Buying a new laptop- Apple?

[KenS]

Originally Posted by 357

http://store.apple.com/us/configure/...co=MTM3NDcyODk
$1699 MacBook Pro:
15" screen
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4.0 GB RAM
250 GB SATA Hard Drive 5400RPM
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Video Card = Specs not listed

OR

http://www.salescircular.com/mi/computer/laptpp.shtml (@ Office Max)
$449 Toshiba Satellite L505-S5998
15.6-in. Widescreen
Intel Pentium T4300 processor (2 Cores @ 2.1 GHz)
4.0 GB RAM
320GB SATA Hard Drive 5400RPM
LabelFlash DVD +-RW drive
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M
802.11B/G/N WLAN.
Webcam, Microphone.
Windows 7 Home Premium

+

$102.50 Mac OS X 10.5
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-Leopard-OS-X...item2ea9eaf2be

Total = $551.50 vs $1699

Although I'm sure it's fun to do stuff like this, it's also quite crazy, and is (usually) intentionally biased. Do you really think these are equivalent machines? Hint: they are not.

Anytime somebody asks a "Mac or PC" question, people trot out the same old lines. The absolute best advice is to speak with somebody who actually knows about, has current experience with, and uses both Mac and Windows PCs. Otherwise it's just people quoting the same crap that they've read elsewhere.

As for price differences, the key thing to know is that Apple simply does not have a "low end" laptop, and does not play in that segment of the market. So it's easy to find a cheapo Windows laptop and compare it, but you'd be much more informed by a true comparison of similarly priced laptops. Yes, Dell, Toshiba, HP, etc. do actually sell similarly priced machines, with the level of components and sophistication as the Mac laptops. But it's not as much fun to do a true Apples to apples comparison.