Recommend me a new laptop

[RB Will]

Hi all, I used to have a vague idea what I was on about with computers but it has ben about 10 years since I bought one now so a bit out of it and not sure what is a sufficient spec for my needs, hoping PH can help.

Looking for one that me and the wife can share for home and work use.

So preferably Windows rather than iOS, we have office 365 which I can download, used for word processing, emails, spreadsheets, Teams etc

Built in webcam would be useful.

Big battery life not essential and can be large / weighty as will 99% be used near a plug and not out and about, rarely transported.

Biggest strains on it will be storage space, as will be used for a lot of photos and videos, and it needs to be able to handle playing and editing high quality video, 4k from GoPro, DSLR sort of thing. A good screen would be nice to go with this. These are the bits I have no idea what to look for spec wise.

Any recommendations of specific laptops, or an idea of what is good processor, RAM, storage, screen etc wise much appreciated.

Thanks

[V8RAW]

I would use a gaming laptop to ensure you have enough video and CPU horsepower when dealing with 4k video.

Something like this?

Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603 GU603ZM-K8006W 40.6 cm (16") Gaming Notebook - WQXGA - 2560 x 1600 - Intel Core i7 12th Gen i7-12700H Tetradeca-core (14 Core) 2.30 GHz - 16 GB Total RAM - 1 TB SSD

[alock]

Go to your local Curry's, John Lewis, etc... and have a feel of the keyboards. You can't change a laptop keyboard later, and you will be interacting with it more than any other part of the laptop.

Personally for me, this means I never look beyond Lenovo ThinkPads, but everyone is different.

[Blown2CV]

yes you will have to learn some new ways of doing things but once you've done so, a macbook will blow everything else out the water.

[dundarach]

If video editing is important, how about having a read of:

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/t...

This will help you spot trends in similar models and\or assist in shopping around??

[SteveKTMer]

Blown2CV said:

yes you will have to learn some new ways of doing things but once you've done so, a macbook will blow everything else out the water.

This.

Even the basic Macbook Air M1 base model will sweep up any general purpose tasks you'll be doing for years to come. Office 365 apps all run on Apple laptops - I run them like this myself.

I work in IT and I wouldn't recommend anybody buy a Windows laptop unless you have a specific application that only runs on Windows and you MUST have that on your laptop. Nothing beats Apple at the moment for performance, power consumption, reliability and usability and even cost, which might surprise.

[Alorotom]

SteveKTMer said:

Blown2CV said:

yes you will have to learn some new ways of doing things but once you've done so, a macbook will blow everything else out the water.

This.

Even the basic Macbook Air M1 base model will sweep up any general purpose tasks you'll be doing for years to come. Office 365 apps all run on Apple laptops - I run them like this myself.

I work in IT and I wouldn't recommend anybody buy a Windows laptop unless you have a specific application that only runs on Windows and you MUST have that on your laptop. Nothing beats Apple at the moment for performance, power consumption, reliability and usability and even cost, which might surprise.

Im in the market for a new laptop as well and my last MBA (2009 model) lasted 11years before I sold it on and bought an 5k iMac and was still working amazingly well at that point and the battery even still performed well. Im struggling to look past the new MBA and even for the price, amortised over the time it will last it still seems to be probably the best value proposition.

[xeny]

MacBooks are lovely, but putting a lot of storage in them is not cheap.

[Wanchaiwarrior]

SteveKTMer said:

Blown2CV said:

yes you will have to learn some new ways of doing things but once you've done so, a macbook will blow everything else out the water.

This.

Even the basic Macbook Air M1 base model will sweep up any general purpose tasks you'll be doing for years to come. Office 365 apps all run on Apple laptops - I run them like this myself.

I work in IT and I wouldn't recommend anybody buy a Windows laptop unless you have a specific application that only runs on Windows and you MUST have that on your laptop. Nothing beats Apple at the moment for performance, power consumption, reliability and usability and even cost, which might surprise.

I'm looking as well, but I use Autodesk and specifically Revit for work, any idea if this runs on a Macbook ?

[MYOB]

xeny said:

MacBooks are lovely, but putting a lot of storage in them is not cheap.

Just buy an external storage drive if necessary.

[CrgT16]

Mac would work well for your needs. The Apple Silicon is excellent.

I considered it but ended with a windows gaming laptop because I wanted the ability of playing some games.

I suppose comes down to your software needs. If you have a specific software that only runs on windows. These days most software is available on both platforms.

[NDA]

I bought a 14" MacBook Pro earlier this year - it's good. Very good.

As I use it as my office computer and home computer (I haven't turned on my iMac in a very long time) it needs to be robust and moderately powerful. Which it is.

I store virtually nothing on it.

[RB Will]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I hadn't considered any Macs but they doo look interesting and not too badly priced, as someone said as long as you dont want to add memory, £600 extra for more storage.

Are the apps and stuff good to use on the Macs? I have an iphone which i get along with fine but using itunes / cloud on a windows PC is a pain in the arse, does it all run better on the Apple stuff?

[RB Will]

Just to come back to this, Ive just about convinced myself to go for a Macbook Pro. I popped into Currys the other day to have a nose and size them up. Can anyone tell me, are you able to organise files on them in a similar way to Windows? and will it import across relatively simply?

It was something I thought as I opened the photos app/folder and it was organised like on my phone rather than like my laptop.

Got 10s of thousands of files across hundreds of folders all well organised and cant face sorting them out again.

[Captain_Morgan]

RB Will said:

Just to come back to this, Ive just about convinced myself to go for a Macbook Pro. I popped into Currys the other day to have a nose and size them up. Can anyone tell me, are you able to organise files on them in a similar way to Windows? and will it import across relatively simply?

It was something I thought as I opened the photos app/folder and it was organised like on my phone rather than like my laptop.

Got 10s of thousands of files across hundreds of folders all well organised and cant face sorting them out again.

Without trying to sound flippant, if you mean storing files in folders then yes, if you meant something else can you elaborate?

Photos are stored in folders but you really access them via the app.

As ever if changing os there will be a learning curve.

[NDA]

RB Will said:

Just to come back to this, Ive just about convinced myself to go for a Macbook Pro. I popped into Currys the other day to have a nose and size them up. Can anyone tell me, are you able to organise files on them in a similar way to Windows? and will it import across relatively simply?

It was something I thought as I opened the photos app/folder and it was organised like on my phone rather than like my laptop.

Got 10s of thousands of files across hundreds of folders all well organised and cant face sorting them out again.

Yes you can organise files in the same way. Easy. The directories look pretty much identical. I tend to store everything remotely on a NAS as I like my MacBook fairly empty...

I do not use Apple Music or Photos. All my photos are on the NAS and on Flickr which I find easier to manage.

Bear in mind that Word/Excel/PowerPoint etc do open on a Mac, but the Mac has it's own apps Pages/Numbers/Keynote. I found no difficulty transferring these across.

Having used PC's for years in both the office and home, I am now a huge fan of Apple stuff - it goes on for years and, in my experience, 100% robust and reliable. But I don't use their curated storage stuff.

[RB Will]

Yeah just the file structure system really, so now I have for example pictures, then folders into general themes and then sub folders and sub folders within. Would that follow through if I just copy / pasted it across? And can you view it easily in a similar way?

[somouk]

RB Will said:

Yeah just the file structure system really, so now I have for example pictures, then folders into general themes and then sub folders and sub folders within. Would that follow through if I just copy / pasted it across? And can you view it easily in a similar way?

Yes, from a user perspective the file system works in a similar manner. My advice would be to backup all your files to a cloud provider like onedrive or dropbox and then install the app on your macbook. Added bonus that you have a cloud backup for any future issues.

The Apple OS has a nicer way of viewing it and working through the structure too IMO.

[Insert Coin]

somouk said:

Yes, from a user perspective the file system works in a similar manner. My advice would be to backup all your files to a cloud provider like onedrive or dropbox and then install the app on your macbook. Added bonus that you have a cloud backup for any future issues.

The Apple OS has a nicer way of viewing it and working through the structure too IMO.

Not OneDrive, you’re better off using a £2 usb stick from AliExpress. Use iCloud and as a backup Dropbox.

[NDA]

RB Will said:

Yeah just the file structure system really, so now I have for example pictures, then folders into general themes and then sub folders and sub folders within. Would that follow through if I just copy / pasted it across? And can you view it easily in a similar way?

Yes, all very similar and easy...

I would be tempted to have an SSD with all your pictures on rather than loading up the MacBook. They should drag and drop (transfer) easily. I moved thousands of pictures from a PC to the Apple architecture a few years ago - the files and sub folders all came through fine. Typically - Photos >Goodwood 2017>JPG>RAW, or Music>SteelyDan>Aja>FLAC etc.

It's all a bit daunting at first, but it's very intuitive.