Microsoft ad site falsely compares MacBook Air to netbooks

Electronista ^ | updated 09:35 am EDT, Thu May 5, 2011

[Swordmaker]

The dichotomy is even more pronounced when you see what they are comparing to the iMac line:

The 27" has 31% larger screen area than the 23.6" largest comparable PC screen and a 38% more acreage than the 23" other two they are comparing... and the processors are only dual core while the iMac is a much faster quad core. Ludicrously, one of the PCs being compared to the 21.5" Quad core iMac's is a two year old Pentium!

Of course, they don't bother to tell you that Macs really don't NEED to purchase third party "security protection" or even to download it... and that what little is needed to protect the machine from the known malware trojans is already built INTO OSX... Amusingly, the scale of their PC pictures in the 27" comparison does not really show you how different the 27" iMac IS in comparison to the much smaller PCs—that would not show so well—in fact, they present their ASUS 23.6" as appearing considerably larger than the 27" iMac. That has to be deliberate. 27" is BIG! Let's Look at how they SHOULD compare in size:

See the difference, now?

[Swordmaker]

Electronissta says Microsoft webpage aims to deceive computer buyers when comparing Macs with PCs... but what else is new—PING!

Please!
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Discuss technical issues, software, and hardware.
Don't attack people!
PLEASE! Don't respond to the Anti-Apple Thread Trolls!
IGNORE THEM!!!

Apple v. Microsoft Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[mnehring]

Kind of curious, FTC guidelines require that any material connection between a company an an ‘endorser’ be disclosed. IE if a person blogs or participates any any other ‘word of mouth’ type endorsement of a product or service, if they work for the company or are in any way compensated by the company, they are required by law to disclose that connection.

Anything we should know?

[Minn]

So a company, in their advertising and marketing, attempts to put the best spin on how their product stacks up with the competition. Scandalous.

If I had nothing better to do with my life, I'd be spreading the news.

[Melas]

Ok, help me out here. I’ve really been thinking of a Mac as my next computer, but I’ll be honest, price is indeed working against the Mac.

Here’s what I’m looking at. Maybe I’m missing something of value that would justify the Mac’s price. If so, please do me the favor of pointing it out.

iMac 27
27” monitor
3.1ghz I5 processor
4gb RAM
1tb hard drive
Superdrive (DVD/CD burner)
Radeon 6970 Graphics card with 1gb of GDDR5
$2k

Dell XPS 9100
24” Monitor (Apple has larger monitor)
2.8Ghz I7 Processor (actually faster than the 3.1ghz I5)
9gb RAM (more than twice as much)
2tb hard drive (twice as large)
Blu-Ray player with DVD/CD burner capability
Radeon 5970 Graphics card with 1gb of GDDR5 (Better card, cost twice as much, don’t let model number fool you)
$1850

Other than the larger display, what advantage would I have going with Apple? Granted, I’m not a Mac person, so I might be missing something, but from here I sit, the Dell is $150 cheaper, has a faster processor, more than twice as much RAM, twice as much hard disk storage, plays Blu-Rays, and has a much faster graphic card.

[Nat Turner]

I have the 27 inch and it is HUGE!!! No shortage of real estate here...

[Melas]

I looked at all the monitors in Fry’s on my last visit, and I didn’t see a single display that I thought compared with Apple’s 27”. That’s the one thing that’s still drawing me towards the Mac. I’ve never looked seriously before, and I knew that Mac’s were more expensive, but I didn’t really just how expensive. The Dell system I’m looking at was $150 cheaper than the iMac, but was literally twice as powerful in almost every respect save for processing power, where it still enjoyed a good 30% advantage.

[CrouchingTiger620]

mac os requires less horsepower than windows 7 and its a better built system that is easier to use and is very reliable......Mac hands down.......now for 1000 difference I’d think about it

[Nat Turner]

While you can measure processor speed, its the OS and its apps where speed makes a difference...Dell has a lower sticker price but comparing it to the monitor quality and the superiority of the OS it balances out...Also, I can rebuild my Mac if any thing happens to it far faster than restoring any of my windows machines...

[roadcat]

While you can measure processor speed, its the OS and its apps where speed makes a difference.

Absolutely. I've come to the conclusion that all the ads and fighting between groups don't matter. Make your choice and buy what you think you need. I'm happy with the Macs I purchased. I'm unhappy with the PCs I purchased and all the problems they dropped on me. You try to get a bargain and if it's crap you hopefully learn to buy something better next time around. Some stubborn people won't admit they bought too cheap, and they won't change. The Mac OS works very well.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Do you intend to run naked on the Dell machine, as you can on the Mac, or do you intend to buy third party av software or keep a sharp eye out for MS downloads? You might also try turning off and restarting the Dell machine and the Mac just for comparison sake. That will give you some indication of what is going on behind the scenes OS wise.

[antiRepublicrat]

The one for the Air is flat-out false advertising, calling a fast SSD a “hard drive” and comparing only the storage capacity to spinning disc drives.

[dayglored]

> Anything we should know?

*sigh*

Swordmaker has answered that accusation many times on past threads. To the best of my (non-personal) knowledge he's an independent who makes his living working with both Macs and Windows PC. He happens to be an Apple fan, and runs the Mac Ping List for the 500+ FReepers who look to him to collect and post news relating to Apple products.

If he were NOT an Apple partisan, I'd be shocked. So what?

Swordmaker may choose to reply to you, that's his business. But for my part, as a FReeper who works and plays with both Windows and Macs (and Linux and BSD Unix) all day every day, and doesn't generally get involved in partisan squabbles over things as silly as computers, I will encourage you to find better things to do than toss out unfounded accusations of FTC legal issues. Like, perhaps, look up the previous threads where he's answered your query. They're easy to find by keyword.

Or look up what the FTC has to say about the blatantly false advertising pointed out by antiRepublicrat above in #12.

Have a great evening.

[mnehring]

I was talking about the ad, but OK.

[Melas]

I have verizon fios, so AV software is free. Well not free, but part of the package. It’s rebadged McAfee.

Well put about the OS. I have a 3 year old Quad core system now. It’s still good but it was the absolute best when I bought it. On average it takes me 3 minutes to shut down and about 7 or 8 minutes to fully boot up. The Mac’s I’ve played with would have to measure it in seconds.

[dayglored]

> So a company, in their advertising and marketing, attempts to put the best spin on how their product stacks up with the competition. Scandalous.

Not really. Everybody, Apple, MS, all of 'em, put their best spin on things.

The only scandalous part is the outright lying. For example, see comment #12 above.

[Melas]

Just noticed, the I3 processor you highlighted, you know that’s an m series processor in a laptop right? Doesn’t seem fair to compare a desktop processor to it’s portable brethren.

[dayglored]

> I was talking about the ad, but OK.

OH, D-UH! (large blush) Sorry about that. I'll just crawl back under my little rock here........................

[antiRepublicrat]

Apple was the king of selective performance benchmarking during the waning days of the PPC, but this goes far beyond that.

I’m thinking of a sports car ad, car A much more expensive than car B, and I state both have 2.0 liter engines to make you think A is a ripoff. But I purposely make no mention that A’s engine is a high-performance turbo that produces twice the horsepower.

[Melas]

Another big difference I’m noticing. Resolution. I have a 26” monitor now, so the 27” itself wouldn’t be much of an upgrade. However, the Apple display has a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels. My current Samsung is 1920x1200. That’s a pixel density of 109ppi for the Apple and only 85 for my current machine. That’s quite a difference. I also appreciate the true widescreen 16:9 of the Apple display.