Need some advice on what laptop to buy

[ItHadToComeToThis]

Okay so i have been debating with myself for a month or so now over which laptop i want to purchase when i upgrade from my current setup. I use a laptop over a home base PC as i work nights, 6 days a week and it allows me to play games, design, model and SL when i have nothing to do during the night.

 

My current setup is two fold..

-Macbook Pro 15" Mid 2012 Retina. Old but still fairly reliable but really starting to struggle when it comes to designing and SL

-Gigabyte P35W w/970GTXm which is 3 - 4 years old which is my primary machine for everything i do SL wise

 

What i am looking at for an upgrade is either..

-Macbook Pro 16" with 32GB Ram, 5500 graphics, 1tb SSD, i9 9th gen 8 core processor which will cost me around £3399

or

-New Razer blade 15" with 16GB Ram, 2060RTX, 512gb SSD, i7 10th gen 6 core processor which will cost me around £1799

 

Seems like a straightforward answer right?. Go for the Razer Blade as its near half the price. However..

In terms of the Macbook. I love Mac OS. I love the simplicity, i love how fast it is. I love the eco system. I think Macbooks are by far the best quality built laptops on the market. My mid 2012 retina is proof of that as its still going strong all these years later compared to other windows based laptops i have had in my life that after a few years have become fairly unusable. I know that if i bought the Macbook i would be using it for years and years to come. I love how seamlessly integrated iCloud is, especially as i have it setup on the Gigabyte machine and can transfer files between my devices quite easily. And overall from owning the mid 2012 retina have developed a real love for apples design ethos when it comes to its operating system and its machine. And the apple track pad is just to die for. No windows machine has ever managed to replicate it. There is a high level of optimization of the hardware to Mac OS to get the most out of it. However the price tag is quite steep.

In terms of the Razer. It is just simply a more powerful machine. Has much better graphics, i can upgrade the memory myself and add in more storage and i can play games. The downsides to me are concerns over the lastibility of the machine, will it go the same way as most windows laptops and be in need of replacing in a few years, at that point will i be spending what i would have essentially spent on a Macbook that would have lasted me a longer period of time. For instance, in my gigabyte laptop the USBC port just doesn't work anymore. It has hardly been used, the computer sees it and knows the port is there, it just doesn't want to register any device that is plugged into it. The normal USB ports have not been abused or had devices roughly shoved into them and are now a tad unstable and has a few other hardware issues even though the laptop as a whole has been looked after extremely well. On top of that i am not the biggest fan of Windows 10 as an operating system, even with a clean install it feels somewhat laggy and sluggish, even though its running on a new faster M2 SSD that i installed into it a few months back. My mid 2012 retina runs the latest version of Mac OS better than the Gigabyte runs windows 10. Even though the hardware in the Gigabyte is much much much newer and faster. BUT, there is the compatibility issue. Having a windows machine means much greater compatibility for software and apps and the better graphics card would definitely make the difference when it comes to gaming and rendering.

What i intend to use the laptop for, whichever i buy, is mostly  SL, Photoshop, Blender, Substance Painter, Cinema 4D and one or two games that i play. Although i am not a huge gamer by nature so gaming isn't as important as the other items listed.

What i need is an objective opinion. Preferably not "yearrrhhh apple are s*** just go with windows". I am really feeling indecisive over which laptop it is that i want to buy and was hoping that someone, who might be more in the know than myself, could offer some advice or an opinion on the two machines and which they think would better suit the purpose.

Edited May 15, 2020 by ItHadToComeToThis

[Lillith Hapmouche]

It's a little tough to reply on an objective level if the whole initial post simply screams of "there is no real need for it, but I want new shinies to play with... preferably Apple, so please confirm my idea" subjective tones 😉

While I do think that there is quite a flaw with your Win10 install if it feels "laggy and sluggish" (all drivers installed? RAM ok? No messing with the paging file or such jokes?), I don't see why that Gigabyte P35W shouldn't handle SL and some gaming well enough, based on its general stats.

You'll probably dislike a new Windows laptop due to similar issues.

[ItHadToComeToThis]

Not quite. I am happy enough with the gigabyte I just want to upgrade as it’s been a few years and I can afford it.
As for windows 10. I can deal with it, and I don’t detest using it. Yes everything is installed correctly. It just feels sluggish. As I said though I can deal with that.

As for the Apple preference. Yeah, I like Apple. But I am not trying to get anyone to confirm some “omg yeah get Apple” thought process. I am legitimately torn between the two machines. The Razer would be an amazing machine, no doubt about it. It would run everything and be fairly future proof for a couple of years and would be much faster than the gigabyte that I am running at the minute. And it’s half the price of buying a MacBook and wayyy more powerful. I am so so so very tempted by it, but, I have had issues with windows based laptops in the past and the Apple would be a reliable machine. But it’s got a hefty price tag that I’m not sure I want to pay. But it’s also hella tempting.