Opinions on new laptop (PC or Mac)

I'm not sure if this would be the right place to ask this, but I thought this might be a good place to get some opinions.

I currently have a 6 year old MBP 15" - 32 bit only I believe; I've upgraded it early this year so I can use it longer (memory and 750GB hybrid drive). It's running Snow Leopard and probably too old to upgrade any further. I use it for everything, from Lightroom, e-mail, spreadsheets, remoting into the office and recently importing videos from DV camera. One thing I notice and not sure what's causing it (too old?) when I watch HD videos via Quicktime captured from SLR, the video pauses several times. I'm not sure if it does this with all video formats.
I also have a PC laptop, but due to it's small screen size, I can't use this for photos, sometimes I don't even use it for remoting into work because of it's small screen size. Although I recently upgraded this to Windows 7 from XP and was pleasantly surprised how nicely Windows 7 works. I felt it was much improved from Windows XP. Even the installation process was pleasant.

So if i get a new device, whatever it is, I'll proably get rid of the PC laptop and maybe keep the old MBP for kids to use. My dilemma is, which laptop to get. I definately feel more comfortable using Excel in a PC environment, I've used the Mac version but it just doesn't feel the same. Tool bars all disconnected, and I don't know the keystrokes I'm used to on a PC. I thought maybe bootcamp (or other Windows virtualization software) would work, but than I'd still be limited to the Apple keyboard and who wants to boot up another OS just to use Excel.

Some of the items on my "Pro's" list in favor of PC are:
Price, familiarity with Excel shortcuts, familiarity with Windows in general, availability of software

Pro's for Apple are:
Build quality, support, design, software (Mail program, address book, iMovies), time capsure, imessage, lack of viruses.

By the way, the laptop i was looking into was the HP ENVY 15t-3200, priced out about $1250 for 3rd gen i7 2.3Ghz, 8gb ramm, 750gb hybrid drive, 1920x1080 display, DVD-RW .

Sorry for rambling on, your opinions are appreciated!

gizmo17 wrote in post #14926381
One thing I notice and not sure what's causing it (too old?) when I watch HD videos via Quicktime captured from SLR, the video pauses several times. I'm not sure if it does this with all video formats.

Try using VLC for playback because it uses ffmpeg for decoding h.264 video, which is more efficient than is Quicktime.

And Aperture and Pixelmator if you want to use those. They are much faster than Lightroom or Photoshop.

Mac vs PC is personal choice. If build quality's an issue, look at Lenovo, they're built like tanks. You generally get more machine for your money with a PC, with apple you probably get more reliability, even if just because one company controls the OS, drivers, etc.

If you can consider a PC desktop you'll get a lot more for your money than a mac laptop.

Tony-S wrote in post #14926879
Try using VLC for playback because it uses ffmpeg for decoding h.264 video, which is more efficient than is Quicktime.

And Aperture and Pixelmator if you want to use those. They are much faster than Lightroom or Photoshop.

Thanks, I'll give VLC a try later.
Question about moving to Aperture, all the images I've cropped, adjusted etc. Those cahnges would be lost unless I publish it and save it correct? There were some features in Aperture I liked, I ended up choosing Lightroom because it's PC compatible.

tim wrote in post #14927276
Mac vs PC is personal choice. If build quality's an issue, look at Lenovo, they're built like tanks. You generally get more machine for your money with a PC, with apple you probably get more reliability, even if just because one company controls the OS, drivers, etc.

If you can consider a PC desktop you'll get a lot more for your money than a mac laptop.

Yeah, I realize it's a personal choice, maybe hoping someone here uses it similar to how I would and have another reason to choose one ovet he other that I may have missed.
I just took a walk to Best Buy, while the desktops are reasonable and gorgeous, not sure how practical that would be for me. I like to be able to access my photos anywhere. 27" iMac is so nice!

Your computer usage is pretty typical. Either will work fine for what you want to do. Mac people will push macs, PC people will push PCs. I say get the cheapest thing that will do the job well, when can be a PC, unless you value the way Macs work enough to pay for it.

Let the apps drive the OS choice. And the OS choice will dictate the hardware candidates. You can get the main photography apps like LR, PSE, PS CS6 and most plugins for both Mac and Windows. The Mac-only apps that come to mind are iPhoto and Aperture. So are those important to you? If so, get a Mac. Mac may be the best choice if you use iPhone and iPad and want similar apps on all platforms and close data integration via iCloud.

you can always just buy a macbook pro and run parallels on it so you can have best of both wolds. Use the mac to edit images and using windows within parallels to run excel, etc.

Basically, it's like Nikon vs Canon.
They both takes great photos, both have all the features you needed for your photography needs.

Both PC and Mac runs the softwares you needed.
Sure, you could get a cheap PC to run your everyday apps, but you get what you pay for.
You could get a macbookk pro, but only run half ass compare to a more expensive pc.

So do your homework and choose wisely.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I ended up ordering a Lenovo, fully loaded i7, 3rd gen with blu-ray for $850 after rebate. So yes, while price is a factor, the most important applications to me are Excel (which I prefer the PC version much more), and Adobe Lightroom. I'd like to learn Photoshop eventually. I do use an iPad and iPhone and love the Apple services. Maybe an iMac later on down the road.

imac will work as well. congrats on the new laptop.

I'm debating this same issue right now. I want something sub $1000 that I can use to edit with.

I was debating for weeks, I have a Mac now and a PC and love certain features on both. I guess it comes down to what you plan to do the most with, for me, being a Finance person, Excel is one of the main functions. I'm not sure I can get used to Excel on a Mac, or even tempting into the office, I'm not sure if the function keys would work the same way.
Cost is a factor too, I love the way Macs are built, like a tank made to last. I'm pretty careful with my gadgets, I still have a 7-8 year old Dell 700m that's in very good shape. Deal sites are littered with PC deals, hopefully the Lenovo I ordered is reliable, I've read some not so flattering comments about their service. In addition to the specs I listed above, it has high def screen 1900x1080, 8GB, lit up keyboard, and a blu-ray burner.
Thanks

My Mums Lenovo was DOA, but it was a trivial fault that was fixed in 5 days, from memory.