Just configured a Dell XPS laptop (closest thing Dell makes that competes with the Macbook) on their website.
After doing my best to configure it the same as a Macbook (couldn't remove that cancer known as Vista from it) the price came to $1437 before shipping. Admittedly, the Dell came with 4GB of memory, though only DDR2 800 instead of the DDR3 that the MB has.
I paid $1500 for my MB. Another $60 to upgrade the memory to 4GB. So, for roughly $100 savings, I can get a cheap, plastic wannabe MB, with the worst OS since Windows ME, full of advertising crapware, that comes with a free subscription to McAfee, because it needs it...
Dell Studio XPS 13: 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo (same as the MBP), Vista Home Premium, LED backlit display, 4GB DDR3 1066, 320GB 7200RPM HDD, DVD writer, GeForce 9400M + 9500M 256MB running in Hybrid SLI, comes with 2 USB 2.0, 1 shared USB 2.0/eSATA, VGA, Firewire, full size ExpressCard, HDMI (digital audio over HDMI), memory card reader, and all the other usual things PCs come with. Price? $1324. Take out the LED display and keep the rest the same and its about $1200.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-studio-xps-13?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
Also, as I've pointed out many times before and I'm sure other people have as well, this whole "the XPS is the only thing even close to a MacBook that Dell makes" argument and other arguments like this completely and utterly fail.
Why do they fail? Because the majority of people who buy MacBooks, not those on this forum but real people, buy it because its the only one Mac they can afford. They don't go into an Apple store and say "ooh I want this system because its small!" No, they go into the Apple store, head towards the 15.4" system and say "wow this is $2,000, what else do they have?".
For all but a small number of people, $999, $1299, etc. is a lot of money. A whole lot of money, even in a good economy. For the majority of them, $1299 is pushing the limit of their budget. Despite what the diehards would love to have you believe, people are not buying the MacBook for its supposed features or supposed build quality. They're buying it because they want a Mac, and $999 or $1299 is all they can afford to spend and they have no other choice if they want a Mac.
And again, this is another thing this ad highlights. Choice. Macs just don't give you the options and choices that PCs do. You either do what Apple wants or you don't get it. PC manufacturers are willing to make products for all customers, not just those willing to compromise. You can get a combination of whatever features you want. Where Apple basically says you have to do it this way or no way at all. As someone from MS put it, with Apple its "the iWay or the highway". Theres no choice.
Perfect example: Jobs has called the MacBook the "consumer" machine and the MacBook Pro is obviously the "Pro" machine, despite the fact that it uses consumer grade parts and has nothing in common with actual "Pro" machines built by other companies. But anyway. The MacBook is a "consumer" machine. So Apple is telling us that all consumers only need and want 13.3" displays with integrated graphics? We don't want larger displays, dedicated graphics, HDMI, card readers, full size ExpressCard, blu-ray etc? We only want 13.3" with only 2 USB 2.0 ports for expansion? I'm a "consumer". Why can't I have a "consumer" machine with a 16" display, blu-ray, GeForce 9800M GTS 1GB, HDMI, TV tuner, etc? Oh, I can. But not an Apple machine. The only thing that comes close is the 15.4" MacBook Pro. But it has no HDMI, it starts out with 1/4 the video memory on a GPU thats half as fast, no built-in TV tuner, smaller display, no possibility of blu-ray.. Its the "iWay" or the highway. Compromise.
Please explain to me, also, how Vista is the worst OS since Windows ME. I've been using Vista since launch and I've never personally experienced or seen the problems that Apple would have you believe Vista has. My experience has been that Vista was far more stable out of the gate than Leopard and continues to be. Plus it let's me do things that Leopard does not, like set custom resolutions when connected to my HDTV, play blu-ray movies, games, proper external display support without having to resort to trickery like sleeping the system and using external devices to wake it up, etc. etc. etc. And explain how Windows ME was bad as well, seeing as how thats another OS I used and never had a problem with.
Oh and do your research too. Modern PCs generally only come with a trial of Office and Norton. Everything else included is full version software, and all the little icons on the desktop are just shortcuts to websites. Highlight, right click, delete all. Simple.
