Alright, question for my fellow computer nerds. My college, as a part of our tuition, provides us a laptop for the first two years and then they give us a new laptop that we get to keep. I’ve finished my first two years, so now it’s time for me to choose the laptop I get to keep. The ultimate question, essentially, is which should I choose: a Lenovo 15″ W541 or a 15″ MacBook Pro?
Now keep in mind I’ve never used a Mac, I’ve always used Windows and a bit of Linux. I also do a lot of web development work, which from what I can see is becoming dominated a lot by Mac users. By default they set my major, computer science, to choose the MacBook Pro, but when I made my initial choice I decided on the Lenovo. I can change my choice if I want to during this month and I’m starting to think maybe I should give the MacBook Pro a chance.
In the past I never even thought of getting myself a Mac because of the cost, but where this is already going to be a part of my tuition I’m thinking this could be a chance for me to try it. From what I’m also told, if we want we could have the school setup the MacBook Pro to dual-boot with Windows 8 so at least I’d have that while I try to get used to OS X. It’d also be cool to be able to make iPhone apps as well, so that’s another plus to getting it.
My main uses for whichever laptop I choose would be mostly for games and web dev. Both I’m pretty sure would do the job but it’s more gaming on the Mac that concerns me with a lot of people saying Macs are shit for gaming. Don’t know whether that’s actually true or not because I’ve never tried gaming on one. From what I can tell when I looked up the specs online, it seems like it should be fine for handling games.
In the end, I’m considering leaning towards the MacBook Pro, not just because of the positives but also because if it doesn’t work out I could always sell it and be able to buy the Lenovo and probably have extra money too because of how expensive Macs are.
Any help or extra input at all in this decision would be greatly appreciated.
Here’s the specs that we were given about them:
Lenovo 15” W541
Windows 8.1 Pro x64
NVIDIA Quadro K1100M 2G
Intel Core i7-4710MQ Processor (2.5GHz, 6MB, 47W)
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), with WWAN
Fingerprint Reader
Intel Dual Band Wireless 7260AC with Bluetooth 4.0
256GB Solid State Drive Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
9 Cell Li-Ion Cylindrical Battery 99.9Wh
16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L (2 DIMM)
720p HD Camera
AC Adapter and Power Cord - 170W AC adapter
15″ MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro 15-inch with Retina Display
OS X Yosemite
2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Intel Iris Graphics
Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter
Backlit Keyboard
720p FaceTime HD camera
Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology
85W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter with cable management system; MagSafe 2 power port
