Here's what a user posted here about the 15" HP Envy laptop they purchased.
Honestly, I like the Sony Vaio's a lot better, since the Vaio's actually top or atleast match Apple in terms of build quality.
The Z series is too expensive.
They really can't justify it.
The Sony Vaio's F series kick apple's asses in terms of features, and price.
The F Series gives you a blu ray burner, an i7 processor, and a cutting edge 1GB dedicated GPU for cheaper than it costs to buy a 13 inch MBP!!!
I'm picking one myself with the next pay check so I'm pumped.
Or if you want something cheaper, you can get a NW series laptop with awesome specs for under $900!
And all the Vaio's have excellent build quality.
Given how outdated the MBPs specs are by comparison, I'm wondering how much you guys think the 15 inch $2500 Macbook Pro laptop actually costs Apple to manufacture?
What brought up the question for me is that just last night, I picked up a top of the line laptop with an intel i5 processor, a bluray drive, a dvd burner, 4 Gigs of DDR3 ram, a hdmi out, a built in sd card reader, wifi N, a cutting edge graphics card, a 15.6 inch high res screen, a built-in webcam and a 320GB HDD) for $499.
Now I figure bestbuy gets $50 in profit or so from each laptop sold, the wholesaler gets another $50 or so in profit, and marketing and shipping costs a few more bucks, and obviously the manufacturer makes a profit as well. Not to mention that the laptop comes bundled with Windows 7 Premium and Microsoft Security Essentials which I'm sure Microsoft is charging atleast another $50 for. So all said and done, there is no way the actual laptop could've cost more than $300 or so to manufacture.
Yet it packs in hardware significantly more powerful than the 15 inch $2500 Macbook Pro.
IMO, the Macbook Pro is still worth getting if you can afford them because of the build quality. But just because they have a high build quality doesn't make them a great value. They are a great product, not a great value. There is a difference.
To illustrate what I mean, it's easy to say that Buggati cars are indeed great products, and those that can afford them want them should buy them. But it would be wrong to claim that they're a great value or give you a great bang for your buck.
And that analogy doesn't even do Buggati justice. Because Buttatis in addition to being carefully hand crafted with high quality materials, are actually much faster and use more high end parts than cheaper cars.
However, $3000 Macbook Pros still don't offer high end parts like cutting edge GPUs, the i5 processor, blu ray or hdmi that laptops that cost a sixth as much cost. It would be like if Bugatti's started putting V4 engines in their cars and people still bought them for the build quality.
Basically, Apple needs to hurry up and include high end components like an i5 processor, a better graphics card, hdmi and bluray into their MBPs if they still want to keep catering to the high end market. Because competitors are offering these high end features for 1/5th the price.
I can't see how any sensible person can justify buying a $2500 laptop that is actually weaker and less capable than a $500 laptop.
Going back to the original question, I can't help but wonder what the Macbook Pro itself costs to manufacture hardware wise. Does anyone here have any idea?
so after using my parents macbook pro and my hp envy i got it price matched at 1799 canadian and the pro was 2199(2.66) here are the specs of the envy
Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6
6gb ddr3 ram
500gb 7200rpm
ati 5830
15 cells of battery 6 cell plus 9 cell slice
build quality is excellent on par with the mac, mine doesnt feel cheap at all but id still give the edge to apple because its the original
screen WOW, the envy at 1080p destroys the macbook pro, at its lowest brightness its equivelent to the pro at 3-4 notches, best laptop screen ive ever used and i really hope apple goes 16:9 the form factor is so much sleeker
performance well in everything the hp feels much faster, the i7 is an amazing processor
heating- some review units have been getting hot, note that this were rev 1, mines a rev 2 and it has no cooling issues, it does get mildly hot tho but hp has done a good job on cooling
keyboard- its great no backlight but they both feel identical no flex at all.
battery. heres where the pro shines but this is due to the i7 and the gpu, on the 6 cell i get 3 hours and with 15 cells i get around 6 hours, the pro gets 7 hours, here brightness is at half and office with web browsing.
Speakers- hp destroys although not as loud as the pro the sound is so much richer and has less distortion
Im glad i went with the envy, its the best laptop ive ever had and i strongly reccomend it those willing to use windows 7. Also i find it rather odd that my laptop has better specs than the 27 inch imac
Honestly, I like the Sony Vaio's a lot better, since the Vaio's actually top or atleast match Apple in terms of build quality.
The Z series is too expensive.
They really can't justify it.
The Sony Vaio's F series kick apple's asses in terms of features, and price.
The F Series gives you a blu ray burner, an i7 processor, and a cutting edge 1GB dedicated GPU for cheaper than it costs to buy a 13 inch MBP!!!
I'm picking one myself with the next pay check so I'm pumped.
Or if you want something cheaper, you can get a NW series laptop with awesome specs for under $900!
And all the Vaio's have excellent build quality.
Given how outdated the MBPs specs are by comparison, I'm wondering how much you guys think the 15 inch $2500 Macbook Pro laptop actually costs Apple to manufacture?
What brought up the question for me is that just last night, I picked up a top of the line laptop with an intel i5 processor, a bluray drive, a dvd burner, 4 Gigs of DDR3 ram, a hdmi out, a built in sd card reader, wifi N, a cutting edge graphics card, a 15.6 inch high res screen, a built-in webcam and a 320GB HDD) for $499.
Now I figure bestbuy gets $50 in profit or so from each laptop sold, the wholesaler gets another $50 or so in profit, and marketing and shipping costs a few more bucks, and obviously the manufacturer makes a profit as well. Not to mention that the laptop comes bundled with Windows 7 Premium and Microsoft Security Essentials which I'm sure Microsoft is charging atleast another $50 for. So all said and done, there is no way the actual laptop could've cost more than $300 or so to manufacture.
Yet it packs in hardware significantly more powerful than the 15 inch $2500 Macbook Pro.
IMO, the Macbook Pro is still worth getting if you can afford them because of the build quality. But just because they have a high build quality doesn't make them a great value. They are a great product, not a great value. There is a difference.
To illustrate what I mean, it's easy to say that Buggati cars are indeed great products, and those that can afford them want them should buy them. But it would be wrong to claim that they're a great value or give you a great bang for your buck.
And that analogy doesn't even do Buggati justice. Because Buttatis in addition to being carefully hand crafted with high quality materials, are actually much faster and use more high end parts than cheaper cars.
However, $3000 Macbook Pros still don't offer high end parts like cutting edge GPUs, the i5 processor, blu ray or hdmi that laptops that cost a sixth as much cost. It would be like if Bugatti's started putting V4 engines in their cars and people still bought them for the build quality.
Basically, Apple needs to hurry up and include high end components like an i5 processor, a better graphics card, hdmi and bluray into their MBPs if they still want to keep catering to the high end market. Because competitors are offering these high end features for 1/5th the price.
I can't see how any sensible person can justify buying a $2500 laptop that is actually weaker and less capable than a $500 laptop.
Going back to the original question, I can't help but wonder what the Macbook Pro itself costs to manufacture hardware wise. Does anyone here have any idea?
