Coming from a MBP 13"

S

shoota

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 26, 2011
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I'm looking to possibly get a Windows laptop and need some help searching for the right one.
What I like about the MBP:
1) Build quality
2) Overall size (chassis and screen, especially 16:10)
3) Discrete gpu
4) Backlit keyboard
5) TRACKPAD!
6) Looks
7) Matte screen

What I want in a windows laptop:
1) Build quality (would prefer metal)
2) Sandy bridge cpu i3 or i5
3) Good battery life
4) Hopefully a 13" 16:10 screen if that's even still possible
5) Discrete or switching gpu
6) Ability to switch out the hdd easily (or have an msata slot)
7) Backlit Keyboard
8) Good Trackpad! <- very important

Budget isn't a factor right now. Let's see how much it takes to get what I want and then we'll go from there.

I'm switching because as a Computer Engineering student Macs are getting cumbersome and I don't like running Parallels all that much.

Let's see what you can find!
 
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Maybe an ultrabook, since those are about the only ones built out of better materials, short of some large workstation mobiles.


In terms of 13" 16:10 screen? Not offered anywhere, anymore. The best quality 13" display would be on the insane Vaio Z2 line, however, that laptop is not without it's flaws, either (but IMO, would be the closest to what you are looking for, save for a few points).

In terms of trackpad, I haven't found an single windows laptop with a trackpad that I actually liked. It seemed Windows laptops took a severe step backwards after the buttonless mac wanabe trackpads started comming out in numbers.
 
shoota said:
I'm looking to possibly get a Windows laptop and need some help searching for the right one.
What I like about the MBP:
1) Build quality
2) Overall size (chassis and screen, especially 16:10)
3) Discrete gpu
4) Backlit keyboard
5) TRACKPAD!
6) Looks

What I want in a windows laptop:
1) Build quality (would prefer metal)
2) Sandy bridge cpu i3 or i5
3) Good battery life
4) Hopefully a 13" 16:10 screen if that's even still possible
5) Discrete or switching gpu
6) Ability to switch out the hdd easily (or have an msata slot)
7) Backlit Keyboard
8) Good Trackpad! <- very important

Budget isn't a factor right now. Let's see how much it takes to get what I want and then we'll go from there.

I'm switching because as a Computer Engineering student Macs are getting cumbersome and I don't like running Parallels all that much.

Let's see what you can find!
Click to expand...

forget the 13'' market

HP envy 15

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/series/category/notebooks/ENVY15_series/3/computer_store
 
jeremyshaw said:
Maybe an ultrabook, since those are about the only ones built out of better materials, short of some large workstation mobiles.


In terms of 13" 16:10 screen? Not offered anywhere, anymore. The best quality 13" display would be on the insane Vaio Z2 line, however, that laptop is not without it's flaws, either (but IMO, would be the closest to what you are looking for, save for a few points).

In terms of trackpad, I haven't found an single windows laptop with a trackpad that I actually liked. It seemed Windows laptops took a severe step backwards after the buttonless mac wanabe trackpads started comming out in numbers.
Click to expand...

I was afraid of that. The ultrabooks don't have user replacable hdd/ssd/ram do they?

arr4ws said:
forget the 13'' market

HP envy 15

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/series/category/notebooks/ENVY15_series/3/computer_store
Click to expand...

This has crossed my mind but I've heard terrible things about the Envy's trackpad. Are there any certain models on Envy that are better than others?
 
shoota said:
This has crossed my mind but I've heard terrible things about the Envy's trackpad. Are there any certain models on Envy that are better than others?
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im not sure about it , i know the trackpad isnt the best, but overall , the laptop seems incredible and it blows the MBP out of the water.

1080p screen
discrete gpu
i7 cpu possible
price tag way lower for same spec.
 
arr4ws said:
im not sure about it , i know the trackpad isnt the best, but overall , the laptop seems incredible and it blows the MBP out of the water.

1080p screen
discrete gpu
i7 cpu possible
price tag way lower for same spec.
Click to expand...

Yes but it's still an HP and I just can't see myself buying an HP laptop. I've worked on too many of them..
 
Don't get the Envy if you like actually using a trackpad. It's a beast of a machine but useless without an external mouse.

Coming from a MBP, you're not going to find a trackpad on a PC that can match up to the one on your Mac. That said, every ASUS laptop I've worked on has had a solid trackpad, and I've used good ones on Sony and Lenovo laptops.
 
Any Asus model in particular?
So the Lenovo U400 looks pretty good except for the low resolution and possibly non-matte screen (can't find any info on that). Man this is hard. And people wonder why we like our Macbook Pros..
Still taking suggestions people, thanks!
 
Check out the new Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. I've seen good things being said about this new model. Not sure it will meet your specs but worth a look.
 
Shane_c82 said:
Check out the new Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. I've seen good things being said about this new model. Not sure it will meet your specs but worth a look.
Click to expand...

Yeah I like that but I wonder how replaceable the internals are. I like to be able to switch out the hdd/ssd, ram, battery, etc and it's hard to find good info on models this new. if anyone knows I'd love to read about it.
I'm also going to have a hard time spending $300 more for a slower cpu, slower gpu, and less ram. But damn is it sexy. VERY tempting. It's not like I'm not typing this on an under-speced, over-priced laptop anyway.. :)
 
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16:10 and good trackpad? Forget it, doesn't exist.

Vaio Z1 was the best PC laptop I could find, but I just use my MacBook now...

Btw, you know you can run Windows natively on a mac, right? Although its amazing trackpad becomes pretty crappy with Apple's Windows drivers. =.=
 
shurcooL said:
16:10 and good trackpad? Forget it, doesn't exist.

Vaio Z1 was the best PC laptop I could find, but I just use my MacBook now...

Btw, you know you can run Windows natively on a mac, right? Although its amazing trackpad becomes pretty crappy with Apple's Windows drivers. =.=
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Yeah I know..
This sucks. I can't find anything that checks all the marks. I don't understand why there isn't one single laptop out there that has a matte screen, good trackpad, discrete gpu, portability, backlit keyboard, and good looks.
The Lenovo X220 seems to be the closest and thankfully the HD3000 IGP is better than previous Intel IGPs but the X220 is still God-awful ugly. I may just have to suck it up i guess.
So right now it's between the Lenovo U400 (which seems to have a bad trackpad) and the X220. Thoughts?
 
I'd pick an X220 with trackpoint. It's the best mouse input on PC laptops in my books.
 
That seems to be the general consensus. It's gonna be hard looking at that ugly duckling after owning a mbp. *sigh*
 
Pretty much any business class notebook (Thinkpad, Dell Latitude, HP Elitebook) is what you're looking for. They have excellent build quality, easy maintenance (the hard drive on my Dell Latitude E6410slides out with two screws), and matte screens.

If you're set on looks and don't like Thinkpad aesthetics, I'd say the HP Elitebooks right now are the best-looking models. The 8460p looks like a good one. Don't buy them through HP though, as they're really overpriced on their site to protect resellers. Try Newegg . Also try to get one with the 1600x900 screen, as Anandtech says the 1366x768 screen is utterly atrocious.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158279&Tpk=8460p 1600x900

Anandtech has a good review of the model:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4306/hp-elitebook-8460p-everything-but-the-screen/
 
Man those elitebooks are expensive. For that price I think I would get a MBP and just run Parallels.
 
Yeah, not sure why you aren't just considering dual-bootcamp/parallels on your MBP?

You've already got the hardware from the sounds of it, and like the build quality.

In bootcamp it is native Win7, with a 16:10 screen (which you just don't find in PC's anymore)

Not sure why you'd buy another laptop to do something your current laptop can do a better job of checking your boxes then just about anything on the market /shrug.
 
Zumino Zufeilon said:
Yeah, not sure why you aren't just considering dual-bootcamp/parallels on your MBP?

You've already got the hardware from the sounds of it, and like the build quality.

In bootcamp it is native Win7, with a 16:10 screen (which you just don't find in PC's anymore)

Not sure why you'd buy another laptop to do something your current laptop can do a better job of checking your boxes then just about anything on the market /shrug.
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This. ^

When I had a macbook pro this is what I did and before you know it. I was using windows more than OS. But it was just nice to have both. If you don't use the Slot Loading drive, take it out and replace it with a hard drive for the windows partition.

That would save you time and money.
 
I'll fill in some more info. I AM currently using parallels with win7 however the ctrl key doesn't work and I need that in windows to select multiple files at once. Mac os rarely uses the ctrl key so it's no biggie there. I'm thinking about selling my wife's iMac and giving her my mbp and then buying myself a new one.
I like the 13" size and price but not the hd3000 gpu. The 15" is alot less portable but much more powerful and expensive. Is there any hope of a 13" mbp refresh with a dedicated gpu in the near future?
 
There's definitely a refresh right around the corner for MBP's, it's just a matter of when. I've read late April/June, but those are just rumors.

When you say you can't use the Ctrl key do you mean it's broken on your keyboard? I can't bust out my MBP right now with Bootcamp but I'm pretty sure I've selected multiple files on it before.
 
Yeah the key is broken. I'm using this is an excuse to get a new laptop and give the Wifey a mbp in the process. I guess I'll wait for the refresh..
 
Note on the X220; if you do not know how to use a trackpoint, or cannot or will not learn, do not get the x220. The touchpad on the x220 is barely adequate and you will probably go insane if you have to rely on it for everything. My x220 is great, but I can't defend it's touchpad, it's very, very mediocre if not outright bad.

Trackpoint's awesome.
 
I used a trackpoint wayyyy back when I got my first laptop, a Pentium 3 Dell. And yes it was very good for pointing and clicking but how about scrolling? Do you have to move the cursor over to the scroll bar everytime? I'm used to two-finger scrolling and I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up.
 
There's a middle blue scroll button in between the left and right mouse buttons. You hold that down and move the trackpoint to scroll. You don't have to go to the side and press the scroll bar.

IMO it's about on-par with two finger scrolling.
 
Yeah that sounds like once you get used it it would be pretty effective.
 
You can buy a used 2008-era Dell Latitude E6400 or Thinkpad T400 for $350, so it's sort of a wash.
 
Well the seller disappeared and besides I think he was asking a little too much for a used mbp. I'll look for a better deal leading up to the refresh and go from there. Thanks guys you were all very helpful.
 
shoota said:
I used a trackpoint wayyyy back when I got my first laptop, a Pentium 3 Dell. And yes it was very good for pointing and clicking but how about scrolling? Do you have to move the cursor over to the scroll bar everytime? I'm used to two-finger scrolling and I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up.
Click to expand...

Scrolling on the trackpoint is pretty good. Not real-time smoothness that you get in an Apple touchpad, but it's still good. You hold down the middle button and scroll by moving up or down on your trackpoint.

Two finger scroll on the touchpad does work, but I find it pretty bad as far as responsiveness and accuracy and control. If you are a trackpoint user, you will hate your touchpad on your x220 with a passion. It doesn't work well, and beside, you have to move your fingers off the trackpoint to use it and why would someone ever want to do that?
 
shoota said:
Yeah I like that but I wonder how replaceable the internals are. I like to be able to switch out the hdd/ssd, ram, battery, etc and it's hard to find good info on models this new. if anyone knows I'd love to read about it.
I'm also going to have a hard time spending $300 more for a slower cpu, slower gpu, and less ram. But damn is it sexy. VERY tempting. It's not like I'm not typing this on an under-speced, over-priced laptop anyway.. :)
Click to expand...

I bought one of the xps 13" ultrabooks last week, the ssd from my understanding cannot be replaced. It isnt like the SSD in the macbook pro its an msata version, someone else may be able to answer better on it then I have. Other then that the build quality is fantastic on this, Its a smaller version of the macbook air 13" thats cheaper and has pretty good battery life. You will need to run games at lower res though to get them to a playable state.

You can save upto $150 usd by buying one of them at an actual dell store/kiosk they are normally in malls and can order them from you direct from dell. You can get the 128 gb i5 version for around $900.

to summarize

XPS 13"
Pros : Price, Great build quality, smaller then a macbook air 13" with about the same amount of weight(the style and feel is the best ive seen in a laptop and I love mine), best ultrabook ssd (samsung 830), inhome dell service for a year if any problems.

Cons: so/so graphics(intel hd 300), non replacable internals(battery can be replaced), TN monitor, wireless internet only unless you get a usb connecter or dock.
 
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O ya and after the recent bios update and trackpad update it is very quiet and the trackpad is very very nice. and feels nice aswell
 
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