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Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
This thread is getting ridiculous. We've got trolls insisting that the 'cult' of Mac is wobbling, oh, impending doom! Apple sucks! Every computer is created equal! And we've got people who deliberately wade out into the water and feeds the dim-witted, conclusion-jumping sharks.

Stop arguing. Apple's not going anywhere. You get what you pay for: Build quality, stability, tech support. That's it.
 

coleridge78

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2007
634
0
Maybe but for $1300 you can get pretty damn good stuff. Actually the only thing my MBP had over a $1300 Dell XPS 15.4" that I saw exactly 2 weeks after I got my MBP was weight. The $1300 XPS deal trounced my MBP by far. 2.53ghz, 320gb drive, 4gb ram, etc etc. I paid for my 4GB ram upgrade last year (I got the early '08 MBP) and the default was the 2.4ghz etc etc.

Look, the battery for the Apple laptop is great because of lithium polymer. Once again, you're comparing Apple's battery lifetime under OS X and EXTREME SPEEDSTEP settings against a Windows machine. Look at how well the MBP does under Vista. Not that great. Lithium polymer isn't a huge advancement in technology. It doesn't take much for Dell or HP to integrate them.

Oh and I wouldn't be surprised if the PCs have replaceable batteries.

Yep. Depending on your needs it might be a good deal. My own experience (which isn't true for everyone, though it's common both in my workplace and Master's program) is that the whole point of a laptop is portability. The weight and battery life are by far the two most important factors, as long as the hardware is good enough for web, e-mail, coding, listening to/encoding music, watching youtube vids. I don't know anyone that maxes out the storage on their laptop anymore--what isn't online is on a media center/Time Machine/whatever at home. Now if it matters to you, it does. Absolutely. But when it comes to laptops, a tradeoff between weight/battery life and HDD will lean in favor of the former for me every time. That's the whole point.
 

coleridge78

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2007
634
0
It was kind of a big error, don't you think?

I really don't think so, because the fact is that your assertion was still a distortion and I just momentarily had the "why" backwards. You still haven't admitted that your statements were, in fact, untrue. Comparable Windows laptops in that price range use comparable integrated graphics.
 

Wikinerd

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2008
389
0
I might get blasted for this, but this isn't entirely true. I'm actually in the process of building a Hackintosh to replace my three month old iMac. The iMac is the Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz with 4GB RAM, an nVidia 130GT, 1TB hard drive and a SuperDrive. It cost me around $2350 after tax. For the same price I've built a system with an Intel i7 Core 2.66GHz, 6GB RAM, nVidia 9800GT, two 1TB drives (one for OS X and the other for Windows) and a LG Blu-Ray burner. When it was all said and done it cost the same as the iMac, including Mac Box Set, Vista 64-bit OEM and EFI-x (EFI dongle to get OS X running).

Does Apple charge more? Sure. Just look at how much they charge to upgrade the iMac memory from 4GB to 8GB. $1000. There is no way memory costs that much. I don't like the term "Apple Tax" though. It's branding. You always pay more for brand name. Nike does it. Kraft does it. And Apple does it. Big deal. The difference between Mac and PC i that PC has many variations creating a lot more competition than Apple. If clones of Mac were allowed to happen I guarantee you that Apple prices would drop.

But... to get back on topic (sorry about that) if Apple did this it's a bit hypocritical. Though I don't doubt MS is embellishing the story a bit.

You're always free to buy your own memory. Installation instructions are on Apple's Support website.

Just make sure you're buying DDR3/2 depending on your model.
 

Victor Odin

macrumors member
Sep 2, 2008
86
0
1. Your argument is specious, as every Apple laptop currently in production uses a discrete NVIDIA GPU. Argue about the quality of the card, but it is not integrated. CORRECTION: Some of these NVIDIAs are still integrated, but comparable Dell and Asus laptops, at the same price points, also use integrated NVIDIA or ATI Mobility chips.


Nope, the do not.

You cannot find a $1,300 PC without a discrete graphics cards.

And your major error shows that you don't know a whole hell of a lot about the issue in the first place.
 

coleridge78

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2007
634
0
I don't know if you are crazy, but you did overpay for a worse system.

For a $300 warranty, you shouldn't just get U.S.-based tech support, but you should get orally serviced every time you walk into an Apple store.

The "build quality" is nonsense.

Apple has just as many (if not more) hardware issues as anyone else. Especially given that they have so few configurations to choose from compared to PC's.

http://www.appledefects.com/

Hah, yes, a website by mental defectives with an axe to grind. I'll trust that over every single industry evaluation every year. Sure. Sure.

Apple has hardware problems, but to cite that as your source (along with your lie about integrated graphics upthread) really shows what your goals are here.
 

Eidorian

macrumors Penryn
Mar 23, 2005
29,190
386
Indianapolis
The new 15" MacBook Pro is nothing more than a scaled up Unibody MacBook. Get a previous version with the 9600M GT and the ExpressCard slot.
 

Victor Odin

macrumors member
Sep 2, 2008
86
0
I really don't think so, because the fact is that your assertion was still a distortion and I just momentarily had the "why" backwards. You still haven't admitted that your statements were, in fact, untrue. Comparable Windows laptops in that price range use comparable integrated graphics.

Calling a integrated graphics system discrete is a massive error when that is your primary argument.

Almost all $1,300 PC's have discrete graphics.
 

Victor Odin

macrumors member
Sep 2, 2008
86
0
Hah, yes, a website by mental defectives with an axe to grind. I'll trust that over every single industry evaluation every year. Sure. Sure.

Much like the fact that God does not exist ... you simply don't believe it because you don't want to believe it.

You've got nothing to back up the "hardware superiority" claim, you just desperately want to believe it's true despite any and all evidence to the contrary.

I pulled the "Apple" memory out of my iMac, and it was the same cheap "Hynix" memory that eMachines uses.

Without the magic pixie dust and purple elephant poop that Apple adds, of course.
 

uberamd

macrumors 68030
May 26, 2009
2,785
2
Minnesota
Much like the fact that God does not exist ... you simply don't believe it because you don't want to believe it.

You've got nothing to back up the "hardware superiority" claim, you just desperately want to believe it's true despite any and all evidence to the contrary.

I pulled the "Apple" memory out of my iMac, and it was the same cheap "Hynix" memory that eMachines uses.

Without the magic pixie dust and purple elephant poop that Apple adds, of course.

My personal experiences in owning Mac's and PC's backup my hardware superiority claim! Is that not good enough for you? Get over it.
 

JGowan

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2003
1,766
23
Mineola TX
And since Microsoft doesn't make the hardware, I still think its dumb. Microsoft makes none of the hardware their OS runs on, so they cannot be credited for the "sweet" PC's in these commercials, in any way, shape, or form. The fact that they never touch on the OS either means that in essence Microsoft is saying "Apple makes cool hardware, but its expensive. HP makes cool hardware, and its less money. The OS? We assume all customers know about that so we don't talk about operating systems."
Just yesterday I took a friend of mine into an Apple store because he wanted help picking a laptop out for his daughter who wants to switch.

I asked him if he ever thought of swithing to a Mac and told him that the Windows OS runs great on Apple computers these days. He then asked "What's an OS?" I said "Operating System" -- he was still clueless.

My point is --> People are sooo in the dark about the scary computer that they will just buy what they're told is more value for the money. It's sad really. I'm constantly explaining to people what exactly Ram and Hard Drives are. Sad. These are terms they hear all the time, but just are ignorant of. They also are afraid of computers so much that they just kind of stick their heads in the sand about learning anything.

Apple needs to keep hammering on the differences between Windows and OS X. I think with Snow Leopard and Windows 7, we're going to start seeing a different kind of commercial from Apple. One that gets down to the brass tacks of what makes them so much better.
 

darrinaw

macrumors newbie
Mar 8, 2007
20
0
My view on this...

I switched from PC to Mac about 5 years ago. Of course they are more expensive initially, but look at things long-term. My fiance purchased a Dell laptop PC for $700 and 18 months later it the hardrive crapped out, then 24 months after purchase the motherboard fried. I gave her my original mac, an iBook that was already 2 years old and the thing is still running strong today. I have had my macbook over 2 years and guess what? Not a single problem with it (knock on wood).

I have owned NUMEROUS PC's in my life, but none have lasted as long or had as high a resell value as my mac's.

All in all, to each is own, but for me, it's my mac.
 

Victor Odin

macrumors member
Sep 2, 2008
86
0
My personal experiences in owning Mac's and PC's backup my hardware superiority claim! Is that not good enough for you? Get over it.

As long as my experience with Jesus Christ as my personal savior settles the fact that my God is better than yours.
 

jg167

macrumors newbie
Dec 23, 2007
12
2
I don't believe it

Apple Legal calling the COO of MS and asking them to stop running the ads sounds very unlikely. Even if there were specific grounds for claiming false information (and I don't see such myself), lawyers just don't do things that way. If you consider that he might just be making the whole thing up, that's even funnier (he's got to make up stuff to sound like the commercials are working).

The irony of the ads is that they show how well the Mac/PC guy campaign is working. Now instead of saying how great Vista is, MS is indirectly claiming the OS (Vista vs MacOS X) doesn't matter, that either is just fine and all you need to think about is price. Vista is no longer claimed to be better, now its just as good as a Mac.

Further crazyness is the idea that MS will be opening retail stores (what ARE they going to sell there, zunes? ) next to Apple Stores. If they do so that is really admitting that Apple is getting to them (so I doubt this is true either, they may open retail stores, but I doubt they will try and position them near Apple stores). The idea that they are doing it to build "brand awareness" seems crazy as who on the planet does not know about MS?
 

Interesting_Way_924

macrumors member
Jun 23, 2008
64
3
The previous-$1999 equivalent 15" model is now $1699. The current mid-end 15" is $1999, high end at $2,299. But, one of the more blatant mistakes they made was a picture of a $1,199 MBP 13" to go with the tag.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysbi5v_p7Q4

See 0:20 and 0:23.

Oh is that a unibody 13" I swear it was a 15.4" You're right. Well

1) You know they were referring to a 15.4" It was just a flash across that laptop, you couldn't even tell unless you were looking for it.

2) Only geeks really know that it was a 13" unibody not a 15.4". I suppose this is M$'s fault but it's not a blatant attempt at mischaracterization. I believe they were trying to compare against the 15.4" Maybe not.

3) The previous 15.4" is not $1699. The previous 15.4" had a 9600gt. The $1699 does not have a 9600GT. Ok I suppose you have 2.66ghz speed now instead of 2.4 or 2.53 but honestly these are mediocre speed bumps almost unnoticeable. Not to mention the difference in price that Intel charges for these CPUs is almost negligible. I say the 9600GT is a more fair comparison than simple CPU speed.
 
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