With regard to the comparison of the Macbook pro to the XPS M1530...
I just finished reading an article in Maximum PC (yes a PC mag) that compared these two laptops. Yes, the hardware is practically identical, but the Mac outperformed the Dell machine in most benchmarks. And that was with both Notebooks running Vista. They gave the Macbook the higher rating and "Best in Class" status in the "Professional Notebook" category. The $500 price difference didn't seem to matter in light of the performance advantage.
Even with similar hardware, Apple engineering does seem to make a difference.
Granted Apple didn't fare as well in the "Mainstream" or the "Ultraportable" categories,
😱 but the point is you can't just compare hardware. Performance counts as well.
Article.