I decided to check out the new low-priced Macs to compare them with the PCs. I went to bestbuy.com which sells both PCs and Macs. The Mac laptops on site ranged in price from $1199 to $2499. I then looked at the Dell laptops. Dell's most expensive machine on site was $1099.
In other words, the most expensive Dell was $100 less than the cheapest Mac!
But you Mackies can comfort yourselves knowing that you have a vastly superior system. Yeah, right.
I'll start this without even having looked on the specs. We'll see where it goes. The Best Buy $1099 Dell is an XPS with:
- 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
- 4 GB RAM
- 16" screen
- 500 GB HDD
- 512 MB ATI Mobility Radeon M86XT
- 802.11 & gigabit Ethernet
- Camera
- 2xUSB & 1xFirewire (non-powered)
- Vista Home Premium
- 1.3"x15.2"x10" 6.4 lbs
Let's look at the MacBook. Since you show the system as costing $1,200, you aren't talking about the lowest-price MacBook, but the lowest-priced MacBook Pro.
- 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo
- 2 GB RAM
- 160 GB HDD
- 13" screen
- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (shared memory)
- 2xUSB, 1xFirewire 800 (powered)
- 802.11, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth
- Camera
- .9" x 12.8" x 9", 4.5 pounds
- OS X Leopard
On the surface it looks like Dell is the better deal, having specs a above the Mac or equal to it across the board except in a few areas (Firewire, Bluetooth), and Leopard doesn't waste as much RAM as Vista so the effects are pretty much equal there. The Dell is much bigger and heavier though, although it does have a bigger screen, but despite the smaller screen the Dell is much bigger than even the 17" MacBook Pro. The Mac has that unibody machined aluminum case (just touch it and you won't mind blowing more money just to get that case). The Dell wastes space, and smaller notebooks command a premium price, not just with Apple. The Mac also has that 7-hour battery. Plus the support for the Mac is going to be MUCH better, either at an Apple Store or on the phone with helpful native English speakers. Since the Dell comes with Premium I won't even go into the relative value of the OSes.
Basically it comes down to what you value. With less than a 10% price difference do you want a tough, very portable system with great battery life and excellent support or are you just looking at basic hardware speed and capacity specs?
I don't know about you, but I don't buy a car based solely on horsepower or hauling capacity.