Thanks to TXinMA for the heads up.
Mac Price Comparison Ping!
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Posted on 06/15/2009 11:16:14 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Macs are often criticized for the high price of their hardware. This so-called Apple tax is the premium that Apple computers usually cost over comparably equipped PCs. But since the company dropped prices on its laptop line Monday, that difference is now smaller than ever.
Of course, Mac enthusiasts might even say the Apple tax never existed, since no MacBook Pro competitor has the aluminum unibody construction or multi-touch track pad that the MacBook Pro does.
In any case, I’ve been playing with the numbers, and I’ve noticed something interesting: When the newest 13-inch MacBook Pro is configured with similar features and put head to head with a Dell XPS 1330 (arguably Dell’s most similar computer), the two come within spitting distance in price.
The base price for the 13-inch MacBook Pro is $1199 while the Dell XPS M1330 starts at $749. Using each company’s online configuration tool, I created systems with the following attributes: 13.3-inch LED backlit screen, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard disk, Nvidia GE Force 9400M Graphics Card, 802.11n networking, integrated webcam, backlit keyboard and Bluetooth. The MacBook comes with a 2.26 GHz Intel processor with a 1066 MHz frontside bus, versus 2.4 GHz and 800 MHz, respectively, for the Dell.
The Dell was configured with a 9-cell battery, which should at least approach the 7 hours Apple advertises for its integrated battery. Dell’s computer weighs in at just under 4 pounds with a 6-cell battery and with the 9-cell is likely to be pretty close to the MBP’s 4.5 pounds. Both included a one-year warranty. Including Windows Vista Home Premium, the Dell came out to $1,304 as compared to $1,399 for the Apple. Apple tax: $95.
Apple’s revamped laptop offeringsFor those willing to put a premium on the featherweight computing experience, the new $1,499 base price of the MacBook Air should give you a reason to take a fresh look. Also, it should cause Dell to break a sweat as the competing Adamo now starts at a full $500 more. In its $1,799 configuration, the Air matches the 128GB solid-stage drive of the Adamo and bests its 1.2GHz processor with one that clocks in at 2.13GHz. Both come with 2GB of RAM and no optical drive. The Air weighs one full pound less than the Adamo at 3 lbs.
If you’ve been attracted to OS X and the Apple computer experience, but have been put off by high prices, Apple just extended an olive branch to you.
Thanks to TXinMA for the heads up.
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Nope. Apple prefers to remain profitable. It doesn't compete in loss leaders.
This cute little 13 inch mac book pro is an upgrade from the 13 inch macbook that came out late last year. Added was the
sd card slot and a more powerful hard drive. I have the mackbook. I love it. I would have waited if I had known this upgrade was in the making as I have a 17 inch mac book pro which is just too heavy to use when travelling internationally. I just got a nice big 24 inch iMac..got my final divorce from Microsoft about 2 weeks ago! : )
Exactly! This article fails to mention the software bundled with OS X and the need for AV software on the PC. How much more will it cost to upgrade the Dell to Vista Ultimate? Either way, you still have to run Windows on a PC.
The problem, swordmaker, is that the $1400 mac and the $1300 Dell are not alone in the universe. I can get a perfectly competent Vista laptop for $300 and one that can play games for $700.
Both the mac and the dell are for the price insensitive. There’s nothing wrong with that, but let’s not pretend that the mac is now price competitive because you can buy a Windows laptop for almost as much.
I guess this is supposed to blunt the new microsoft commercials. There’s a reason why HP is the leading PC maker.
When I click on http://www.q-and-a.org/ and try to watch an interview I get only,Safari can’t find the Internet plug-in.Do you have a solution for that? (Foxfire couldn't find a plugin for it, either).The page “Q&A: Larry Arnn” has content of MIME type “audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin”. Because you don’t have a plug-in installed for this MIME type, this content can’t be displayed."
You said — Do you have a solution for that? (Foxfire couldn’t find a plugin for it, either).
—
It looks like a RealPlayer plug-in to me. My RealPlayer plug-in works fine in Safari.
So, I’m guessing that means that you’ve never downloaded and installed RealPlayer. They’ve got a free version and you can indicate that you want the plug-ins installed when you run the installer (if I remember correctly, as it’s been many years since I’ve done an installation of it).
A lot of people in the past have not wanted to deal with RealPlayer, as it was quite buggy for a long while. And I ran into a lot of that. But, they seem to have it, at least, functioning now. So, let’s hope RealPlayer keeps their software working right... LOL...
[... they’ve never been real good at “software”, though...]
Click on "Tools" and then "Add-ons". There is a Real Player add-on that allowed the video to work for me in FF 3.0.7
I am not using Safari, btw.
where do I go to get this battery that lasts 7 hours?
Love my Macbook!
I get mine from Jack Bauer.
The real Microsoft Tax referred to when Microsoft wouldn't let an OEM sell Windows unless everything they shipped had a paid-for Windows license with it, even if they shipped the system with a different OS. You bought a copy of Windows even if you bought an IBM machine with OS/2 on it. This was part of Microsoft's illegal anti-competitive practice to exclude the competition from the marketplace.
"Of course, Mac enthusiasts might even say the Apple tax never existed, since no MacBook Pro competitor has the aluminum unibody construction or multi-touch track pad that the MacBook Pro does."
~~~~~~~
The convenience afforded by the multi-touch keypad alone, is worth far more than $95, IMHO...
After using mine for only a short while, I find that my other laptops (Mac and Dell) are unbelievably primitive to use.
Example: To get the two quoted passages used in this comment -- I jumped from the FR editing page back to the article by putting down three fingers and "swiping" leftward. When I had copied the passages, I returned to this FR editing form by simply touching the keypad with three fingers and "swiping" to the right... No more "back/forward" buttons needed!
And you will get what you paid for, cheap and/or low-power, small screen computers. Both the Mac and Dell in this are price competitive for what they deliver. Remember, price competitive is based on what you get for your money, otherwise it's like saying a Mercedes is not "price competitive" with a Scion. Of course not, they're competing in different markets segments, each being price-competitive with other cars in its own market segment.
Both the mac and the dell are for the price insensitive.
No such thing in this market. Besides, this is only mid-range. You can configure Mac laptops, and probably Dells too, for over three times this price.
Re: where to find this seven hour battery?
You buy a Macbook Pro. It’s inside, built in. Anandtech timed his new 13” at just a few minutes under seven hours using his stress test.
And there is a reason HP is selling “cheap” computers... and the reason there are so many HP refurbs in the channel - Sometimes you get what you pay for. IN computers, when buying commercially made, this is very much true. A computers is only as good as the components that go in. Even though Apple uses “commodity” parts for nearly everything now, they still have rigorous standards above most of the industry.
There is no comparison between a junk $500 laptop and either the Apple or Dell.
The Dell and the Apple are designed for everyday use, while the cheap laptop will quickly break if it is used for heavy, daily business use. The cheap laptop won’t have a metal frame, fast hard drive, sufficient, fast RAM, LED backlit screen, accurate color gamut or just the same quality motherboard.
Even the compared Dell laptop used an 800MHz Front Side Bus with DDR2 RAM compared to the MacBook's 1066Mhz FSB and DDR3 RAM... which are not only much faster and better, but also more expensive. The Dell tries to compensate by having a faster processor, but it is a higher wattage than the Macs processor which is lower wattage but more expensive.
Well, I can get a 32 GB iPhone for that $300, which also plays games and might just surf the web better than your $300 Vista laptop.
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