PC laptop vs MACbook? Please no sectarian debate

[PeggyBaker]

Hi all-- it looks like I will be traveling a bunch over the next several months. I have been a PC user basically sincBe lu 1, and I have a purpose-built desktop PC which I'm quite happy with. However, for the first time I'm actually considering a MacBook with the M2 chip to get me through this time on the road with my Z9 files. Can anyone speak to this dilemma without feeling the need to trash one OS over the other? Right now I'm not dealing with budget issues, just the editing experience.

 

[Butlerkid]

I travel extensively with my HP Dragonfly PC I purchased in 2020.

SPECS

1.9 GHz Intel Core i7-8665U Quad-Core​	​	​
16GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 RAM​	​	1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD​
13.3" 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 Touchscreen​	​	4K UHD 3840x2160 screen/550 nits of brightness​
Integrated Intel UGD Graphics 620​	​	IPS montitor 3840 x 2160​
2 Thunderbolt 3 ports​	​	Bluetooth 5.0​
360° hinged screen​	​	Windows 11 64 bit​

I save my images to external SSD Samsung TX HDs using a card reader. Only 2.2 lbs. I have never had a problem dealing with tens of thousands of images (D850 or Z9) while on travel. I prefer to NOT process images during travel, but I can use LR and/or PS and plug ins with the laptop if I want to. There is also the flexibility to connect an external hub if one wishes.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Steve]

I think either will work. I recently purchased a 16" MBP with an M2 chip and it's been fantastic on the road. Super fast and makes culling large files a snap. I got one with a 4TB HD so I can keep my trip photos on the laptop drive (I still have a pair of backups as well). I've been very pleased with it and have no hesitation recommending it. The biggest downside is that it's painfully pricy. However, you can also get a MacBook Air that's quite a but less with an M2 chip. The downside is that 1TB is the maximum HD size.

 

[bleirer]

Both platforms are able to run the software you need at a high speed. You are accustomed to PC so I'd keep it in the family.

 

[DRwyoming]

Can anyone speak to this dilemma without feeling the need to trash one OS over the other? Right now I'm not dealing with budget issues, just the editing experience.

FWIW, I move back and forth between a MacBook Pro and my photo editing computer that's running on a PC. The editing experience is all but identical when using Lightroom, Photoshop and various third party tools from Topaz and the like. I really don't miss a beat in editing or file management terms when moving between systems.

IOW, the differences really do come down to OS and environment and things like display quality on your chosen travel computer and not really the editing experience itself.

These days I see it largely as a Ford/Chevy type debate as there are very good computers available in either ecosystem and the common software, especially photo editing software, presents a very consistent user interface and editing experience regardless of which choice you make.

 

[RecalcitrantRon]

So I use Macs at home and Windows at work because they make me so you now which I prefer. I have also built gaming Windows boxes with my sons who are gamers. The "editing experience" is mostly a product of the particular software you use (ie: Lightroom. Topaz, CaptureOne ect.) so it is very platform agnostic. The OS typically fades into the background (like it should). The main area that varies will be task speed. There, most of the reviews I read before I bought my 16 inch M1 MacBook Pro 16GB RAM in 2022 is that the the M chip architecture, which is highly unified/integrated with respect to graphics and memory has an advantage over Windows PC's. You can also expect better battery life, cooler running, and generally better overall build quality. Dell/HP/Lenovo ect. can put all the Core i7 horsepower it wants into a laptop, but when it runs hot, it is going to throttle back hard. I also had a very bad recent experience with Lenovo. For college, I bought my son a $1,200 Lenovo laptop, so it was supposedly not a cheap piece of junk and had to return it twice because after less than a month of use because the fan would start running at full tilt all the time which caused it to rattle incessantly. Fortunately, Costco's return policy is very good. I spent the extra money and got him a Surface Pro with keyboard which is what I have at work and they are well built and run nicely. Not what I would use for photo editing though. I also had a Dell XPS 13 at work that served me well for several years. All that said, if for no other reason than the superior performance of the M chips, I would buy a MacBook.

 

[Butlerkid]

FWIW - my Asus and HP laptops have never had a heat problem, even when sitting on my lap after hours of use.

 

[grossidm]

Portable I'd go MPB. I have a 14" M1 MacBook Pro and I haven't looked back Max out your RAM.

I use both Windows and Mac btw.

 

[Abinoone]

Hi all-- it looks like I will be traveling a bunch over the next several months. I have been a PC user basically sincBe lu 1, and I have a purpose-built desktop PC which I'm quite happy with. However, for the first time I'm actually considering a MacBook with the M2 chip to get me through this time on the road with my Z9 files. Can anyone speak to this dilemma without feeling the need to trash one OS over the other? Right now I'm not dealing with budget issues, just the editing experience.

It all depends upon what you‘re comfortable using. Personally, I prefer a PC, only because that‘s what I most familiar with. A few years ago I was in the market for a new laptop specifically for travel and photo editing, and enlisted my tech-savvy daughter to research “the best” solution for me. Well, she came up with a high-end MacBook Pro, so I bought it. I tried very hard to love it, but quite honestly I found myself frequently frustrated because basic file handling functions were so different - I just couldn’t adapt to the new platform. So, I ended up giving it to my daughter (please, no comments about that being her intent all along ), and buying a very nice Lenovo laptop with a large SSD, lots of RAM, and a 4K display, and I’ve been very pleased ever since. Maybe this is classic case of trying to teach an old dog new tricks, but I just didn’t see that the Apple product was sufficiently superior to warrant the effort required to relearn everything.

 

[RichF]

Hi all-- it looks like I will be traveling a bunch over the next several months. I have been a PC user basically sincBe lu 1, and I have a purpose-built desktop PC which I'm quite happy with. However, for the first time I'm actually considering a MacBook with the M2 chip to get me through this time on the road with my Z9 files. Can anyone speak to this dilemma without feeling the need to trash one OS over the other? Right now I'm not dealing with budget issues, just the editing experience.

I switched from PCs to Macs around 10 years and am very happy. I find Macs to be many times (10 to 25 times) more stable than PCs. HOWEVER since you already have PC desktop, I would stick with that to minimize the difference in system. IMO nothing is more frustrating than switching between 2 system (computers, cameras, etc) and not know exactly how to do something in one that the other one does well.

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

I agree with @RichF what is you overall ecosystem needs? Are you and your loved ones into the Apple ecosystem otherwise, because computers, tablets, phones play really nice together. Four years ago, I stopped using Windows because of the interaction between my devices and with family members was so easy. I assume Windows has caught up some.

So other than that, choose a screen you like.

RAM and disk as you can afford.

 

[jeffnles1]

I went with MacBook for 2 reasons. 1) I already had iPhone and iPad. MacBook integration with those devices is almost seamless. 2) I retired 5 years ago. I spent the prior 36 years in the IT industry and my company was an "intel shop." I didn't want anything reminding me of work.

I have been overly happy with the MacBook but honestly, any of today's computers is much like today's cameras. Get similar specs and you will have similar results. If you are an Android phone user and have an Android based tablet, then the Intel choice becomes more reasonable.

Hope this helps.

 

[Anthony]

Stick with what you know unless you are going to switch 100%. Mac and Windows systems are different in many ways. There is no point in having to move backwards and forwards between the two - life is complicated enough as it is.

 

[Anjin San]

Hi all-- it looks like I will be traveling a bunch over the next several months. I have been a PC user basically sincBe lu 1, and I have a purpose-built desktop PC which I'm quite happy with. However, for the first time I'm actually considering a MacBook with the M2 chip to get me through this time on the road with my Z9 files. Can anyone speak to this dilemma without feeling the need to trash one OS over the other? Right now I'm not dealing with budget issues, just the editing experience.

If you’re comfortable with and like Windows…then that’s a good reason to stick with it…this from a long time Mac guy. However…the M2 chip will probably outperform similarly priced Windows machines…and will probably have longer battery life. An M1 machine is more than adequate for Z9 files and an M2 is faster…but you can’t go wrong with either. IMO Apple hardware is more elegant and the macOS is both more secure, more stable, and easier to use…but that’s the Mac guy in me…I was a Windows sysadmin the last dozen years I worked so am really fine with either…but overall macOS is less computer fussing. Editing wise…LR and PS and the various plugins are pretty similar on both.

 

[JamesFarrell]

I am a Mac user now and have been since I retired in 2010. Before retirement I used Dell laptops (Windows) for many years that were provided by the company I worked for. The company went real 'cheap' on the Dell specs just to save a few bucks even though I was doing some elaborate PowerPoint presentations with a lot of graphics for many years. Those basic Dells were not that good.

Now days I read often that many folks are now quite happy with their PC systems. PCs and Macs are both good these days. Your choice. I would guess that Macs are more expensive than Windows notebooks. But that's only a conjecture on my part.

That said, I am very fond of the M1 MacBook Pro (MBP) laptop that I've had since early 2022. It is both my traveling computer and my 'desktop' system in that it drives my NEC 27 inch monitor. I don't own any other computers (my wife has a 2018 MacMini). My MBP has 32gb of RAM and a 2TB SSD internal (I've read that the M2 MacBook Air can only have a 1TB SSD but I am not sure about that). My MBP was expensive but I am happy with it and glad I spent the extra money to upgrade the basics. And I love traveling with the smaller 14" MBP - lighter and easier to fit in a backpack, etc. The battery life is awesome. I like the larger capacity SSD so I can host the Z9 files on my internal SSD. Convenient, even though I do backup to a Samsung T7 external SSD.

To your situation - a couple of thoughts - if you're using a desktop PC, are you going to be comfortable using a Mac? Are you going to need to create a 'home network' to share files, etc.? It's possible to network a PC and a Mac but it takes a little work to get it to work right. At least that's my limited experience. YMMV. If networking with your PC a windows system might be easier. Not sure.

I am a Z9 user too. Before that I had a Z 7II. So, I've been dealing with 45mp Z9 files ever since I got the M1 MBP. Given the file sizes you might consider whether to boost the basic specs of any laptop to better handle the larger files. A base M2 processor will handle Z9 files OK, but more RAM is better for intensive apps like noise reduction and/or resampling TIFFS, etc. More RAM is better than upgrading the processor specs in my opinion. When you start to edit Z9 files, the M2 (and even the M1s) will impress with their speed. And when you start to edit Z9 files that get sent via plug-ins from one software app to another as a big TIFF file, then the increased speed of the M2 or M1 is a significant time saver.

I cannot draw any comparisons of these Apple Silicon Macs with present day Window notebooks as have not used a Windows product for 13 years. Others can chime in on that. I think something you might want to consider is what machine type will handle the type of files you'll dealing with, what software will you using, and what is the end result of those files (i.e., what are you going to do them final product. Fortunately, over the past year the major software companies that photographers like us use have made their apps work natively with Apple Silicon and now Z9 HE* and HE files will work too. While it's really not possible to totally future-proof your purchase, think about what you need this portable device to do and then find the machine that will do the job. Good luck

 

[RichF]

A VERY IMPORTANT consideration - where will you get your support. If you rely upon a friend or family, then ask them.

If you are on your own, I have found Apple support to be excellent - especially if there is an Apple store conveniently located.

 

[JamesFarrell]

Stick with what you know unless you are going to switch 100%. Mac and Windows systems are different in many ways. There is no point in having to move backwards and forwards between the two - life is complicated enough as it is.

Good points. And something else that I just thought of after my post is if one is trying to deal with a Mac and PC (network or not) whether the different kinds of file system formats between the two different systems will make things really difficult too.

 

[RichF]

Good points. And something else that I just thought of after my post is if one is trying to deal with a Mac and PC (network or not) whether the different kinds of file system formats between the two different systems will make things really difficult too.

I switched from PC to Mac at home while still working with a PC at work. Since the Macbook was for travel only I slowly learned my way around it (I am fairly good w/ computers, at one point in my career I ran several Sun Unix machines). There was a learning curve.

 

[Anjin San]

A VERY IMPORTANT consideration - where will you get your support. If you rely upon a friend or family, then ask them.

If you are on your own, I have found Apple support to be excellent - especially if there is an Apple store conveniently located.

True…and putting on my retired Windows sysadmin hat for a moment if I may…Windows is an excellent choice if you have an IT department or are particularly computer geek smart/experienced. If one is neither…macOS is easier to support yourself…particularly with the latest versions of macOS which have a sealed, locked, read only system volume and actually boot from a snapsjot of that volume. It’s a lot harder to screw yourself with macOS...and in the IMO highly unlikely event you do I could tell my 90 year old computer illiterate grandmother (assuming I had one of those, no longer alas)…how to reinstall macOS over the phone and as a former windows sysadmin I can pretty much tell you that’s not possible with Windows although I stopped after about Windows 8 or so. But as I said…either will do the job and if a user has only experience with one or the other and is clueless about the one they don’t use…it’s hard to recommend switching either way based on muscle memory and keyboard shortcuts and all the peripheral UI stuff.

Rich is right…there’s a learning curve…but overall macOS works much more like the way I as a cross platform guy thinks a computer should work. For instance…in most cases one runs an installer on a Windows app and it puts the app…sometimes with some strange non normal looking name where it wants and one can’t move it elsewhere to suit your particular idea on disk organization. In macOS…in almost all cases…there’s some parts that get installed in /Library or /Application Support but the app itself has a regular English name like Lightroom…and one can move it someplace that makes sense…like if you wanted an Adobe folder in /Applications and all the Adobe stuff to be in there…and it still works as expected. And as I noted in other replies…self support with Apple‘s folks via phone call or chat or whatever finds them pretty responsive if you actually need help…but I have spent far, far less time reinstalling macOS on my home machines than on my former at work machines…since the advent of the current 7nix based macOS 10 or 12 years ago I have done exactly one…count ‘em one…nuke and pave reinstalls on the dozen plus machines my bride and I have had. Not so with Windows…but then the last versions I used extensively were Windows 2003 server in the 2011 time frame and my perception from the outside is that Windows has advanced since then…but then macOS has advanced as well.

 

[Butlerkid]

True…and putting on my retired Windows sysadmin hat for a moment if I may…Windows is an excellent choice if you have an IT department or are particularly computer geek smart/experienced. If one is neither…macOS is easier to support yourself…particularly with the latest versions of macOS which have a sealed, locked, read only system volume and actually boot from a snapsjot of that volume. It’s a lot harder to screw yourself with macOS...and in the IMO highly unlikely event you do I could tell my 90 year old computer illiterate grandmother (assuming I had one of those, no longer alas)…how to reinstall macOS over the phone and as a former windows sysadmin I can pretty much tell you that’s not possible with Windows although I stopped after about Windows 8 or so.

The OP is currently using Windows....

" I have been a PC user basically sincBe lu 1, and I have a purpose-built desktop PC which I'm quite happy with."

 

[Replytoken]

Choosing an OS is important, but there are also many other important choices that might end up swaying you one way or another.

Things to consider beyond OS:

• Budget
• Weight/size
• Keyboard feel
• Battery life
• Screen size/resolution/color gamut
• Ports

I have a Windows PC, an Apple iPad and an Android phone, so I am a bit agnostic when it comes to brand/OS loyalty. I personally used Macs from 1984-1995. I have used Win PC/laptops since. Both are great, but as @Abinoone mentioned, it can be difficult to switch when you are used to doing things in certain ways, and I often feel that way when I am working on a Mac. But as @DRwyoming said, if you primarily use Lightroom, then the look and feel will be very similar. I would encourage you to try out different machines in person if you can. And this site is great for reviews: https://www.notebookcheck.net/ . I especially like that they test the screen gamut and accuracy as well as performance under load (i.e. is there throttling as @RecalcitrantRon mentioned).

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Anjin San]

The OP is currently using Windows....

" I have been a PC user basically sincBe lu 1, and I have a purpose-built desktop PC which I'm quite happy with."

Which doesn’t necessary imply they’re a Windows guru…which was my point…not arguing either way specifically but offering a viewpoint from someone that used both for years. I was always amazed back in my working days at the large percentage…approaching 50%…of Windows sysadmins who admitted they only had Macs at home because they didn’t want to futz with computers when they got home…that’s an anecdotal observation of course…but it’s certainly a valid one. In this particular case…as I said in another reply…the learning curve might make a Windows approach ‘better’ if a user was Windows smart and knew nothing about macOS…even though I personally use and would mostly recommend macOS over Windows. I wasn’t trying to start a religious debate over it…just offering a POV. And…there’s really no right answer anyway.

 

[Robert Ardinger]

Mac user since 1988, fairly well versed in PC/Windows also and have had about 5 MacBooks (first was called a Powerbook) and have used Windows laptops on occasions. For Photoshop and Lightroom it really does not matter which one a person uses. Some of the operating system functions will be named differently but basically act the same.

I also use an iPod, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV so am basically in the Apple "Universe" but at times I am really annoyed at Apple for their persistent "we know what is best or you" changes in their operating system and lately fairly buggy new OS releases but I suspect similar issues are found in Windows.

As an aside, Brooks Jensen does all his work and publishes Lenswork on PCs (at least he did at last time I knew about his workflow)

Any new Mac (I just bought a Mac mini M2Pro) will come with the 'Ventura" OS (Apple Mac OS was originally named by just numbers, then large cats, then places in California (can't wait for the "San Quentin" OS)).

The Ventura OS has a number of bugs in their print drivers for photo printers (finally found a few workarounds) but you may not be printing from your laptop (I do not and use a 2014 MacBook for trips).

Ventura also is the biggest step so far to make the Mac OS look like the iOS of the iPhone/iPad and to a long time Mac OS user some of the changes are pretty silly (equivalent to moving the volume buttons on an iPhone and calling it "new") (i.e. system preferences are now system settings with annoying menu reorganization).

Also, because I put a big premium on printing, I want the computer I print from to have a calibrated, non-glare monitor (which can look fairly dull when compared to a typically setup monitor) and the very new MacBook Pros with their bright, dazzling screens, are, by report difficult to calibrate to that standard (I can get my old 2014 MacBook to approximate my calibrated desktop monitor).

Not as big an issue if you are not printing from the laptop but can affect your image processing choices if you plan to do a lot of PS/LR work on the laptop and hope to simply move the files over to the desktop for printing without re-editing.

All that said, I personally have no intention at all to change from Mac but if I was a primary PC user and especially if I used Non-Apple phones and tablets I would just get a PC laptop.

Early on (in the 80's and 90's) personal computers were sort of another hobby for me and there was some enjoyment in figuring out how they worked (or did not) and doing some programming ( making HTML websites as soon as Netscape was released) but now I view them as appliances (and way too complicated ones at that) and just want them to work without much fuss.

 

[PeggyBaker]

I've used PCs forever and have almost never had system problems that weren't caused by hardware, so the operating system stuff doesn't bother me, and I have managed to lock up Macs which were supposedly immune. My home network is mostly wi-fi so I don't think there is lot of admin involved. I guess I would work on the road with files on the laptop and then export as a catalog to the desktop.

 

[abc123brian]

You can buy Windows laptops that compete with the MacBooks on performance or even out perform them, but I don’t think any of them can do it on battery power. Due to the power hungry chips in PCs, they drop performance when not plugged in. Generally battery life is also better on the Mac. Budget wise, you can get lower end MacBooks that outperform windows laptops in the same price range. If you’re not budget constrained, you will be able to get similar performance. One area Mac has a sizable advantage is video editing capabilities with the codecs integrated into the M chips. So if being mobile is a big factor, the Mac is the better choice. If you’re not worried about that or editing videos, it is down to personal preference.