Last week Peter Bright at Ars Technica wrote a very interesting article about trying to find his ideal laptop. His goal is to find “a 13″ MacBook Air that isn’t made by Apple” – sounds relatively simple. What he’s asking for is something that a lot of people want, but none of the major PC manufacturers are able to pull it off.
The key thing here is that since the unibody MacBook, Apple make the best PCs. This is why a couple of years ago I bought myself a MacBook to run Windows.
Sure running Windows on a MacBook is a little ‘quirky’ but Apple make what I think is the best PC hardware, and I live in a Windows world – this was the best option for me. However I’m not so sure that this will be the best option when I eventually replace this machine for something better.
I’d like to see an ultrabook* like the MacBook Air which embraces Windows 8 features like touch screen and Wacom pen input – stuff that Apple simply doesn’t have on their MacBook line, and maybe never will.
Hopefully Peter and I will get our ideal laptops sooner rather than later, but for now I’ll be rocking Windows 8 on my MacBook.
* For now I think I’ll be sticking to Intel rather than ARM.
I agree fullheartedly with your desire to find an ultrabook with Wacom support. According to Intel this is predicted to hit the markets late 2012. I can’t wait to get one.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/intel-promises-ultrabooks-will-become-tablet-pcs/4309
However i think your reason for buying a Macbook is very unjustified. You obviously haven’t considered many other Windows models since buying an Apple product is so effortless. What about the Sony Z series, Thinkpad X1 or Samsung series 9? All of these manufacturers (incl. Apple) use pretty much the same hardware in their computers, so how can one be better than the other?
I mostly didn’t consider them because they didn’t exist when I purchased my MacBook in 2008, and while they may have the same components – they are not manufactured in the same way. Which is the deciding factor in my case. Horrible trackpads and keyboards are things I’d like to avoid. This may not be a good enough justification for yourself, but it’s good enough for me. :)
I enjoy Samsung products, so I’ll be keeping my eye on them in the future!