Now that Macs have Apple silicon, do you think they are fairly priced?

[pshufd]

Costco has a Lunar Lake laptop, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD (it may be user-upgradeable to 4 TB) for $699. It comes with a 90-day return policy and 2 years of warranty. It has two USB-A, two USB-C, one of which is Thunderbolt 4, and an HDMI port. This is the cheapest Lunar Lake laptop that I've seen with 32 GB of RAM.

Acer Aspire 14" AI Copilot+ PC Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 258V - WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Touchscreen - 32GB RAM - 1TB SSD - Windows 11 Home - Steel Gray

Acer Aspire 14" AI Copilot+ PC Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 258V - WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Touchscreen - 32GB RAM - 1TB SSD - Windows 11 Home - Steel Gray

www.costco.com

The M4 MacBook Air 13 costs $1,799 for the same specs. Assuming that you can find it for $200 off somewhere (I couldn't and it seems that the Amazon price at $800 for the base model is gone), the Costco option gives you good specs for the money. I read a review on it and build quality isn't great as they cost-reduced with a lot of plastic. Display is IPS 400 nits so not that bright. But the processor is very good for thin-and-light in general. It will not perform anywhere near the base M4 but most people don't need the performance of the base M4.

Performance is comparable to the base M2.

 

[Alameda]

Costco has a Lunar Lake laptop, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD (it may be user-upgradeable to 4 TB) for $699. It comes with a 90-day return policy and 2 years of warranty. It has two USB-A, two USB-C, one of which is Thunderbolt 4, and an HDMI port. This is the cheapest Lunar Lake laptop that I've seen with 32 GB of RAM.

Acer Aspire 14" AI Copilot+ PC Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 258V - WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Touchscreen - 32GB RAM - 1TB SSD - Windows 11 Home - Steel Gray

Acer Aspire 14" AI Copilot+ PC Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 258V - WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Touchscreen - 32GB RAM - 1TB SSD - Windows 11 Home - Steel Gray

www.costco.com

The M4 MacBook Air 13 costs $1,799 for the same specs. Assuming that you can find it for $200 off somewhere (I couldn't and it seems that the Amazon price at $800 for the base model is gone), the Costco option gives you good specs for the money. I read a review on it and build quality isn't great as they cost-reduced with a lot of plastic. Display is IPS 400 nits so not that bright. But the processor is very good for thin-and-light in general. It will not perform anywhere near the base M4 but most people don't need the performance of the base M4.

Performance is comparable to the base M2.

In other words, if the only specifications that matter to you are storage and memory, Macs are much more expensive.

But if construction quality, screen quality and CPU performance matter, then Macs are a better value… particularly if you don’t outfit them with large amounts of storage and memory.

I bought my son a $500 Samsung laptop and it broke, so I bought him a $500 Dell and it broke. I got it refunded under warranty and bought him a MacBook Air and it’s been going strong for three years. The laptops didn’t break by being abused; there was no sign of damage, they just failed electrically.

 

[maflynn]

But if construction quality, screen quality and CPU performance matter, then Macs are a better value… particularly if you don’t outfit them with large amounts of storage and memory.

Not for nothing, the listed laptop is a well reviewed laptop. Yes, the screen and keyboard may not match up to the build quality and solid design of Apple's line. A similar configured MBA would run you 1,800 dollars. Lets put it another way, Apple's $999 laptop is almost double the cost when you boost the ram to 32GB and storage to 1TB

 

[Alameda]

Not for nothing, the listed laptop is a well reviewed laptop. Yes, the screen and keyboard may not match up to the build quality and solid design of Apple's line. A similar configured MBA would run you 1,800 dollars. Lets put it another way, Apple's $999 laptop is almost double the cost when you boost the ram to 32GB and storage to 1TB

Then buy it.
We all know that Apple charges high premiums for additional storage and memory. Got that memo. So when you compare high memory/high storage laptops, AND you ignore all other benefits, Apple loses.

There was once a guy who wrote an “analysis” concluding that a Hummer was more economical than a Prius, despite costing 4x more and having 1/4 the fuel economy… and people believed it.

Do you need 32 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage? I don’t. I use my Mac for photography, and frequently dump 80 GB of photos onto my Mac… which means no Mac could ever have enough internal storage for me. I do my edits and move the files to an external drive and then copy that to my 11 TB NAS, which holds everything and gets backed up.

For me, the reliability, speed, and efficiency make the Mac far better. I can’t stand trying to use a mouse for photo edits on a Windows platform, and the UI of Windows in general is very irritating to me. You can have it. You won’t convince me that an Acer laptop is better than a MacBook Air (even though, besides the screen quality, CPU performance, battery life, construction quality and the OS, the Acer is way better!)

But if you’re happier with the Acer, be my guest. I won’t stop you and maybe it is better for you, and that’s fine.

 

[Plutonius]

Define fairly priced ?

I think Macs are currently priced to maximize Apple's profits.