Why macbook pro?

To those of you who paid the extra premium price for the macbook pro when you could have gotten a laptop with the same specs for hunderds of dollars cheaper, why'd you do it? (i'm not flaming here, i'm considering buying a macbook pro myself but I just need some more persuading =P )

 

Well, OSX for starters. Leopord around the corner. Super LED screen, excellent battery life/portablity for a 15.4" notebook. Boot camp for windows xp/vista. Best damn keyboard (after thinkpad's). New santa rosa processor.

The real question dk is, why not?

Good luck

 

I'm a Mac user. I want to use OS X. For me it's never been about the money, it's what I want that counts. I have always bought the pro model Macs because of features and overall professional build quality and I don't have to worry about it missing this or that because I wanted to save a few bucks.

 

I dont think there is a comparable product for a few 100$ cheaper. Nothing as light, slim with as much graphics power. Also no other laptop with a 8600M GT can reach the battery life of the MBP.

What other 15.4" laptop has as much graphic power as the MBP with the 8600M GT GDDR3? Only the Asus G1s that I can think of and the design of the MBP, especialy in a proffesional setting, is much better and portable.

The Lenovo T61p is the only other laptop that might come close but I have not seen details about its 3d power or battery life. The T61p is also not cheap. Only advantige it has is that Lenovo might have better discount deals then Apple.

 

Go look at a 15.4" laptop from any other company and the price difference will appear to be much more reasonable. apple makes premium products, and I'm willing to pay the premium

If you spend an extra 500$ on a laptop that brings you much more joy/pleasure, then why not? It's not like you're getting scammed or anything...

For me, the mbp offers superior build quality and incredible hardware all encompassing the best OS and software I've ever used. 'nuff said!

 

The macbook pro is a business class notebook. If you look at a similarly spec'd 15.4" from another manufacturers business section there's not that much difference.

The reasons I paid the premium:
Build Quality
OS X
Industrial Design
Tried and true hardware configuration
Excellent customer service that isn't outsourced (huge deal for me)
The ability to run OS X, Windows XP, and Linux all on one computer.
The Mac community tends to be nicer, closer, and more helpful than the PC community.

 

Considering a laptop of such build, I don't think there are any other laptops out there whose prices are far from the MBP's. I paid $1800 for mine and I haven't seen ANY laptop that meets the options in a MBP and ones that are close, are around the $2000 mark. So, saying the MBP, particularly the 2.2GHz (T7500) with the 8600M GT GFX card is way too expensive in comparison to other laptops out there is just downright incorrect.

 

Eh, I wouldn't call it a "business class notebook" since it lacks a few things most people expect from business laptops (slightly better build quality and cooling, security and hardware encryption features, spill-proof keyboard, fingerprint reader, etc.).

But anyway, in my case, it was because I couldn't have gotten a laptop with the features I wanted for any price, other than the MBP (I consider size, weight, style, and the LED backlit screen to be "features")...so the idea of getting another laptop for hundreds of $ less simply wasn't true in my case since it was the only laptop on the market that met those requirements.

OSX was helpful in that I liked it as an OS, possibly more than Windows - but it alone probably wouldn't have made me convert (an OS is an OS in my mind)..
However, combined with the hardware options offered by Apple and the customer support, it was enough for me to buy the MBP even though it lacked a few of the options I wanted (but didn't consider as vital).

 

Pretty much what everyone else has said...

I also have to say, it has the BEST laptop keyboard. Blows away IBM's thinkpad ones IMHO.

 

I am happy to reply - two reasons: Business, and pleasure.

Business: I use the laptop for work. I have had perhaps a week total downtime from dealing with Windows problems last year. A day here, half a day there, that sort of thing. I am hoping to reduce that by a few days by using OS X and unix which have fewer problems and more options to automate things etc (command shell). If I manage to reduce my time wasted on OS maintenance by half a day it will pay for any perceived price difference to Windows laptops already. And I think it will be much more.

Pleasure: I sit in front of the computer all day. I prefer to look at a well designed machine and a well designed user interface.

Now that I am using the Mac, I also discover that there are lots of very nice 3rd party utilities that are just not available in this quality on Windows. There's a plethora of useful system stats programs - iPulse, XRG, iStat Pro to name a few - and nothing comparable on windows. I looked very hard for that when I was on Windows - nothing. Windows equivalents are either extremely ugly, or have almost no information. There's a great menu bar app for VPN - Shimo, nothing like it on Windows. The widgets are much better than on Windows, strangely even Vista didn't copy them. Adium (IM) and CyberDuck (FTP) also have no equivalent on Windows, and certainly nothing that's free. I don't know why that is, but its very nice.

The iApps are pretty valuable as well.

Last not least look at well designed, small and light for their class Windows machines - top end Asus, Sony, IBM X series - and you will find there is no premium on Macs. Those PC laptops that have the same specs as the MBP and are cheaper are invariably bigger and heavier as well, have worse battery life etc.

The bottom line is, if you don't need Windows a MBP is a no-brainer.

And I am sympathetic to people who do need Windows, I was one of them before Apples switch to Intel. I am a Java developer and Java used to suck very badly on PPC based Macs, it was 5x slower than on Windows. So I had to use Windows. Intel based Macs are as fast in Java as Win, so I was finally able to switch...

 

Seconded!

Obliterates my Acers keyboard by a far margin, doesn't compare.

 

Hrm. I like the keyboard, but I wouldn't say it beats my thinkpad's just like that.

It's a different style of keyboard though, so it's up to individual preference.

 

I wanted something that would last a long, long while. I've read in lots of places that people have gone 5+ years with their Mac's without upgrading, while people with traditional PC's change every 3 years or so. MBP's retain their value better in the long run. Hence, here I am awaiting my very first MacBook Pro.

 

At first I was considering a Compal IFL90 from xoticpc.com but I decided upon the MBP for various reasons. My main reason was probably because of the graphics card which featured GDDR3 memory whilst only Asus at this time offered a GDDR3 8600m GT but their laptops are UGLY in my opinion.

Anyways, various reasons why I bought a MBP (in no particular order):
- Less than 1" thin.
- Very sexy and minimalistic design.
- LED Back-lit display on 15.4" model.
- Illuminated keyboard.
- Alluminum chassis.
- Slot-loading optical drive.
- Glossy & Matte display options available.
- NVidia GeForce 8600m GT 256MB VRAM GDDR3.
- Intel Santa Rosa platform.
- Intel Core 2 Duo T7700.
- Apple on display lid illuminates.
- Keyboard is very comfortable to type on.
- Keyboard feels sturdy.
- Runs cool so long as there's airflow around the unit.
- Firewire 800, Firewire 400, 2x USB 2.0 (on 15.4") 3x USB (on 17")
- Looking forward to OS X Leopard
- With Boot Camp, I can always install Windows XP/Vista when/if necessary.

There's other reasons here and there but otherwise I'm an extremely happy puppy with this MBP.

For curiosity, I have:
Apple MacBook Pro
15.4" LED Back-lit WXGA+ Glossy
Intel Santa Rosa Platform
Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz, 4MB Cache, 800MHz FSB)
2GB Dual Channel 667MHz PC-5300 Memory
Fujitsu 160GB 5400RPM Hard Disk Drive
NVidia GeForce 8600m GT 256MB VRAM GDDR3

HP Photosmart C4200 Series Printer
iPod Nano Blue (4G)

I admit the price is very high compared to similar priced notebooks and the notebook could have been at least $300 cheaper if they had just used an Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB Cache, 800MHz FSB) processor, but power is everything.

Given the little details on this notebook such as the LED back-lit display, the illuminated keyboard, the alluminum casing, 1" thin design. I think it's worth every penny. Best of all, besides the $200 student discount I recieved, the iPod and printer were free with mail-in-rebates.

 

would I then have to consider myself lucky to have had my dell inspiron laptop for 4 1/2 years now?

It's the only thing keeping me from buying a macbook pro. Dude, just go for it. We only live once.