What software do you use? Are you married to the Apple infrastructure? Are you willing to go through a bit of a learning curve to learn Windows over MAC? Do you depend on software that will only run on Apple computers? If you just want to keep using what you are familiar with, go MAC. I'm not a fan of apple, but I am a fan of people getting value out of their gear. Apple stuff seems solid, if a bit pricey for what it is, but I'm not one of those people who say "ewww MAC" when asked about them. IF you are adventurous, here is what you can do! Get this: https://amzn.com/B0150PJR3K Note: I have that laptop, it goes out into the field with me, I abuse it, it runs FPS games at 60FPS, I do video editing and image stacking on the thing, it runs wonderfully. You can get SSD's bigger hard drives etc if you want to spend more, but that video card in that system is fine for everything except the ultra settings. It has 16GB RAM which is more than 99% of people will ever need and it has a 1TB hard drive. Now, get a keyboard, mouse, a monitor, and you now have a desktop station. Get a port replicator and all you need is one cable to the laptop's USB3 port. These peripherals will run you $400-$500 leaving you $500 for other stuff like a good laptop carrying case/backpack, external hard drive etc. And if you have a laptop, you need an external hard drive you keep at homebase to save all your data, or pay for cloud storage. Since you are so mobile, I'd stick with a laptop, and stick with at 15" class screen. Plug in a bigger monitor at home if you want a bigger screen to watch movies etc. A Macbook will do all this but you pay extra for it. If you have questions, let me know.
Not married to apple but I want an 13 inch. Preferably metal casing. Don't really care about retina display/touchscreens/force touch track pads. I use fcpx right now, but only because I have 4gb of ram and can't install premiere pro. I think all software I want will work fine on windows and I'm fine with a learning curve. I also run illustrator, and want to get some color grading too. It's just that so far I didn't find anything significantly lower in price for the same specs (but I haven't looked very far because I really don't know pcs ) fyi, the prices in my post are in cad. Didn't think about exchange price difference when I wrote this.
OK, assuming that this is the Macbook Pro in Question: https://amzn.com/B00UGBWR0E Those specs are really, really, really low for that price point (granted all this is in Freedom Dollars, but the comparison in pricing should be the same CAD). I've looked through the 13" class and can offer some "Stay aways" for you first. Dell stuff that is not Dell Business is not good. The gear may be fine, but the support is terrible, and as you use your laptop as a very mobile and travel demanding device I am going to assume that you will need a support call. Don't buy anything Alienware. They are heavily marked-up home gear with "Gaming" slapped on them and a fancy plastic case. Lenovo is still good stuff but only the Business class hardware. It is boring, not the best specs, but build like a tank. IMO, you can do better for the price. https://amzn.com/B0184H94PM That is an ASUS Zenbook. Disclaimer, I used to work there and still have friends who do. The case is metal, it is 1.5Kg, has a 1TB SSD hard drive (that is good!) a processor that blows the hell out of that Macbook, 12GB of RAM that is upgrade-able to 20GB, a decent warranty and is only $200 US more than the Apple product. This ASUS will do everything you want, will edit video, will run Photoshop LightRoom etc. It meets Adobe specs (I checked). The other benefit is that these are popular and have sold tons, so there is aftermarket stuff for them such as cases, etc. It also has a dedicated GPU for hardware accelerated video playback (think BluRay). So for a bit more money you get something that is two generation newer than the Macbook. Looking at the other offerings in the 13" class, the other options are not as good. Viao has some near stuff, but they are pricey and lower specs than the Zen Books. I don't know enough about Toshiba any more to say yes or no, but they look average? The Toshiba Ultrabooks look like Macbooks with plastic not metal and better innards. Fujitsu stuff is what the MD's I work with have, and it is nice stuff, but you pay extra for it. And I don't like the Fujitsu keyboards; they are small and I have massive hands that don't fit on them well. So here is my take away. Go to a store and look at a Zen Book. Type on it and see if you like it. Then go that way for a laptop. This leaves you extra for an external drive at the minimum. The Zenbooks are in Bestbuy, but the ones they sell are the 512GB hard drives, not the larger ones you get online. Otherwise, go there an see if you like the display, the feel of the keyboard, the weight. Don't bother with the Flip versions unless you are willing to be married to touchscreens. They don't look like they will last long with a road warrior. Hope that helps.
humm you're not the first one to recommend the Zenbook! (ping cgod) Must be a great machine! On your links, it's only 20$ extra and so muuuch more specs! I actually can't find the 1tb model anywhere on canadian amazon or bestbuy but this: https://www.amazon.ca/ZenBook-UX303UB-13-3-Inch-Touchscreen-Discrete/dp/B014VHVZFQ for 1600$ is hella better than this https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00UGBTQ7Q for 1800. It's cheaper AND better! This is exactly why I posted on Hubski for, I think I know what i need now :) Thanks man! I think I changed my mind 5 times during this thread but now that I see the comparable apple is 600$ more, I know what to go with. I'm just a noob in the pc world and didn't know where to look. I think you just saved me at least 600$! Goddamn canadian dollar made it a bit harder to figure out ;)