Mac Users: I have questions only you can anwser!?!

So i'm looking to purchase my first computer in my life, & i want it to be an Apple. My question is, what i'm i really paying for? You can go to other PC manufacturer's like HP, Dell, Sony,etc & configure a system with 4 gigs RAM, top processor & ghz speed, etc....all for something around the same price as the standard MBP.


So if the MBP specs are lower, why are they still priced higher, if they only give you 2 gigs RAM & the other features included.

I would like some of you long-time Apple users to tell me why Mac's are better than PC's & what makes their standard price justifiable?

This is a deep concern for me & i do not want this to be a regret. I just want to know the reasons on why they price them so high. There has to be something that gives them the reason to do this & i want you long-time Mac users to tell me what that is!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, i'm waiting for Leopard to drop to purchase one. Are there any new MB's or MBP's coming out anytime soon..I heard about the MBP coming in Jan., but how much better will it be than the current model?...I don't want to spend 2 grand & then Apple releases someting much better.


THANKS FOR ANY INPUT PROVIDED!!!=)

 

Well, it really depends what you are looking for. Do you want the most powerful notebook for the lowest price? It won't be the MBP, its going to be a Dell. But if you want more premium features, like a sleek design, LED-backlit display, backlit keyboard, "multi-touch" trackpad, Magsafe power cord...they come at a price, and that's where the MBP's price comes from.

Is a Mac better than a PC? There isn't really an answer for that, it is a personal preference. However, it is worth noting that most Mac users are extremely satisfied with their Macs, while the same cannot be said for Windows users.

January/early 2008's update of the MacBook Pro will bring in Penryn processors. This would be worth waiting for, if that's what you're asking. Will you notice a significant difference in normal tasks? Probably not. But it doesn't hurt to have newer technology. As for what else Apple might add to the MBP in this update, we have no idea.

So yeah, it really depends what you're looking for. If you're looking at the price in the sense that "why that Dell in the same price is only $1500, compared to $2000 for MBP", then the Dell will look cheaper (and it is), but the MBP has awesome and sometimes, exclusive, features that justifies its price.

 

My personal opinion: The price of the machines don't necessarily mean that the Macs are better or worse than a PC. If you (or I) choose a Mac, it means we prefer what we're offered over what's offered from PC makers.

In addition to the actual "guts" of the machine, there is the style, which, IMO, is nice and clean - obviously, I like it a lot.

Also, with the Mac you get a machine not prone to malware. To me, not having to install, update and keep an eye on the AV, antispyware and nasties situation is worth a great deal.

Finally, there are the apps which come with the new Mac. To some folks they're totally useless, which means they're of no value. I like iPhoto and iTunes and use each quite often. Also like the built-in camera. I know that anyone can get iTunes, but I like the way everything, including iTunes meshes well and works without bogging down my system. I've got a three year old 12" PB somewhere around here, which has never broken, slowed down or caused any problems. The worst that has happened is the spinning beach ball appeared a few times when my son began using something called "ProTools."

Again, just my own opinion based on my own experience with Macs. To be honest, we also have an older Velocity Micro PC which arrived DOA, but once fixed by the factory, has been absolutely stable and reliable for years AND it seems to love Ubuntu.

Guess it all boils down to personal taste. I like Macs.

 

You have the confirmation on the Jan update of the MBP?

Also, yeah, the MBP switching down to the 45nm chips means less heat, but it also means Apple's somewhat previously and potentially current inept technical standards get to mess it up even worse. They never even acknowledged the overuse of thermal grease if I recall correctly. Hopefully they've fixed their production line to make it as efficient as it should be.

 

The MBP is priced higher for its performance than PC notebooks. (The Macbook is priced more like what you'd expect.)

Luckily for Apple, performance is only one of many factors that go into the buying decision. The MBP is the smallest 15.4" laptop I've seen. It's the only notebook you can buy with OS X installed (not counting other apple machines). It's got the backlit keyboard, and generally nice hardware. It's stylish, and gets you Macintosh snob cred eek: ).

So, yeah, "what they said".

 

Sam...those premium features you listed..Can you go a litttle more in-depth on what they are & is there a list of these you have?

Also, i saw another thread with these listed:

included bluetooth (always an option with Dell)
included n wireless
gigabit ethernet
DVI out
backlit keyboard on mbp
built-in webcam
better resale value
better design
than fanciest packaging in the the computer, or any most other industry, lolz
can run OS X, linux and Windows


^^^
Can u explain these as well, not the obvious ones like resale value, but the DVI ones...

I'm not too fond of technical terms, so these features you speak of is exactly what i'm trying to find out.

 

The MacBook Pro has a backlit keyboard, meaning it has leds that light up the panel under the keys for night-time use. Also has a magnetic power cord instead of the typical 'plug in' to prevent a sudden tug from dragging your $2000+ notebook off a desk. Has a bright LCD screen, and also has a touchpad that responds to multiple points of contact. In example, you drag 2 fingers up or down to scroll on a page, or press down 2 and click the button to rightclick.

In addition, the MBP has pretty much every little thing you can find on most notebooks these days pressed to the best you can get it, with the only exception being the lack of a card reader. It has Gigabit Ethernet, which is 10/100/1000 as opposed to the current norm of just 10/100. Due to the Intel chipset on more recent models, the MacBook Pros can run Windows. Moreso, with OS X 10.5 Leopard, a program called Bootcamp lets you partition your hard drive to run multiple operating systems that you can switch between. You can run OS X 10.5 Leopard, Windows, and Linux on 1 computer.

Wireless-N is the latest amendment to the 108.11 constitution, AKA WiFi. Bluetooth is a wireless signal used for devices like headsets. It has a high-resolution camera and as a result of the high price and the fact that only Macs can run Mac OS X, it has a higher resale value if it were to ever be sold on the open market.

 

You have to look at the "out of the box costs". It's not that Apple charges a premium for this but in the long run you will actually pay more for the Windows PC in terms of anti-virus subscriptions. Please leave out the defense that you can find free options for that, I'm just answering your questions. Macs come with software you will most likely end up downloading or buying equivalents for in Windows.

Here's an example. Mac OS X is so independent that you don't have to buy much software for it.
Example. OS X by design does PDF. Out of the box you don't have to download Adobe's bloated plug-ins Reader client. Macs can do interactive PDF's and save changes made. You can't do that on Adobe Reader and Acrobat cost an arm and a leg. That's a big savings and it's supported by Apple and not a 3rd party company.

Fit and Finish. Apple's products not only look great they are made well. No cheap clunky plastics and most models use aluminum.

Sam mentioned Magsafe. That feature is a notebook's dream come true and a notebook owner's best friend. There's nothing in the Windows world which offers this, it's patented by Apple.

All in one. I'm not talking about an iMac, I'm talking about having your cake and eat it too. Macs can boot both OS X and Windows, fully supported with no illegal hacking and it runs both OS's beautifully. It's worth paying for one machine to do it all then to have multiples taking up space.

Speaking of All in One's. Apple's iMac is the cheapest in the industry with the highest specs. Check out Gateway's One, Sony's new AIO's, HP and Dell's overpriced suitcase style AIO.

Lastly, you have to pay for support. When you buy Dell, Sony, HP, Asus...they will only give you but so much Windows support for issues. They are not trained to understand everything that goes wrong with Vista.
When you buy an Apple Macintosh Apple gives full support for hardware and software. That's makes a difference.

One other note, before you come right out and ask why Macs cost so much more than a similarly spec'd PC please post the actual machine to compare. If you want us to show you why Macs cost they way they do you need to bring a system to compare. BTW, Sony is a bad example. They are Windows only and cost double, explain that. I haven't a clue.

Well there you have it and I didn't even do a Windows vs. Mac OS X comparison as most Windows users would expect of us.

 

Okay.

Well, by sleek design, obviously, you can see the MBP has a really nice and thin design.

LED-backlit screens are pretty new technology. Its different from conventional LCD displays in that it is brighter, consumes less power and doesn't need to "warm up" to full brightness; its automatic. So its brighter and goes to full brightness right away, at the same time using less power.

If you've seen pictures of the MBP keyboard, you'll see that it lights up in the dark. This is cool (and helpful , and that's what I mean by backlit display.

As for "multi-touch" trackpad; normally, when you want to scroll on a touchpad, there is a dedicated strip along the side where you move your finger up or down to scroll up or down. With a MBP (and MB), you can scroll up and down by putting two fingers anywhere on the touchpad and moving up and down. If you use one finger, you're moving the cursor (the mouse point) around. If you use two fingers, you're scrolling.

The MBP and MB have Bluetooth 2.0 EDR built-in. This is good for connecting with Bluetooth devices such as cellphones and Bluetooth headphones, etc.

N Wireless. 802.11 is what we call wireless internet, and its split into three classes (and will add more, in the future), B, G and N. 802.11B can only go to a maximum of x megabits/second, and has a short wireless range. 802.11G improved that (both speed and range), and 802.11N improves it even more. The MBP's AirPort (Apple's fancy name for 802.11) is N enabled.

Gigabit Ethernet is the port in which you plug in the cord to get internet, if you don't want to use WiFi.

DVI out is a port that allows you to connect the MBP to a monitor using the DVI cable. So basically, its the port that allows your MBP to power a monitor.

 

Thanks everyone. I hope more people can contribute their opinion as well.

 

Sam...another question.
I'm a college student. I currently do not own a computer. for the past few years, i have been taking advantage of the free computer center located on campus, for my uses, including now.

Do you think it is worth waiting for the new MBP w/ the penryn addition or should i get one now?
Would the additon make me DEEPLY regret getting one now?

 

the grease thing was a miscommunication between qwanta,mitac and intel.....

 

Would the addition make you deeply regret buying a MBP now? Probably not. But if you can wait, I don't see why you shouldn't. Penryn is a comfirmed update of the MBP in the early 2008 update, but who knows what else Apple might bring out? Redesign? More USB ports? Its hard to say, so if you can wait, absolutely wait.

 

I want to play along!

As a lifelong IBM guy (since the PC Jr. days), here are my thoughts and impressions:

Apple does have very nice hardware. I was >< this close to getting a MacBook Pro a few months ago to replace my 4 year old Dell. I ended up getting an Asus G1S, which is also a very nice notebook. The MBP would have been a few hundred dollars more for roughly the same thing (I'm talking about the internals here: Graphics card, CPU, etc).
Some of the differences are (as mentioned):

-The backlit LCD display
----I had the opportunity to come across a few people that had the MBP and I checked it out. The screen is REALLY nice! They had matte screens (which I prefer over the glossy on my Asus), and were very bright and crisp.

-It's light
----My Asus is around 7 pounds. For the same size screen, the MBP is about 5 1/2. That's a pretty significant difference for roughly the same guts.

-Connections
----MBP has 2 USB ports (vs 4 on the Asus). I have two used on my Asus (notebook cooler and mouse). If you're going to use a printer or other items, you can just as easy get a USB hub for when you're at your desk. When you're traveling, how many ports do you need? Mouse and maybe thumb drive? External hard drive? I'm just guessing here, but I'd bet most MBP owners would have liked one more USB port. Also the Asus has eSATA and HDMI (for a fast external hard drive connection and external screen or TV). Some people use them, some never will. Up to you.

-Card reader
----Already mentioned. Nice to have, but totally user dependent. Some people will probably never miss it, for some people it's a deal breaker.

-Operating system
----Here we go! The main reason I decided on the Asus over the MBP was because I play games, too. Yes, you can play games on a Mac, but there are very few native OS:X games (World of Warcraft probably being the biggest right now). In order to really run a Windows game on a Mac, you need Bootcamp (or Parallels or VMFusion), which requires a full version of Windows, which is more money. I couldn't justify the extra cost just to play some games (plus, my wife wouldn't let me). Again, personal decision. I haven't had any problems with Vista, my wife hates it. She's getting a new iMac 24" as soon as they start shipping with Leopard.

I've done quite a bit of looking at Leopard, and the Apple.com webpage has done a good job of selling me (and my wife) on it. She's excited to use it, I'm excited to use it.....Let's hope it doesn't disppoint.
She will mainly be doing internet, e-mail, photo editing and, as soon as we get our new camcorder, video editing. She does not play games on it.

As for whether you should wait: As I've said, up to you. If I had to guess, the MBP with Penryn would come out in Feb or March, but wait...the new Intel chips (Montevina?) comes out the middle of 2008. Why not wait just a few more months for that? Basically, at some point you have to buy the thing. If you're waiting for the next big thing, you'll be waiting forever.
In my opinion, Penryn isn't THAT much worth waiting for. If I knew there were going to be other improvements on the MBP, maybe I'd wait (third USB port, for example), but it's usually pretty classified until near release.

Now that I've said ALL that, here's the thing: You mentioned you're a college student. Is money a giant factor in this decision? As you've seen, a Windows based laptop can be had for quite a bit less for any Mac. If you're just writing papers, you could buy some $200 clearance laptop and get away with it.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

Here's a little insight.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2593362#post2593362