Why is a Macbook pro superior to a Dell?
 

I already have a Dell Latitude D610 from work and am considering getting another laptop for my GF. She's a teacher so she can get a macbook pro for 2000$CDN.

I can get a Dell of approximately equal specs for 1200$. Also the 3 year onsite support with dell is only 300$ more. It would be 400$ for the macbook and not onsite.

but...

The Dell I have is ridiculously bad when it comes to audio. I can hear all kind of electronic(fan,hd?) noise in my headphones. And the illuminated keyboard on the macbook looks like a really useful feature to me.

Plus the Mac is a lot more stylish and I prefer OS X to XP. Never tried Vista yet.

So guys.. tell me why I should get the computer that's more expensive?

You already named a few of the reasons.

1. Mac is more stylish.
2. You PREFER OS X over Windows.
3. You like the illuminated keyboard.

From my experience, I would suggest going the Mac route over Vista. I am a long time windows user and after getting Vista I was really terribly disappointed. For the cost of the OS and the time that we waited to get it, it is not all that great. Mac's on the otherhand have a whole slew of perks and reasons to be the better choice as a lot of people on this forum will point out.

I think overall experience as I have seen from others is that when you switch, everything just seems right, even if the switch is not necessarily easy (i.e. Windows to Mac learning curve).

AG

Because...

Decide which OS you want first, then compare hardware. Hardware comparisons in and of themselves only work with PC-PC or Mac-Mac comparisons. A computer is a package deal with hardware, software, and overall user experience.

Carl.

well the dell and the mac are two different things completely. You wouldn't walk into a Porsche Dealership and ask to pay Ford prices for something similar. Apple doesn't make low end stuff.

As far as better or superior...well I do think Apple make really good laptops, but at the same time I would see what the user (your girlfriend) prefers. It all depends on what they want to use it for and how they use it. If she would be more productive in windows then get her a dell, if she wants a mac get her a mac.

That's my point. I know what makes a Porsches superior to a Ford. But I feel like I don't know everything about Macbooks and can't find anything specific on the websites. Which is why I ask here where people probably own macbooks.

For the record I have always had intel/amd computers. dos,windows,os2 and linux. I just got a mac mini a few months ago. It was more expensive than a shuttle PC but I really like how it's silent(hardware) and front row(software).

My GF uses firefox and Neooffice already. So any OS is equally good to her.

As the others have stated, the OS is the really the most important thing to consider when choosing a platform. People stick with Macs BECAUSE of the OS, not because they are stylish, have a built-in webcam or illuminated keyboard.

Another benefit is that you CAN run XP or Vista on a Mac in various ways if you so choose.

PS: What are the specs of this Dell Latitude 610? Apple's prices are not only competitive with Dell's but often a little lower. Discounts not withstanding.

The 610 is an old computer. I was comparing a new Dell with a new Macbook pro using same or similar cpu,memory,disk,screen,gpu

With only the camera and lighted keyboard missing I can get a dell for less than 1500$. The macbook pro would be 2200$ but my GF gets a teacher rebate so it's 2000$ for her.

well all i got to say is, I love my macbook pro. it rules.

what I don't like about it...

1) Needs more usb ports, it ony has two

2) I am not too fond of their touch pads, but I use a usb mouse anyways

3) There needs to be some sort of standard keyboard cover to protect the screen when closed.

Those are non factors to me, and don't really effect how I use the machine. I use it for work and I have 4 OSes on it with 2 gigs of ram. I have the 2.16 C2D version and I love it.

Build quality isn't something that computer manufacturers tout. Maybe because a cheap Dell has the same chance at lasting as long as a sleek Mac.

Apple has been catering to fanatical users for quite some time. Much thought goes into all aspects of their products, even the packaging is designed well. I have to admit that a small portion of the price is for the status of having the coolest computer. Their products in the past were very expensive relative to a Taiwanese PC, and the iPod is still overpriced IMO. White headphones and titanium laptops look cool...Apple would be dumb not to cash in on that.

also, i did not pay for my macbook, my work bought it for me, so yeah if I had to buy one myself out of my own pocket I probably wouldn't because I could just run linux on a laptop for much cheaper....

Or unless I got a higher paying job. Though on a side note I just read somewhere that I live in one of the lowest places to live for my field. I need to move out to the west coast because it seems the job market there is like 100x better for IT.

Another thing to consider are the bugs in vista and windows as a whole, not to mention the millions of viruses. + for a girl an apple product is a something she can show off to her friends :d

Ya women see it as a fashion accessory, I will never get that. How is a computer cute? LOL I have heard that from many women.

Well, I'm a man, and ain't no one gonna tell me my little 12"PB isn't cyuuute! ;)

As far as Dell v. Mac, I think we have a lot of good reasons listed already, let's see if I can scrounge up a couple more though.

1)Mac's often feel lighter (and are usually), and are often the least unweildly lap top

2)Mac's have a great open source community, and far more specialized app's then I've ever seen on PC (though it could be naivety). Example, I have a program called Scrivener, for $35 it will do all I need a word processor to do. It is specialized for research papers and fiction writing, I love the program to death. It's one example of the many small developer, specific purpose programs Mac's have. (If anyone else has more examples of this, please chime in).

3) Networking. Mac to Mac networking is the easiest thing ever (in my opinion).

Okay, I think I added three more to the pile, good luck with your decision.

You shouldn't. You should get the Mac because it's far less costly. The cost of the box may be a little more or a little less, but that's trivial. Add the cost of AV software (unnecessary for Macs), registry bloat, down time due to the problems related to both, then consider that Mac users are happier with their systems and therefore more efficient. Next, calculate the cost savings due to a longer useful life: there are many very old (more than 5 years) Macs running Tiger and they actually run faster than they did with their original OS, and the PC is far more expensive.

In the days after the Intel switch, it wasn't uncommon to see people posting that the perceived higher price for a Mac was a myth now that direct comparisons were possible (at least for hardware), and showing (with side by side spec listings) that the Mac often cost less than a Dell with similar specs.

But in this thread, it looks like most people are conceding or even taking it as a given that Macs are more expensive - $2200 vs $1200 is a pretty big price difference to justify on the basis of stylishness.

It has only been a year since the switch - so what happened in the interim so that a Mac now costs >80% more for the same specs? Did Dell drop their prices or something? Or is the Mac lineup overdue for a serious refresh at the various price points?

I'm not in the market for a portable or anything - I'm just curious.

To be fair the Dell was lacking a camera and an illuminated keyboard but that's worth 200$ tops. Also audio is probably better on the Mac. The Dell is so bad that I actually use my ipod right next to the laptop to listen to music without background noises. That's probably worth another 100-200$.

And OS X is worth how much more than Windows? For me, that number would have to be in the thousands of dollars, but I cringe at the thought of spending money on the electricty to run a PC that I got for free — and that I consider to be the most costly computer I have ever owned.

Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. If you like working on your computer instead of with it, you may be happy with a PC, but I think that hassle free computing is worth something.

My G4 was made back in early 2001. That's 6+ years, and it's still running OS 10.4 fine. When I made the jump from OS 9 to 10.2, there was a tiny slowdown (I only had something like 256 MB RAM back then), but then 10.2.8 came out and fixed a huge amount of bugs, and added a new video card driver (better OpenGL support!) that sped it up alot.

I'm an amateur DJ/music enthusiast, and can definitely tell the difference in audio quality. The audio quality is alot better on my G4 than on an HP made in the same year. The HP makes this slight static-iy hum in the background, especially noticeable when muted, where the G4 has no noise at all!

You could purchase a decent sound card, but that would add even more to the cost of the PC.

Illuminated keyboard...??? on a Macbook...? Am I missing something?

I think we are talking about the Macbook Pros here TMP. I had to look it up too. The Pro version includes this feature along with a ambient light sensor technology that adjusts the screen brightness and keyboard brightness based on the light level.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html

Here are the full specs.

AG

built in bluetooth 2.0? Gigabit ethernet? Built in A/B/G wireless? Built in FireWire 800? Most PCs probably don't have that standard. Well, maybe the gigabit ethernet, that is pretty much standard these days.

Don't forget that they also allow you to open up N wireless built in as well.

AG

When you fix a Mac, it *stays* fixed.

:D

I could argue that is not always the case......but in my experience getting apple replacement parts is very quick, so repair time is typically quick.

Having to support lots of machines from lots of brands and lots of price ranges...I've learned first-hand that the Apple machines are better quality than most except the high-end business-class machines. And then the price is the same. You can't compare a Dell in just raw quality to the MBP. There's no spec to account for this. Go compare a Kia to a Honda, and see if the specs are the same (they are), yet we KNOW which one is better quality, right?

Then there's the matter of support--Dell sucks.

I think you need to look more closely at the specs. I know when I looked at the Dell web site a while back it wasn't totally clear that the processor that came by default wasn't the latest one from Intel.
Most people who have done careful inspection of what you are getting seem to agree that the MacBook Pros are only slightly more expensive than comparable Dell's. And the MacBooks (non-Pro) are cheaper than comparable Dell's. Of course you need to add in all the things that come with the Apple machines - some of which you might not actually need.

You are totally right. I has built my Dell using a core duo processor and apparently core 2 duo is a lot more expensive than core duo. What a stupid marketing idea to have something called "duo" and then something else called "2 duo".

This way the price difference is only a few hundreds and that's easily covered by the additionnal features of the Mac such as keyboard,camera and bluetooth.

The Dell is nice because you can configure it in a lot more different ways but if the Apple specs fit you then it's a really good deal.

Now the only thing remaining is the fear that 1 week after I buy the macbook pro they'll release a new version of the pro or the rumored subnotebook that should fit between the macbook and macbook pro in the lineup.

I currently own a couple Macs and an HP laptop - which spends 3 weeks per month in their repair lab - hence the controversial "macs stay fixed statement" :D

I've found that the total cost of ownership of macs is much lower than that of PCs.

I usually spend 1 hour / month doing preventive maintenance on each mac. That is 12 hours / year / machine. The PC requires at least 2 hours / week - just to run a virus scan - plus 1 hour / month to defrag the hard disk. That's over 100 hours / year!

Since I do this in my *free* time (Saturday morning...), I have to give up on some recreation time.

Can you put a price on free time? $10/hour? $50? $100?

I had this same fear as I am about to buy myself a new MBP as well and so I asked a question that reflects your worries. Photek said it best though.

When I am ready to buy and I can find no evidence of an announcement for a newline within the week, I am going to buy. When I do even if there is a suprise announcement, I will know that with Apple it really doesn't matter since I have read stories about people with 6 year old Macs that run the current OS and survive just fine.

So my advice. Just don't worry about it. If you buy a MBP and three days later they release a new one. Take it back and buy the new one, otherwise know that your model is going to be just as reliable and long lived as that new model that just came out.

AG

Reliability is very high typically on a Mac, but in my experience (been supporting macs since about 1999) there have been several models of Macs that are just problem childs. I will say a Mac is kind of like a BMW. In the sense that when it runs, it runs well, but if you need it serviced it will cost you an arm and a leg.

However, that is not really my main point here about using or owning a Mac. What really matters is how productive you are with it, and what you use it for. If Time = Money, and you are more productive on a Mac platform computer, then using a Mac = making more money (I think that is transitive theorem hahaha). Therefore the initial cost of a Mac is kind of a moot point.

Now the real problem is, what if you do not need all the bells and whistles of a Macbook or Macbook Pro, well you are out of luck there. I do wish Apple had more customizable options. I would easily drop FW 2 for several more USB ports if I could because I do not use FW2 at all. There is no middle of the line with apple, there is basic or their entry level, and then there is their high end. Which is one reason I will probably never go out and buy an Apple desktop, I will however (if I can always afford to) never buy a PC laptop again because the Apple ones are for lack of a better term, "kick ass!"

Intel made a strong marketing push to get Core Duo replaced with Core 2 Duo. To do this, they made the prices prices identical to the previous generation chip. I think, but can't be certain without research, that that there was even a .16GHz clock speed increase between the CD and C2D for the same price.

Now, if Dell was selling you older Core Duo chips when Core 2 Duo was readily available, this would create a cheaper machine.

But i digress, try building a Latitude 620--the 610 isn't available anymore-with identical parts to the MBP you are looking at and you'll clearly see that Apple has the upper hand in price and is clearly the value.

I speak as I find.

I have a Dell laptop, in fact personally I have two, my son also has a Dell, desk based model. I bought one 4 years ago (with 3yrs next day on site warranty) for my business, then 3 years ago I bought a new one - Dell D820 Latitude - and it is awesome I must admit. It has superb on-board graphics at 1600*1200 built in - the display is brilliant. I used the warranty on my previous Dell in the 35th month - it is still working like a workhorse now. I use my new one regularly.

I decided I wanted a new toy a few weeks ago after working on some songs with a mate who brought his Macbook over to connect Reason to my synth/mixer setup. I have Reason, but on my Dell. To say the least, I was very impressed with his Macbook - so impressed that selfishly I said... "I want one of those" - hey presto!! I now have one...:)

I have had brilliant experience with Dells, and so far I absolutely lurve my Macbook too.

How's that for an impartial viewpoint.

PS: posting this on my Mac though ;) hehehehe

I'll never understand why people just look at the cost of the box.

I had a co-worker over yesterday who needed a spreadsheet from my computer, but didn't have any Office-like applications on her Dell. I set her up on my network and downloaded Open Office, then gave her the spreadsheet she needed. What struck me is that she kept commenting on how I was able to do things "so quickly" with her computer. I was surprised because the entire time I felt like I was wading through a vat of molasses! Virtually every little thing seemed to take two or three more steps on the PC than when I did them on my Mac. Sure, I could do them faster than she could, but there's no way I could ever do them as fast as I could on a Mac. If time is money, then a free Windows PC is far too expensive.

I recently spent some phone time with my brother when he wanted to set up a new disk drive on his Dell to have a particular alphabetic designation required by some software he was using -- much digging down through panes with names that didn't make sense to him to get there, delete an obsolete stored assignment and point to his new drive instead. On a Mac that's not necessary. Plug in a new drive and bingo, it's there. Just one example of why I'd go for the Mac.

lol, similiar story:

I remember when I first met my girlfriend, she was really anti mac/apple, most people who have never used a mac are. She did not like my G5, the OS or one button mouse (understandable). Now after 3 yrs of using it, she loves it! Actually, a few weeks ago, she was helping her sister install a downloaded program on her Dell notebook and she was getting pretty frustrated....I was in the next room and I over heard her say "ug, this is why I like Macs".

;)

I hope that happens with me too. I instantly loved my mac mini and os x. But I really really hate the one button mouse(not really one button since there's the small thing that brings up the dashboard) and having the top menu bar on top of the screen instead of on top of the window.

Do the new Macs come with a single button mouse or the mighty mouse? If they come with the mighty mouse, you can set that up as a two button mouse in mouse preferences in the System Preferences. the cable on my G5's single button mouse broke just after the warranty expired, so I grabbed a cheap Radio Shack two button mouse. I've actually come to like it, but I still think that two buttons confuse novice users.

Without wishing to divert the thread, I actually find that sensor a Royal Pain. I find it unreliable and inaccurate, particularly in lowlight conditions. Low light: Keyboard lights up....hand hangs over the left side of the kb/mic and the kb dims! I have had this on every model since the feature was introduced.

G.

Keyboard light sensor
 

Since I installed Lab Tick to crol keyboard light it works better. Keys hard to see in low light environment. Now it is much better.

Just d/l Lab Tick and it's very useful. Thanks for the pointer.
G.