I would have agreed with that statement 5 years ago, but it simply isn't true today. Most manufacturers now offer some premium laptop line that is competitive with MacBook performance and build quality (often better) for a fraction of the price.

Even some of the less-premium lines have significantly improved in the last half-decade. A family member recently got a Dell Insperon and I was very surprised at the build quality.

In today's market you buy a MacBook for macOS and a logo. You just happen to get a decent laptop bundled with those.

That said, you'll have to make some sacrifices at the $500 range. At that price point, I always tell people to just get a used, high-end laptop instead of a new, crappy one.

It wasn't true 5 years ago either. Lenovo, HP and Dell all have professional lines of laptops that have been running for decades and have always been better than MacBook price/components wise.

Admittedly they can be obscured by the sea of consumer laptops.

You were paying extra for the build quality. Not too many manufacturers mill their laptops out of a block of aluminium.

Now the build quality sucks but the price increased.

Better build quality than Mac for a fraction of the price?? Either you're engaging in hyperbole to win an internet argument OR this is actually real, in which case, do tell? I'm in the market for a new laptop.

Also, I will not use Windows until they stop all involuntary telemetry collection. So if said amazing laptop also supports a Linux with great interop, perfect trackpad function etc., like macOS does - I'll eat my own hat. Please and thank you.

In terms of build quality, it's a very subjective subject but I think the XPS, Surface Book, and Razor Blade all have superior build quality to modern MacBook Pros.

I'm a fan of the XPS in particular. The base models for the XPS are only a couple hundred cheaper USD less than a base MacBook Pro, but MacBooks dramatically increase in price for minor spec improvements so the XPS gives you much better performance value at the high end.

> So if said amazing laptop also supports a Linux with great interop, perfect trackpad function etc., like macOS does - I'll eat my own hat.

Last I checked, macOS runs on Darwin, not Linux. Do you mean you're installing Linux on a MacBook?

So it's not good enough for me to provide examples that support my claim. I have to find examples that also meet your own criteria.

If you want a high-end Linux book, I would suggest an XPS. They have a "Developer Edition" that ships with Ubuntu. It's cheaper than a MacBook, but not by a huge margin. I can't attest to the Linux experience on non-developer-edition models.

I said linux because I’m aware macOS isn’t ever going to be available on non-Apple hardware :-) my other criteria are simply about restating that a MacBook isn’t just its build quality but also the privacy conscious, secure and developer friendly macOS experience.

At any rate, I’m not here for an OS flame war, but power to you if you think that a Dell XPS running Ubuntu is:

a) comparably smooth to using a macbook and

b) is available at a “fraction” of the price.

In the meanwhile I’ll go back to my skeptical perch and wait for a true challenger to emerge (which seemingly may never happen based on history, sadly).

Trust me, I'm not advocating for Windows here. macOS has plenty of advantages, especially in terms of privacy. And I'm not even trying to argue that the MacBook is a bad purchase.

I just think much of the market has caught with Apple in terms of build quality - especially in light of recent issues surrounding the touch bar and keyboard - so I don't think the Fiat/Audi analogy was a good one for the modern laptop market.

Lenovo carbon series are probably the benchmark these days.

No, it's not. There are some great budget laptops out there which _outperform_ the MacBook Pro. Maybe the mac looks better, but that's it. Your analogy doesn't work here.

As long as you think you're getting a great product for your money -- that's what's important.