasionally enjoy movies while in bed on my laptop, especially when I don't feel well. My wife and I are enjoying getting into photography lately, and have over a thousand pictures from a mix of our wedding, botanical gardens and a trip to Colorado. Those pictures are very high detail from my Canon 7D. Other than that though, I generally use my laptop for functions like emailing, social networking including work related functions, word processing, etc. I do use accounting software; Quickbooks is what I've been using. I think I would in general leave those programs out of the pictures since they're so minimal. My work I did before I sold our company on my laptop was in general basic, and I farmed out things such as building our website.

Probiotic: The chromebooks looked decent, but I would feel a bit vulnerable to any issues of wifi going down or me being in a remote location and needing access to files. So, I agree with what you're saying. Still though, they are a decent option for the right use.

Thanks all for your comments. Here's how I feel now...
-That people seem to be happy with all options.
-That chromebooks offer good value IF I just am looking for browsing and cloud based access.
-That the not super expensive PC laptops are good enough to keep most of you who use them satisfied.
-That there are a lot of mac users who feel the price is justified in the value received.

I will weigh it all around a bit and see what my budget looks like. I'll try to plan what any future ventures I may do might require, processing/storage wise, etc... My first choice would be a mac at this point, but at their price I'll let it sit for a week or two in my mind and see if I still feel it's justified for me to buy it.

Thanks for your all your ideas. :)

Hahaha, Mark that was an amazing reply! I think you sold me. I will note your referral in my purchase from them... ;)

I guess Mac people have to persuade themselves that the $1000 markup is worth the money.

PS: As long as I leave my laptop in hibernation mode (which I always do), it takes about 10 seconds to type in my password and to load everything up. I have set updates to download automatically but not install, which means I get around to actually installing them once every few months.

PCs don't have to drastically slow down after a couple of years. There's probably malware and other bloatware bogging it down. I dunno about the Mac, but my mum's friend's iPad 2 has become literally unusable after 3 years.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 9/30/2014 8:19:55 AM (GMT-6)