Well, here's comparing a MBP to a similarly specced Dell XPS 1530.
15" MBP $2499
2.5ghz intel core 2 duo
high res LED widescreen with webcam
2gb 667 ddr2 ram
250gb sata 5400rpm
superdrive 8x
nVidia geforce 8600gt 512 mb
wireless N
bluetooth capable
touchpad gestures, backlit keyboard
5.5 lbs
15" dell xps 1530 $1,678
2.5ghz intel core 2 duo
high res LED widescreen with webcam
3GB 667 ddr2 ram
250GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
Wireless-N
bluetooth capable
Finger Print Reader XPS M1530
5.9 lbs
The XPS is $821 cheaper. So why would anyone want the MBP when they know that they can get a computer that's just as powerful for $821 less? (Note: I don't own either
Well, for me, I'd buy the MBP because...
1.) Design
It's slightly lighter, and I really like the minimalist style of the laptop. It's very slick, and I prefer it to the XPS. I also like the idea that all the hardware components are chosen by Apple and are known to work well together.
2.) Applecare
Just go google up "is applecare worth it" and you'll find several forum topics and stories of how Apple takes care of their customers. Generally, if a part is wrong with your laptop, from what I've read, Apple will replace it no questions asked. That's pretty awesome.
3.) The OS and Software
One of the best things about MacOS is the lack of proprietary bloatware vendors put on in order to raise revenues and reduce unit costs for the consumer. You don't need to delete things or go into services.msc to change programs' startup options to make sure things don't slow down your boot time.
The good part about OSX is that it is very good with multitasking and handling multiple applications. Just for kicks, a friend of mine tried opening up as many apps as possible in an attempt to crash his black Macbook. He opened up Adobe Bridge, Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, After Effects, Itunes, Quicktime, and Warcraft 3 all at once and tried switching between apps. The system worked really really slowly, but it did not crash.
But like any other computer, yes, it does crash at times, but working with it is still very enjoyable because of the intuitive interface. For example, hitting the "+" button on a window makes it just big enough so that it show the entire contents without taking up your entire screen. This allows for a lot of tasks to be accomplished with just drag and drop.
It took me some getting used to the idea that windows don't maximize to fill the screen, but I've found that it's quite nice to be able to access the desktop and still see what I've been working on.
Another thing that I found really cool was that OSX is able to access over 3gb ram and at the same time run 32bit apps. In order for Windows to recognize over 3gb of ram you need a 64bit-edition, and there's plenty of compatibility issues with 64-bit OS's.
I have worked primarily with Windows and have not run into many major problems with it. Personally, I think Windows is a great operating system. Overall though, when buying a laptop, I'd spend the extra $800 to have a system that's not only lighter and more elegant in my eyes(I'm really big on aesthetics
), but gave me a better experience.
--
To the OP:
For your needs though, seeing as you're a student looking only for mobile entertainment, a Macbook can still fit the bill for only about $1000. Similarly specced laptops would run about $500. For an extra $500 you can have all of those things I mentioned above. A lot of $500 laptops in my experience though don't last you very long have tons of bloatware. The hardware also tends to fail often.
Apple laptops are also very trendy in colleges. They're popular because they look nice and are well advertised. Same idea with the iPods.
In every category of computing (student that doesn't demand high multimedia power, professional graphics work.. etc etc), I see Apple as the high end brand. So for college and whatnot, I'd personally buy the best laptop money could get me and see it as a worthwhile investment. You can do word processing, watch movies, manage your music, use IM, check out Facebook and everything else all in a Macbook that's really nice to carry. In the end though, it's all up to you.
Hope this really long post helps somewhat. Hope this post gives you something new to consider.
Edit: after relooking at what I wrote I realize I probably should have compared a regular 13" Macbook to a Dell M1330; the price difference is smaller and you might be even more justified in choosing Apple over Dell. Oh well. Too lazy to change it now. You get the idea with the price difference idea though.
