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timh

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2010
39
41
The moment has come I can select a laptop for work.
I have done some research and it comes down to a 15'' macbook pro or the lenovo Yoga 720-15.
I think the touch screen can be usefull and the price difference is 3000 vs 2000 for the yoga.
It has been 7 years since I left windows for my 17'' macbook Pro. For home use this is still going strong!

Edit:

I need the laptop for 3d drawing and rendering and I work at varying locations. So a decent discrete graphic card and minimum of 500gb storage are a must.

Can I justify the price difference to get te Mac?! I'm interested in your input.
 
Last edited:

New_Mac_Smell

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2016
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Shanghai
Only you can make that decision. They're both computers, they both run software. If you don't think 3000 is worth it for a Mac then get the Lenovo for 2000. Simples :eek:

Obviously you're paying for better build quality, the OS, the integration, the design, the premium-ness of everything. But again if that's not worth it to you, then that's entirely your call.
 

Mefisto

macrumors 65816
Mar 9, 2015
1,447
1,803
Finland
I really wouldn't know what you can and can't justify. The title of this thread, though, makes me retch.

EDIT: Yes, this needed to be said.
 
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leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,318
19,336
Well, in comparison to MBP, the Yoga is more like a budget computer. Performance is good, but display quality is incomparable and the battery is much weaker for example. I think that the price difference makes sense. If getting maximal performance for the money is your main goal, then Yoga is not a bad choice (but there also might be better ones).
 
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timh

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2010
39
41
Thanks for the quick replies. I haven't found the lenovo in a store to see the build quality for myself. That's part of the problem. With lenovo and windows I don't completely know what i'm talking about. With the mac I know what I'm getting. Sadly that also isn't all good with their choice to take out old usb.
[doublepost=1498254716][/doublepost]
Well, in comparison to MBP, the Yoga is more like a budget computer. Performance is good, but display quality is incomparable and the battery is much weaker for example. I think that the price difference makes sense. If getting maximal performance for the money is your main goal, then Yoga is not a bad choice (but there also might be better ones).

I thought that the display might be not that bad becouse it has a 4k display but I haven't seen it in real life yet.
 

fyun89

macrumors 6502
Oct 3, 2014
433
441
What will you be using the laptop for?

For me, the biggest reason to buy Macbook Pro is the resale value. My 2012 rMBP is still worth around $1000 and it will definitely help me purchase my next Macbook Pro.

However, if you dont need the performance, I would suggest purchasing lower spec machine (Macbook). If you need power, I would suggest using a desktop. (I know, you probably need portability and that's why you're considering laptops. But if you dont need portability, there is no reason to get a laptop.. I would use the same money to build(or buy) a PC and get a Macbook)
 

noteple

macrumors 68000
Aug 30, 2011
1,505
523
Since its been seven years go get a windows machine.
You will still have your 17 MacBook for home and comparison

When everyone else is on High Sierra this fall you will be looking
forward to Windows 10 service pack xx and another antivirus subscription.

With the money you'll save you can think of the joy in purchasing similar software
applications all over again.

It will be a good learning curve in the grass is greener effect.
 

KGB7

Suspended
Jun 15, 2017
925
753
Rockville, MD
Do you need $3000 MacBook Pro or can you live with a base model??

One of many great things about MBP, is you can run OSX and Windows. You can't do that on yoga or Dell.

If this is purely for work, than you need to ask your self. Does this laptop (MBP or Yoga) going to make me more money or make my job easier?? If you just doing spreadsheets and emails, than you should get $600 laptop. So look at it from an investment point. Why buy a $2000 Yoga, when a $600 Dell will get the job done??

But if you want a laptop that will be your work horse and a toy, than you get a MBP.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Yoga 720 is more of an upper midrange workhorse offering more flexibility & usability over the MBP. As long as your comfortable with Windows 10 the Yoga 720 will be a very decent choice less polish, more go. The 15" MBP is a more polished solution, equally flawed, by Apple's asinine obsession with thiner for the sake of it. The biggest attribute the Yoga 720 brings is the 2 in 1 functionality with full Pen & Touch support. Yes it does require investment on the users behalf, equally dividends can pay off dependent on the usage.

Personally I switched my 13" notebook solution to Microsoft's Surface Book, nor have I looked back or regretted. Most productive, most profitable 13" class notebook to date. Take some time out to learn W10 & Touch, you will be surprised at the end result. Personally I took over a year to decide to move one of my primary revenue generating systems to Windows 10.

As a long time Mac/OS X user, initially I purchased a cheap no name 2 in 1, then a Samsung TabPro S to test W10 and see if the OS met my requirements at the very basic level, more importantly to learn the system. Surface Book is the notebook I once envisaged only Apple could produce, irony at it's very best...

Best is what works best for you, irrespective of OS or brand, especially in the professional environment.

Q-6

The moment has come I can select a laptop for work.
I have done some research and it comes down to a 15'' macbook pro or the lenovo Yoga 720-15.
I think the touch screen can be usefull and the price difference is 3000 vs 2000 for the yoga.
It has been 7 years since I left windows for my 17'' macbook Pro. For home use this is still going strong!

Can I justify the price difference to get te Mac?! I'm interested in your input.
 
Last edited:

timh

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2010
39
41
Thanks for the (mostly) useful replies. I should add to my information:
I need the laptop for 3d drawing and rendering and I work at varying locations. So a decent discrete graphic card and minimum of 500gb storage are a must.
I don't think of going the hackintosh way. I will look into that.
 

tvith

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2012
94
9
What about the Dell 9560? I think spec wise this is equivalent to what's in the current MBP and the price is $1699 (per dells site) If you really want touch screen, then that's an option for extra $400 (which bumps up the specs of the screen as well). I think this is the laptop most people are comparing to the MBP (if I'm not mistaken). The model you stated only has seem to max out at 2gb GPU while the dell has 4GB and you can max out the ram to 32.

idk, just throwing it out there. This is my first MBP and there's some unity to the flow of Mac's software and hardware that's hard to find in PC's. This is because you have multiple people making hardware and that means a whole lot of bloatware comes preinstalled. There will be a lot of learning curve that will take time to get over which slows down your speed and flow of work. For me one the biggest issue was getting used to no "delete" key like in windows, referring to a dedicated key where you can delete txt after the cursor, as well as the missing home and end keys. So had to look these up cause it really slowed down my typing, but slowly getting used to incorporating these changes. But again, that's only for the first few days, until you get used to the shortcut keys, and knowing where to look for things.
 

timh

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2010
39
41
Thanks for your information. If i am going to windows i want to try the touch screen laptops. I will lookinto the Dell option.
 

jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,418
4,207
SF Bay Area
Thanks for the (mostly) useful replies. I should add to my information:
I need the laptop for 3d drawing and rendering and I work at varying locations. So a decent discrete graphic card and minimum of 500gb storage are a must.
I don't think of going the hackintosh way. I will look into that.

Be sure to verify that whichever system you choose, it supports your selected drawing package. Sometimes Hackintoshes can have issues with that. But there are some people (see YouTube) that are doing a lot of video work on Hackintoshes that replaced Mac Pros at a fraction of the cost.
 
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Kcetech1

macrumors 6502
Nov 24, 2016
258
120
Alberta Canada
timh what software are you looking into? for me with 3d, video editing and and animation work I had to flip over to the Quadro line of GPU's in the Lenovo P series and Dell Precisions for maximum productivity for certain packages im into all the time. as Queen6 said they are just tools for the job.
 
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jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,418
4,207
SF Bay Area
Personally I switched my 13" notebook solution to Microsoft's Surface Book, nor have I looked back or regretted. Most productive, most profitable 13" class notebook to date. Take some time out to learn W10 & Touch, you will be surprised at the end result. Personally I took over a year to decide to move one of my primary revenue generating systems to Windows 10.

...

Best is what works best for you, irrespective of OS or brand, especially in the professional environment.

Q-6

Not to hijack the thread, but it sounds like you like the Surface Book.

We just got one. My wife won it in a drawing (i7, 1TB, 512 GB)! Anything to look out for?
 
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Queen6

macrumors G4
Not to hijack the thread, but it sounds like you like the Surface Book.

We just got one. My wife won it in a drawing (i7, 1TB, 512 GB)! Anything to look out for?

Congrats; nothing more than any other similar device, same as a Mac really just no physical damage to the unibody's etc.. I would allow it good time on the first update and be patient as it may take some time. If familiar with W10 all good, if not or specific questions I would start a new thread, as there are a few of us here with the Surface Book.

Personally no complaints with the Surface Book best notebook i've owned to date.

Q-6
 
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ZapNZs

macrumors 68020
Jan 23, 2017
2,310
1,158
Do any of the Apps you use have a notable performance preference for Nvidia vs. AMD GPUs?
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Which system are you going to be most efficient on? The slowest part of any computer is always the user

Pretty balanced on OS X & Windows for the work front, Android for mobile. What can disturb some is multi use of notebooks with multiple OS simultaneously, thinking of another 34" Ultra-wide or the new 38" as picked up a spot of work at home...

Q-6
 

timh

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2010
39
41
I went for the Lenovo 720-15. Some first impressions:
Build quality is quite nice
Sound quality is pretty bad compared to my iPad pro 10''
The touchscreen experience so far is bad compared to the iPad. Lag on the pen input and no multitouch causes this.

But I have yet to get it setup for work. So I will post back in some time when I have some experience in that.

For now I don't think it will replace my MacBook pro 2010 and iPad Pro for home use.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,625
43,623
Sound quality is pretty bad compared to my iPad pro 10''
Not to make excuses but the iPad has 4 speakers the Lenovo 2. Also Apple makes it a point to provide excellent audio experience where as Lenovo machines are typically business class and so speakers are a secondary concern.
 
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BlueGoldAce

macrumors 68000
Oct 11, 2011
1,951
1,455
Despite what people say here, windows 10 is secure, and there are some great options.

But you have to take price into consideration. My dell xps 15 9560 with 4K touch, 512 nvme ssd, i7 Kaby lake, 1050 gpu, 16gb ram etc cost me 1500 on a huge discount. That computer is comparable, and one can argue equal/superior based on preference, compared to the MBP. The same could be said for the surface line of laptops.

Apple doesn't offer a low end laptop, or even a midrange laptop. So if you get a cheaper laptop, like the above Lenovo, you may be left wanting.

My dell and my home built pc moved me off of macOS. But neither were cheap, though they were cheaper than their macs closest equivalent.
 
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skaertus

macrumors 601
Feb 23, 2009
4,233
1,382
Brazil
The moment has come I can select a laptop for work.
I have done some research and it comes down to a 15'' macbook pro or the lenovo Yoga 720-15.
I think the touch screen can be usefull and the price difference is 3000 vs 2000 for the yoga.
It has been 7 years since I left windows for my 17'' macbook Pro. For home use this is still going strong!

Edit:

I need the laptop for 3d drawing and rendering and I work at varying locations. So a decent discrete graphic card and minimum of 500gb storage are a must.

Can I justify the price difference to get te Mac?! I'm interested in your input.

Have in mind that you are choosing a laptop for work and the Yoga is a consumer laptop. As such, it may have good specs and an attractive price, and usually this comes at the cost of build quality, support and overall reliability.

The ThinkPad line is more expensive, but it is definitely more robust and more suitable for real work. But then, it costs more.

A MacBook Pro, on the other hand, has great build quality and support and is reliable, but also expensive. You get a great laptop that can be used at home and work alike.

So, you get what you pay for. I had my share of disappointments with the lack of reliability of consumer Windows laptops, even premium ones.
 
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