A buddy of mine recently bought a new HP laptop for $900. The specs were as follows:
1.83GHz Core 2 Duo
3Gb RAM
320GB HDD
Nvidia dedicated graphics card
15" LCD
1.3Mp camera
multicard reader
Dual Layer lightscribe DVD burner
as well as nice little features like the ability to turn of the trackpad with one button so you don't accidentally hit it when typing.
When I compare it to the low end macbook. The macbook is $200 more
comes with less ram, smaller hard drive, VGA isight camera, smaller screen, integrated graphics, combo drive (which is ridiculous), no card reader and no specialized buttons.
Now I love my mac, but competitively speaking, it's pricey for what it is, and really the only thing the macbook has over his machine is a slightly faster processor.
I guess my issue is this. I have no problem with the mac having a price premium over a nicely made HP like his. $200 more, no problem. But at least give me the same hardware/features.
Isn't the entire point of the mac supposed to be that they are stable and easy to use? So why is there no SD card reader built in? Like it or not those things are super handy. Sure beats having to carry an extra one around or pull out the camera and try to find the USB cable for it. Why are they still putting combo drives on these machines? Shouldn't all macbooks by now at least have dual layer superdrives? What about innovative new features like a trackpad off button? I can't tell you how many times I've been typing on my macbook and accidentally swiped my thumb across the trackpad and three sentences later I realize none of it registered and I'm looking at a context menu or something instead. But that's not even the biggest complaint, the biggest is the lack of a decent graphics card in all their machines. I can't run most of final cut studio on my macbook because Apple didn't put a powerful graphics chipset in it. Instead they expect you to buy a macbook pro. What if I don't want a macbook pro but still want to run that software? Maybe I could only afford FCS and macbook and not FCS and a macbook pro. So I can't use it because I didn't buy a ridiculously expensive macbook pro that starts at two grand?
I get the whole tier marketing strategy with their hardware. But I think as a whole they should do something to compete a little better rather then crippling some system to only certain uses. Some of these new PC laptops are looking really nice. The keyboard on my old Lenovo was 10 times better then on my macbook and it was several hundred dollars less.
I love the mac os and the hardware is generally nice, although limited. They need to start giving us more for the price premium we pay. The flashy case designs and the honor to run OSX alone isn't enough anymore. I just don't think Apple is keeping up, and companies like HP and Lenovo are really starting to shape up the look and feel of their machines and give you great features for the money.
Here's hoping the next version of the macbook/mac mini really sets a lot of this stuff straight.
1.83GHz Core 2 Duo
3Gb RAM
320GB HDD
Nvidia dedicated graphics card
15" LCD
1.3Mp camera
multicard reader
Dual Layer lightscribe DVD burner
as well as nice little features like the ability to turn of the trackpad with one button so you don't accidentally hit it when typing.
When I compare it to the low end macbook. The macbook is $200 more
comes with less ram, smaller hard drive, VGA isight camera, smaller screen, integrated graphics, combo drive (which is ridiculous), no card reader and no specialized buttons.
Now I love my mac, but competitively speaking, it's pricey for what it is, and really the only thing the macbook has over his machine is a slightly faster processor.
I guess my issue is this. I have no problem with the mac having a price premium over a nicely made HP like his. $200 more, no problem. But at least give me the same hardware/features.
Isn't the entire point of the mac supposed to be that they are stable and easy to use? So why is there no SD card reader built in? Like it or not those things are super handy. Sure beats having to carry an extra one around or pull out the camera and try to find the USB cable for it. Why are they still putting combo drives on these machines? Shouldn't all macbooks by now at least have dual layer superdrives? What about innovative new features like a trackpad off button? I can't tell you how many times I've been typing on my macbook and accidentally swiped my thumb across the trackpad and three sentences later I realize none of it registered and I'm looking at a context menu or something instead. But that's not even the biggest complaint, the biggest is the lack of a decent graphics card in all their machines. I can't run most of final cut studio on my macbook because Apple didn't put a powerful graphics chipset in it. Instead they expect you to buy a macbook pro. What if I don't want a macbook pro but still want to run that software? Maybe I could only afford FCS and macbook and not FCS and a macbook pro. So I can't use it because I didn't buy a ridiculously expensive macbook pro that starts at two grand?
I get the whole tier marketing strategy with their hardware. But I think as a whole they should do something to compete a little better rather then crippling some system to only certain uses. Some of these new PC laptops are looking really nice. The keyboard on my old Lenovo was 10 times better then on my macbook and it was several hundred dollars less.
I love the mac os and the hardware is generally nice, although limited. They need to start giving us more for the price premium we pay. The flashy case designs and the honor to run OSX alone isn't enough anymore. I just don't think Apple is keeping up, and companies like HP and Lenovo are really starting to shape up the look and feel of their machines and give you great features for the money.
Here's hoping the next version of the macbook/mac mini really sets a lot of this stuff straight.