Hi folks,

After 25+ years working for a company where I was always provided with a computer for work, I’m about to join the ranks of the self employed. So I need to buy myself a new laptop.

I am a sales person, and will be travelling around the Middle East and Africa. So I guess I’ll need Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I prefer something as light as possible. I already own an iPad, so I don’t need another tablet.

We have a MacBook Air for our home laptop, which looks wonderful, but I find it hidiously frustrating to use, since I’m obviously used to the commands on MS Windows etc. But the fact that the MacBook weighs very little, has a great battery, and still boots up really quickly after all this time are very impressive.

So, should I just go to PC World and buy a cheap £300 laptop? Can I run MS Office on a MacBook and have the best of both worlds?

If you are considering MacBooks you have the budget to look at the MS Surface Pro range. Excellent and perfect for travelling. Note that if you read the internet reviews there are a lot of problems on earlier versions which are fixed now – mine Pro4 from a few weeks ago is fine.

Boots up in like ten seconds from cold, etc etc, but most decent spec laptops will nowadays. W10 is impressive.

MS Office is pretty good on a Mac now although some slight differences with the PC version.
A £300 laptop doesn’t really compete with a £1000 Macbook. Spend £600+ on a laptop and you will get a really nice machine that performs well and lightweight too. The 2 in 1 laptops are really good were they can used as a tablet or laptop, going one step further the MS Surface are well liked and equivalent in price to a Macbook but with greater performance.

A £300 windows laptop is not going to be as good as a far more expensive macbook in spec or build quality.
And PC world is seldom good value.

What’s your budget, you can buy thin well built laptops but they obviously cost more than £300.

If it’s just for general business/office duties, the spec is not that relevant, so look at what screen size you want, and build quality/keyboard equality.

I would echo Molgrips comments about looking at the Surface range if you are considering Mac money.

I probably thought of spending about £500. To spend more than that I’d really need to be impressed. Ideally, I’d like the laptop to be fast and light.but other than email, excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, I can’t imagine I will be doing anything complex. No gaming etc.

The screen is the major thing to look at in the difference between a 300 quid w10 laptop and a macbook. Performance will lag a bit too. Will be fine for office though.

Probably want to be looking at 5-600 quid laptops where they’ll start to compare.

The smaller Surface 3 (non-pro) is very small and light, and can easily handle Office, but the screen is smaller which may be an issue. My Pro is only just big enough at 12″ I reckon. You may find the pen concept great, you may not – tablet mode and using the pen are two of those things that you never thought of because you’ve always used a keyboard, but you wouldn’t want to go back. Also – some deals on Surface currently as the Pro5 is rumoured out before Christmas. I use tablet mode a lot. But there are of course plenty of other convertible fold-back laptops.

£600 seems to be a better price point than £500 for some reason. But I’d be on Windows at that price, regular laptop or convertible.

If you want something very portable then the windows netbook style laptops bought out to compete with chromebooks are actually very good for the money. £200 gets you something lightweight, quick booting and decent battery life. Its not mac quality but does the job for simple tasks

New Macs launching in 7 days.

Sadly they’ll likely still be an irrelevance to Apple.

I’m a fan of the Dell XPS 13: they are small, light and relatively powerful.

I’ve got one in front of me right now, and we buy them for all our expert witnesses, who travel a lot.

MS office works ok on Mac (we have it on a MBP) but as well / smoothly as on a Windows machine. TBH a Mac Book Air is perfect if you want decent performance and lightweight. Mac commands I am used to and I struggle with windows now.

Apple have a press conference next week and are expected to announce new Mac Book Pros and possibly Airs.

When on road trips I use my iPad for email, web, document reading and also creation/modification via Pages (Word equivalent). It can’t handle spreadsheets of any size but otherwise is the most useful

As you are just starting out perhaps a £500-600 MS machine as suggested above makes more sense – I wouldn’t. soend less or you’ll get a heavy machine with poor battery and binned after 2 years. If clients will see the computer you mauly want tonconsider image issues. I’d never go back and I very rarely use MS Office now but that takes a little while to get used to

Boots up in like ten seconds from cold

You open the lid on a MacBook and its ready to use.

My wife bought a MacBook Air a couple of years back, when we had just bought a laptop 6 months before.

I thought she was wasting lots of money.

However now completely get it. Very light and just works, no noisy fans, no constant updates, just works.

Where I work has no end of issues with Surface Pro’s, and they are heavy.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/patriots-bill-belichick-dumps-surface-tablets-in-five-minute-rant/

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/10/hello-again-apple-confirms-october-27th-event-new-macs-are-likely/

You open the lid on a MacBook and its ready to use.

Not from cold it’s not.

Surface is available instantly too when it’s on sleep – that’s a hardware thing called InstantGo, not limited to Surfaces.

Where I work has no end of issues with Surface Pro’s

Like I said, sorted now.

Macs and Windows laptops have pros and cons, that’s fine, just don’t pretend the good features are all on Macs cos that’s bollocks and I won’t stand for it 🙂

Gofasterstripes – I hope you read that NFL article:

Microsoft’s hardware isn’t necessarily the culprit here, merely the victim.

As a Mac fan – if your main usage is Office products then get a PC.

The differences between Mac and PC versions may be small, but if you exchange files things can get messy.

I’ve been a life long PC user ( 40 years old ) but I’ve been waiting for the new macs to be released. I can’t stand MS and their persistent updates and general crapness. I spent 1k on a Sony laptop 4 years ago, but for three of those years it has been under the sofa as it’s just a total pile of junk.

I’m no apple fanboy, but I’d never spend my own money on an MS product.

Yep I read, but the point is that it’s not all plain sailing in MSLand right now.

As a PC user of that length of time I’m surprised you can’t distinguish between hardware and software. Even more surprised you bought a POS Vaio.

We’ve done the updating thing, regular is better than infrequently especially where security is concerned.

Like I said, sorted now.

This is the problem with MS. They regularly release cr@p products (inc OS) which are then “fixed” by the next release.
Not much help to the people who paid £££ for the dud

My view is Apple is excellent value as it works properly and lasts for years hardware and software wise

For work I’d take a look at HP Elitebook laptops, they are by no means perfect but have good warranty and my 840 has all the ports (VGA, Ethernet, 4G, SD card, 4x USB and DVI) and 14″ screen.
There are lighter models but they rely on dongles which I hate.
Sure, the price is about the same as MBP but for me this is worth it.

My current one is due replacement early next year and I’ll probably choose same model with updated internals.

I’ve got a macbook pro with a solid-state drive that work gave me. Had it for 4 years and apart from a couple of dead pixels on the screen it still works as fast and as perfectly as the day I got it and I’ve spent zero time in having to mess around with it. If I was buying one myself I’d definitely go for a mac I reckon.

Even more surprised you bought a POS Vaio.

So you need inside knowledge as to what £750+ laptop to buy if you want one that actually works ? FWIW a top model Sony Viao (Apple money) was the last MS machine we ever bought in 2005. It and the OS was indeed sh.t – binned and replaced with a mac within 2 years. The mac only died last year and that was as a second daughter had it for Uni and 6 years of student abuse killed it physically (keys fell off, white plastic case cracked)

This is the problem with MS. They regularly release cr@p products (inc OS) which are then “fixed” by the next release.
Not much help to the people who paid £££ for the dud

They were softawre problems afaik so no ‘duds’ should remain.

general crapness

If something’s crap it’s generally not MS’s fault. But the average punter doesn’t see this of course. They just like ranting, it seems.

Yep I read, but the point is that it’s not all plain sailing in MSLand right now.

It’s never plain sailing in IT.

the last MS machine we ever bought in 2005. It and the OS was indeed sh.

That was 11 years ago, maybe time to open your mind a bit again?

Like I say – both systems have good points and bad. One of the worst things about Macs is the BLOODY ANTI WINDOWS MAC FANBOIS. Get a grip.

squirrelking

My views are based on many HP, IBM, Lenovo and Dell laptops over the years.
Some of the actual laptops have been ok, but let down by shitty MS. Some were pants hardware and shitty MS.

Anyhow, I vote Mac.

I’m unreservedly with molgrips on this one. I am a Surface Pro user and have been since about March of this year.

I still mix it up a bit, as we have both Apple and Windows equipment around the home, but the Surface Pro is BY FAR the most convenient and functional.

MS Surface. Best travel device on the market, end of.

Understood molgrips but one of Apple’s strengths is they control the hardware so you can’t buy a crap machine running OSX

I had used / been locked into MS for 20 years, I am now imo using far superior products. Unless Apple
screw up massively there is no need to even try anything else.

I think the OP should get the PC for £500-600 at this stage. As/when the business goes well then MBP and take time to learn it

I’m a fan of the Dell XPS 13: they are small, light and relatively powerful.

This ^^^^^^^^^^

If you’re travelling with it. We’ve got XPS 13 and XPS 15 at work and they’re really good for the price, I’d probably edge towards saying they’re far better than the Surface Pro4 we have, the Surface Pro isn’t terrible but it does suffer from a little style over substance.

The XPS are real lightweight laptops of suitable spec to do most of what people need.

Only downside has been TPM support and encryption. Dell have occasionally been a bit slack on what TPM chip in included with Home Machines, so if you’re a home user wanting an encrypted drive you can be left a bit stuck.

Understood molgrips but one of Apple’s strengths is they control the hardware so you can’t buy a crap machine running OSX

Indeed, that’s one of the strengths of their model.

One of the weaknesses is that it costs a lot.

Unless Apple
screw up massively there is no need to even try anything else

Not a very good attitude is it? Always have an open mind.

the Surface Pro isn’t terrible but it does suffer from a little style over substance.

I can see how many people would not benefit from it which is fair enough. For travelling though – I just made two economy flights and sat with the surface on my lap or the tray table and wrote on someone’s document with the pen. Much easier than trying to type on a normal laptop in economy. The trade-off is small screen compared to laptop when using it normally and somewhat less ergonomic on your lap on the sofa. But then I use tablet mode on the sofa. My wife otoh doesn’t, but you have the choice.

Some strange and deluded people on this forum. I use both Mac and PC on a daily basis, both have their pro’s and con’s but without doubt the most reliable has been the PC’s. You get just as many updates on a Mac as a PC, so lets not kid ourselves.
Most of my productive work is done on PC’s but the admin side on Mac’s. Windows 10 is where OSX should have been but under the polished front end of a Mac it still quite clunky operating system. The joy of a Mac is in the collaboration with different Apple products being able to hand off between one and the other. Windows has no chance of mimicking this although the Windows Phone did it better but unfortunately didn’t have the market share to capitalise on it.
As for hardware and build quality our oldest and most reliable laptop is a Lenovo Yoga from 4 years ago which has never crashed or failed in any way. The touch screen although quite primitive is great to use and Apple still won’t entertain that idea.

We’ve got XPS 13 and XPS 15 at work and they’re really good for the price

I was about to buy one a few weeks back, but not being able to look at one in a shop was a pain. I bought a MBP 15 in the end and while it is a lovely bit of kit, I wish I’d tried the XPS and probably saved a lot of cash.

No allegiance to either OS FWIW, I find them both equally annoying having used Linux for the last 20 odd years (I use the MBP 95% of the time booted into Fedora)

MS have done a huge amount to reduce bloat and slim down their OS, making it much faster and more efficient.

Which is counter to what most people would expect in the modern age tbh.

Yeah, it’s amazing how many data analytics and reporting tools you can cram into a couple of gigs of compressed memory huh? 😛

The battery life on my Macbook Pro easily beats any other laptop that I have used, and those of my colleagues. It’s something that’s nice in general but very useful when travelling.

Rsmythe, have you upgraded to Sierra yet? I’ve noticed a large difference in battery life around 20% less in the 15″ Retina MBP and MB Air only shows around 6 hours now instead of the double digits before.

We have a MacBook Air for our home laptop, which looks wonderful, but I find it hidiously frustrating to use

Speaking as someone who has been anti-windows, and anti-Microsoft for decades…

I’d buy a windows laptop.

The battery life on my Macbook Pro easily beats any other laptop that I have used

The battery on my Macbook failed within a year. The replacement battery failed within a year. The replacement replacement battery failed within a year.

The battery life on my Chromebook p155ed all over every other laptop that I’ve ever had personally or supplied by my employer. In most cases, by a factor of 3.

A Chromebook won’t be the right laptop in this case though.

I’d want Win7 for business use though. And will stick with Linux at home.

I can see how many people would not benefit from it which is fair enough. For travelling though – I just made two economy flights and sat with the surface on my lap or the tray table and wrote on someone’s document with the pen.

I don’t dislike the Surface Pro, just favour the XPS. 95% of what we need is covered by an XPS 13 or 15 and the Surface Pro is more of a flashy toy to impress in meetings with clients. It is a very good flashy toy though.

For MacBooks, personally I don’t use them often enough to get to know the OS well, they’re very good at somethings and are used for valid purposes but are often used by ar**holes trying to express their wealth and individuality.

the Surface Pro is more of a flashy toy to impress in meetings with clients

It’s not just that – tablet mode is handy for me, as is the pen – that’s all. If it’s not for you then I have no problem with that 🙂

Downside to the Surface Pro is cost really. I got mine at significant discount which made it reasonable, but even then it’s only got 128Gb HD and 4Gb ram. I can live with the small storage, for the most part, but I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t play the free Forza game in the MS store.

Well I’m a mac man and I run Office on it (it’s what I was already used to and I never really got on with the Apple equivalents). I recall at the time I bought it it cost less than buying it for a Windows machine!

BUT. If you are happy with Windows, it will undoubtedly provide you with a cheap, workable solution. Just not the same quality.