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nc26

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 8, 2010
13
0
I need a good point/excuse to buy one, and convince my dad that it's not an over priced piece of metal! I've got a 4 month old home built win7 desktop that's fairly powerful, but I'm missing the mobility of a laptop. Discuss please :D
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
Tell him that OS X has no viruses and is much faster and stabler in other areas as well. You could add that the build quality and things like battery life are much better in MBPs than in cheap PC lappies.

Note: These are just salesman speeches, real world experiences may vary
 

JoJoCal19

macrumors 65816
Jun 25, 2007
1,078
55
Jacksonville, FL
Better is subjective and depends highly on the needs of the user. For example, for gaming, PC wins. For spec and power to cost ratio, PC wins. For running business and professional apps, PC wins.

Macs are better in every other way! I have an almost $900 Toshiba i3 laptop, and the hardware SUCKS! The keys and chassis are shiny piano black and typing on it is horrendous and its a grease magnet. The touchpad is the worst ever. My 2006 MacBook touchpad puts it to shame.

To me the hardware is worth the extra Apple tax. I've dealt with inferior hardware often and when you use it every day, its not fun.
 

xdbuix

macrumors 6502
Oct 8, 2008
307
0
Virginia
i have the black macbook from 2008. My brother got a dell inspiron at the same time. Since then, my macbook has been in great shape. I Download alot and no problems with viruses, its still fast til this day. The battery on it has been holding up fine. 958 cycles and its down to 80% battery health, pretty good for a battery thats meant for around 300 cycles. However my only problem with the black macbook is its graphics card, it isnt able to play the better games such as Starcraft 2 well, but its not a problem since i'm upgrading soon to a new mbp.

My brother's dell inspiron on the other hand, the cd dvd drive went kaput, the graphics card fried and he had to send it in to get itrepaired. The cd dvd drive still doesnt work til this day. This coming from a guy who keeps his room dirt clean.

My verdict is that the macbook is really reliable. I used to be a windows fan until i took the leap and its an awesome machine.
 

macbwizard

macrumors 6502
May 23, 2005
282
54
My 2006 MacBook touchpad puts it to shame.

This! I get so frustrated when I try to use other PC notebooks and find their touchpads to be really shoddy. It's the way that you interact with the computer and Apple really has gotten it right.
 

wct097

macrumors 6502
Nov 30, 2010
462
44
Just tell him that it'll help you pick up <chicks/guys> at the coffee shop. He'll understand and it'll set his mind at ease as to your sexual preference. :D

Seriously though, Apple does a pretty decent job at putting together quality components that work well together. Other manufacturers try to impress with higher specs, but not always quality components. The end result is that Apple's components are good (not great) quality, but generally not high end. They make good all-around computers for the vast majority of users with a decent balance between performance and battery life.

IMO, however, they're substantially overpriced considering that users that do more than surf the net and listen to iTunes will also have to purchase a Windows 7 license. That said, I'll be purchasing on the refresh and sucking up the price premium.
 

greytmom

macrumors 68040
Jun 23, 2010
3,566
1,002
I need a good point/excuse to buy one, and convince my dad that it's not an over priced piece of metal! I've got a 4 month old home built win7 desktop that's fairly powerful, but I'm missing the mobility of a laptop. Discuss please :D

Built to last. I've never had a PC that was worth much after about 2 years. My MBP is almost 4 years old, and truthfully, it still looks like new and works beautifully. The only issue I've had is a need to replace the battery, which I did several months ago.

I'm getting a new one because I want faster, newer, better... not because I'm having problems with my current machine. In fact, I'm really torn about the idea of selling my old one... I'm thinking I'll have problems letting go!
 

rdupuy

macrumors newbie
Jul 27, 2010
16
1
recently asked same question

I have a macbook pro, and I was recently asked this same question. I thought about it quickly and decided, there really isn't a hardware advantage to Apple hardware.

Simply put, they are not better than PC laptops - not in build quality, not on price - and they run exactly the same speed as a similarly spec'd PC. One could argue they look better, but even that is subjective, some PC's look nice.

But, they are licensed to run Mac OS, PC's are not.

So the argument has to center around Mac OS. Still, I own a macbook pro, precisely because I do want to run Mac OS - so to me that argument is compelling.

Mac OS is the only OS that runs xCode, the premier OS to develop iPhone apps - any chance you do some programming? If not, then take the graphic arts angle - most of that stuff supports Windows too, but not all.

And if none of that works, don't be sure that reason is the only thing that works, try repetitively harassing him into buying one and make sure he understands the issue isn't going away (haha, I'm not really advising this...just a bit of humor).
 

Funkymonk

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2011
773
0
Why get a Mac?

A recent discussion with a colleague:

Him: I can’t get my netbook connected to the projector. It was just working in the other classroom.

Me: Why are you asking me, I haven’t used a Windows computer since I got this Macbook in Oct 08.

Him: Well you seem to know about computers.

Me: Flattery won’t get you a good answer. Did you check all the connections? The switcher is set ok... The projector is set ok...?

Him: Yes.

Me: (Plug in my 10/2008 Alu MacBook - 10 seconds later...) Well it is working with my computer, so there must be something wrong with yours. (Passing the cables to him) Make sure you wait a sec after pressing the function key - sometimes it is slow to respond.

Him: Ok. See, it is still not working.

Me: I am fresh out of ideas. Restart your computer, maybe Windows is just acting strange.

Him: (Restarts Windows) Oh, hey, it is working now.

At the time, my MacBook was on 19d 1h 56m of uptime and working just fine. He shuts down his netbook every time he packs it up. That is stability.

In windows defense, that was just a budget netbook. A lot of professionals swear on the reliabilities of their thinkpads.
 

Grannyville7989

macrumors 6502a
Aug 2, 2010
549
0
One really big thing that attracted me to using a MacBook Pro was the ability to run Windows and Mac on the same machine.

I've been a big fan of Windows and Mac for a long time and it's great having the best of both worlds on one laptop. I love Snow Leopard and Windows 7. :)
 

jmoore5196

macrumors 6502a
May 19, 2009
837
318
Russellville AR
I'm not sure if time is money in your case, since you're asking someone else to make the purchase for you. But if someone else expects you to get a lot done, the productivity boost that is OS X means a lot.

As the previous posters have mentioned, you don't have to "screw with" OS X ... it just works. In comparison to anything out of Redmond, a Macintosh will actually save time. If your time can be equated to productivity, getting more done, or money, that should be your core argument.

If your time is limitless, on the other hand, or if you enjoy "screwing with" hardware and an OS, I'm not sure "they sexy" will cut it.
 

jvmxtra

macrumors 65816
Sep 21, 2010
1,245
3
For those of you who says there are no hardware advantage:

mbp looks so nice that every morning, I want to open them up and start to work on it. It makes me feel better -- I know this sounds funny but it's true.
I don't care if you are at motel 6, it makes your surrounding luxurious. Go figure.

Also, you will notice that screen is super super nice. Maybe because I have only used cheap pc laptop but first thing I noticed when I went to see the mbp was that screen quality is just superb. Another reason why I can't wait to open them up and start to working on it asap.

It goes without saying that keyboard quality is top notch.
Lastly but could be one of the key highlight is obviously the trackpad. It's the best thing.

I am not even gonna go into OS which is by far the best that's available out there. It perfectly solved people who want to use linux as desktop/laptop. It gives user stable os with great software but don't go nuts like linux.
Glaring problem of linux as pc: It gives user way too much choice.
I am a hardcore geek and programmer but I don't want to spend my time tweaking my OS everyday and I cannot afford my main rig to go down because I am experimenting w/ some new driver or something..
When company controls both hardware/software, not only creates great user experience but you know for fact it's not going to break your pc after the update...

Go mbp!!!
 

camelsnot

macrumors 6502
Jan 31, 2011
293
0
Tell him that OS X has no viruses and is much faster and stabler in other areas as well. You could add that the build quality and things like battery life are much better in MBPs than in cheap PC lappies.

Note: These are just salesman speeches, real world experiences may vary


Mac laptop isn't any faster than a PC laptop. It has the same guts, however, current gen Mac laptops are actually slower due to lack of hardware updates (rectified later this week).

The build quality is really the same. The battery life on a MacBook Pro is laughable and probably not a good idea to boast about. We've replaced numerous batteries on our 2-4 year MBPs over the years. The things just don't last, even with proper cycling. MBP batteries are fail. It's even funnier that you compare a MBP battery to a cheap PC laptop's battery. Typically the cheaper PC laptops have smaller screens, consume less power, thus burn through battery power even less. FAIL example.

As for "stabler", whatever that is, running After Effects, Maya and the rest on a PC is a lot "more stable" than on OSX. Linux even more so. If gramps is buying a laptop, web surfing, excel spreadsheets and word are stable on any platform and a cheaper PC laptop would be a better buy, period.
 
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Bobby Corwen

macrumors 68030
Jul 16, 2010
2,723
474
Say These:

"pssshhhhh yeah right Dad, those other laptops are garbage. When everyone else is looking around for a plug to recharge their battery, I'll still be cruising on 3 hours more of battery life."

"I dont have time to waste reinstalling windows every six weeks because the drive gets cluttered and the laptop slows down to to a snail pace, the Mac OS works way different and prevents sluggishness and slowdown. I don't want to have to deal with that garbage"

"why would I want a piece of crap laptop that's gonna fail on me in a couple years and won't be worth crap when I can invest in a Mac and sell it for how much I got it or more if I upgrade the ram and hard drive and I can have a free laptop every year. They have ridiculous re sale value like Hondas. I never have to buy a laptop or waste money upgrading crappy hardware again."

"dad you're so inconsiderate of details, your logic is highly contradictory and devoid of reasOn and sound critical thinking"
 

samk8000

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2010
135
0
toronto, ontario
Say this:
With a mac, I can build websites, make videos, mix music tracks, and edit and organize photos right out of the box. A mac is a mac, a linux, and a PC. A mac can run special programs like final cut, logic express, Xcode, Aperture, but can still run all PC software and adobe stuff too. Apple education discounts: You can get $1500 off of adobe cs5. Metal is more durable that plastic. Plus, take him to the apple store and show them to him. (worked on my mom)
 
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Sudaddy

macrumors member
Jan 25, 2011
59
0
I have used many OS in my short life and I feel MacOS X is the biggest difference between PCs and Mac. Security wise, no doubt MacOS X is incomparable. Pretty much everyone I know at work or school has suffered some type of "virus" attack their life time on their PCs - can't say I know or met anyone who had any virus or spyware issues on their Mac.

Speed wise, Windows 7 is just a bloated system. It uses too much resources to do too little - some of the features are even directly copied from Mac. The interface on all three os (XP, Vista and 7) are just simply unintuitive and clunky. You have to click too many places to get simple things done. OS organization is crappy.

Mac OS X on the other hand seems just much more intuitive to me. Very easy to learn. Some PC folks try to hit back with the "you don't have the right click" but that's a lame argument because you can enable the right click on your Mac, if it is not enabled yet.

PCs in my experience tend to crash more, the programs take a long time to start, and there's always the Internet Explorer which is up to new ways to destroy your PC experience. With Mac OS X, none of that. Safari isn't perfect, but it definitely not as hideous and terrible as IE (doesn't matter which version - they all equally suck). Macs do crash, but in my experience not as much as PCs.

From a programming point of view, my Mac was ready to go right when I opened the box. Java was already installed, and I program on vi and before you know, I am flying (or coding). With PC, you have to install few things, change few environment variables, install some IDE before you can write "Hello World". Too much work.

For me the underlying Unix environment is easy to play with than any of the PC's system variables. Installing or uninstalling apps on Mac is also easier, where you just delete a software on Mac to uninstall it. On PCs, for some software, it's just a pain.

Hardware wise, well, Mac laptops or iMacs are just so nicely designed. I can't think of any all-in-one PC system that looks as beautiful, simple and elegant as the iMac. If you have a mac at home, you show it off to your guests, not hide it under your table. Same thing for laptops, they are thin, have powerful batteries, last longer, have nice screens, and are sleek. I am sure you can buy one nice powerful PC, but when you open that new PC from Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo or HP, don't forget to clean the zillions of crap and useless software that comes with that PC which basically cripple your OS experience. That's why many advanced users that I know, like a clean install of Windows 7 or XP on their systems, rather than the crap that comes along with it.

I could go on and on.
 

stev3n

macrumors 6502
Feb 9, 2010
251
0
"But dad, it will last me through college and you won't need to buy me a new one." Usually does the trick but I have no idea if you're in college or already went to college or too young to be in college.
 

idea_hamster

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2003
1,096
1
NYC, or thereabouts
Built to last. I've never had a PC that was worth much after about 2 years. My MBP is almost 4 years old, and truthfully, it still looks like new and works beautifully. The only issue I've had is a need to replace the battery, which I did several months ago.

I'm getting a new one because I want faster, newer, better... not because I'm having problems with my current machine. In fact, I'm really torn about the idea of selling my old one... I'm thinking I'll have problems letting go!

+1. This is, without a doubt, the most important -- albeit one of the subtlest -- aspects of the value of a Mac.

If you are willing to really -- REALLY -- use your Mac until its capabilities are outstripped by the rest of the computing world, you are in for a long and successful relationship with your Mac.

To share an anecdote, I bought a 500MHz TiBook basically as soon as it was announced at the end of 2000. Five years later, I was using it to review proofs with my publisher at his office and it was running like a charm with the then-current OS. It would go on working for another year, and honestly was still pretty much OK when I needed an Intel-chip Mac to run a Windows-only program in 2006.

Unfortunately, you will have to shed any new-gadget-ism -- at least on the level where you must actually OWN the item. But, hey, that's good for you (and your wallet)!
 
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