Basically this machine’s battery is dead, it get’s super hot, the fans are trying to take off and although not a fault, it weighs nearly 2.5kg which is a lot when considering carrying it around on a bike etc.

I’d like to upgrade and ideally save some weight at the same time. Screen size isnt a massive issue but 12 seems a bit too small.

Current spec is:
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB

I mainly use it for web browsing, streaming video and a spot of editing audio/video.

Am I best sticking to Apple or is there a PC out there that would suit me?

Thanks folks, the world of tech specs scares me nowadays!

Any similar spec laptop will be fine, in fact you don’t even need a dedicated graphics card for your use by the sound of it, so the whole thing will run cooler.

Are you wanting a PC or a laptop? The thing with ‘pc laptops’ is the cheaper ones do feel cheap, and just aren’t buit well, so they can be damaged more easily. They also tend to come preloaded with all sorts of junk so you need to do a clean install of windows, or whack a Linux OS on them.

Contractor at work uses 13 ish inch screen Mac laptop. Small screen but high resolution so works well. Runs win 7 VM for development work. Works really well, butter than my work supplied i7, but he is running 16 GB ram, I’m only on 8 ( also running VM).

Personally I couldn’t cope with a 13inch screen.

If I were to buy a laptop it would have to be at least a 17inch screen, have an SSD drive and be running 4gb ram, if using for VM, then a lot more ram.

But then I find laptops impractical anyway.. I’d rather have a proper pc and deal with on the move coms etc. Via smartphone.

Stay with Apple, you’ll be horrified if you move to Windows… 🙂

My wife has a 2011 MacBook and it sounds just like yours. My (work) 13″ MacBook Air is awesome and practically nonexistent when on a bike. The MBP is a bit heavier and more expensive but much more awesomer (which in this context means it should be usable longer).

Depends on what exactly you mean by “a spot of editing”, but you could probably do all that stuff on an iPad (or other tablet).

Come into the light child. Never too late to change your ways.

Take a look at Dell

They also tend to come preloaded with all sorts of junk so you need to do a clean install of windows, or whack a Linux OS on them.

I think there were 2 things…
Windows 10 is great and works well, for what you list a mac is probably massive overkill spec wise and price wise. Something like the Dell inspiron series 15″ would be my choice. Tiny high resolution screens just mean they make everything tiny…

Tiny high resolution screens just mean they make everything tiny…

Says the Windows user. 😉 FWIW the high resolutions Macs use the extra resolution for clarity, nothing shrinks on the screen. Personally I’m staying the hell away from the MacBook Pro for my work laptop as I’ll never be able to afford a high resolution 24″ display to replace my current one once I’ve been spoilt!

Any PC will seem horrible after a MBP!

Can you not fix it? I’m running a 2010 MBP with 16Gb RAM and a 500GB SSD – still flies….

FWIW the high resolutions Macs use the extra resolution for clarity, nothing shrinks on the screen.

OK so you either get less on the screen or you make it smaller… Not that good 😉 plenty of tiny macs in my office, not something I’d want to use for that long.

I’m having a long look at the Dell XPS 13 for my next laptop as it seems to have a similar spec to Macbooks, is lighter and cheaper.

Any PC will seem horrible after a MBP!

Don’t listen to the fanbois. Windows is as good as anything else these days, so it’s about personal preference, and what other dependencies you have.

If you go with Windows, you have the option of the excellent Surface tablet, which is pretty damn cool.

A new battery is what £100 from Apple or less from another supplier ? I just upgraded a friends 2008 15″ MBP with 4gb ram (from 2) and a 250gb ssd and its like a new machine. Cost £110. Runs all the latest software. You’d be hard pressed to find too many old windows machines still going and running windows 10. My Mac Mini is 2009 and is used daily, wife MBP is 2012, the kit lasts.

Upgrade what you’ve got or sell it and buy a new Mac

Cheaper to replace your battery I would guess unless you just fancy something new. 🙂 my 2011 mbp is a 13″, could do with a new battery and just replaced the WiFi card but otherwise it’s still capable with 8gig ram and an ssd.

The new Macs are aimed at consumers not geeks, hence the lack of ports and ability to upgrade/repair yourself.

Our Mac guy has actually just bought a surface pro 4 and really rates it.

I’m not sure what I’ll get when mine finally gives up.

I were to buy a laptop it would have to be at least a 17inch screen

17″! I love screen space but for a traveling user I even find a 15 a pain in the back to lug around.

Footflaps, can a 2010 Mac Book Pro use 16gig? Pretty sure my 2011 is limited to 8.

You’d be hard pressed to find too many old windows machines still going and running windows 10.

My current personal windows laptop is 2011, running win 10 fine and it’s had zero spent on it, been my work laptop for 4 years of that and been round the world with me a few times. Needs a new battery at some point and probably cost 1/3 of the equivalent apple laptop. It’s kit I can’t fault and seems to last forever….

Windows 10 I seem to recall has a lower min spec than previous versions and runs well on older machines.

Also “at least 17″ ” 🙂 how big to laptops go?! 13″ with the iPad running duet display works well and then I plug the 2 into a 24″ screen in work. It’s like war games 🙂

I’ve got a laptop running W7 nicely from 2009, recently upgraded to W10. Also a netbook type thing from about the same time runs W10 nicely too.

Jambalaya knows nothing about Windows laptops – do not listen to him.

However it is always better to repair than replace.

Just don’t get a laptop Mac or PC, captive keyboards and no mouse make them horrible to use, regardless of whether you favour Mac OS or Windows or Linux. Laptop’s suck!

My 2008 13″ MacBook was perfectly fine except I was stuck on Snow Leopard. If it had been a 2009 i’d still have it. The 13″ MBP I recently replaced it with is awesome though.

Also “at least 17″ ” how big to laptops go?!

Well I wouldn’t go bigger but I do carry 17 laptops around for work, in the end I just need the screen real estate when on the road with no access to second screens. The weight drop recently is great.

Footflaps, can a 2010 Mac Book Pro use 16gig? Pretty sure my 2011 is limited to 8.

You don’t need more than 8gb for typical use unless you are doing video encoding etc an SSD will likely make much more difference than >8 ram. I put 4 in the old mbp above as cost of 6 (max) wasn’t worth it and spent budget on ssd

@molgrips I think you can count the number of such old windows machines running W10 as a very very small proportion. We never had a dell/sony/ibm/levono laptop which lasted more than 3 years, mist ground to a halt for software reasons. I am certainly out of touch with Windows as after close to 20 years stuff with Microsoft we have been Apple only for 8 years. Never ever going back. When at work I try and use the office provided Windows machine as little as possible. The stock market doesn’t lie when it comes to the relative valuations.

We never had a dell/sony/ibm/levono laptop which lasted more than 3 years, mist ground to a halt for software reasons.

So nothing to do with the hardware then? The issue with windows normally comes from the idiot between the chair and the screen 😉 a simple clean up and install will fix that.

The stock market doesn’t lie when it comes to the relative valuations.

100% Apple makes more cash on it’s hardware and it running a massive tie in process with software and the rest – see their ad-removal option which will push people like STW to run through apps to get ad revenue which apple will then take a portion for doing nothing. Generating a 100% profit for something will make the stock market love you. It doesn’t make them a good judge of value, technical applications and the rest.

I have the same 2010 model but with a SSD and 8GB ram. I bought it secondhand 4 years ago for good money and yes I work in IT and have done for over 20years so know a thing or two.

I also found the battery finally lower enough to consider replacing ( around 45min of use) Had a look on Ebay and just fitted a replacement battery today which is charing as we speak. The battery cost me £33 and will report back how good it is but fingers crossed will be OK.

I also replaced the 5 year old SSD which was 256gb with a Sandisk 480gb model.

I totally understand the hate for Macs ( from people who normally don’t own one) as they are pricey but if you ask me its money well spent. I don’t want a iPad , iPhone or ever use iTunes by the way so definitely not a apple fan.

That my 5 pence worth.

Laptops overall are generally limited to 8GB of RAM, there was much fanfare in the office when we (Intel) finally released a laptop SKU that can take 16GB of RAM.

Agreed though, maxing out the RAM, a new battery (get a proper one, from experience the no-name or refurb ones aren’t worth it), and a decent SSD to replace your internal (slow) HDD would make a big difference. How much that comes to in total compared to the cost of a new laptop is a debate for you and your bank manager. 🙂

Oh and Apple has an awesome refurb section on their store: two of our Macbooks over the years have been refurb and all of the iPads too.

I am certainly out of touch with Windows

As I said, Jambalaya knows nothing about Windows 🙂

Pretty sure my 2011 is limited to 8.

Late 2011 has max 8gb listed as spec but in reality quite happily takes 16.

My late 2011 mbp runs super speedy, 16gb ram (though was as fast day to day on 8gb) and with 1tb hybrid drive.

Mac user: I bought a cheap Windows 8 laptop just for travelling duties. After struggling to get it to do simple things, like just connect to a wireless network, and having various apps just suddenly become unresponsive, I gave up on it. Aside from being an utter peice of shit, it was completely unintuitive compared to a Mac. Cheap for a reason.

A moderately speccified windows 10 laptop will do exactly what you want OP. What’s your budget?

Post written on a 10 year old Dell Studio 15 with 2GB RAM, running windows 10.

Cheap windows 8 laptop versus Mac laptop is like comparing a findus frozen lasagna with a meal at a PoSH restaurant.

I’m typing this on the base model MacBook, I’ve had assorted Apple Laptops over the years and I’ve not found this one lacking at all. It’s tiny and lightweight too. Makes our Air seem huge and heavy.

I have to use Windows laptops at work and TBH, I think they’re shit. Huge and bulky, crap touchpad, AV software slowing everything down, copy/paste doesn’t work due to some shitty encryption software.

If you really don’t want to pay for an Apple laptop, at least take a look at ditching Windows for Linux.

Huge and bulky, crap touchpad, AV software slowing everything down, copy/paste doesn’t work due to some shitty encryption software.

Move to the windows av which is unobtrusive, are you meaning 3rd party encryption? Is it stopping you copy and paste due to a company policy? Not your average windows experience.

Cheap windows 8 laptop versus Mac laptop is like comparing a findus frozen lasagna with a meal at a PoSH restaurant.

Well I was really comparing operating systems, but your point still stands. The hardware itself, I had no fault with.

Nope 3rd party encryption that has broken consistent clipboard behaviour, or so I am told. Sometimes I paste and nothing happens.

Perhaps a wonky clipboard is not an ‘average windows experience’, but I’ve tolerated plenty of work issue windows laptops over the years, and they have all, without fail, been shit.

Well I was really comparing operating systems

Fair enough. Windows 8 is bobbins, 10 is a vast improvement IMO.

Windows 10 is still Windows though, so not really any different. I’ve never got on with any version of Windows, since the 90s, when I first started using Macs (OS 7x!).

Yes, windows 10 is still windows…. a bit like a bicycle is just a bicycle.

That’s really not a valid comparison.