MacBook Pro Alternative

tkemp22

Honorable
Jan 16, 2013
4
0
10,510
I'm sure you guys are asked this alot, but basically I'm looking for an alternative to the 15" (non-retina) MacBook Pro.

The suggestion must at least match the spec of the base 15" config (i7 quad, 4gb Ram, 1440x900px panel) and be close to it on an aesthetic level.

My budget is £700-£1100 GBP which is roughly $1100-$1800 USD.

This is for portable use doing Photo Editing using Photoshop CS5, video editing using Premiere Pro CS5 and Programming using Microsoft Visual Studio and SQL Server.

I currently use an iMac with a VM inside running Windows 8 but want a portable solution.

My problem with the MacBook is primarily the price in the uk for the base model - £1500 ($2400 USD) quite a bit higher than the Us price of $1800. A price difference of £400.

What would be your suggestions?

I've been looking at the Dell XPS 15, but am put off by throttling and wifi issues, and the Lenovo y580 but the screen seems to be really flexible and general build quality doesn't seem up to par with the Mac.

I plan on putting a 256gb SSD in the device as well as 16GB of RAM if i got the mac which would push the price up to £1800 which is out of my budget.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.