W530 vs. MacBook Pro (non-Retina) purchase conundrum...

Question

Hi,
for 3D modeling (Alias Autostudio 2013) and 3D rendering (Next Limit Maxwell Render 2.7.1) and Photography (Photoshop CS6, etc.) I looked at the newish Lenovo W530 compared to three other contenders. I configured them all with the same processor and standard HDD to compare. For colour calibration, I have a professional EyeOne solution so the W530's option is not needed. I am using external Monitors when not on the road. All prices were found in the companies' online stores.
My reasoning so far - only the Dell and HP feature an IPS/H-IPS display panel. The Dell is bulky. The HP too costly in comparison. The MacBook Pro has all parts glued in. The W530 has a bad keyboard and is bulky. I liked the fact that (as explained in another thread) it is very easy and affordable to put a Samsung 830 SSD in the W530 and that some parts can be serviced/upgraded with reasonable effort a couple of years down the road).
Looking at the price/performance of all four, I suddenly find the non-Retina MBP a serious option for a Windows machine with the added benefit of slimness. What is the consensus in this forum?
Thanks for any input!
Apple MacBook Pro (non-Regina version because of Windows 7 and 8 lacking support with pixel scaling)
i7-3720QM quad-core 2,6 GHz 6 MB L3 cache
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
750 GB SATA 6 GB/s 7200 RPM
1680 x 1050 NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB GDDR5
2,6kg
2.379,00 €
Dell Precision M4700
i7-3720QM quad-core 2,6 GHz 6 MB L3 cache
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
750 GB SATA 6 GB/s 7200 RPM
1920 x 1080 AMD FirePro M4000 Mobility Pro 1 GB GDDR5
2,8kg
2.482,00 €
Lenovo ThinkPad W530
i7-3720QM quad-core 2,6 GHz 6 MB L3 cache
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500 GB SATA 6 GB/s 7200 RPM
1920 x 1080 NVIDIA Quadro K2000M 2 GB GDDR3
2,7kg
2.151,42 €
HP Elitebook 8560w
i7-3720QM quad-core 2,5 GHz 8 MB L3 cache
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
750 GB SATA 3 GB/s 7200 RPM
1920 x 1080 NVIDIA Quadro 2000M 2 GB GDDR3
3,1kg
2.840,53 €

Answer 1

I think I can give some good input here, on the W530 at least.
Firstly, I'm using a W520 for exactly your purposes--3D modeling (Solidworks, Autodesk products, etc.), engineering simulation/analysis, and extensive photography and photo editing, and it is GREAT. Of course, all other brands of laptops with similar system specs should perform about as well, but the size/weight of the Lenovo is unmatched by any of the other laptop PCs I have used. I use a Dell M4600 at work, and it's a decent laptop, but it feels very heavy and bulky compared to my W520. Performance-wise, the two are spec'd identically, and performance is nearly identical, except my W520 gets noticeably better battery life for some reason.
I can't vouch for the IPS displays of the Dell or HP, but I will definitely caution you of this: pay attention to the color gamut! This matters so much and it's one of those numbers that most consumers never bother to care about because they don't know what it means. The larger the color gamut of a display, the more colors it's capable of displaying.
Even the Macbook Retina display only has an sRGB color gamut. That means it's only capable of displaying the colors within the sRGB color space and that's it. Sure, the IPS screen has nice contrast and good viewing angles, but you're missing out on a lot of colors that the Lenovo FHD display gives you, assuming it's calibrated properly.
Now, keep in mind, ALL digital SLR cameras are capable of recording color well beyond the sRGB color space. Looking at photos on a calibrated sRGB display vs. a calibrated AdobeRGB display makes an enormous difference.
Have a look at this graphic I made for you: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0h7vad4x8gi81j6/kbB13_927X#f:gamuts.png  The top plot shows you the AdobeRGB color space (wireframe) vs. the Lenovo FHD calibrated display color gamut. You can see that the Lenovo color gamut comes very very close to filling out the entirety of the AdobeRGB color space.
The image below that is the sRGB color space (solid) vs. AdobeRGB (wireframe). See how many fewer color values that represents? That's what you're getting with the vast majority of laptop displays. In fact, most typical laptop displays are only capable of 60-70% of sRGB. That's, frankly, terrible.
Now, beyond that, I will admit the MBP is very slim, and sleek. But, you can't upgrade anything in it, and the keyboard sucks compared to the W530. My girlfriend has a W530 and, much as I hate to admit it, the keyboard is nowhere near as bad as we all feared compared to my W520. In typing feel, it is just as good, the key caps are actually a little bit larger (so more finger space), and the new layout is really only going to bother you if you're very accustomed to a clustered del/home/end/pgup/pgdown group. I still prefer my W520 keyboard, but the W530 keyboard is very nice.
If you do go for the Lenovo, definitely don't waste your money on the built-in color sensor. It's horrible. Your external calibrator will give you much better results. I don't know which EyeOne device you're using, but make sure it's capable of working with wide-gamut displays. If it's not, I'd recommend either a Spyder3 or Spyder4 sensor. You can get the cheapest versions of these for ~70 dollars and then use dispCalGUI (freeware) to get VERY good profiling results.
Josh