Re: Going To Gateway
Originally posted by jaredbkt
What would be some good questions we can ask when we go into a Gateway store to see this "horrid little thing" in person? I want to stump the sale people with real questions that are intelligent and make them think too. I know the iApps but what else? I want to make them think I'm looking at a PC and an iMac. Any ideas?
Well, I walked into Gateway store today after reading this.
"Can I help you?"
"Yeah, I'm really a mac user, but I wanted to see this thing."
"Ok. Well just let us know if you have any questions"
The store salesperson hurried away and nobody in the store even glanced at me for 20 minutes - I was the only person in the store in the middle of a weekday afternoon!
Well, there I was live in person. A meek little mac user just waiting to be wowed. I wasn't threatening. But nobody dared try to convince me of the benefits of this thing over the imac.
Here's a good question... "Why in the hell does the top end without a dvd burner cost $2000 bucks?"
So after touching it, I can tell you that in no way does it rotate, tilt or move. It will tilt if you break the crappy plastic stand. Please don't mistake the stand for a hinge.
The CD drawer is flimsier than a laptop drawer and possibly smaller. The first PC user that tries to use it as a cupholder will surely break it.
The screen is cheap plastic, but big and nice. The mouse is a flimsy piece of plastic. It has a freakin floppy drive in the front. You'd think they'd give up on these things. That alone makes it look old.
It runs like a banshee. Lets not fool ourselves anymore. PCs are ridiculously snappier and faster than macs. Period. Done. End of story. My roommates 1.2 ghz win98 box is infinitely faster at simple tasks than an 800mhz imac running jaguar. Rendering and photoshop aside, surfing and using his computer is a delay-free process. There is no measurable time to open applications. That's what I want on a mac. Make it so number 1!
So I went immediately over to CompUSA and drooled over the dual gig which finally feels snappy. But I still see apps launch. There's still bouncing. But it sure felt better.
Let me say something else about the Gateway store. Ergonomics were better at compusa. Yep. There weren't any chairs at Gateway that I remember, but the desktop was around my knees! After 20minutes I had developed what felt like full blown carpet tunnel. Either the mouse, or the fact that I was hunching over to be level with the computer.
Bottom line, these machines are cheap. Apple thew their latest technology and ergonomic designs into the imac. Gateway put it's cheapest parts and some cheap plastic into a machine that is nothing more than a 17" non-titing and non-rotating screen with a drive on the front of it. Also, the speakers are cheap and locked in place. At least apple figured out that pulling the speakers away made for better sound.
It's trash. Extremely overpriced for the poorly designed piece of plastic it is. The picture was more impressive.
