If you're deciding which laptop is better based on power alone, the MBP is the clear winner.
MACBOOK PRO DIMENSIONS FOR PHOTOSHOP SOFTWARE
Once I figured this out I felt better because I knew that Apple didn't have some magic software that could make its hardware twice as fast but I also felt worse because the MacBook Pro was actually $200 cheaper and it was still twice as fast as the Surface Book. This explained why the Apple was twice as fast, it has a processor that is literally twice as fast. Later that night one of our writers pointed out that although both processors are Intel i7 chips, the Apple chip is a quad core while the Microsoft chip is only a dual core. As one of the last photographers I know using Windows, I left defeated that night. In Premiere, the MBP was able to render 4k footage with up to 4 effects on the fly while the Surface Book couldn't even play 4k footage smoothly at 1/8 resolution. In Photoshop and Lightroom, the MacBook Pro was able to burn through jpeg and raw files at twice the speed of the Surface Book. The tests did not go well for the Surface Book. I got back to the studio and started filming speed tests in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere. Before I swiped my credit card I showed the Apple employee the exact specs of the Surface Book and asked if the processors were comparable, he said they were, but we both ended up being wrong. The price was $2500, $200 cheaper than the Surface Book but it was close.
Luckily I found a 15 inch MBP that appeared to have almost identical specs 512 SSD, 2.5GHz i7, and 16GB RAM. Every 13 inch MacBook Pro had an i5 processor and was significantly cheaper than my $2700 Surface Book. I went in the Apple store and started looking at 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pros. I then looked up the actual value of this laptop on Microsoft's website $2700, wow. I hurried over to pick it up and then I immediately went to the Apple Store in town to buy (what I thought was) as comparable MacBook Pro.īefore entering the Apple store I opened up the Surface Book and checked the specs 512GB SSD Intel i7 2.6GHz, 16GB of RAM. On Monday I got an email from Microsoft telling me that a $2700 Surface Book was waiting for me at my local FedEx.