New Laptop

[Mike Farley]

Do not buy Dell. They are the worst machines, support & service I've ever encountered.

The XPS 13 is getting some good reviews, although it only comes in one configuration, including Windows 10 Home* which I am trying to avoid. Based on my experience in failing to get even decent pre-sales service from Dell, I can only concur with your conclusion.

I'm still surprised you haven't seen a retina-quality Windows machine.

It surprises me as well, but most seem to be built to a budget which does not allow for a quality display. If someone comes across anything which rivals Apple, it will certainly have my interest.

Perhaps look for gaming laptops in the first instance, they give the greatest flexibility in choosing your components rather than the essentially locked-down Macs.

Thanks, that reminds me that I started to investigate options based on a Clevo chassis, but did not follow up. One of the trade-offs will be some additional weight, in addition to buying sight unseen via mail order.

* Not strictly true, as currently it is possible to get Windows 8.1 for an additional premium of only £50. The website does not say, but I suspect that is the Home version as well, but that is academic since I have no further interest in Dell.

[Rose]

I'll be in touch separately to get something arranged.

That's fine. Bear in mind that we're off to Canada on 1 Sep for 5 weeks...

[Mike Farley]

I'll be in touch separately to get something arranged.

That's fine. Bear in mind that we're off to Canada on 1 Sep for 5 weeks...

Thanks, Rose. I have sent an e-mail.

[Mike Farley]

Last night I had a long and useful chat with Eddie Ephraums who is a professional photographer. It turns out that his sole computer is a 2014 model MBP 13 with 8 GB RAM and he says he finds the Retina display to be excellent for photography, having never seen a Windows machine which does not fall short in that regard. He went for the 13" model as weight was important, but has not found the smaller size to be a problem and at home he hooks up the machine to an Eizo display. Performance running Lightroom and Photoshop is good and only having 8 GB RAM has not been an issue.

Eddie frequently gives talks and has attached the MacBook to a number of different projectors, so I do not believe that I will encounter any difficulties. One thing which has been puzzling me is that the MacBooks do not appear to give the full resolution of their displays and the default on the MBP 13 is 1400 x 900. It looks as though the different resolutions are emulated with the Retina displays rather than the screen being set to a particular resolution and what scaling does is change the size of things like fonts and folders.

I have also spoken to Chillblast, who use Clevo and MSI chassis for their machines and they said at present they do not have anything at present which can exactly match Apple's Retina displays, especially with the smaller screen sizes. Whilst it might not please our man in Singapore , it really does look as though Apple is my best option at the present time, assuming everything else checks out.

[Mike Farley]

Yesterday I saw an earlier version of the Dell XPS 13 and it certainly had a good quality display. So far as I could tell, colours were accurate and I would probably be OK with one. A pity, then, that Dell would not actually speak to me when I had a pre-sales enquiry.

A further concern has been using the Nik software in a mixed environment, one copy on Windows and the other on Mac. I have had a response from Google stating this is OK and a new set of links to download the Mac version should I require it. Definitely a thumbs up for Google when it comes to customer service.

I have some final checks to make and Rose has kindly agreed to allow me to use her machine to do these, but based on the enquiries I have made so far I am not expecting any issues. From my perspective, I cannot see any real downsides to having a MacBook Pro and the 13" model hits a sweet spot. I am less convinced about Apple's desktop solutions (iMac, Mini or Pro) as the first two have limitations and the Pro is expensive overkill, but the laptop is ticking all the boxes at present. Clearly it would not be an ideal solution for everyone, especially running both Windows and OS X, but it could definitely work for me.

[Mike Farley]

It has been a long process, but finally I cannot think of any reasons why I should not purchase a MacBook Pro. Put simply, the display is gorgeous and everything functions as it should. Rose kindly let me run some tests with her MacBook and it hooked up with my XGA projector and Rose's HD TV without any problems. We processed some images in Lightroom and Photoshop and performance was fine. For photography and general use, it looks to be a good solution.

Hdew Cameras, where some members having been purchasing camera equipment, also does deals for MacBooks and I am considering whether to make my purchase there. There are cheaper offers on eBay, but that is a route which I am less confident about taking.

[GrahamL]

Hi Mike,

Only reason why not to upgrade is a generic one on timing. Intel recently updated details of their development road map with detail on their next chip design 'skylake'. Very much designed for graphics and laptop use. See
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2972823/components-processors/intel-skylake-laptop-cpus-should-use-less-power-run-faster-and-can-even-drive-three-4k-monitors.html
http://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-h-workstation-mobility-lineup-unveiled-flagship-core-i76820eq-xeon-e31500m-gt4e-igpu/
General Background on current Intel roadmap (very techie):
http://wccftech.com/intels-6th-generation-skylake-processors-scheduled-2h-2015-5th-generation-broadwell-spring-15-updates-2015-2016-mobility-roadmap/

BUT first to be released for desktops, might not be in laptops till late this year, and likely to be sold at an initial premium.

And if you need it now, and the MacBook Pro or XPS13 does all you need, could well be a good time to buy price-wise.

Cheers,

Graham

[Mike Farley]

Hdew Cameras, where some members having been purchasing camera equipment, also does deals for MacBooks and I am considering whether to make my purchase there.

The laptop will not becoming from Hdew as they only supply the US spec.

[Mike Farley]

Only reason why not to upgrade is a generic one on timing. Intel recently updated details of their development road map with detail on their next chip design 'skylake'. Very much designed for graphics and laptop use. See
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2972823/components-processors/intel-skylake-laptop-cpus-should-use-less-power-run-faster-and-can-even-drive-three-4k-monitors.html
http://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-h-workstation-mobility-lineup-unveiled-flagship-core-i76820eq-xeon-e31500m-gt4e-igpu/
General Background on current Intel roadmap (very techie):
http://wccftech.com/intels-6th-generation-skylake-processors-scheduled-2h-2015-5th-generation-broadwell-spring-15-updates-2015-2016-mobility-roadmap/

BUT first to be released for desktops, might not be in laptops till late this year, and likely to be sold at an initial premium.

Thanks, Graham. I was aware that the Skylake desktop CPUs were out, but had not investigated the possibilities of the mobile version. The problem, of course, is that it is possible to wait continually for the latest technology. This time last year, I would have been wondering about Broadwell. There is also no guarantee that Apple will adopt the latest technology and has continued with a Haswell processor for the current 15" Macbook Pro. Reduced power consumption would be good, but Apple is already doing quite well on that front. The ability to run a higher resolution monitor at 60 Hz is a "nice to have", as I do not currently have such a display and would more likely hook it up to my desktop machine were I to make the acquisition, let alone have three.

And if you need it now, and the MacBook Pro or XPS13 does all you need, could well be a good time to buy price-wise.

My view is indeed that the present model does everything I require for computing while on the move and I will benefit from having it now rather than later.

Watch this space.

[GrahamL]

I'm sure that's a wise decision. The current Broadwell chipset supports 4k monitors already, and with a retina screen you might argue you don't need a larger resolution monitor to plug into at home anyway.

As you say, there's always something else to come. as you'll know the next Intel jump, 'Cannonlake', is the bigger one (An intel 'Tick'). Expected sometime in 2016 this will be a move to a rather small 10nm chipset with greater support for the next generation DDR4 RAM memory, and almost certainly 4 CPU cores in the standard chip rather than the current two. Should mean a significant jump in the speed of processing large data streams faster while using less power at the same time. But by 2016 there will be an Intel 'Tock' development in the pipeline to follow.

Best of luck in deciding where from, never easy...

Graham