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RE[3]: What A Joke
by rayiner on Mon 24th Apr 2006 18:24 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: What A Joke"
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That E-series machine you linked to is a full 60% thicker than the Macbook. Is your point that you can get a lot cheaper machine if you give up form-factor? Sure, I don't think anybody would doubt that, but as someone who has done the whole "cheap Dell laptop" thing, let me tell you that it's not quite the bargain it seems to be at first.

Compare the price on something like a Thinkpad to a comparable Macbook Pro, and come back with that.

For example, you can get a 14.1" ThinkPad with 2.0 GHz Core Duo and X1400 graphics for $2200. The Thinkpad has a smaller screen, slower GPU, and smaller hard drive (or slower, depending on which Macbook HDD option you pick). On the other hand, it's a bit smaller and lighter, and $300 cheaper. Seems like an entirely reasonable trade-off to me.

The XPS notebook comparison is even more entertaining. The *cheapest* XPS model, the M1710, costs $3400 when outfitted with a comparable CPU, HDD, and wireless options as the Macbook Pro 17". For the extra $600, you can a much faster GPU, and a higher-res screen, but a notebook that is substantially larger and heaver. Again, the trade-off doesn't seem that bad, does it?

Or, consider Sony's VGN-FE590. Outfitted with comparable features to the 15.4" Macbook Pro, it costs about $2200. That's about $300 less than the Macbook Pro for a closely comparable machine. Is a $300 "OS X tax" too much? I don't think so. Certainly, it's a hell of a lot more reasonable than it was for the PowerPC machines. True, the machines themselves haven't gotten any cheaper, but the CPUs, instead of competing with the ones in bargain-basement PC laptops, are now comparable to those in the top PC laptops. When compared to these top PC laptops, the Apple laptop prices are quite reasonable indeed.

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