My wife had a friend that worked at the local college electronics store and we got a deal that could not be passed up on macs so we've had 3 of them. The first just got too old (2008) and placed on a shelf when it quit holding a charge the other 2 are from 2010. I added memory to both and a bigger ssd to the other last year now the original drive is failing on the one not replaced.
Its 12 years old and I think its time to get another but we dont get the student discount as she dont work there anymore. I could give a shit less about brands but these things are very tough and reliable and I hate to get something else without knowing more. One of them was used by my then teenage college student and after taking the cover off to replace the HD and memory I saw then how tough they are. Every mount tab on the battery was broken, dents all over the case and this thing is still going. No telling how many times its been dropped.
We had a few windows desktops that always pissed me off that I had to buy the new OS if I wanted to update and apple doesnt do that so thats a plus.
So true opinions, give me your best suggestions. The only thing outside of internet my next laptop will do is photoshop, no gaming, nothing special.
Does everybody solder all the shit in now?
I've been looking on backmarket.com and they have some good prices but I do get a discount through my employer at lenovo too
ETA I know there are haters for both I just want to hear the hate/love speech, might help me decide! and I've always loved the charger connection on the mac too, they dont break off

What do you intend to do with the computer?

That dictates all that follows.

Just photoshop?  Then a mid-range Mac is probably best.  If you are doing professional work with it you need lots of fast storage.

Just get a Mac M1MAX. You know its worth the investment.

If you are used to Mac, you won't like Windows.

Get what you're used to.

I guess I should word my question different, I know which mac I will get but if someone can convince another cheaper is just as good or better I may get it.
I'm kinda the same way with vehicles, they all make good ones and they all make bad ones so im not brand faithful, Ive had Ford, Dodge, Kia, Jeep and Chevrolet. My wife will also use it for remote work, office 365.

Mac is my first choice just because of the experience ive had but I'm a cheap bastard and without that huge discount we used to get price is now a factor. Years ago a friend of mine had a power cord break off in the little hole and I got it out for him and it was not real easy, it was a Dell and the connection on a mac is better than any other.

ETA I must emphasize Cheap bastard, never pay $4k for a pc

The biggest thing that makes me ask is all the soldered shit. I got what I got, no upgrade hard drive or memory. I was told many windows machines still have parts that are plugged in, True?

What happens when the soldered drive fails? trash the pc?

Anybody?

All I can tell you is my experience with a 2015 MacBook Pro.
One of those with the crappy keyboard. I thought that most of the failures were probably people mis-treating their keyboards, but no, mine became close to useless.
I had bought the extended insurance, but it wasn't really necessary, Apple had a program to repair even if out of the normal warranty period.

The keyboard is riveted to the upper case, and individual keys can't be replaced.

Sent it off, it was turned around within two days. The note that came back with it listed what was done.
The upper case was replaced, complete with keyboard, and since the battery is glued in, a new battery.
So they swapped over the screen, the board and the base.

I got a nice shiny new upper case with new keyboard and a new battery - no charge.

Is your favorite el-cheapo Windows laptop manufacturer going to do something like that?

As for drive failure - when is he last time you had one fail? Solid state is much less likely to fail than mechanical.

The only thing I dislike with soldered-in disk/memory is that you need to spend on Apple's inflated prices to buy a good config, because if you cheap out, there is no upgrade path later, other than buyin what you should have done in the first place.

You got 12 years out of a mac, you will not get that out of any PC.


Windows sucks donkey balls, regardless of hardware. OS X is far from perfect, but I swear to god they make windows inefficient and stupid on purpose.

I've had both and the Windows machines seem to give better value, but never hold up, and don't work as well. At 4 years they just die.

The one I'm typing on is a nice Lenovo, but it has never been able to print consistently, despite using the latest drivers, reinstalling the printer how many times.

My old Macbook Pro lasted more than 5 years, and the latest one is my go-to laptop.

This Lenovo is used like a stationary desktop.

No more Windows for me.

Apple just works better for me and integrates across the devices.

A PC (Windows) will always give you more bang for the buck.  However it's like owning a car, and changing your own oil, and shifting your own gears.  It's better if you know about your machine otherwise you may screw it up.  There is a reason why Apple has a tiny market share of PC's/laptops: they are over-priced pretty toys for technophobes.

ASUS is the premium manufacturer of motherboard and makes a great laptop at a good price.  If you run into a problem with a PC just google: Windows 10/11 how do I do X?  There will be video's telling you what to do.  Don't install a lot of crap utilities or virus programs.  Use the built in virus program and get a Malwarebytes subscription and avoid shady websites.  Don't install Windows updates the first day they come out but don't wait too long either.

Get a windows machine then install Ubuntu linux as the operating system. You can run it from a USB drive to see if you like it or buy a new drive and install it on that. I did that years ago and will never go back to the windows bs.

My firewall is 10 years old, does that count?

I was directed to a website backmarket.com  by a coworker.
So, taking a huge risk that is advertised refundable for dissatisfaction I bought a 2020 pro for $1400 just a few days after my last post and this thing is nice. It was a risky test to see what they offered and it’s good, not a scratch on it and damn it’s faster than bill klinton on an intern. Now about a month later I’m so far satisfied.
My wife is using it for her remote job and I will be buying a bigger one for me later on when they offer a newer one that has more type ports when I’m done with two other money sucking projects as this one only has four of one type ports. Apple

For an x86 laptop, you'll generally (but not always) be able to swap out the disk drive, memory, and maybe the wireless module.  But with laptops, probably 90% or more of the users don't swap out anything between the time they get it and the time they retire it.  

Computers are becoming more and more analogous to appliances for most people - they decide what they want, buy it and then use it until they drive it into the ground, replacing it entirely when it becomes unfit for what they want it to do (obsolete) and don't do anything beyond basic maintenance themselves.  For every person you see in the DIY forum asking for help in fixing a dryer or their HVAC system, there are 50 who just called for a service connection because they've got better things to do with their time than become their own repair technician.  The same holds true for computers, though of course it is a bit easier to build a desktop from ordered parts than it is to assemble your own air conditioner...

Mike

I use both. Prefer MacOS over Windows. I have a 2013 iMac that won’t die. I converted it to a Fusion drive setup and it’s still plenty fast for daily use. Mt Mac based tasks are relatively light, so I can get away with a MacBook Air when on the go. I have a Windows laptop for CAD/CAM work.

I just got an Air with the M2 chip, never going back to windows

Don't hold your breath. I wouldn't expect them to add anything. Even a card reader would be nice. But two USB-C ports on either side is, imho, as good as it's gonna get.

I sincerely believe Apple has a corner on the dongle market. Gotta have a dongle for damned near everything.