Edit: is there anyway to show a table?
Apple MacBook Pro Dell Inspiron 9400 15.4-inch display 17-inch UltraSharp Wide Screen Radeon X1600(128MB) NVIDA GeForce Go 7800 (256MB) 4x SuperDrive(DVD±RW) 8x(DVD+/-RW) 10/100/1000BASE-T 10/100BASE-T Modem No Yes Built-in iSight None 2 USB ports 6 USB ports Remote Yes No S-Video Out No Yes Battery 60 WHr 80 WHr Size 5.6 pounds 8 pounds price $2,049 $2,031
Dell's system had a larger screen, better video card, a Modem, faster DVD drive, 4 USB ports, S-Video and a better Battery but Apple's system had 1000BASE-T network, iSight, and it's lighter.
How on earth are these in the same catagory?
PS: Today I can pick up a good 17" laptop from dell with T8300 (2.4GHz), 4GB of ram, 320GB HDD, Geforece 8600M for $1,024.00 (Google 1720 Discount and the second result is a discount code N6DT1G$64M79BW for 350$ off).
The cheapest 17" Laptop from Apple starts at $2,499.00 (googled to find a $300 off MSR discount) and but that it only has 2gb of ram and a 250GB HDD. Granted it's CPU is .1GHz faster which would would add $125 to the dell or you could swap that in and downgrade the ram and HDD size. But RAM and HDD is worth more than a slightly faster CPU.
Also, I don't think the mini is really price competitive even on the low end. I can get the same hardware specs for considerably cheaper elsewhere, though, of course, not with the awesome form factor/design.
I really like the mini in terms of hardware, but it's not a bargain.
I had a similar conversation at WWDC about the 'no docking station' issue. Apple's response: buy everyone a laptop AND a desktop, and use roaming profiles.
Yeah.
http://www.macworld.com/article/49403/2006/02/pricecompariso...
has the macbook pro doing well.
or this
http://kb.wisc.edu/showroom/page.php?id=3045
has 150 more for macbook (not pro). they seem to have firewire and isight missing on the pc, and a modem missing on the mac.
-------
i just did a comparison of imac vs dell all-in-one.
imac = 1300 (add 1gig of ram)
the dell is 1300, but i need to change stuff like including a video card, which it doesn't look like i can do (dell's customization page sucks). anyway, apple seems to win.
the macbook pro isn't really for price-sensitive people, anyway. it's the imac, macbook, or maybe mini that i'd expect to price compare OK or well.