Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Laptops

We have two Macbook Pro laptops in the house at the moment. Neither of them are mine and when I need to do something on them it drives me nuts. I do not argue that the quality of the systems is good but the OS seems to largely decide where it wants to put files and with what they should be opened etc. In other words the system seems to be designed for people who don't want to think much about organisation of their files and so on. There are some advantages for those who also have an Apple phone with some synchronisation across Apple devices.

Personally I do not like being "locked in" to the one hardware and OS provider and prefer to more open world of windows and Android. I have also played with Linux, some versions of which are truly excellent.

My current Desktop and laptop are both Asus. I have found the quality to be excellent and I particularly like the laptop which has an excellent screen, touch screen (great on a laptop) and a fingerprint sensor on the power button.

Current version of my laptop in the UK would be https://uk.store.asus.com/asus-zenbook-14-oled379-22516.html

I am not sure if this model has the fingerprint sensor. Asus do tend to vary their products depending on the market.

I remember at work when we changed most machines to Apple, the IT support chaps were not happy - as you say the OS makes it difficult to get inside and tweak things. And I bought my mum a MacBook many years ago. The result of both situations was a vast reduction in technical support issues.

Unashamed Apple Fanboy here, although I do have a couple of Windows laptops too, one to run the Easymap software for the car and one for TurboCad.

I used Windows professionally ever since it came out in the early 90s, but the ease of use of the Apple kit seduced me very quickly to the point where I now have MacBooks, iPads, phones and watches. If you want to get techies it's all Unix under the hood, but the great thing is you don't have to.

Regardless of which OS you go with my watchpoint with modern laptops is thoroughly test the hinges, before spending ££, some look fancy but are very poorly engineered

I have a bias, I was an apple engineer when the Apple IIe was first released into the nerd verse.
I then became a field engineer for IBM, for the PC1, my engineer number was 311270 (1983 November, 270th chimp).
I worked for Sun Microsystems (Unix in a business world) for a bit, the power behind .com
Oh maybe I have had a chew on a few of them after all.

If you have an iPhone or iPad the integration is brilliant. If you have an Apple Watch it will unlock against this making unlocking easier than you ever expected. Your files saved will just be on all of them. If you make a note on the iPad it is editable on the Mac. Your (personal identity) world in Apple is probably better protected than across windoze as they do drive privacy more than either of the others on a consumer level if you want full functionality.

You do have to go broad to see the full benefits. No doubt about it. I have played in most of them and my home runs on Apple now. It needs less configuration and skill and provides more of a user experience.

I can select a track on my iPhone and select it to come out on the big music system in the lounge. When the doorbell rings (Amazon Blink) it mutes the track and tells me there is someone at the door. I can turn the music up and down on the big system from the phone.

The average life expectance of a Mac (Apple M silicon) is 5 years so it beats windows forever. It is very fair to say the Unix family make old hardware work very efficiently and faster. But how does this reflect across phones and software integration in your broader life. If you want to join stuff up the Apple platform is light years ahead.

I use a simple Apple TV 4K+Amazon Prime+YouTube+generic internet TV instead of the terrestial TV and do not pay the TV licence and bluntly feel I get better content access. Content is going to be more Internet delivery focused moving forwards. However the producers are going to be more and more payment focused and the platforms that are providing the trusted service does include Apple.

This is the BIG one for me.

Your purchase and support experience? Go and buy a computer/iPad in an actual Apple Store. See how they treat you. Ask questions and see if they are able to answer them. Now try this in any other combination. This is so different it is stunning.

The recent Apple release of the MacBook Neo (higher spec £699) has changed things utterly. This machine can do most things any other laptop can do and brings the benefit of the Apple ecosystem.

Yeah okay, I DO have a bias. The old "apple tax" is no longer true. A base MacMini is a remarkable computer. An iPhone will get security updates longer than most Android devices. It actually works out cheaper and way better integrated. With less skill and understanding needed.

I was an Acer laptop fan back in the day and still have my TravelMate from 2008. Cutting edge at the time it's now running Windows 10 - just although doesn't get much use now preferring the simplicity of Android phone and tablet.

When I retired in 1999 to go cruising on a sailing yacht I made the mistake of spending money on a conservatively spec'd but bulletproof Panasonic Toughbook. Trouble is it outlived it's OS so with 64 bit versions coming on the scene sold it in 2004 still working perfectly despite the marine environment. It was replaced by my first Acer TravelMate, cutting edge processors and affordable. This continued to work fine until binned in 2018 by then passed to my partner and running Windows 7 OS. I recall building my own bootable memory stick with all versions of Windows 7 (one of my favourites) incorporating all security updates current at the time.

I moved to Apple in 2008, because pc/laptop took so long to shutdown.
At the end of work I came to shut down (6 o’clock) and it would always seem to instal updates, when I was in a rush, sometimes I would leave work at 6.45. Totally infuriating!

Since that time,I have had a number of MacBooks, iPads and iPhones all with no problems and no viruses, if you were to count the time saved, it would be hundreds of hours

I have a Macbook Pro 11 years old and still going strong, had a new battery recently but otherwise brilliant.

My HP laptop is definitely getting old. I am very tempted with the Apple Neo as We use iphones/ipads. I have external hard drives as backups and storage for photos, music, documents etc.
the laptop battery is starting to lose llife and W10 cover was extended ( free option) giving updates cover to late 2026. It isn't W11 compatible without hacks so replacement is due. It will be kept to use for some things not requiring internet etc and plugged in to power due to battery going.
My ipad has slight damage to the glass screen but works well. Repair by Apple is £275. A new one just a bit more.
So, Neo offers cover of laptop and ipad replacement for an attractive cost.
Years ago I was given an early Mac in work to try it out. The difference to functionality from Windows was not hard to get used to. The company stuck with Windows though.
So, the more I think about it a Neo looks the option to take.
I'll look at how I can still use my external drives for back up as a non " cloud" method. Should straight forward so.....
One external is an older Western Seagate 1T capacity with a drive dated as 2008. Currently not accessible via usb but I am getting a SATA docking station to bypass the usb interface. Hopefully that works.
My other external is a Western Digital My Passport portable one with a very recent backup of the laptop. I don't want to lose archived stuff!

Similar tour for me.

In the company the run PCs and I was very well used to just PCs...
In private life I changed to Apple after the Blackberries disappeared.

Sync between Phone, Tablet and LapTop is brilliant and Apple longevity still works for me.
After 15 Years I replaced the laptop...

At the start of the world wide conflicts with Mr. T spearheading I started to convert one machine to pure LINUX - not ready yet...