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The End of my Macbook Pro Experiment

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wraith808:
Mine actually has a pretty good screen.  If I wasn't keeping it within the parameters of paying what I received for my MBP, there are some really good screens out there for $1200-$1500 or so in the 13" range.

http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/Laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1#!&TabName=vao - 13.3" diagonal Quad HD LED-backlit touchscreen (2560 x 1440)
http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd?oc=dncwt5131b&model_id=xps-13-9343-laptop - 13.3-inch UltraSharp™ QHD+ (3200 x 1800) InfinityEdge Touch Display

Those were the two I looked at... but there are several others in that same display range.

The thing that really peeved me looking at them was the fact that they were all "new technology", i.e. SSD.  And I just don't trust an SSD as my only HDD, and the fact that you wouldn't get enough space... I want a minimum of 500GB, which in SSD is exorbitantly expensive.

xtabber:
The thing that really peeved me looking at them was the fact that they were all "new technology", i.e. SSD.  And I just don't trust an SSD as my only HDD, and the fact that you wouldn't get enough space... I want a minimum of 500GB, which in SSD is exorbitantly expensive.
-wraith808 (June 23, 2015, 09:36 AM)
--- End quote ---

As I noted here yesterday, SSD capacities are growing and prices are dropping rapidly, leading some analysts to predict the demise of the HDD altogether within a few years.

As of today, you can get a 500GB SSD from Samsung or Crucial for about $175, and Samsung gives you a 5 year warranty. That's still several times the cost of a 500GB HDD, but no manufacturer will give more than a 3 year warranty on any HDD and most won't give more than 1 year. That tells you everything you need to know about the reliability of the current generation of SSDs.  And of course, in a laptop, an SSD has the advantage of being impervious to shocks and magnetic fields.

tomos:
Mine actually has a pretty good screen.  If I wasn't keeping it within the parameters of paying what I received for my MBP, there are some really good screens out there for $1200-$1500 or so in the 13" range.

http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/Laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1#!&TabName=vao - 13.3" diagonal Quad HD LED-backlit touchscreen (2560 x 1440)
http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd?oc=dncwt5131b&model_id=xps-13-9343-laptop - 13.3-inch UltraSharp™ QHD+ (3200 x 1800) InfinityEdge Touch Display
-wraith808 (June 23, 2015, 09:36 AM)
--- End quote ---

I cant help thinking that they are making a *lot* of profit in this corner of the market. We need a bunch more competition at this level to bring the prices down imo.


The one I was looking at last night (Dell Inspiron E5550) - the cheapest offer atm is 930 (you'll have to wait three weeks for that); to buy instantly you will have to pay over 1,000 euros - this is obviously because it got good reviews and is selling well.
It's like bleeding bitcoin without the resale value :-/

If we look at the table below - it's only a rough comparison, but can anyone justify the price difference - which appears to be mainly because of an IPS screen (?)
Both 15.6" models from Dell

Inspiron 15 5558Inspiron 15 5550i7i5FHDFHD IPS Matt8GB8GB1TB500GB4GB G.CardOn board€699~€1,000
Okay, the 5550 could have other improvements, but they're both marketed as 'mid-range' laptops.
(The 5558 is relatively new here so I havent seen any decent reviews yet.)
All I want is that they slap a decent screen on the left there and add at the most 150 euros to the price.
^ That would be fair now :D

tomos:
^that's a sort of a rhetorical question above - there may be other reasons for the price difference - but it does definitely reflect a trend here (.eu), and it's a trend that started with Apple.

ewemoa:
One of the features I appreciate about Macs is (was?) the reliable functionality of booting from external media.  I haven't tried recently, but from what I gather this still works pretty well.  I find this type of thing helpful for trying other operating systems and performing maintenance.

My experience with PCs (at least for notebooks) has been that this functionality doesn't tend to work that reliably if it works at all.  Of course it may just be the hardware I've been using :)

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