Ultrabooks

[kal]

A truly professional approach would be to choose the best hardware that meets your requirements, regardless of brand. If you dismiss Apple hardware because you're afraid somebody might mistake you for a hipster, you're allowing irrational prejudice to colour your supposedly professional opinion.

A MBA or MBP, particularly one of the new MBPs announced within the last hour, might well prove to give you the best bang to buck ratio. In particular, if you work a lot with visual tools like Visio, the retina display may be of great value.

Remember, it's easy to run Windows on a Mac, either as the primary (or only) OS, or using virtualisation. Booting straight into Windows would probably be best for your requirements.

Anyway, I would suggest that you look a bit more closely at the Apple range, treating it purely as a potentially viable hardware platform and ignoring whatever feelings you might have about people with highly ornamental facial hair owning a product that happens to bear the same logo as the tool that helps you do your work most effectively

Agree, there is no reason not to consider a Mac these days!

[d000hg]

Is the no-Apple thing the brand totally, or the OS? Because Macs are probably still the best Windows ultrabooks, i.e. just install Windows for dual-boot.

[jonsg]

Agreed about MacBooks - kinda

Windows works really well under Parallels on a MacBook, if you've got the memory to support it. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

However, I've two problems with MacBooks.

Firstly, the prices. They're exorbitant. I can't justify the outlay. I don't do enough MacOS work to make using a modern MacBook unavoidable.

Secondly: planned obsolescence. I really, really don't like Apple no longer supporting hardware that's only a few years old under new MacOS versions. This planet has enough electronic waste already polluting the groundwater without vendors enforcing drop-dead dates on perfectly good gear.

("You don't have to throw it away, just accept that you can't get the most recent OS." Yeah...ish. If I want the latest XCode, to develop for modern Mac kit, I need the latest OS too.)

So right now, I'm waiting for 13" Retina Display MBPs to hit the second-hand market. I'm sure as hell not justifying Apple's pricing and obsolescence policies by filling their pockets with my cash. Not just yet.

[stek]

Windows works really well under Parallels on a MacBook, if you've got the memory to support it. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

However, I've two problems with MacBooks.

Firstly, the prices. They're exorbitant. I can't justify the outlay. I don't do enough MacOS work to make using a modern MacBook unavoidable.

Secondly: planned obsolescence. I really, really don't like Apple no longer supporting hardware that's only a few years old under new MacOS versions. This planet has enough electronic waste already polluting the groundwater without vendors enforcing drop-dead dates on perfectly good gear.

("You don't have to throw it away, just accept that you can't get the most recent OS." Yeah...ish. If I want the latest XCode, to develop for modern Mac kit, I need the latest OS too.)

So right now, I'm waiting for 13" Retina Display MBPs to hit the second-hand market. I'm sure as hell not justifying Apple's pricing and obsolescence policies by filling their pockets with my cash. Not just yet.

I've a 2007 24" iMac upstairs - daughter has it now - still fast and nippy, still runs Mavericks, nearly 7 years old....

[jonsg]

I've a 2007 24" iMac upstairs - daughter has it now - still fast and nippy, still runs Mavericks, nearly 7 years old....

Of course, that's an iMac, not a laptop.

I've a 2007 MacBook myself (second-hand, of course), and it works fine - but annoyed that it won't run Mountain Lion, let alone Mavs.

[CheeseSlice]

A truly professional approach would be to choose the best hardware that meets your requirements, regardless of brand. If you dismiss Apple hardware because you're afraid somebody might mistake you for a hipster, you're allowing irrational prejudice to colour your supposedly professional opinion.

A MBA or MBP, particularly one of the new MBPs announced within the last hour, might well prove to give you the best bang to buck ratio. In particular, if you work a lot with visual tools like Visio, the retina display may be of great value.

Remember, it's easy to run Windows on a Mac, either as the primary (or only) OS, or using virtualisation. Booting straight into Windows would probably be best for your requirements.

Anyway, I would suggest that you look a bit more closely at the Apple range, treating it purely as a potentially viable hardware platform and ignoring whatever feelings you might have about people with highly ornamental facial hair owning a product that happens to bear the same logo as the tool that helps you do your work most effectively

I must admit, I hadn't thought of the Apple hardware as simply a platform on which I could install Windows. However I am struggling to see where I stand on business hardware support, especially a situation (e.g. broken screen) where I need "on site" replacement/repair support within 24 hours. I've heard about the "applecare protection plan" but not seen any convincing evidence that it is suitable for what I need.
I once had a Dell laptop with a screen that suddenly darkened to the point it wasn't usable. The laptop was covered by a next-day on site repair warranty and a guy came out and replaced the screen in my 'kitchen' the very next day after calling.

Agree, there is no reason not to consider a Mac these days!

see above

Is the no-Apple thing the brand totally, or the OS? Because Macs are probably still the best Windows ultrabooks, i.e. just install Windows for dual-boot.

No.

[woohoo]

Agree, there is no reason not to consider a Mac these days!

There are also enough quality dedicated windows machines out there that you don't have to go with a mac for quality hardware anymore. If I'm just running windows apps I would struggle to justify the extra cost of a mac.

Also, when I used my MBP as a dual boot machine I ended up never using the osx partition, just a waste of space on my SSD. Also, if I wanted to use a VM for development I could just fire up the built in Hyper-V and use that for a dedicated development machine.

[redgiant]

Support is one of the reasons I have stuck with ThinkPads. Support is handled through IBM and the 3 year next business day onsite option for my W530 only cost an extra £90 - well worth it considering I have had some issues with the screen and bezel since I bought it a year ago.

[d000hg]

There are also enough quality dedicated windows machines out there that you don't have to go with a mac for quality hardware anymore. If I'm just running windows apps I would struggle to justify the extra cost of a mac.

Ultrabook PCs seem to be equally expensive, you are paying a premium for the styling and small size. But then most ultrabooks look like Air clones so it's no surprise the cost is similar.

[doodab]

I would wait a little while, the next generation T440s and X240 will be available soon. They will have VGA and ethernet built in as well.

http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops.../x-series/x240

http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops...t-series/t440s