ThinkPad or Macbook ?
Hello WSO,
I currently have a MacBook Pro with the shitty butterfly switch keyboard. However I have always been a “Mac Guy” I have an iPhone, air pods, iPad, and the MacBook pro. I am fully apart of the apple eco-system. This summer working on a desktop PC I have realized how truly shit the mac os version of Excel is.
I don’t want to lose all of my speed and shortcuts from the skills that I have built this summer on Excel. At the end of the day Excel will be a huge part of my first couple years as an analyst.
I think the census in the finance community is that a ThinkPad is the best laptop and I have been looking at the ThinkPad Carbon X1 7th gen. I have tested out the keyboard and I love it. I am curious if any of the quick switches on a mac via the trackpad are the same on a ThinkPad.
Have any of you monkeys switched from Mac to a ThinkPad or windows laptop? Do you miss the Eco-System? Is it worth it to get rid of my mac and upgrade to the ThinkPad? How was the transition ?
Thanks Monkeys
Get a thiccpad if you want to be respected in the fuhnance community
Windows will always be superior for Microsoft Office. Just get the thinkpad for work, you can learn the shortcuts fairly quickly and will be better off. Think about what you will be using at work. Most banks use windows so it is better to know that.
Agree. I still have my Macbook Pro for personal use, but got a Windows machine for the Office stuff. Learning the shortcuts will make your life in Excel infinitely better when you hit the desk.
Disclaimer: I own / have owned about 9 consecutive Thinkpads.
I love those machines, but people do get screwed up by the fn key placement to the left of ctrl. Since you're switching from a Mac perhaps you won't notice as much as someone switching from, for example, an HP. Lenovo also has pretty good deals year-round. It's worth googling around for discount codes and other purchase methods, as you can get a serious deal (think 30-40%).
The other laptop I've been impressed with is the Surface Book 2, but that's an order of magnitude more expensive. Build quality, though, superb all around.
iOS machines nowadays are pretty standalone - iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch don't really benefit a lot from being connected to a Mac computer and can function in the Apple cloud just fine.
You can easily switch ctrl and fn in the bios settings. Saved me a lot of time when I switched from HP.
Enter BIOS Config > Keyboard and Mouse > Fn and Ctrl Key Swap Enable Hit F10 (save and exit)
Source is geek.com
Yes, true! I also switched the Function row keys at the top to default to F1-F10 rather than the functions.
I have an HP Spectre x360. I don't care much for the touch screen or 360 degree rotation, and simply use it as a regular laptop. My next one will probably be a Dell XPS 13. That's a top-notch ultrabook that I'd recommend.
I have the Thinkpad X1 Carbon and it works amazingly. Handles all tasks easily while running 2 monitors. I also used the chrome plug-in Honey at checkout and it found me a deal for $850 off. I believe they also offer student discounts.
I thought companies will give company laptop, which is most likely windows operating system.
Get anything other than a Mac
What do you guys think about All in One PC? This pc will obviously be similar to the pc in the office which is good
The Macs that come with the butterfly switch keyboards are terrible. Personally, I brought my $3,000+ MacBook Pro with the malfunctioning keyboard to the apple store and they blamed me for the issue when it was a foolish design flow. There is no click on those those PC. I would choose the Think-Pad unless you are open to other PC suggestions.
Maybe Mac four years ago. Now, ThinkPad without question.
Personally, I think that MacOS is superior for everything that isn't excel.
You can just bootcamp your MacBook. It works pretty flawlessly and boots up in less than 30 seconds. Turn off FileVault on MacOS; it will speed up the restart process dramatically. The keyboard does kind of suck though but all of the shortcuts will be exactly the same. A home setup with keyboard and monitor mitigates this. There is also a third-party developed driver that you can install that makes the trackpad pretty good.
That being said, it really depends on several things. How much you like MacOS / the hardware (I'm a huge fan). It's not worth the trouble if you think they are equal or it's only marginally better. If you are using it for work related stuff several times a day then it's probably not worth the hassle.
As a side note. If you don't want to buy a new computer and aren't that in love with MacOS you could permanently run windows on your MacBook. It will run Windows 10 pretty much as well as any windows laptop. Things to keep in mind -> fn down-arrow key is page down, and fn delete is actually delete it's normally backspace. Also, in the settings you can set it so that the TouchBar or function keys are set to be used as F1, F2, F3 and not the other shit that's the default.
Heard really good things about the ThinkPad. Also seems like a better deal from a value per dollar perspective.
We actually use the X1 Carbon at our shop. I recommend getting a docking station and large screen/dual screens (boosts your productivity as well) as the screen feels really small when you are working on something outside the office.
Overall, it's a great computer and I haven't had any issues with it.
WOW
Get a windows laptop. I had to unlearn a ton of keyboard shortcuts from my Macbook
Ab ut quia aspernatur facilis neque earum. Aut est dolor distinctio quis temporibus quidem.
Enim aliquid et in quos illo quia animi quod. Eum aut similique error. Incidunt et aliquid impedit dignissimos voluptatum.
Et consequatur ratione quo dolorem. Quod repellendus quo dolorem soluta blanditiis natus. Eos quas velit quas animi cupiditate sit.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...