I frequently hear from friends, “I’d consider a Mac but it costs more than a PC. Doesn’t it?” My gut response has been, “Not if you compare Apples to Apples!” (no pun intended.) MacWorld recently published a comparison of comparably equipped laptops. See this article for the details. The results (prices as of 6/20/2008):
MacBook vs. Dell XPS M1330 - Mac wins by a few bucks
MacBook Air vs. Lenovo X300 - Mac wins by $1571
MacBook Pro vs. HP’s Compaq 8710w Mobile Workstation - Mac wins by $263
Just what I thought! Can you get a $400 Windows laptop from Best Buy? Sure but don’t compare it to a MacBook — they’re in different leagues. Some other considerations as stated in the article:
- Windows computers are perpetual targets for spyware and viruses. Macs are targeted, too, but not to the same degree.
- The Mac OS and Apple computers both come from the same company. While Macs
aren’t trouble free, you’re less likely to experience as many unexplainable crashes and incompatibilities as you might on a WindowsPC.- Apple has earned top scores from PC World readers in reliability and service.
- The Mac OS X Leopard is a clever, nimble operating system and a pleasure to use. Windows Vista is a behemoth. While not the demon it’s often made out to be, it ain’t the Mac OS, either.
- Apple laptops have thoughtful design touches, such as keyboards that illuminate automatically in dim lighting.
- There are many more laptop choices in the Windows world, and at a greater variety of price points.
- There are still plenty of software applications available for Windows only. (You can run Windows on Macs, of course, using Apple’s Boot camp, which is included in Mac OS X Leopard, or a third-party virtualization program such as Parallels Desktop for Mac
By the way, I use Parallels for two Windows apps that I use occasionally. It works great.
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