The MacBook Pro might be the best selling laptop, it might have proven to be a wonderful device for the geekerati, but there are alternatives that are just as good as Apple's laptop. Depending on what you need from a laptop, there are options that are more suitable than 2016's latest MacBook Pro.
As many professionals have discovered with this iteration of the MacBook Pro, it feels more like a Pro version of the MacBook Air rather than a macOS machine that provides top-notch specifications and features. There are other options, and over the next few weeks, I'm going to look in detail at some of the alternatives to the latest MacBook Pro.
But before those articles, here's a quick overview of some machines that push the envelope that have caught my eye (including Microsoft's Surface Book, Razer's Blade, and HP's Spectre x360). Although I do need to address one elephant in the room
Windows 10.
Unless you are ready to work some monumental hacking magic, the one element that you are not going to be able to replicate on these laptops is macOS. Apple's current deskbound operating system is a UNIX-based system that runs on the Mac range but nowhere else (outside of some herculean hacking). Any alternative to the MacBook Pro will be running something other than macOS.
In ninety-nine percent of cases, that something is going to be Windows 10. Microsoft has made some drastic changes over the last few years to get its OS to work as comfortably in a touch environment as a mouse and keyboard. I'd argue that Windows 10 is at this point, so the mix of competent hybrids and tablet/laptop convertibles on offer will grow.
Windows 10 offers a much wider choice of third-party applications and you have a better chance of finding a choice of apps for anything you need. And if you must have connection to an iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone, Windows 10 is universal enough to be able to talk to both platforms as well as pretty much any cloud service.
Next page: Microsoft's Surface Book...
Laptop Hardware Reviews here on Forbes...
Microsoft Surface Book
Although it started off from a position of weakness - running the awkward Windows 8 tablet/desktop hybrid interface and running underpowered ARM chips in the first machines - Microsoft's Surface brand has evolved to be a strong indicator of quality, computing excellence, and a no-compromise design philosophy. The Surface Pro 4 (reviewed here) is a solid workhorse and the type cover gives it the versatility of an ultra-portable, but if we're looking for a Microsoft device to go head-to-head with a MacBook Pro, there is no choice but the Surface Book.
First up is the design. Microsoft's fulcrum hinge creates a distinctive style when both opened and closed. The strength is there to allow the screen to be detached into a tablet, and it's here that the touchscreen and bundled Surface Pen come into its own. Windows 10's user interface works well in a tablet style, and you have access to the full range of Windows apps. You might buy this as a MacBook Pro alternative, but the addition of an iPad Pro replacement is a welcome bonus.
It does make the device a touch top-heavy in use, and there's a very slight rock when using the Surface Book in laptop mode and you tap the touchscreen heavily. I disagree with Apple here because I think a touch interface on a desktop does make sense, and is something I instinctively use in day-to-day use.
Microsoft has a number of models to choose from, so you can go for an entry-level machine at the $1499 mark with an i5 or i7 Skylake processor, 8GB or 16GB of RAM and SSD sizes from 128GB up to 1TB, While it is just over a year old, a recent refresh of the keyboard base unit has increased the graphical performance of the highest specced machine, but if you are looking for high-end gaming and graphical performance you might want to look elsewhere - the Surface Book is great for productivity but gaming is its achilles heel.
Microsoft has created a unique design and use-case scenarios. It sacrifices some graphical capability to be a better machine for professional work. The Surface Book is not just a laptop, it's a laptop that is happy to stand out and do things differently.
Read my full review of the Surface Book here on Forbes.
Next page: The Razer Blade gaming laptop...
Razer Blade
Read my full review of the Razer Blade here on Forbes...
Gaming places some of the highest demands on a computer, so if you have a fast and efficient gaming laptop, then you can be sure you have a laptop with excess power when you need it. Irvine CA based Razer has been specialising in gaming products since it was founded in 1998. Its has three categories of laptop - the ultrabook styled Blade Stealth, the high-end seventeen-inch Blade Pro, and the workhorse fourteen inch Razer Blade - which is the model I'm looking at here.
The Blade is slightly larger than the newest MacBook Pro when closed, but with a fourteen inch screen you do get a lot more screen to work with - and I think there's a benefit to the larger screen. Available with either a 1920x1080 IPS screen or a touch enabled 3200x1800 monster, if screen quality is important to you then the Blade is one of the best out there. The manufacturer is offering you the choice of size and capability on the screen, unlike Apple's singular approach.
Design-wise the Blade comes in an aggressive matt black look that oozes power and danger. Razer's sense of style is impeccable, although it has not pushed the boat out in any meaningful way. Functional comes to mind when I see the large trackpad, full-length hinge at the rear of the Blade, and the sculpted cutout to help open the machine.
Where the Blade does stand out is in its keyboard. Using its Chroma backlighting technology you can have every key light up in a different colour, have animated color effects dance under your fingers, or have a key glow a different color when you press it. For the gamer this helps highlight keys for different actions - for me it acts like a subtle overlay in my audio editing apps to guide my fingers. The anti-ghosting feature designed to help gamers press multiple keys and have them all register means that for the writer in me I feel I can really push the keyboard hard to get a lot of speed out of it while typing.
Port-wise it does sport a single USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port as well as a single HDMI 2.0 port for video and audio output, and 3 USB 3.0 ports for a wide range of peripherals. You have the flexibility of the new ports combined with a lot of backwards compatibility. Perhaps the only thing missing when you look at this as a MacBook Pro alternative is an SD Card reader, but this is a machine focused on gaming potential, and that allows the Blade to offer many benefits in other less demanding tasks.
You have a huge amount of power in the Blade with its 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 backed up by 16GB of RAM, and it can comfortably surpass six hours of work on the battery.The high specifications are needed for gaming, but if you're needing a processor intensive laptop (perhaps for rendering graphics or editing HD video) the Blade is an easy machine to recommend.
Read more on the Blade at Razer's website.
Read my full review of the Razer Blade here on Forbes...
Next page: HP's Spectre x360...
HP Spectre x360
HP's evolution of the Spectre x360 can be described as a two-in-one design. It can operate as a regular laptop, or have the screen flip all the way round to create a solid tablet experience, but HP likes to promote the 'mostly closed' so you also have a tilted screen in a stand mode, and the tent mode here you flip the screen almost all the way and can stand it up (like a tent) to play games.
This all comes from a two-piece hinge that allows the screen to rotate through 360 degrees (hence the name). It's stylish, it shows off great design and thinking and provides the Spectre user with a number of different options depending on the environment where you are using the machine - even if most of the time will be spent in laptop mode.
HP has done a lot of engineering and research to improve the laptop user experience for the consumer. The keyboard is a good example, with a slightly heavier press required on the keys than the competition, but consistent feedback throughout the movement of each key. The glass touchpad is huge, making edge to edge mouse movements quick and easy. And the 1920x1080 display is a touchscreen, so all the extra benefits of finger control in Windows 10 are available.
Where this year's Spectre x360 will draw a lot of attention is in the processor. It's one of the first machines to use Intel's latest Kabylake architecture, offering a huge amount of future proofing power backed up by 8GB of RAM as the default option. Port-wise the laptop retains one older USB 3.1 port alongside two USB-C Thunderbolt ports. And just like the other major players, the SD card reading slot is gone.
The design of the Spectre has allowed HP to push the design to be thinner than previous models, just 13.8 millimetres at the thickest point. It retains the battery life of just under ten hours for streaming video, and around six or seven hours of mixed-use in the real world.
The Spectre x360 echoes the trend from all manufacturers to rely less on external ports and go for a fashionable approach to the look of the machine. Much like the MacBook Pro you have to consider if you want to live with fewer ports on your portable machine, but if you can the x360 offers just enough backwards compatibility to comfort you while the higher specifications help push you into the future.
