Mac/PC Prices?

why is Apple able to offer their line of laptops(which seem pretty powerful and compact) for so little and PC laptops cost a fortune for the same thing? that's why i decided to buy an iBook. the size and power and price were just amazing.

JRV said:

why is Apple able to offer their line of laptops(which seem pretty powerful and compact) for so little and PC laptops cost a fortune for the same thing? that's why i decided to buy an iBook. the size and power and price were just amazing.

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Ask that question again once G5's are available in notebooks...

I think you still get what you pay for. A apple laptop for say $2000 would have the same ro greater performance than a $2000 pc laptop, although the specs may not appear to be alike.

mac laptops are cheap? maybe the ibook but those are "budget" systems (even though they are powerful). the rest of the line are a bit overpriced.

whats weird about mac is that the smaller the screen the cheaper the notebook. with pc's then some of those smaller screen notebooks cost more than their 15" counterpart.

My friend has a dell inspirion 8600 which he got for around £920. Specs; centrino 725 1.6 GHz, 40 GB, DVD-CD-RW combo,512mb RAM, 802.11b wireless and a WUXGA screen whatever that means....
I got a ibook for £860 with G4 1.33 GHz, 60 GB HD, combo drive, airport extreme, bluetooth module, 14.1" screen and the peace of mind called apple.

I have started noticing some bad pixels in his screen and it is nowhere as fast as mine....

Now who is the winner.......(I still haven't put in the comparison of looks and the mac OSX)

Ya powerbooks are costly but look at the specs and one understands why..

I never considered mac laptops to be cheaper, Where do you live?

My example would be a Dell 9200, 17in widescreen
-1.6Ghz Pentium M
-512mb RAM
-128mb Radeon 9700 Mobility
-8x Burner
-100gb HD
-80WHr 9-Cell battery
-802.11b/g wireless built int

$1,571, or if you use a coupon code, like 8WQ59398KXR61$, you can get it for $1,071.

Compare that to a Powerbook G4, 17in widescreen
-1.67Ghz G4
-512mb RAM
-128mb Radeon 9700 Mobility
-Super Drive
-100gb HD
-Airport Extreme

$2,700, or if you are a student $2,400

Granted the PB has some features that you can't really quantify, OS X, Backlit keyboard, HD shock protection, aluminum case, and others.

me? i didn't say they were cheap, i kinda see what you mean.. they are expensive with the small screens.

sorry! forgot to add that I purchased online through the educational use discount scheme. But even without that add another £120 pounds and it is still comparable.

As for the scheme all I had to do was type in my university name and place, thats it. If you purchase one from a apple store (one in UK in London at Regent street) some times they ask for ID sometimes they don't.

The 15.4" wide screens these days look as if the whole window is stretched out....

and they grow in size too, laptops are all about portability, can't fanthom using a 17" laptop, it would be better to go with a desktop and as big a monitor as you want and faster as well.

Ideal sizes are 12", 14" and 15" not more. Beyond that they are not laptops but maybe desktop replacements

monkeybutler said:

mac laptops are cheap? maybe the ibook but those are "budget" systems (even though they are powerful). the rest of the line are a bit overpriced.

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Compare a PowerBook to a comparable high-quality PC laptop, like a ThinkPad, sometime.

I did once, and came out over $500 in favor of the Apple.

ThinkPad T42 (15.1")1.7GHz Pentium M64MB Radeon 9600512MB, 1 module80GB 5400RPM HDBluetooth IIICentrino wireless (G)MultiBurner$2763 (Custom config)
Both laptops are about 5.5 lbs and less than 1.2 inches thick. Base warranty (1 yr) on both units.

maverick2k said:

My friend has a dell inspirion 8600 which he got for around £920. Specs; centrino 725 1.6 GHz, 40 GB, DVD-CD-RW combo,512mb RAM, 802.11b wireless and a WUXGA screen whatever that means....
I got a ibook for £860 with G4 1.33 GHz, 60 GB HD, combo drive, airport extreme, bluetooth module, 14.1" screen and the peace of mind called apple.

I have started noticing some bad pixels in his screen and it is nowhere as fast as mine....

Now who is the winner.......(I still haven't put in the comparison of looks and the mac OSX)

Ya powerbooks are costly but look at the specs and one understands why..

Click to expand...

Funny thing, Dell and Apple laptops are both manufactured by the same company, Quanta.

Also you are not comparing similar systems. The Centrino laptops include Pentium M CPUs which are lower power and run much cooler-- this maximizes battery life and does away with heat problems at the expense of computing power.

Also, it sounds like the Dell had a better screen-- WUXGA = Wide Ultra eXtended Graphics Array, 1920 x 1200 resolution. Powerbook screen resolution is only 1024 x 768 I believe.

maverick2k said:

My friend has a dell inspirion 8600 which he got for around £920. Specs; centrino 725 1.6 GHz, 40 GB, DVD-CD-RW combo,512mb RAM, 802.11b wireless and a WUXGA screen whatever that means....
I got a ibook for £860 with G4 1.33 GHz, 60 GB HD, combo drive, airport extreme, bluetooth module, 14.1" screen and the peace of mind called apple.

I have started noticing some bad pixels in his screen and it is nowhere as fast as mine....

Now who is the winner.......(I still haven't put in the comparison of looks and the mac OSX)

Ya powerbooks are costly but look at the specs and one understands why..

Click to expand...

Nowhere as fast as yours?

What tests have you run to confirm this? An iBook couldn't beat a P-M/Centrino even if the P-M book was turned off.

The 8600 beats up even the best Powerbooks in Protools, and by a pretty serious margin.

Results?
Check out www.Protools.com and visit the forums.

There aren't really any other benchmarks that put the G4 up against a P-M, because there really isn't any point.

But what else could you compare? General OS GUI response? Well-kept Windows XP based PCs still very much hold that crown. Office Apps? Haha, I won't even bother. Video-editing? Shhhhhh...

And where did you get the idea that Apples don't have or get bad pixels? Man if I only had a penny for every repair order I've sent to replace a PB/IB users LCD because of bad pixels - I'd be a millionaire!

JRV said:

why is Apple able to offer their line of laptops(which seem pretty powerful and compact) for so little and PC laptops cost a fortune for the same thing? that's why i decided to buy an iBook. the size and power and price were just amazing.

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Is this a joke?!

Apple laptops are way more expensive than their PC counterparts.

I bought a Centrino Pentium-M 1.5 (2MB L2) with 64MB Radeon 9700 and 15" screen.. £599.

A 12" inch (!!!) ibook with 32MB Radeon 9200 (feeble compared to the 9700) costs £699.

You can get PC laptops for less than £499 easily, with a 15" screen. Apples cheaper? No way Jose.

From newegg.com...


HP/Compaq Presario R3470
Part#: PPR473UA
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3400+ with PowerNow
Display: 15.4" WXGA TFT LCD
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home
Memory: 1024MB DDR SO-DIMM SDRAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 4 440 Go with 64MB DDR(dedicated)
HD: 100GB
Optical Drive: DVD±RW and CD-RW
Communication: 56K Modem, 10/100 LAN, WLAN 802.11b/g
Ports: 3 x USB2.0, 1 VGA, Audio Ports, 1 S-video, 1 1394, 1 LPT, SM/MMC/MS/MSP/SD slot
Dimensions: 11.18" x 14.25" x 1.8" (LxWxH)
Weight: 7.8 lbs

$1,499.00


That's a killer notebook for $1500. Looks like they only skimped on the video card and the OS.

technologist said:

Compare a PowerBook to a comparable high-quality PC laptop, like a ThinkPad, sometime.

I did once, and came out over $500 in favor of the Apple.

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Well with the wide variety of pc notebooks then its pretty easy to skew this in either direction. If you want to prove macs are expensive then compare it to a few attractively priced Dell's. And if you want to prove Apple's are affordable then do like you did and find the highest priced notebook out there to compare it to and say "wow. its $500 less than that! apple is teh cheaperz".

Bottom line is that bias can sway the discussion in either direction. But if we're talking notebooks in general then apple notebooks still are more expensive than "MOST" pc notebooks, especially when you consider the apple's are getting a bit long in the tooth.

its great that pricing is more competetive than it used to be but nobody is going to fall for the "macs are more affordable" argument. especially when you factor in that smart shoppers can always find pc notebooks at a bargain price using coupons or finding well-timed sales if they know what theyre doing.

maverick2k said:

WUXGA screen whatever that means....

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It stands for Worse than Useless eXtended VGA. More commonly known as marketing hype.

Amen-Moses

maverick2k said:

WUXGA screen whatever that means....

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It means its native resolution is 1920x1200. Dell also offers XSXGA+ which is 1680x1050 or WXGA which is 1280x800.