Jens
Well-Known Member
Usually I know very well for myself what I want/need in terms of computers, tablets, smartphones,... But right now I'm having a bit of a struggle justifying it.
A few weeks ago I made the switch from a self-employed freelancer to a large company. The day after receiving my company laptop my 4 y/o MacBook died on me (logic board failure).
Repairing it would cost me between 600 and 800 euros according to the guys at the Genius bar. So obviously that option is out straight away.
The laptop I received from work is actually pretty decent (Lenovo T450s). It has an i7, SSD and 12GB of RAM. However, there are a couple of downsides:
- Running Windows 8.1
- In theory not allowed to install any personal software (in practice it's less strict but for me the deal breakers are P2P software and VLC).
- Battery life isn't that good
- No graphics card, but I do some photo and video editing in my spare time.
In an ideal world I would buy a new 15" MacBook Pro, but they retail for 2249 euros. An amount I have a hard time justifying considering I will no longer use it professionally.
As a result I am currently considering:
1) Not buying a laptop at all and use my girlfriend's 13" MacBook Air for the occasional work I do in Photoshop and Premiere Pro.
2) Buying a cheap Windows laptop to perform these tasks, I at least have a personal laptop I can use for whatever I want then.
3) 13" MacBook Pro for 'only' 1689 euros, which is still a lot of money.
4) 13" MacBook Air for 1099 euros (accepting the limited performance)
5) Save some money over the next 6 months and then go for the 15".
Things I will be doing on a regular basis:
- Connect a 2K external display
- Use it on the go for a prolonged period of time (so battery life is important)
- Web browsing
- Streaming services (Full HD or better)
- Photo editing
- Video editing (time it takes to render is less important because I don't do it on a regular basis)
- Some coding (involves several apps for which I prefer OS X)
Currently my preference goes out to option 1, but I hate the idea of not having a private laptop.
What would you do?
A few weeks ago I made the switch from a self-employed freelancer to a large company. The day after receiving my company laptop my 4 y/o MacBook died on me (logic board failure).
Repairing it would cost me between 600 and 800 euros according to the guys at the Genius bar. So obviously that option is out straight away.
The laptop I received from work is actually pretty decent (Lenovo T450s). It has an i7, SSD and 12GB of RAM. However, there are a couple of downsides:
- Running Windows 8.1
- In theory not allowed to install any personal software (in practice it's less strict but for me the deal breakers are P2P software and VLC).
- Battery life isn't that good
- No graphics card, but I do some photo and video editing in my spare time.
In an ideal world I would buy a new 15" MacBook Pro, but they retail for 2249 euros. An amount I have a hard time justifying considering I will no longer use it professionally.
As a result I am currently considering:
1) Not buying a laptop at all and use my girlfriend's 13" MacBook Air for the occasional work I do in Photoshop and Premiere Pro.
2) Buying a cheap Windows laptop to perform these tasks, I at least have a personal laptop I can use for whatever I want then.
3) 13" MacBook Pro for 'only' 1689 euros, which is still a lot of money.
4) 13" MacBook Air for 1099 euros (accepting the limited performance)
5) Save some money over the next 6 months and then go for the 15".
Things I will be doing on a regular basis:
- Connect a 2K external display
- Use it on the go for a prolonged period of time (so battery life is important)
- Web browsing
- Streaming services (Full HD or better)
- Photo editing
- Video editing (time it takes to render is less important because I don't do it on a regular basis)
- Some coding (involves several apps for which I prefer OS X)
Currently my preference goes out to option 1, but I hate the idea of not having a private laptop.
What would you do?
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