Dell laptop vs MacBook Pro

[Jonathan Cross]

Sorry if this has been discussed before.  On the Lightroom thread there have been comments about the Dell XPS 15 and the MacBook Pro.  I am on the cusp of considering a new laptop that will be OK for displaying photos and processing with Lightroom.  How do the screens compare, particularly for clarity, and off axis viewing, both up and down and side to side.  We have an iPad and its off axis viewing is very good to me.  My existing laptop (7 yrs old and not a Dell) is lousy off axis.

Best wishes

Jonathan

[digitaldog]

In terms of the Retina Display I have on my 2016 MacBook Pro, seems to be the gamut of DCI-P3, quite a bit wider than sRGB. Quick and dirty gamut plot of a custom profile vs. DCI-P3 using a simple 2D plot, the smaller triangle is sRGB:

[Rand47]

Sorry if this has been discussed before.  On the Lightroom thread there have been comments about the Dell XPS 15 and the MacBook Pro.  I am on the cusp of considering a new laptop that will be OK for displaying photos and processing with Lightroom.  How do the screens compare, particularly for clarity, and off axis viewing, both up and down and side to side.  We have an iPad and its off axis viewing is very good to me.  My existing laptop (7 yrs old and not a Dell) is lousy off axis.

Best wishes

Jonathan

I just bought a new Dell XPS 15 9570.    32 gigs RAM, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5, Intel i7 8750H chip, 15.6" 4K Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 InfinityEdge Anti-Reflective Touch IPS100% AdobeRGB display.  Has USB-C (Thunderbolt), HDMI and two USB 3.1 ports as well as an SD card reader.

Build quality is superb (as far as can be evaluated from it’s physical form, fit and finish).

The display gorgeous and calibrates nicely with Dell’s Premier Color application that can (only) use i1 Display Pro colorimeter.  Easy to switch profiles on the fly, e.g. full native to sRGB.  Off axis viewing is no issue at all.

It is very quick.  The battery life is good considering the specs.  So far I’m very happy with it.  One clever bit is that the “on” button is also the fingerprint reader for biometric access.

From a price/performance perspective it’s pretty hard to beat, IMO.

Rand

[smthopr]

Sorry if this has been discussed before.  On the Lightroom thread there have been comments about the Dell XPS 15 and the MacBook Pro.  I am on the cusp of considering a new laptop that will be OK for displaying photos and processing with Lightroom.  How do the screens compare, particularly for clarity, and off axis viewing, both up and down and side to side.  We have an iPad and its off axis viewing is very good to me.  My existing laptop (7 yrs old and not a Dell) is lousy off axis.

Best wishes

Jonathan

I have a 2013 MBP.  I like the computer, but...  The screen has had problems with the coating failing after a few years.  What happens is that the coating sticks to the keys and metal frame when the computer is closed.  Eventually, the coating is destroyed and the screen looks awful.  Apple replaced the screen once free of charge, but now it's happened again and they will no longer replace it for free.  When I was in the Apple Store, there was also a woman with two MBPs with the same issue.  So, it's very common.  Apple knows about the issue and it seems they will replace the screen within the first 4 years of ownership.  After that, you're on your own.

I think this issue is due to Apple trying to make the thinnest possible device and they've minimized any separation between the screen and the body of the computer when closed.  This issue could have been avoided by recessing the screen by a very small distance, and they haven't done that.

So, if anyone here knows of a good place in the US that will replace the screen for less than the $600 Apple charges, please let me know!  And, also if there is a safe material to place in the folded computer to prevent damage to the screen as well.

[digitaldog]

I have a 2013 MBP.  I like the computer, but...  The screen has had problems with the coating failing after a few years. 

I've got two Retina MacBooks (Pros), one a 2013, a newer 2016, no issues like that on either. I've always had a micro fiber cloth between the keyboard (with a protector) and the screen with the lid closed, even before Retinas.

[smthopr]

I've got two Retina MacBooks (Pros), one a 2013, a newer 2016, no issues like that on either. I've always had a micro fiber cloth between the keyboard (with a protector) and the screen with the lid closed, even before Retinas.

Thanks Andrew.  If I get the screen replaced, I'll try the micro fiber cloth idea

[Lightsmith]

All things considered I would go with the Mac laptop. With identical hardware I have gotten double the performance by virtue of the modern Apple OS X operating system. As most laptops are already handicapped as compared to workstations this is worth considering.

With our mix of Mac workstations and Windows workstations and laptops the Windows computers take up 99% of our time to keep them operating well and deal with Trojans and viruses and malware and corrupted DLL's and similar Windows vulnerabilities. With the Mac computers we do an OS update once a year and run a defrag program weekly on the drives.

With Windows computers the ones from Dell would be at the bottom of my list. No company has been as aggressive in moving jobs overseas as Dell and not company provides worse customer service and I saw this even with companies that had thousands of Dell desktop and laptop computers in play.

Apple provides the best customer support of any computer company and rates at the top year after year after year. They also employ people in the United States (as does Lenovo) to provide customer support.

[josephkarl]

The thing is that some users like the MAC and some like the DELL or we can say Windows. As I have experienced, I will go for  DELL system because I have once faced the issue of outlook 0x8004010f on the MAC system but not on the DELL laptop.