Why do you want the Macbook Pro 13: Pros – Outstanding display: 2560 x 1600 13.3″ Retina, high maximum brightness (500 nits) and a calibrated IPS panel for accurate colors with DCI P3 color space support and great viewing angles. Trade-in value based on 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro. Trade-in value will vary based on the condition, year, and configuration of your trade-in device. You must be at least 18 years old to be eligible to trade in for credit or for an Apple Store Gift Card. Not all devices are eligible for credit. Jul 16, 2020 16-inch 3072x1920 Retina Display. The reason to get the MacBook Pro really over any Windows laptop is always the same: Apple's software. Apple's latest MacBook Pro is definitely the best yet. Using Boot Camp and Windows with a Retina display Boot Camp supports resolutions up to 3840 x 2160. When your Mac is using the Apple-supplied Windows Support Software, Windows starts up with the maximum dpi (pixels) it supports, which is 144 dpi, or 150-percent magnification.
Two years ago, I gave up on the MacBook Pro and started a journey to find the best laptop replacement. It wasn't easy, and I've tried more than 50 laptops to get here, but I've finally reached a point where I can tell you what to get, and what to avoid.
This is an ever-growing collection of MacBook alternatives, for those that need a high-end machine for their work, and expect the best out of their hardware. If you're looking for a new laptop for 2019, this is your ever-updated guide, and will describe why they might be best for you.
Specifically, this is targeted at people like developers (believe it or not, Windows is great for development now too) who typically need more out of a laptop. But, it's also relevant to anyone who needs more out of their machine, from illustrators looking for a MacBook replacement to those that just need something new.
The laptops recommended here all have a few things in common: their trackpads aren't terrible, they sport beyond Retina, 4K displays, and in general feel on-par or better to use than my 2017 MacBook Pro did. Let me know what you choose!
Best of: Surface Book 2
If you're a developer, creative, or both, Surface Book 2 is one of the best devices I've ever tried because it's so versatile. Eject the tablet from the keyboard and you've got a giant canvas for your ideas, or dock it and get raw power with an integrated GTX1060 graphics card on the 15-inch model.
I love the Surface Book 2 because it feels like a computer from the future, reducing the need to carry around a tablet and laptop in my bag. I have one powerful machine, in a beautiful form-factor, with a great keyboard, and all the ports I missed on the 2016 MacBook Pro.
It's worth nothing that the Surface Book 2 was last refreshed in November 2017, and is due for a refresh in late 2019 when Intel's next-generation chipsets arrive. Regardless, it's still my machine of choice, and if I was on the hunt for a new machine I'd choose the Surface Book 2 before anything else.
Across the board, Surface Book 2 is the best of both worlds, but it's a little more expensive as a result. Read on if you're looking for something different, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this machine to anyone looking for the best new laptop in 2019.
Read more: Our review of the Surface Book 2
Buy now:Surface Book 2
Buy now:Surface Book 2
Ultra-light, just as powerful: Lenovo X1 Carbon
I've finally had an opportunity to take the retro Lenovo X1 Carbon for a spin, and I was blown away by how fantastic it is. If you're in the market for something ultra-light, without compromising on performance, this is for you.
Not only does the X1 Carbon have a real keyboard—squishy keys and all—the HDR display is a gob-smacker, and it's one of the few laptops I've tried in the 13-inch class that doesn't struggle with thermal throttling. Plus, it's Ubuntu dual-boot friendly out of the box. Latest macbook os.
The best part? There's a built-in privacy filter, and you'll be able to throw the X1 Carbon in your bag and forget it's even there, so you can get work done all day long, no compromises.
Read more: Our review of the Lenovo X1 Carbon
Closer to home: Huawei MateBook X Pro
Still wish the glory days of the MacBook Pro were here? Huawei has your back with the MateBook X Pro. One of the most surprising machines I tried in 2018, the MateBook X Pro has everything you probably wanted out of a better Mac: it's got a great keyboard, gorgeous 4K display and killer performance to boot.
Huawei might have shamelessly stolen the design of the MacBook, but it's taken everything great about the MacBook and iterated on it. You've got a real, non-breaking keyboard, normal USB-A ports alongside the newer USB-C ones, it's ultra-thin, and adds a touchscreen.. but what can't be beaten is the price: it's literally thousands cheaper than an equivalent Apple device.
Weirdly, the popup chin-mode webcam in the keyboard was initially a problem.. but it's warmed on me as I realized that it was private by default, removing the need for a privacy slider or cover for the camera. If you don't want a convertible, this would be my machine of choice.
Read more: Our review of the Huawei MateBook X Pro
Buy now: Huawei MateBook X Pro (13')
Buy now: Huawei MateBook X Pro (13')
Raw power: Dell XPS 15'
The very first laptop I tried after switching from Mac was the Dell XPS 15' and it remains one of my favorite devices in the last few years, albeit in a slightly different category: walking the line between raw power and portability.
Dell's XPS line has some of the most beautiful, color accurate displays on the market, and these are designed to last years: you can service them yourself, upgrade the RAM or even replace the Wi-Fi card if it goes wrong. The company has come a long way from its beige-box days, and it shows.
If you need more CPU-power than most while avoiding the chunky gaming laptops that are available, the XPS 15-inch is a good fit: it's a little heavier and thicker than the other laptops here, but it makes up for it in sheer performance. This is because it has Intel's 'HQ' moniker, which means it's got a quad-core processor and higher wattage output than the average laptop.
Dell recently refreshed this machine and the newer versions are a great upgrade, so if you're the kind of person who wants the latest and greatest, jump for the 9570 model, which is linked below.
Read more: Our review of the Dell XPS 15'
Buy now: Dell XPS 15'
Buy now: Dell XPS 15'
Light, cheap, portable: Surface Go
In late 2018 I tried the iPad Pro, which I desperately wanted to replace my portable workflow, but it left me wanting something more. Weirdly, the Surface Go filled this void and it's largely become my travel and on-the-go machine because it's able to do anything and the price is so compelling.
Here's the deal: Surface Go is a tiny 11-inch tablet from Microsoft that retails starting at just $349, but despite the price it's got a real Intel processor in it. That means you can do anything a normal laptop can do (albeit a little slower), but this thing fits in any bag because it's so small, and better still, there's a 4G LTE version for always-on connectivity.
I genuinely started out my review of this machine expecting to hate it, then realized part-way in that it's the computer I'd always wanted: just enough processing power to do any job, while allowing you to forget it's in your bag because it's so small.
If you're looking for something that might change your workflow entirely, this is it, but I'd recommend reading our review about the device to understand its limitations and drawbacks. Provided you go into it knowing what you'll be able to do and what will suck, it might just win you over as well.
Read more: Our review of the LTE Surface Go, and our longer review of the Wi-Fi Surface Go
Buy now: Surface Go with LTE / Surface Go without LTE
Buy now: Surface Go with LTE / Surface Go without LTE
What to look forward to
There's lots of choice in the land of PCs these days, and I'm looking forward to a few new devices due for release in 2019.
So far, these are the devices I'm excited for and will try to get access to write about, as of January 2019:
- Huawei's new lower-priced MateBook laptop
- Razer Blade 15-inch 'advanced'
- HP's Spectre X360 OLED
Here's the machines I'm waiting to see if they'll be refreshed:
- Surface Laptop (it still doesn't have USB-C)
- Surface Pro (no USB-C either)
- Razer Blade Stealth
Even more choice
I can't list everything I tried here, but if you're still looking and not quite convinced, there are plenty of other great machines out there that you might like. Here's a few others to dig into:
- For gamers: look no further than the Razer Blade
- Something different: Eve V, a Surface Pro alternative
If I've missed anything or you'd love to see a review about a machine not listed here, let me know in the comments! I initially didn't know about the XPS line of devices and discovered them from user comments, so please let me know.
Last updated: August 2019.
At the top of the 2014 MacBook Pro lineup there's one key decision you have to make: do you rely on the Iris Pro graphics card that sits within all new MacBook Pros or go with one that also has a dedicated graphics card? If you want the best of the best, then dedicated graphics is clearly the way to go, as we found in our review of that machine.
However, if you're looking to save a couple hundred dollars, the integrated graphics version of the 2014 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Starting at $1,999, MSRP $2,499 as reviewed) is appealing. After all, Intel's Iris Pro chip is no slouch. But how does it stand up to the top of the line MacBook?
Apple sticks with the sleek, space-age look
Under the hood, this MacBook Pro is a little trim compared to its beefier bigger brother, but it's still extremely impressive. An Intel Core i7 chip with integrated Iris Pro graphics is about as good as it gets, before we even consider the 16 gigabytes of RAM (and up to 1 terabyte of SSD) backing the whole thing up. It may lack a dedicated graphics card, but you've still got a serious machine.
It'll easily fit in any number of small laptop bags.
From the first time you take the computer out of the box, to the last time you shut it down, everything about the MacBook Pro screams clean, minimal design. Apple was able to cram a 15-inch display, and its top-of-the-line hardware into a package only 0.71-inches thick. It'll easily fit in any number of small laptop bags and won't ever weigh you down.
For starters, the keyboard remains one of the industry's best. With backlit keys, satisfying key travel, and the most responsive, reliable trackpad around, this is still a very enjoyable laptop to use. There's also a general sturdiness about the entire board, with very little flex despite how thin and light the MacBook Pro is. Gamers may not like how flat the keys are, but for everyone else this is an ideal machine for working on the go.
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Refreshingly, the MacBook Pro features two small speakers that sit beside the keyboard, facing the user. That's a nice change from most laptops, which blast their sound towards whatever surface they rest on. And though these are hardly pro-grade speakers, they're good enough to get the job done when necessary.
On the sides of the MacBook are no small number of available ports. Two Thunderbolt 2 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a full HDMI port, a headphone jack, and a MagSafe power plug make for a capable collection of peripheral connections. Should you want to extend your desktop onto another monitor, you can use the full HDMI port on the right side. When outputting via HDMI you can push pixels to an HD display at 60Hz or even to a UHD/4K display at 30Hz/24Hz, respectively. For photographers, a full-sized SDXC slot will enable easy access to your images without having to carry an extra card reader around.
Even without a graphics card, it hangs with the best
When we first gave this version of the MacBook Pro a spin in our labs, we weren't prepared for the results. Despite not having a discrete graphics card, this computer crushed most of our benchmark scores. Over and over again, the MacBook posted impressive result after impressive result—except for minimum framerate in our most punishing test. Though no computer handles Metro: 2033 very well just yet, the Iris Pro graphics chip couldn't keep up the pace with a minimum rate of 2 frames per second.
Macbook Pro With Retina Display
Intel's Core i7 quad-core processor handles huge workloads extremely well.
Beyond that, though, the MacBook Pro is a stunning machine. A solid-state drive ensures blisteringly fast read/write speeds, and Intel's Core i7 quad-core processor handles huge workloads extremely well. Short of intentionally burning out your GPU, there's very little you can do to make this computer stutter.
But what about the screen? It says right in the product name, 'Retina display,' but what does that mean? Well, that 15-inch display packs in 2,880x1,800 pixels, leaving it with a pixel density of 210 pixels per inch. Considering that you're going to be viewing the screen at a short distance—and not with your eyeballs against the screen—your retina will not be able to resolve individual dots or jagged lines on the screen. Basically, this means that your eyes won't be able to tell you that you're looking at a computer screen.
Welcome to Apple's walled garden.
Turning on any computer for the first time usually means updating software, but for the most part OS X Mavericks makes a clean first impression: No Norton, no McAfee, none of that garbage. No unoptimized programs from 'valued software partners' that slow your computer down by running in the background. Most computers purchased directly from manufacturers come this way, and it's a particular strength of Apple products.
But that doesn't mean that Apple has forgotten that most users want right out of the box. After all, the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is already an expensive computer. What else are you buying for that enormous price tag? Software. Lots and lots of Apple-developed software.
There's a ton of things like GarageBand and iTunes that let you create, export, and listen to music. There's also FaceTime, which allows you to video chat with other Apple users, as well as a basic web browser in Safari. Preview, Maps, TextEdit. Basically, there's a program or utility for most of the basic uses for a computer, especially when it concerns content creation.
Because the list of included software is so fastidiously curated, the level of micromanaging you might be used to on a cheaper PC is completely unnecessary. While the possibility exists that software you install later on down the line will muck things up a bit, when you first turn your computer on you won't have to deal with uninstalling gigabytes of useless programs.
$2,500 for integrated graphics? Worth every penny.
It's not every day that we happen upon a $2,500 computer—without a true graphics card—that is an excellent value. But here it is: The MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Despite the lack of a discrete graphics card, the Iris Pro graphics are just that good. Hardcore gamers and those who work with high-end multi-threaded applications to render things like 3D models and 4K video will want to opt for the next model up. But for everyone else—even those who do heavy image editing in programs like Photoshop and Lightroom—will be more than happy with what this (almost) top-end MacBook Pro brings to the table.
With an absolutely crushing margin, the 2014 MacBook Pro lineup outperforms just about every other computer we've tested. The only laptops that are close are the Asus UX301LA—which lacks even Iris Pro graphics—and the 15-inch Macbook Pro that has Iris Pro and the Nvidia GT 750M. While the Nvidia version is nice, it's also more expensive, generates more heat, and has worse battery life, resulting in a lower overall rating.
In addition to posting some remarkable scores in our benchmarks, this is one of the most user-friendly computers on the market. Not only does it come pre-installed with Apple's latest operating system, but it also has Apple's meticulous attention to detail. It has a superb keyboard, it's relatively lightweight, and it has a gorgeous screen. It's simply a pleasure to use.
This is still one of the best laptops money can buy.
If you're still skeptical about a $2,500 laptop without a dedicated graphics card, we hear you. We had the same trepidation. But every test that we can run shows that this is a laptop that can easily handle any high-end creative applications with ease. For just about anyone besides hardcore gamers, the 2014 MacBook Pro with Retina display is still one of the best laptops money can buy.
Meet the tester
Buy Windows For Macbook Pro
Chris Thomas
Staff Writer, Imaging
Macbook Pro Retina 2015 Specs
@cthomas8888 A seasoned writer and professional photographer, Chris reviews cameras, headphones, smartphones, laptops, and lenses. Educated in Political Science and Linguistics, Chris can often be found building a robot army, snowboarding, or getting ink.
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