Is a MacBook Pro 13 inch a wise idea?

[gman_42]

Within the next month I will be in the market for a new laptop. I have been recently looking at the MacBook Pro 13" retina 256GB. As a high school student I don't "require" a MacBook, per say; in fact I have a functioning laptop that does office quite well. My problem with it is the abysmal web browsing and multimedia production. Many of my projects involve PowerPoint presentations and picture-rich word documents to photoshop and video editing. While I can do these with ease at home on my desktop I want to be able to use class time to work on these projects as well. At $1,549 Canadian, a MacBook Pro isn't exactly a high school only affair, either. I want it to last into university, also. Finally, I want this laptop to play light games such as GMOD and Minecraft for LAN parties so I am not hauling my desktop around. Also, the MacBook is pretty and well built.

1. $1500 is a tad steep, maybe $1400-$1200?

2. 13" - 15"

3. 1920x1080 is preferred

4. Portable for sure

5. Battery life of 5-9 hours (not gaming) is ideal.

6. Games include CS:GO, GMOD, Minecraft, Rust, as well as any other Valve title, but gaming is my last priority.

7. This laptop is mainly for school which ranges from a web page and a word document to rendering video. Keep in mind I am not a professional, so rendering video won't be a huge part of its use.

8. I'm liking the 256GB SSD idea; I have lots of portable media and a large hard drive for large files

9. Ships within/to Canada for free/cheap? Good enough.

10. 3-4 minimum, 5-6 ideal

11. NO optical drive please

12. I would like avoid the likes of Acer, Toshiba, Dell, and boutique Laptop retailers.

13. Canada

14. The MacBook Pro is in my sights for it's metal build and rigidity, looks, OS X, and it's reasonable power. I hope to see it last 5-6 years because I hope to move into math and science which don't require as much power.

Are there any laptops you'd recommend? Thanks in advance and I hope my wall of text was descriptive enough!

 

[Robert Pankiw]

I've had a very good experience with my Asus laptop. All their laptops come with a 1 year accidental damage protection plan, which is nice, as I didn't have to deal with getting once from the retailer. Many have 1080p screens.

I quickly looked at their options on Amazon.ca showed some decent prices. If you want to get a Mac though, there isn't any point in looking at Windows machines. Construkt, that is a $2100 laptop, kind of blowing the budget out of the water.

I'd also consider the 13" Mac Book Air (128GB version) for $1100 Canadian. It comes in under your budget, admittedly has a much smaller screen at 1440 x 900, but it should still look quite nice. But honestly, if I were you, I'd hold off as long as I could. Broadwell is rumoured to be releasing around Christmas time, and Apple will be one of the first to use those chips.

Even if you can't wait quite that long, Apple usually has back to school deals in August.

 

[gman_42]

Actually, the one Construkt had posted is $1,549 on the Apple store.

 

[gman_42]

I forgot to mention that while I like OS X, I'd be willing to look into a Windows machine, too.

 

[Robert Pankiw]

I can reply with a better post in about 12 hours. I stayed up all night like a fool.
The $2100 I quoted is from Amazon Canada. Apparently, either it has upgrades somewhere, or Amazons reseller is playing dirty. I was naive enough to assume it was comparable prices. Description on that page (from Amazon.com) say it to be the cheaper model.

As I said above, I stayed up all night. I can get back to you later, sorry about the very delayed response.

 

[gman_42]

Not to worry, I'm not buying until after WWDC anyhow.

 

[Robert Pankiw]

Okay, I spent a little bit of time looking around, and I found a few alternatives that match most of your requirements. They might be a little bit on the heavy side, at least compared to a MBP, but they are by no means too heavy.

For quick reference, the GT 740M gets 23FPS, a GT750M gets about 30-40FPS playing DOTA 2 Ultra detail, while the GT860M gets between 60-80FPS, a literal doubling of performance for a Valve Game that you said you wanted to play.
The Intel HD series (4400, 5000, 5200) get 12-20FPS, 15FPS, and 40FPS, respectively. The MBP you suggested would use the HD 5000.
The both the AMD 8670M and the AMD 8650G get about 19FPS. In dual graphics mode, they get 39FPS.

You could very easily drop quality, keep the resolution and get playable framerates out of any of the options listed above.

First, I'll get the slightly more ridiculous option out of the way.
You could get a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, when it releases. I have a friend who has done all of his University classes on the first Surface tablet *He is in computer science* and he is currently doing graduate studies using it, and is absolutely content. The problem is that unless you spring for the more expensive models, you'll get terribly graphics *at least, compared to the better options, my laptop uses Intel HD graphics (Pentium class performance) and I can play Minecraft and SC2 multiplayer just fine. I do make big quality sacrifices, however.* No link as it isn't released yet.

Second, and more seriously, you could get a Lenovo Y50. All the options come with the same Intel i7-4710HQ, they all have Nvidia 860M GPUs (The most expensive is a 4GB card, the others are 2GB cards), and they all have 1080p screens. Their main differentiator is the hard drive + caching SSD option. I'd stick with the cheapest option, which is $1149 CAD, and comes with 500GB HDD + 8GB caching SSD. Also, only 1 has a DVD player, the $1299 model, though that's unlikely to be a huge issue, so I'd still stick with the cheapest one. They all have excellent wireless solutions, and are generally well rounded. Expect poor battery life, though Nvidias Optimus should help a lot.

Third, another Lenovo option (Last years model). The Y510p is about $900 CAD. That's a pretty big saving, but you do drop a lot of performance by going to a GT 750M. It would come with a DVD player, unlike 3 of the 4 new Lenovo Y50 models, but you lose 802.11AC, while gaining a 1TB HHD + 24GB SSD.

Fourth, an Asus model offering Dual Graphics mode operation from AMD, a nice change of pace, even if you don't like AMD. This laptop aims at the value proposition, the same way that laptop #3 does. It's also 1080p, has 1TB HDD, but no caching SSD. All Asus laptops come with a 1 year accidental damage protection plan.
It is using a Richland CPU, and there is strong evidence that before school starts in September, AMD will have their Kaveri mobile chips in laptops for retail. You might notice how very short that article is currently. When it was originally posted, it was long / detailed. Likely it is the case that either AMD threatened to not send anymore chip over for review, or also possible that AMD threatened legal action if Anandtech is under an NDA. No need to speculate though, the only important thing is that you don't need a laptop this very week, which opens up for options quite a bit.

Fifth, I am running out of patients WHY ARE YOU CHAINING ME TO MY DESKTOP, I WANT TO SLEEP!!

Sixth, it's only $99999 CAD. Does not come with free shipping. (I suspect that the price was supposed to be in Yen, given that it ships from Japan).

Seventh, and hopefully last, actually, I can't find something with a quality screen (meaning they are all 1366x768). If you just want a laptop that is able to make presentations, write up documents, send emails etc, seriously consider a Chromebook. Most have abysmal screens, but there are some, such as the Samsung Chromebook 2, which have 1080p screens, however I am having issues finding one. For about $250, you can get a laptop that does productivity things, though I imagine you'd rather use your currently working machine.

I'm sorry that I didn't get too many options. My preferred one is the Lenovo Y50 for $1149 off of the Lenovo Canada website. If there is anything else I can do regarding this topic, I'd rather just get to sleep and eat in the morning. (Can you tell I am way too tired to be interacting with actual human beings?)

 

[gman_42]

I'm sorry that I didn't get too many options.

Uh, I'd have to argue with you there! Thank you so much for all the alternatives. I think I'll be looking at the Lenovo model. Please enjoy your breakfast, and sorry for keeping you up!