Yes they are overpriced, but then again so are some cars, and some foods, and some houses, but who cares? You get what you pay for, and the quality is a lot higher, and i feel that my MBP was worth every penny. I was a poor college student, and i still am, but my purchase was worth it for i feel that macs are built a lot better, and what you are getting is a superior product to any other system.
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"Macs are so much more expensive" - actually, I disagree
- Thread starter joefinan
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I honestly have problem with this claim, my experience with MB of 18 months old are full of hardware defects, just hard to agree with that "high quality" claim.
Why buy a laptop(i won't say Dell because everyone gets angry??) that is cheap and won't last you long..I rather work really hard and buy a Mac then buy a cheap Asus, Everex, (dell), compaq, etc.. The Mac will definitely last way longer than those..
Maybe some of you guys are just mad because Apple is better than anyone out there(in my point of view)
Maybe some of you guys are just mad because Apple is better than anyone out there(in my point of view)
the only problem, that "definitely last way longer" statement is just wrong, why do you think mac will last longer than other computer? please enlighten me.
Agreed.
I'll admit that I'm just postulating still consider that a large number of the 95% (and by some reports it's less these days)
1 Are in a corporate environment where IT is a given.
2 Are owned by IT pros or users who've spent enough time on boards to get a job in desktop support if they wanted one.
3 Are owned by users who can and do draw on someone in group 2.
4 Are owned by users who just buy a new computer every 2-3 years when their software starts causing problems.
Mad's a little strong. I've always been a little disgruntled because while I think Apple makes the best OS on the planet, their hardware selection leaves a lot to be desired. But that's just me, and as I've said before Vista is onerous enough for me to suck it up and go with Apple's hardware when I buy a new box next month.
The arguement only works for certain markets that would actually use iLife.
Is the Mac cheaper as a gaming machine? God no. Mac Pro's with an 8800GT are a whole grand more expensive than something at Newegg, you could build 2 great gaming PC's for the price of one Mac Pro and have money to spare.
Professional 2D work? No. Your only options are a 24" iMac (due to the absolutely horrendous screen in the 20") and a Mac (book) Pro. A $700 PC with a Core 2 Duo and 4gbs of ram would be extremely good for Professional 2D work.
Professional video editting? Maybe. Mac Pro's are not terribly more expensive than a PC workstation. Plus they have Final Cut Pro which adds to their value.
The quality arguement is just extremely false. The only quality you are getting is the outer case. I dont remember a SINGLE mac that has never had major hardware problems when its first released. Maybe the Intel Mac Mini didnt have problems, but the G4 Mini had VGA problems for its entire lifespan because Apple didnt feel like following VESA standards. Mac hardware is riddled with problems just like PC's, Apple tries to save money too (look at the beautiful TN display in the iMac, talk about high quality). OS X is the only real thing that sets a Mac apart from a PC, the hardware is more or less the same quality unless you get an Emachine.
Is the Mac cheaper as a gaming machine? God no. Mac Pro's with an 8800GT are a whole grand more expensive than something at Newegg, you could build 2 great gaming PC's for the price of one Mac Pro and have money to spare.
Professional 2D work? No. Your only options are a 24" iMac (due to the absolutely horrendous screen in the 20") and a Mac (book) Pro. A $700 PC with a Core 2 Duo and 4gbs of ram would be extremely good for Professional 2D work.
Professional video editting? Maybe. Mac Pro's are not terribly more expensive than a PC workstation. Plus they have Final Cut Pro which adds to their value.
The quality arguement is just extremely false. The only quality you are getting is the outer case. I dont remember a SINGLE mac that has never had major hardware problems when its first released. Maybe the Intel Mac Mini didnt have problems, but the G4 Mini had VGA problems for its entire lifespan because Apple didnt feel like following VESA standards. Mac hardware is riddled with problems just like PC's, Apple tries to save money too (look at the beautiful TN display in the iMac, talk about high quality). OS X is the only real thing that sets a Mac apart from a PC, the hardware is more or less the same quality unless you get an Emachine.
C'mon, clevin, you should know better than to base an entire product's reliability on your own personal experience. Wasn't it you who said: "You just can't generalize the whole user population based on own experience"?
indeed, I do think my claim went a little too far. even tho it was a response for the statement that obviously has no merit. lol maybe im just too exhausted today.
PS. I want to add. My MB is rev A, and I think the RSS is wide spread for rev A MB, so are screen flickering. I think apple's QC is NOT good, especially for new products, rev A macs, and maybe OSX 10.x.0~10.x.3. For me, that shows the quality of apple's products aren't much different from any other hardware/software companies. and unfortunately they are worse than others in my case.
are you kidding me? apple doesnt make hardware, you realise that right? sometimes they dont even do the design 100%
1G ipod shuffle = Asus
2G and other ipods = Hon Hai (some cheap china company)
older MB = Quanta, quality sucked, tried compal, quality sucked
older MBP = Asus quality was ok,
Newer MBP = Asus and Hon Hai
iphone = Hon Hai
ipod touch = Hon Hai
all china made, all cheap, Asus probably has the highest quality between Quanta and Compal.
oh guess who makes dells? QUANTA!!!!!!!!!!! so in reality the older G4s and dells were made by the same company.
soemtimes you dont get what you pay for. EX? Volkswagon, they are all made in mexico. they are cheap garbage but they are sold for sometimes 5-8 K more than other cars in the same class with MORE features.
EDIT: do not confuse COMPAL with COMPAQ, although COMPAL makes some units for compaq i believe.
oh BTW Sony, HP, COMPAQ, IBM, DELL NONE OF THEM REALLY make laptop hardware, they dont even design them half the time. they are all made by ODMs
OSX can be ran on X86 and X64's too,
the quality is actaully cheap garbage, if you take your MBP or MP's appart you will notice the HDD;s are just cheap seagates or maxtors with low cache
the ram is cheap samsung or hynix ram (both are garbage),
the video cards are all low end with slow clock speeds
the motherboards are as cheap as they come since Hon Hai makes them (Foxconn),
Apple is there to make money, plain and simple, they really dont care about you or what you think is good. they care about their shareholders and what they can do to make more money. Cheap products, minimal support (hence 90day free support when it should be free lifetime phone support, only 1 yr warranty? shipping not included? thats real cheap) maximum profit (IE OVERCHARGE!)
The 12" powerbook sold for more than $850. Paid a $100-$150 more and got a new macbook for my wife.
So please, before you a burst another vein.. go ahead and buy an Acer or whatever. I don't know about you.. but I like a return on my investment. When I buy an Apple product, I get more than a 100% ROI! And I love using it for the OS and the hardware form. After 2 years when your Acer fetches $200 on ebay, and my macbook pro gets me $950 or so.. then you'll know which one is more 'expensive' in the long run.
And I bought a separate card reader for $25.
My acer was $1400 (5672) i can sell it for about $800 right now, it was manufactured 0206 (feb 2006)
thats ok resale value to me, cars dont even have that kind of resale value.
oh BTW i bought a card reader too that does SDHC for $3 (well 10 of them for 30 and sold the other 8 for $10 a peice) but i dont always have the card reader on me, its sitting on my desk just incase i need to read SDHC. however if im to buy even an eee pc it comes with an SDHC so i really dont need it anymore if i get a new laptop.
also its not cheaper for a mac in the long run, i can upgrade my Core Duo to a Core 2 Duo, i already reflashed my bios to accept any new cpu. if i throw in a 2.2GHz core 2 duo ill only pay like $300 and ill have a faster computer than the Macbook.
2.2GHz, 2GB 667 Ram, 100GB HDD (i can throw in any SATA 2.5 HDD), any network card i want, i prefer atheros cards over crappy intel ones. so ABGNEI? the bluetooth 2.0 EDR was already in the machine. hell i can even upgrade the video card i believe since ive seen ppl go from X1400 to X1600.
can you upgrade anything on your mac other than ram? or maybe your hdd?
Thats another ironic point, all mac hardware is made by PC makers and designed by Intel (another PC motherboard maker). And Foxconn has some bad stuff, I cant believe they use that, I guess they were the lowest bidder. ASUS, Intel, and Gigabyte are all good PC manufacturers, I find it funny that Foxconn makes Apple boards. ASUS must have costed too much and bit into Apple's ridiculous margins. Whats next, PC Chips?
They are just good. I hear all the time people saying they have iBooks and eMacs and stuff like that, they are like 5 years old. You wouldn't normally say that a PC can last 5 years. In some way, you are right, PC's are cheaper and I knew Macs were expensive but I had to wait even though everyday I would be more tempted to buy a PC. Don't get me wrong, I still like Windows, its just in my point of view Macs(preferably the Mac OS) is better.
my computer from 2002 is still in use, and its still overclocked LMAO.
Duron 700MHz @ 1.1Ghz, 384MB ram GF2MX video WOOOO.... (i broke the GHz barrier before cpus were running stock at at that speed)
that computer has never ran its stock CPU speed from day one and it still boots faster than most vista machines with XP
macs are actaully the same as pcs, same parts inside, most of the time cheaper parts since its all made in china.
My mom uses a 700mhz pentium 3 HP that came with Windows ME (it was pre-release too, one of the very first shipments of PC's that came with it before it went on sale as standalone). It works fine, never needed any repair at all, the last time I reinstalled the OS was when XP came out and I put it on there, even the slow ass HDD still works. Ive tried to get her to get a new computer since that computer is so old but she is fine with it as it is. It has seen some upgrades, I upgraded the TNT 2 card to a Radeon 8500LE, and upgraded the ram to 768mbs for Photoshop, but this was all several years ago.
The transfer speeds are painfully slow because of the HDD, but put a new one in there and it would be fiine.
So thats a PC thats running on 8 years without any problems. I have actually been using its old 4x CD-RW as my main burner up until last year when I finally got a DVD-RW for my main PC.
The transfer speeds are painfully slow because of the HDD, but put a new one in there and it would be fiine.
So thats a PC thats running on 8 years without any problems. I have actually been using its old 4x CD-RW as my main burner up until last year when I finally got a DVD-RW for my main PC.
I think people need to face it, if you buy something, you tend to get ripped off. The only way to not get ripped off is by actually making your own computer from the motherboard up so you know exactly what is in your computer.
It is not like Dell or Asus rip you off less than Apple does, they ALL do. Perhaps Apple (and I do admit) has a higher margin than most PCs due to design, name brand, and a successful OS. I gotta admit, Vista was not made for the consumer right now. It was made for the consumer a year from now. It just slows down the presumably fast laptops.
Also, believe it or not, no viruses is a good reason to get an Apple. Just the $70 a year someone would need to pay for PC protection (and even that does not work) will pay for the cost difference between your Dell and Macbook pro.
Overall it is hard to deny that Apple is more consumer friendly at this time.
Spec to spec comparing with a Dell, the Apple seems overpriced, but there is no doubt that a Leopard based macbook pro with similar specs to a Vista XPS will outperform it in almost every area, especially after 6 months of time since PC's like to slow down overtime (Been a Pc user my whole life).
It is not like Dell or Asus rip you off less than Apple does, they ALL do. Perhaps Apple (and I do admit) has a higher margin than most PCs due to design, name brand, and a successful OS. I gotta admit, Vista was not made for the consumer right now. It was made for the consumer a year from now. It just slows down the presumably fast laptops.
Also, believe it or not, no viruses is a good reason to get an Apple. Just the $70 a year someone would need to pay for PC protection (and even that does not work) will pay for the cost difference between your Dell and Macbook pro.
Overall it is hard to deny that Apple is more consumer friendly at this time.
Spec to spec comparing with a Dell, the Apple seems overpriced, but there is no doubt that a Leopard based macbook pro with similar specs to a Vista XPS will outperform it in almost every area, especially after 6 months of time since PC's like to slow down overtime (Been a Pc user my whole life).
No home user needs to pay anything per year for Windows virus protection. There are several solid anti virus programs out their for free with free updates. Do that, run as a limited user, and use some common sense and you will never get a virus on your Windows box.
The fact that's it's a pain in the arse to run XP as a limited user is a good reason to get a Mac, but it doesn't add to the cost of a Windows box.