What makes a MBP better than the E1505?

[tbrinkma]

i love that 75% of the comebacks to this illogical kids comment about macs, refers to the look of the case.

I want a big gang fight to happen, instead of west and east, the mac vs windows crew.

The mac gang will show up with body armour but no weapons. (symbolizing unix strength os, but no way to fix/defend itself if something happens.)

The windows crew will show up with layers among layers of body armor, but less strength than the macs body armor, swords, about 20% of them will be sick.

Fight till the death, jobs vs gates.
round 1!

The fight begins, and the windows crew, each carrying 50 lb sledge hammers, multi-bladed axes, and similar (decidedly deadly, but highly unwieldly), starts stripping off their bulky hindering armor so they can 'play'. Some of them get tangled in their various straps and have to be cut out of their remaining armor before they can join the fight.

The Mac gang members reach into their pockets, and pull out one of a variety small, simple weapons (mace canisters, snap batons, brass knuckles, etc.), each very well designed for its particular use, and proceed to quickly incapacitate the newly unarmored windows crew.

The Windows crew limps home, battered, crowing about how they would have won if they'd been using the *next* version of their equipment which will be so much better. The Mac gang is befuddled the next day when they read in the news that the Windows crew won the day.

 

[JeffHendr]

I'm happily typing away on a 17" Powerbook G4, and ever since I purchased my 15" Ti Powerbook several years ago, I've been glad to have left the Windows world behind. The stability and ingenuity of OS X allows me to do the things that I need to do quickly and easily, while having fun doing it.

This being said, a friend of mine called me up yesterday to present an interesting question to me. He's been given the opportunity to purchase any latop that he desires, at any price. Knowing that I'm a Mac guy these days, he called me up to get a list of advantages of the MacBook Pro over an Alienware gaming laptop that he's considering. I listed the usual reasons for buying a Mac over a PC, but found myself a bit more handicapped in my list of advantages than I had been back when it was PowerPC versus Intel. It used to be that Macs always had superior hardware configurations that justified the higher price tag. If you ever priced a comparably priced Wintel machine, you'd generally find that the Mac was just a small bit cheaper. When you looked at the fact that the Powerbook was half as thick, ran OS X, and just looks cool, it was a no-brainer. ...The computer that my friend presented me with on the phone yesterday, however, was comparable in every way, down to the integrated camera, $1000 cheaper and had a superior video card. I still went ahead and told him why I prefer the Mac over the PC, but when he's a serious gamer and the new MacBook Pros have some fairly common and serious build quality issues (even my Al Powerbook has a few build quality issues not present in the Ti Powerbooks--screen won't stay shut, power adapter metled), I'm not sure that the Mac is really the best choice for him. I suggested to him that if there's any way to delay the purchase of his laptop, to wait for the next revision to come down the road. Otherwise, maybe the PC is really the better choice at the moment. $1000 is a lot to pay for a thinner profile and a fun OS.

Rather than immediately seeking out a way to convince your friend that he needs to buy a Mac, I'd be a bit more objective about it and ask yourself whether or not he's right. If you weigh the facts, and the Mac is still superior, you'll already have a list of the reasons why the Mac is the better choice.

 

[JBot]

The fight begins, and the windows crew, each carrying 50 lb sledge hammers, multi-bladed axes, and similar (decidedly deadly, but highly unwieldly), starts stripping off their bulky hindering armor so they can 'play'. Some of them get tangled in their various straps and have to be cut out of their remaining armor before they can join the fight.

The Mac gang members reach into their pockets, and pull out one of a variety small, simple weapons (mace canisters, snap batons, brass knuckles, etc.), each very well designed for its particular use, and proceed to quickly incapacitate the newly unarmored windows crew.

The Windows crew limps home, battered, crowing about how they would have won if they'd been using the *next* version of their equipment which will be so much better. The Mac gang is befuddled the next day when they read in the news that the Windows crew won the day.

Round 2!
macs show up with there regular armour, than the windows crews regular body armour ontop of that. They reach in the back pocket, see there regular plain jane batons and such, as well as the windows sledgehammers. The sun is out, the weather is reaching 40+ celsius, the mac crew starts sweating too much, all start fainting prior to combustion.
Windows crew shows up a few minutes later, realize its so hot, simply adds some water coolants and fans to there body armor. Sitting comfortably, they sit by the fainted mac gang, who are now on fire, and cook themselves eggs.

 

[bbrosemer]

I'm happily typing away on a 17" Powerbook G4, and ever since I purchased my 15" Ti Powerbook several years ago, I've been glad to have left the Windows world behind. The stability and ingenuity of OS X allows me to do the things that I need to do quickly and easily, while having fun doing it.

This being said, a friend of mine called me up yesterday to present an interesting question to me. He's been given the opportunity to purchase any latop that he desires, at any price. Knowing that I'm a Mac guy these days, he called me up to get a list of advantages of the MacBook Pro over an Alienware gaming laptop that he's considering. I listed the usual reasons for buying a Mac over a PC, but found myself a bit more handicapped in my list of advantages than I had been back when it was PowerPC versus Intel. It used to be that Macs always had superior hardware configurations that justified the higher price tag. If you ever priced a comparably priced Wintel machine, you'd generally find that the Mac was just a small bit cheaper. When you looked at the fact that the Powerbook was half as thick, ran OS X, and just looks cool, it was a no-brainer. ...The computer that my friend presented me with on the phone yesterday, however, was comparable in every way, down to the integrated camera, $1000 cheaper and had a superior video card. I still went ahead and told him why I prefer the Mac over the PC, but when he's a serious gamer and the new MacBook Pros have some fairly common and serious build quality issues (even my Al Powerbook has a few build quality issues not present in the Ti Powerbooks--screen won't stay shut, power adapter metled), I'm not sure that the Mac is really the best choice for him. I suggested to him that if there's any way to delay the purchase of his laptop, to wait for the next revision to come down the road. Otherwise, maybe the PC is really the better choice at the moment. $1000 is a lot to pay for a thinner profile and a fun OS.

Rather than immediately seeking out a way to convince your friend that he needs to buy a Mac, I'd be a bit more objective about it and ask yourself whether or not he's right. If you weigh the facts, and the Mac is still superior, you'll already have a list of the reasons why the Mac is the better choice.

Can we see this comparison because I just went to alienware and in no way could I make something $1000 cheaper and comparable to the MBP.

 

[bbrosemer]

Round 2!
macs show up with there regular armour, than the windows crews regular body armour ontop of that. They reach in the back pocket, see there regular plain jane batons and such, as well as the windows sledgehammers. The sun is out, the weather is reaching 40+ celsius, the mac crew starts sweating too much, all start fainting prior to combustion.
Windows crew shows up a few minutes later, realize its so hot, simply adds some water coolants and fans to there body armor. Sitting comfortably, they sit by the fainted mac gang, who are now on fire, and cook themselves eggs.

Then you plug in one of your weapons, a keyboard and a mouse and XP makes it very clear letting you know that these were just plugged in O crap then the mac beats you down.

 

[JBot]

Then you plug in one of your weapons, a keyboard and a mouse and XP makes it very clear letting you know that these were just plugged in O crap then the mac beats you down.

keyboard? mouse?
im talking gangs here, not computers.
and i dont understand this, first of all because youre on fire, and second, keyboards and mice work very nicely, serial port and usb. wire/wireless.

burn...burn....

 

[bbrosemer]

Yeah but while you were still waiting for Bios to boot the Mac clearly would have won long before you even woke up "if you were just sleeping"

 

[JBot]

my powerbook takes years longer to turn on than my desktop, dualbooted.
i mean.
windows guy was sleeping with mac girl. (the mac guys wanted in, but the windows guy doesnt swing that way...) Windows guy got up and attacked the mrs. way before she woke up to notice the flame torch preparing to melt her face.

 

[poppe]

Fighting with a arrogant people is like fighting a 2 year old. Yes-huh, Nu-uh, Yes-huh, Nu-uh.

My step-dad take for example. He wants a 13 inch computer, for cheap that is powerful, and would work great. He sees a sony viao and starts drooling. i say "why don't you just get a Macbook, then you could have OS X and windows. You'd have a computer that is reliable and built really well, plus the best of both worlds."

He replies "because I dont want a Mac"

I say "Why not its cheaper than the viao and equally built quality if not better. Aren't you going for cheaper anyways?"

He replies "I am going for cheaper, but I dont want a Mac"

I guess the point is. Even when the Macbook has equal features and is cheaper it doesn't matter really.

So maybe it doesn't prove the point to well... but you really can't have logical arguments.

 

[Sozsei]

Trying to convince PC people that Macs are better is a waste of time. Personally, I'd rather Apple keep it's small market share instead of taking over the world.

 

[milo]

I'm calling BS on the initial premise here. When the macbook (not pro) came out, there was a page 2 story here comparing the macbook to 4 laptops made by other PC manufactuers. The macbook had the best or close to best specs/dollar of any of them.

But now someone says that for the cost of a macbook, not pro, there's a laptop with the specs of the pro? I'd like to see this.

Doesn't surprise me too much. Problem is, Dell constantly drops their prices and uses faster components as they are available. Which makes perfect sense because the cost of most parts generally drops constantly.

The apples compared reasonably well to Dell when they shipped, problem is over these months, Apple hasn't dropped prices or bumped specs. If apple sticks with their old pricing/config strategy, they will face a repeating cycle of getting further and further behind, than suddenly jumping to close the gap. The price graph would be a downward slope for Dell and downward steps for apple. With this, it really only makes sense to buy apple right after a revision. If it has been a few months since the last update, you're getting a bad deal compared with other available computers.

Same goes for ipods, the shuffle and nano were competitive when they shipped but the competition has passed them by in terms of pricing for the same specs.

 

[dpaanlka]

Why do the design arguments here always come from people who don't grasp that function and price are 50% of 'design'? It ain't just form, people. The prettiest little laptop on Earth is just sculpture if it don't work right.

Well.. my mom's MBP works perfectly, and my PowerBook G4 works perfectly. The one inch thick case has worked perfectly since its introduction in 2001. One revision of one product having teething problems does not mean one inch cases are bad, so lets all jump back to 2 inches. I'm sure Apple realized its mistakes by now and has addressed them, judging by the performance of later MBPs.

If you are willing to have a two inch thick laptop for less, then by all means go and buy one. The question is why do people continue to pay 2 grand or more for MBPs. Design is a huge factor.

 

[Topono]

JBot, what model PowerBook do you have?

 

[JBot]

Well.. my mom's MBP works perfectly, and my PowerBook G4 works perfectly. The one inch thick case has worked perfectly since its introduction in 2001. One revision of one product having teething problems does not mean one inch cases are bad, so lets all jump back to 2 inches. I'm sure Apple realized its mistakes by now and has addressed them, judging by the performance of later MBPs.

The problem he is refering to is the heating problem.
I cant say certainly, but i think with more space in the case they could make more room between components, meaning more cooling air to flow, meaning the machine wont heat up so much.
I have the powerbook g4 and i cant use it unless its on a table, it actually gets too hot. I consider that a huge problem, and think they should have thought about that before introducing the inch thick case.
personal opinion of course.

 

[JBot]

JBot, what model PowerBook do you have?

15' pb g4 1.67ghz. 80g hd. 512m ram. (soon to be 2g hopefully).

 

[vv-tim]

Do we really need another thread like this? It's getting old.
You've got the morons on the Apple side and the morons on the non-Apple side. Both of them throw out stupid skewed "data" and ridiculous arguments.

Apple -- you get wonderful design, high price, legal OS X.
Dell -- you get cheap design, great price, Windows, and optionally illegal OS X.

No, Apple is not for people that are looking for a good deal. People that buy Apple have money or are really interested in aesthetics.

MacBooks are priced more reasonbly than MBPs no doubt, but they're still at a premium. A well deserved premium that I would pay, but not for the frugal by any means.

If you're looking for a computer where performance is money to you... buy a Dell.

I didn't buy an Apple because it was a great deal. I bought an Apple because it was attractive, haha.

 

[JBot]

I didn't buy an Apple because it was a great deal. I bought an Apple because it was attractive, haha.

ditto. and cause ive never used or seen a friend use one.

 

[jer2eydevil88]

There are a few key points you can bring up in one of these debates.

Macs unlike PC's have a higher initial cost of ownership but you won't be paying for years through the nose on support to remove Spyware/Virus malware.

Mac's hold a higher resale value, after 6 - 7 years a mostly broken Mac notebook is still worth $300. (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8823855925)

Many users find themselves more productive using OS X because of how tightly integrated iLife is with the Operating System. This means even less experienced users will be able to do more on a Mac.

Apple support is usually available locally for customers, through either an Apple store or a Campus support facility. Most people with a Dell (or other OEM machine) would end up spending hours on the phone with India before getting technical help.

 

[supremedesigner]

Don't forget to tell him that DELL laptop got blown up! I repeat: this fugly bulky heavy slow bloated-XP virus-capable got blown up! (don't you remembered that about few weeks ago?) There you go

 

[kgarner]

Am I missing something here? When I go to spec out the E1505 I get options for only a 1.83 GHz processor (to the MBP's 2.0 GHz) with 533 MHz RAM (667 MHZ on MBP) even though the FSB is up to 667 MHz. Also the video card options were x1300 (128 MB), x1400 (256 MB), and 7300 (256 MB) (compatred to 128 MB x1600 on MBP). It doesn't really seem to be very comparable in my opinion.

 

[supremedesigner]

Funny thing is... PC users pay more $$ than mac. Why? They spend more $$ on anti-spy programs and other crappy programs something for them to edit photos, movies, etc. etc. that are useless.

 

[JBot]

Funny thing is... PC users pay more $$ than mac. Why? They spend more $$ on anti-spy programs and other crappy programs something for them to edit photos, movies, etc. etc. that are useless.

incorrect.
enough freeware to run your computer safely. Ive never purchased a spyware adware virus app ever. The same programs are priced competativly if not exact for mac and pc.
ill get tired of defending the pc sooner or later, but for now it just seems like all you the users dont have enough information about both systems to make a logical decision over which is best for you.

 

[milo]

People that buy Apple have money or are really interested in aesthetics.

Or want to run OSX and OSX apps (legally).

 

[PeterKG]

What software is offered on a Dell compared to the Mac? None I thought, except trial software? Illuminated keyboard?

 

[generik]

Round 2!
macs show up with there regular armour, than the windows crews regular body armour ontop of that. They reach in the back pocket, see there regular plain jane batons and such, as well as the windows sledgehammers. The sun is out, the weather is reaching 40+ celsius, the mac crew starts sweating too much, all start fainting prior to combustion.
Windows crew shows up a few minutes later, realize its so hot, simply adds some water coolants and fans to there body armor. Sitting comfortably, they sit by the fainted mac gang, who are now on fire, and cook themselves eggs.

Why even waste good eggs on an outing like this?

I will cook the fainted faggots and call it a victory barbie