It was a crisp Monday morning as I rushed to work to make my 8:30am call - I made it exactly at 8:29am. Just one problem - my trusty 5 year old Samsung Series 9 ultrabook had completely and unexpectedly died! Luckily, I had access to a spare MacBook Pro test machine to make my call.
After a week of trying to revive my laptop, we concluded that it was time to make that dreaded decision (again) of whether I should purchase a new Windows or Mac machine. I was used to my MacBook Pro at home and my first work laptop as a Product Manager was a MacBook Pro as well - so obviously this was a no brainer?
My requirements were simple - super fast and lots of memory to run my virtual machines and Office programs. It also had to be lightweight so I can easily travel with it without feeling like I was hauling a brick. My current Samsung screen was 13.3” so I was willing to stick to that size as my desk has a large monitor.
I priced out the ultimate 13” MacBook Pro:
- 3.1GHz Dual‐core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
- 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
- 512GB PCIe‐based Flash Storage
- Intel Iris Graphics 6100
Of course it comes with that must-have Retina display. With the wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse, it came to $2,972 CAD. Perfect - just under $3k so I didn’t feel too guilty approaching my boss for approval!
Turns out MSDN does not include Office Mac licenses so I’d have to purchase Microsoft Office 365 Personal (1-year Subscription; 1 Licence) for $69.95 - a recurring annual cost. I would also not be able to use my VMware license and would have to fork up another $79.99 USD for VMware Fusion (or the Pro version for $199.99). Which brought me to a grand total of approximately $3,200 CAD.
Purchasing additional licenses started to bother me and I couldn’t help but realize that I’ve actually been enjoying my experience with Windows 10. Except for Deep Freeze Mac and Power Save Mac, the rest of the product suite I manage is Windows based. So I trekked down to Best Buy and the Microsoft Store to try out the latest ultrabooks that would compare to the MacBook Pro I had priced out - nothing compared! I could just use Boot Camp on my Mac but then I’d probably never use OS X as switching between operating systems would be a pain. It’s sacrilegious running Windows on a Mac in my opinion.
Then my friend swore by his experience with ThinkPads. ThinkPads? - I said, by IBM, I mean Lenovo?! I couldn’t experience ThinkPads hands-on as they were not available in the retail stores I visited. However, I watched one YouTube review and I was sold on the X1 Carbon ThinkPad (3rd Gen). This is what I ordered from their site:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-5600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.20GHz)
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64 • Display: 14.0" QHD (2560x1440) IPS Multi-touch with WWAN
- Memory: 16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L on MB
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500 • Security Features: With Fingerprint Reader
- Camera: 720p HD Camera
- Hard Drive: 512 GB Solid State Drive PCIe • Docking Stations: ThinkPad OneLink Dock
With the $200 dock, the price came to $3,250 CAD.
So why did I buy the X1 Carbon vs. the MacBook Pro?
- 14” (2560 x 1440) touchscreen vs. a 13.3” (2560 x 1600) Retina display
- 2.87 lbs / 0.70" thin vs. 3.48 lbs / 0.71” thin
- Super convenient docking station to run in and out of meetings
- Keyboard is arguably better due to feel and layout
- Get to keep my ergonomic wireless keyboard and mouse
- Fingerprint login is much like what I’m used to with my iPhone
- Save on Office Mac subscription
- Save on VMware Fusion
- Windows 10 is comparably as reliable as OS X and fulfils my business needs
- plus I was used to the keyboard shortcuts and Snap feature (to arrange windows side by side)
What will I miss from a MacBook Pro?
- Retina display
- FaceTime calls with my family
- iMessage integration with my iPhone
- Notification Center
Both the devices compared perfectly head to head, in the end it was just a matter of what I felt was most convenient for my situation. Hope this helps you if you are stuck in the same conundrum I was in a month ago!
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