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13" MBP v 13" Dell Vostro 1320

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emilyland1326

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 23, 2009
16
0
So there's only a marginal difference (both ways) between these two machines in terms of specs after I've customized them, but the low-end Dell is $260NZD cheaper...

MBP 13":
CPU: 2.26GHz
HD: 250GB @ 5400rpm
RAM: 4GB DDR3
Battery: equiv 9-cell
Price: $2,257NZD (N.B. upgrading myself and selling stock HD and RAM)

Dell Vostro 1320
CPU: 2.1GHz
HD: 250GB @ 7200rpm
RAM: 4GB DDR2
Battery: 9-cell
Price: $1998.63NZD (N.B. $2336.13 if CPU is upgraded to 2.4GHz)

I know that pretty much everybody here uses a Mac, but honest opinion, what do you think of this comparison in terms of the price:spec ratio? If you think one deal is better than the other, please give reasons. Thanks!
 
It really comes down to one question: do you want to use Windows or OS X? The MBP has faster memory (not too important), and although they have equivalent battery sizes, I'd be willing to bet that the MBP gets much better battery life due to the design.
 
Actually, the price you have is with the

Mobile Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X4500MHD With Black color, graphics card.

Comes up to $2,279.88 with a NVIDIA(R) GeForce 9300M 256MB With Black Color witch I think is more comparable to the mbp's 9400m. Fairly sure the 9300 is the dedicated version of the 9400, with 256mb. Essentially the dell has dedicated graphics and a faster hard drive versus the mbp's marginaly faster cpu and ram.

If you compare strictly the specs, you can get a better deal than the mbp. Heck, you could also just get the internals, put them in a cardboard box and run a good Linux distro and save a lot.

I personally don't really like the looks of the vostro, not to mention how bulky it would be with the humongous 9-cell battery. But in the end it all comes down to the OS.
 
mike1123 said:
It really comes down to one question: do you want to use Windows or OS X
Click to expand...
Not really (Think about it).

Personally, while I'm a fan of Dell's customer service I hate their build quality in their notebooks. Of course I didn't know any better until I got a mac.

Also, I'm not sure if this has changed but Dell's 9 volt batteries seem to stick out like a sore thumb and always looked like an engineering afterthought to me.
 
Richard1028 said:
Not really (Think about it).

Personally, while I'm a fan of Dell's customer service I hate their build quality in their notebooks. Of course I didn't know any better until I got a mac.

Also, I'm not sure if this has changed but Dell's 9 volt batteries seem to stick out like a sore thumb and always looked like an engineering afterthought to me.
Click to expand...

Wow, I've never heard one person on this earth accept you ever say they were a FAN of Dell's customer service. All my friends that have Dell's (which are only a few) hate their service.
 
HLdan said:
Wow, I've never heard one person on this earth accept you ever say they were a FAN of Dell's customer service. All my friends that have Dell's (which are only a few) hate their service.
Click to expand...

All the times I've called Apple Care I've gotten someone who spoke english very clearly. All the times I've called Dell Care (?) I've gotten someone who spoke english with heavy indian accents where words could be understood as a number of different ones. Maybe once or twice I had an english speaking person.
 
HLdan said:
Wow, I've never heard one person on this earth accept you ever say they were a FAN of Dell's customer service. All my friends that have Dell's (which are only a few) hate their service.
Click to expand...

I always purchase the complete care warranties on all the dell laptops I buy.
There customer service has drastically improved from 3 years ago.
 
spaceboots06 said:
All the times I've called Apple Care I've gotten someone who spoke english very clearly. All the times I've called Dell Care (?) I've gotten someone who spoke english with heavy indian accents where words could be understood as a number of different ones. Maybe once or twice I had an english speaking person.
Click to expand...

When was the last time you called?
 
Seriously, are these posters being sponsored by Microsoft? Is this Laptop Hunters? :confused:

Features / Spec Ratio?! How about Dell Vostro running OS X or the build quality?

If the O.P doesn't know why the Apple product is better than get a Dell and join Neowin.
 
HLdan said:
Wow, I've never heard one person on this earth accept you ever say they were a FAN of Dell's customer service. All my friends that have Dell's (which are only a few) hate their service.
Click to expand...
That hasn't been my experience. I bought a quad Inspiron a while back - many problems during shipping. I was assigned my very own relations representative. She called me every evening at 8pm to check on me for 5 days.

On 2 other machines I've had techs show up on my doorstep to do on-site repairs.

Recently I had problems setting up a wireless printer on a Studio laptop... nothing but red carpet treatment.

All this being said though doesn't mean beans if somebody else writes the OS. This is one of the biggest reasons I dropped PC's. Apple does both - one stop shop for all my computing needs - as it should be - end of story.
 
emilyland1326 said:
So there's only a marginal difference (both ways) between these two machines in terms of specs after I've customized them, but the low-end Dell is $260NZD cheaper...

MBP 13":
CPU: 2.26GHz
HD: 250GB @ 5400rpm
RAM: 4GB DDR3
Battery: equiv 9-cell
Price: $2,257NZD (N.B. upgrading myself and selling stock HD and RAM)

Dell Vostro 1320
CPU: 2.1GHz
HD: 250GB @ 7200rpm
RAM: 4GB DDR2
Battery: 9-cell
Price: $1998.63NZD (N.B. $2336.13 if CPU is upgraded to 2.4GHz)

I know that pretty much everybody here uses a Mac, but honest opinion, what do you think of this comparison in terms of the price:spec ratio? If you think one deal is better than the other, please give reasons. Thanks!
Click to expand...

This has been mentioned but I think it comes down to either wanting OSX or Windows. An added bonus is not having to get Antivirus software :D
 
Richard1028 said:
That hasn't been my experience. I bought a quad Inspiron a while back - many problems during shipping. I was assigned my very own relations representative. She called me every evening at 8pm to check on me for 5 days.

On 2 other machines I've had techs show up on my doorstep to do on-site repairs.

Recently I had problems setting up a wireless printer on a Studio laptop... nothing but red carpet treatment.

All this being said though doesn't mean beans if somebody else writes the OS. This is one of the biggest reasons I dropped PC's. Apple does both - one stop shop for all my computing needs - as it should be - end of story.
Click to expand...

I've had some serious issues with Dell's support. They were always able to get a tech out to me quickly, but there were several times that wrong parts were ordered. On top of that I've actually had them do more damage than good (when replacing a bottom case/swapping the bottom case the tech didn't put the CMOS back in). The build quality was awful on the XPS M1330, I cannot for the life of me believe that this is(was?) a premium system.
 
I would say, buy the Mac. It has two graphics cards, and the general build quality is much better. The Windows computer is one of Dell's identically designed computers that are like all of the others: you buy it, then something breaks, and then you go back to Dell Support to find that your warranty has expired. Buy the Mac.
 
Thanks for your replies.

What most people seem to be saying is that it comes down to OSX or XP (I hate Vista), and tbh its not much of a dealbreaker to me coz I'm perfectly fine using either. Sure iLife has nice features, but its not something I depend on since I've gotten by pretty fine on my old comps, and even though Windows has not been problem-free for me, I doubt the Mac is foolproof either.

As for the graphics card, I am not an intensive gamer, nor do I do graphic design, so again, its not a dealbreaker.

Having said that, after looking at some pictures of the Vostro, while it is fine in terms of specs, there is no freaking way I'm carrying anything that chunky around. I never noticed on the Dell site, but after finding a review with pictures showing how thick it actually is....

Oh, and with regard to customer service, maybe its just me but I have NEVER needed to take any of my laptops in for repairs or problems, unless you're suggesting I would need to for a mac ;).

Anyway, thanks again!
 
emilyland1326 said:
Thanks for your replies.

What most people seem to be saying is that it comes down to OSX or XP (I hate Vista), and tbh its not much of a dealbreaker to me coz I'm perfectly fine using either. Sure iLife has nice features, but its not something I depend on since I've gotten by pretty fine on my old comps, and even though Windows has not been problem-free for me, I doubt the Mac is foolproof either.

As for the graphics card, I am not an intensive gamer, nor do I do graphic design, so again, its not a dealbreaker.

Having said that, after looking at some pictures of the Vostro, while it is fine in terms of specs, there is no freaking way I'm carrying anything that chunky around. I never noticed on the Dell site, but after finding a review with pictures showing how thick it actually is....

Oh, and with regard to customer service, maybe its just me but I have NEVER needed to take any of my laptops in for repairs or problems, unless you're suggesting I would need to for a mac ;).

Anyway, thanks again!
Click to expand...

I think you will be happy with a Mac, I have never had any issues nor had to call customer service, so if you treat it well and take care of it you will be fine.
 
The Vostro is in a completely different league than the macbook pro 13". The Vostro is Dell's value line and the macbook pro is the Pro line. It's premium. For such a small difference in price, you're much better off going with the macbook pro.
 
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