Buying a laptop: questions about hardware performance

[FFTT]

You told us that you already have a G5 so I assume you have a good display
as well.

It sounds like you only NEED a basic laptop for portability which would be well covered by an iBook, however, since you do have another display, I would strongly consider the 12" PowerBook.

If your goal is to run all platforms, then I would wait till
the new Intel based PowerBooks are available.

Then if reports are correct you'll have one laptop able to run
OSX. Windows and Linux.

 

[Ryan T.]

If you had to drop one from 4 feet and bet your life on which one would still work, which one would you bet on?

Get the iBook.

I'd take an IBM Thinkpad in this case over anything Dell or Apple puts out.

 

[FFTT]

Oh you mean a cheap Chinese Lenova spinoff "Think I Can Pad"

Sorry, I just can't for the life of me understand how anyone would want to run
Windows if they have an OS X machine available unless it was absolutely
required for work.

 

[MUCKYFINGERS]

Thanks for all your replies. I think I'm going to get either an iBook or Powerbook now, instead of going with the Dell. It's probably going to be down between a 14" iBook now or 12" Powerbook.

 

[mpopkin]

Everyone has a good point. The most important thing you need to remember is that it is what you want that is the final decision.
Dell's are More compatible, More people have them, you can get more speed for the money, dude your getting a dell, come on. thats it. all. I have a dell inspiron in the closet because 1) dell tech support SUCKS, it takes me an average of an hour to talk to one and then they cant speak english very well. Windows crashes frequently and cannot handle video and photo worth anything on a Dell. I will say this, if you want a windows based machine and are willing to spend the money, get an IBM laptop, they are the best non mac laptops on the market with solid OS(xp professional) and solid support.
WHy should you buy a mac then?
1) speed is not everything, but power is, short of getting a Pentium M ULV(ultra low voltage) you wont find a single pc based laptop with a great battery life, but my powerbook 15" got more than 3 hours battery life. and the power was 1.5 ghz and it handled everything including FCP and photoshop.
2) apple tech support is not only ranked the best by Consumer reports and JD Power, it is friendly(though greedy) fast and they share a connection with the product, a sense of similiarity with those they help. In short apple support is great and i have never had a problem with them at all.
3) Apple is compatible and their video and photo software is great
if you want games, buy a playstation.

I would recommend getting a powerbook 15 or an ibook 12" because of the power and i wish you luck in your decision

I did a search for this kind of thread and didn't find any results, so I was wondering if anyone could help me answer this question. I've been set on getting an iBook or Powerbook G4 for awhile, and my sister recently purchased a Dell Inspiron. She told me that for the same money you pay, the hardware you can get on a Dell laptop is far better than on a Mac laptop. Also, I noticed that whereas Dell has frequent specials where you can get a laptop with far better hardware than the iBook G4 for significantly less...

Anyway, is there any solid reasons why I should get a current Apple laptop over a Dell laptop (with better hardware), besides the fact that I like OSX a lot? And I love the looks of the iBooks too...

 

[mpopkin]

I'd take an IBM Thinkpad in this case over anything Dell or Apple puts out.

hey ryan,
I now have an IBM thinkpad x40 and love it, but my G5 is by far the better and more powerful machine, but for ultraportability my 2 and a half pound baby is great. !!

 

[njmac]

By the way, you came to the right place to be "talked into" getting the mac over the Dell

 

[gog]

Thanks for all your replies. I think I'm going to get either an iBook or Powerbook now, instead of going with the Dell. It's probably going to be down between a 14" iBook now or 12" Powerbook.

Good decision that. With Apple you buy into a premium well-thought-out-computer-experience from top to toe. With dell you buy an ugly box running poor software that will be worthless in <3 years. A few extra numbers on the promo stand mean nooooothing.
I'd go for the 12" powerbook. 12" is more portable and thats what you need in a notebook. Big notebook = sore shoulder.
And the specs are just so much more reasonable than in the ibook at present: HDD size and speed, base RAM, graphics ability, sheer power. These are things you want.

 

[HasanDaddy]

I have sworn off windows - the last one I ever bought was a Sony Vaio in 1999, which was actually a greatt machine - but nothing compared to the Macs we got today ----- overall, I will never go back to windows because the software simply isn't there - nothing can compete with Apple's simplicity of using photos, movies, and dvd burning all together in one easy package ----- programs like DVDSP and FCP just can't be found on windows - and if they can, they simply can't run as well ----- so overall, I really don't care if Dells had a 158 ghz processor - it still wouldn't have the software

 

[ksz]

Well, I use both PCs and Macs. The reason I prefer a Mac is because...
6. No registry to deal with.

Amen, amen, amen. Windows Registry = curse of the living dead. Microsoft's .NET, for example, shuns the registry in favor of the GAC -- the Global Assembly Cache. Time will tell how well the GAC behaves, but it does not help legacy unmanaged code.

8. Compared to a similarly specs PB, a Dell Inspiron isn't really that much faster or cheaper (unless you wait for one of them $750 off $1499 sales. If that's the case, I'd probably be tempted by the Dell.).

Like another poster, I also have a Dell Inspiron 6000d with a 2GHz Pentium-M, 533MHz FSB, 15.4" 1680x1050 screen, 2GB memory, 100GB 5400rpm drive, Bluetooth 2.0, ATI X300 w/128MB PCIe, extended battery, blah blah blah. With a 35% discount, it was a sweet deal and replaced my aging Inspiron 3500. Reason: I have a foot in the Windows world.

I also have a 15-inch Aluminum PowerBook G4 that is used the other 50% of the time. As much as I like the Dell hardware (and it has tremendous potential), I don't care for Windows XP and find myself expanding my expletive vocabulary every time I use it.

You can imagine, then, why I am so excited about Apple's move to Intel processors! A dual-core Yonah capable of running Mac OS X and Windows XP at full native speeds, perhaps even simultaneously through a virtual partitioning scheme, would be a long sought-after solution to my dual-hardware predicament. I hope 200GB laptop hard drives will be available then.