Laptop Hunting

So our 15in Acer laptop from 2005 has been on its deathbed for about 6 months now (I even had to reformat the hard drive and installed Windows 7 beta on it just to keep it going) and I finally decided it's time to put her down for good and go shopping. Of course I want a Macbook Pro (now that they offer matte options for their screens) but I decided to look at the PC side as well. The downside? You pay a fee for Apple's quality vs value but I wanted to see if the 25% increase in price was actually worth it.

We strolled to the only store left with computers in it, Best Buy, and started with the Windows machines. The Dell's we looked at with the brightness cranked up to 100% looked washed out (and the lid/screen was warped into a wave shape), the Sony had a better screen but the keyboard bent down into the machine when typing and all the HP's had 1in touchpads and screens so terrible that you had to look dead-center otherwise the color/brightness dropped off. All of them suffered from the 'cheap-plastic' creeking and bending when held and made me think these wouldn't last more than two years.

So after watching my wife try typing, holding and moving around the screen with what can only be described as a "meh" look upon her face I took her over to the Mac section. Within a minute she praised the giant touchpad, screen brightness and build quality when holding it. But then the budget minded super saver part kicked in and it turned into "But they are $500-600 more...". Which is usually the breaking point in making a purchase like this, so I decided to look at the specs and compare them.

The Dell, Sony and HP all had older DDR2 memory, a 2.1Ghz processor, shared memory video card, average 2-3hrs battery life and a terrible screen/build quality. The Macbook Pro's all have a 2.66Ghz Processor, DDR3 memory, Dedicated video card, all metal body that doesn't bend/creek, bluetooth, LED instant-on screen and a 7hr battery. So for non-tech people it's faster, can play games and HD video content faster and smoother, much better and viewable screen, doesn't have to be charged as often and if you drop it on concrete it may dent but it won't shatter into a thousand shards of cheap plastic.

So what was the conclusion of this experiment? We decided (and I do mean WE) to find a middle ground and most likely buy a refurbished Macbook Pro for about $275 less than brand new. Apple gives you the same 1yr warranty and return policy so why not?

So I guess the old myth of the 'Apple Tax' does hold true but from what I've researched if having a machine that feels solid, has a better screen, keyboard and touchpad that gives the impression it will last more than two years then yes it is worth the extra $500-$600.