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I have severe buyers remorse.

At first I sounded like everyone in this thread. "I just got it a couple of months ago and I love it!" But as time has gone on, that has quickly changed and basically become the exact opposite. I wish I could have that $1408 I spent on my MacBook back.

My MacBook was originally purchased at the beginning of March of 2007. It was the "middle" white MacBook. 2GHz C2D, 1GB of RAM, "SuperDrive", 80GB HDD.

The "SuperDrive" went bad, and the "top case" started to discolor. So in August I sent it in for repair. System came back a few days later with a new top case, the SuperDrive was untouched, the mouse button no longer worked, and it had about 10,000 (not kidding) more scratches than it went out with. System went back out. Came back with an even worse mouse button, new external casing that had new scratches on it, and the SuperDrive was somehow made even worse. The invoice said that a re-alignment was performed. Somehow this re-alignment took away its ability to read optical discs and made lots of grinding noises. Apple finally replaced it. They replaced it with the "Mid 2007" middle model. 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, SuperDrive, etc. So far it's been problem free.

But that isn't what gave me the "buyers remorse", because even if Apple hadn't cooperated, I live in California and the consumer protection laws are so strong here that I would have been able to sue the pants off of them. Anyway.

After a few months, when the "honeymoon" period was over, I started realizing a few things. First, I found myself in Windows a lot simply because OS X didn't have the software I needed or wanted to use. Even to watch a DVD, I found myself in Windows. Why? DVD Player is awful and the image quality is about on-par with one of those 2002-2003 era Apex $40 DVD players.

So I started asking myself why I even bought the Mac. I didn't use OS X much at all. If I had realized I was going to be using Windows so much, I could have gotten much better hardware for less money.

So I tried to use OS X more. But even so, I still had to switch into Windows if I wanted to use good software or watch a DVD and not have it look awful.

About a month after receiving the new Mac, I had a new HP. SR C2D, dedicated GPU, HDMI output, finger print reader, 2GB of RAM, the whole bit. In fact, you can buy the same system now but with an HD DVD reader (that burns DVDs) for not even $1,000. With taxes taken into account, it's still roughly $400 LESS than the MacBook with a "SuperDrive".

Since then, I've hardly even used my MacBook even after upgrading to Leopard. I just don't see the point in it. I have iLife '08 and Leopard. I even put 2GB of RAM in it.

The software just isn't there for OS X. DVD Player in Leopard is still awful. iPhoto is nice for organizing photos. But thats about it. I only ever used iDVD one time right after I purchased the first system. But really..

Heres the real kicker.. I hardly used OS X for anything, but I had both systems (with Leopard and Tiger) crash more often, combined, than I ever had Windows crash in the 17 years I used it exclusively. I wasn't doing anything either. Just trying to empty the Trash of pictures or click Burn in a "Burn Folder". Ironically, on both systems, Windows NEVER crashed a single time. So it was never a hardware issue, it was always software.

As I said, the software just doesn't do it for me either. I hate how so many utilities want you to spend $5 or $10 or $15 here and there for every little thing you want to do. With Windows, you get countless pieces of freeware to choose from. Look at outbound firewalls for example. Windows has tons of them. Yet OS X only has one and you have to pay for it. I also hate how a lot of utilities have gone from free to crippled shareware, like iFuntastic.

Then there are the issues with the iPod nanos having tilted screens. I'm on my 3rd iPod nano and it still has a tilted screen. Theres also the issues with iPod games. I, like many people, bought quite a few games for the 5/5.5G iPods. Then the new iPods are announced with the ability to play games. Apple nor Steve Jobs EVER give any kind of indication that these already purchased games would have to be REpurchased again to work on the new iPods. But guess what happens? Apple gives us all the finger and tells us all that we essentially threw away all that money we spent on those games. And we don't find this out until AFTER the 14 day return period. Well, I'm tempted to send my iPod nano in again for the tilted screen. It will be the third time. Under California law, if it's not fixed this time, I can demand a refund regardless of the fact that I've had it for 4 months.

Apple essentially lost me as a customer because of the iPod games. They basically stole $50 from me. Stealing $50 from me is no different than stealing $5,000.

But all of my buyers remorse stems from the fact that OS X isn't nearly all its cracked up to be. It's extremely overhyped and not even close to what Apple and the fanboys say it is. Unfortunately, you don't realize that until it is well passed the return date so you're stuck with a system you're disappointed with. Plus the hardware just isn't anywhere near as good as what you get on the PC side. I look at the new MacBooks and I can't help but laugh at how people react to the GMA X3100. Some people say "it's so much better than the Intel GMA 950". Yeah, on paper it is. But the real world performance shows a completely different story. Going from 12 to 14 or 14 to 17 frames per second in some games is essentially no improvement at all. I can get more of an improvement in my GeForce drivers by changing the texture quality settings. The X3100 finally has an MPEG-2 decoding feature that all other GPUs had for nearly the entire decade, but it doesn't matter because Apple doesn't use it. Apple's video decoding is all software based.

Because of the iPod games, and the prices, I won't buy another Apple product. I have an iPhone and I am even on the edge of paying the termination fee, unlocking it, and using it with T-Mobile. Realistically, right now, how can anyone knowingly purchase a Mac? OS X isn't all its cracked up to be, you still have to run Windows. Then when you look at that hardware... why buy a MacBook for $1400 after taxes when around $1,000 after taxes will get you a system with double the memory, more HDD space, a bigger screen, an HD DVD drive with HDCP certified HDMI output? Why buy a MacBook Pro when PCs in the same price range come with much more powerful GPUs or multiple GPUs with up to 1GB or more of dedicated video memory? Buying a Mac just doesn't make sense. If the prices were more in-line with what they should be.. then maybe. But with the way Apple treats their customers (iPod games, AppleCare phone support CLOSING), and the absolutely insane pricing of the systems.. it just doesn't make sense.
 
you've had a rough time with apple, i'll give you that.

but i disagree with the fact that apple computers are more expensive than their Windows PC counterparts. When i first decided to get a mac, i quickly thought to myself 'all these PC shops are offering laptops with amazing spec's for half the price of the macbook, why am i buying one'. i did abit of looking around, and came to the conclusion that, in a nutshell, they're garbage. To get a (pretty) exact same spec equivalent to a midrange macbook from dell, you're talking about a £50 difference (its actually the same price with Vista Ultimate, which is one annoying thing about windows. why have different levels of operating systems?)... (the mac being more expensive), but when considering apple give me student discount the price actually favors the mac. plus applecare was next to nothing with student discount, dell don't do that.

so check out the spec of the macbook:
2.2ghz C2D 800Mhz FSB 4MB Cache
13" screen
120GB HDD
1GB RAM
GMA X3100
Mac OSX Leopard

and then the dell:
2.2Ghz C2D 800Mhz FSB 2MB Cache
13"screen
120GB HDD
1GB RAM Gma X3100
Windows Vista Home Premium (same price with vista ultimate)

so the dell actually has a worse processor with a smaller cache. i'm not saying you can't find a better pc out there for cheaper than a mac, but that's just my side of the argument. i just feel like alot of people think macs are stupidly more expensive than pc's, when they blatantly aren't. I suppose this is all useless to me anyway, because i would have bought a mac even if they were more expensive, purely for logic.
 
I'm not having any buyers remorse what so ever. I love my macbook and even if something better and smaller comes out...so what? I've wanted a macbook and I got one.
 
I have severe buyers remorse.

I read your posting history back to March 07 (thereabouts). You certainly were an early fanboy turned sour. Sorry things didn't work out. Your above posting, though, says things like you didn't like OSX, where as you had previously raved about OSX (https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=3420030#post3420030 ) You also said the MB played games as long as you kept the settings "reasonable."

It's also quite a claim to hear of such a perfect experience with Windows -- no crashing, no virus, and one spyware incident (although you seemed happy to be rid of viruses in your early posting here:https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=3429878#post3429878) Wow! Not sure how you did that. XP, ME, 98, 95 and 3.11 hung on me all the time. I never had a virus that I know of, but then with my work Dell laptop, when my network guys would service it, they would find all this malicious ware that was slowing my system, but not obvious to me. I would say you may have had a problem you might have been unaware of.

I've not yet had Tiger crash for the 4 months I've been using it. I've had an app or two hang, but I can force quit them with no issues. In Windows, I've had my registry corrupted twice, and had multiple blue screens on both my Dell laptop and HP desktop.

I don't mean to invalidate your experience, and I appreciate your posting, as I have a MB in my possession currently, and am debating on returning it or not (probably for a MBP). I'll take your comments on build quality to heart. I have also definitely found limitations in OSX and, especially, in 3rd party apps (e.g. Amazon's unbox, Google's Picasa), but I find your experience with Windows a little unbelievable.

In my mind, though, your Windows experience boils down to one of the following: 1) a personal blessing from God that you would be free of Windows issues, 2) you are a sys admin/tech person who loves to spend hours maintaining your window system, and you know how to set all your firewall and security issues perfectly, maybe even running virtual machines to isolate exposure to mal-ware 3) subconscious obliviousness to your windows problems, 4) perhaps a counter-reaction to your Apple experience? Given your passion in adopting OSX back in March, I suppose you could be equally passionate in rejecting OSX and re-adopting Windows. The question I have is, what messages will you be posting this summer on somebody's Vista forum, when that honeymoon ends? I would also be interested to know if you fit category #2, as my brother always tells me the wonders of Linux, but he's a highly technical person and spends a lot of time managing the system himself. Something I don't have the time for.

Again, I appreciate you sharing your repair experience, the iPod games experience (though you might need to move on from that one) and some of the OSX limitations issues you bring up. These are very informative. Good luck in your continued search for the perfect computing experience. I hope you find it in Vista, if that OS works for you.

p.s. the more I reread your postings, it really seems your main 3 issues are: cost of Apple HW, lack of games support, and iPod games having to be repurchased. Agree with the last one, but the first two are pretty well known issues. Sorry if you weren't aware of them when you got into a Mac.

Last comment -- you seemed to indicate you were running Windows on your Mac a lot. If you were running VMs, they are taxing on any system. I have a demo Dell laptop that has to run 2 VMs during a demo. I have to walk tenderly when they are running, or I can end up crashing the system. Running VMs is handy, but is still a relatively new concept, and will present issues into anyones environment. I have never crashed Tiger pulling text out of the trash, but I could see an early release of VMWare or Parallels destabilizing Mac OS.
 
People who use Windows are 12 year old gamers concerned about the SLI logo on their desktop to impress their friends in middle school. Thats the end of the story.
 
i did abit of looking around, and came to the conclusion that, in a nutshell, they're garbage.

It's not like MacBooks are well built. They have numerous problems, from case cracking, discoloration (still happens), uneven backlighting, failing optical drives, etc.

2.2ghz C2D 800Mhz FSB 4MB Cache
13" screen
120GB HDD
1GB RAM
GMA X3100
Mac OSX Leopard

and then the dell:
2.2Ghz C2D 800Mhz FSB 2MB Cache
13"screen
120GB HDD
1GB RAM Gma X3100
Windows Vista Home Premium (same price with vista ultimate)

so the dell actually has a worse processor with a smaller cache. i'm not saying you can't find a better pc out there for cheaper than a mac, but that's just my side of the argument. i just feel like alot of people think macs are stupidly more expensive than pc's, when they blatantly aren't. I suppose this is all useless to me anyway, because i would have bought a mac even if they were more expensive, purely for logic.

Well, for one, I don't see the point in always comparing the same screen size. With PCs you are given the OPTION of choosing screen size. It's not a matter of "spend $1400 for this or $2,000 if you want the bigger one". With PCs you can choose from a variety of screen sizes for very similar prices. The 13.3" screen is the ONLY choice you get with the MacBook. Why limit your choices when comparing prices with PCs? Because its the only way to make the prices similar? Why would I limit myself to a 13.3" screen? I mean, when I bought my MacBook, I wanted a Mac. The MacBook was the only reasonably priced Apple notebook. I didn't choose it because it was 13.3", I chose it because my only other option was to spend a ridiculous amount of money for an extra 2".

But in the PC world, you don't have to worry about this. You have OPTIONS. And, as such, you can easily compare the fact that you can buy an HP with a dedicated GPU, HD DVD reader, Santa Rosa C2D 2GHz, 2GB of memory, etc. for well under $1,000.

Even if one wanted to use the ridiculous "size" or "weight" argument (when the MacBook is barely any smaller than modern 15.4" notebooks), theres 14.1" systems from HP and others that are just as light, only slightly "larger" and can also be had with 2GB of memory, 2.2GHz C2D, dedicated GPUs, etc. for all under $1,000.

Not all of us are students, so the studen discount doesn't apply ;) However, if you want to bring company related employee discounts into the mix, I can apply that to either HP or Apple thanks to family members. In that case, the HP still wins by an even bigger margin. That same 14.1" notebook I just mentioned suddenly goes under $900.

AppleCare in the US is a joke. The phone support closes every night at 6PM Pacific. They use terrible mail-in repair depots that are well known for sending systems back in worse condition than they were in originally. Not to mention Apple doesn't offer any kind of accidental damage protection, theft protection or anything like that.

I read your posting history back to March 07 (thereabouts). You certainly were an early fanboy turned sour. Sorry things didn't work out. Your above posting, though, says things like you didn't like OSX, where as you had previously raved about OSX (https://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...30#post3420030 ) You also said the MB played games as long as you kept the settings "reasonable."

Yeah, that was during the honeymoon period. That was before I had OS X crash more times than Windows ever has for me. That was before I had to deal with AppleCare, or had Apple tell me (and millions of others) that we were SOL with the iPod games. That was before I tried to play a DVD and noticed how awful the quality was, or tried to find good disc burning software. That was before I had the itch to play games again.

By "reasonable" I had to keep UT2k4 at 800x600 with everything set to medium. Even then it only choked out 30fps, if that. Whats the point? That was 2007. I shouldn't have had to play a 3 year old game worse than low end hardware at the time of the games release. Hell, when the game was released I was playing it on a Celeron 1.1GHz with 256MB of RAM and a Radeon 9550 and it ran better than it did on my MacBook!

It's also quite a claim to hear of such a perfect experience with Windows -- no crashing, no virus, and one spyware incident (although you seemed happy to be rid of viruses in your early posting

I didn't say "no crashing". I said less crashing on Windows in 17 years than OS X in the last 10 months.

Notice how in that post I mentioned my dv5030us took more than 2 minutes to boot. The motherboard in that system was defective. It was the whole reason I bought a Mac. HP replaced that system with the one I have now. The dv6500t with a Core 2 Duo 2GHz (SR), 2GB of memory, 160GB HDD, 128MB GeForce 8400M GS, HDCP certified HDMI output, etc. In fact, you can build that system now for under $1,000 with the HD DVD reader and twice the video memory. I threw XP on this system and it boots up in one minute, even with the amount of time it takes me to swipe my finger on the finger print reader (very cool!) to log into Windows. It plays every game I throw at it. UT2k4 is LOCKED at 60fps at max settings at 1280x800. Even all 3 Half-Life 2 games run at full settings at 1280x800 without dropping a frame. I can even pull 60fps in UT3 at 800x600 medium. Imagine that, playing a UT game at 800x600 again.. however it looks 5x better and runs at more than twice the speed!

I've not yet had Tiger crash for the 4 months I've been using it. I've had an app or two hang, but I can force quit them with no issues. In Windows, I've had my registry corrupted twice, and had multiple blue screens on both my Dell laptop and HP desktop.

I've had Tiger and Leopard crash for no apparent reason. Simple things like emptying the Trash or clicking Burn in a Burn Folder caused full system lockups. Yet Windows on the same system has no issues.

2) you are a sys admin/tech person who loves to spend hours maintaining your window system, and you know how to set all your firewall and security issues perfectly, maybe even running virtual machines to isolate exposure to mal-ware

All I do is run Zone Alarm for outbound program control and my wireless router has a hardware firewall. I simply don't visit sites that would have any kind of malware.

The question I have is, what messages will you be posting this summer on somebody's Vista forum, when that honeymoon ends?

I don't use Vista. I use XP. I had considered throwing Vista on my Mac, but if I were to switch it over to Windows exclusive, I'd just use XP.

I would also be interested to know if you fit category #2, as my brother always tells me the wonders of Linux, but he's a highly technical person and spends a lot of time managing the system himself. Something I don't have the time for.

I don't manage anything. I just install the OS, install the software, and use the system. Simple as that ;)

p.s. the more I reread your postings, it really seems your main 3 issues are: cost of Apple HW, lack of games support, and iPod games having to be repurchased. Agree with the last one, but the first two are pretty well known issues. Sorry if you weren't aware of them when you got into a Mac.

Well, when I got the Mac I thought I would be fine with the GMA 950. But as time went on and I started seeing how OS X really was, and I started thinking about the kind of hardware that I could have gotten if I had spent the money on a Windows PC instead...... The breaking point was around the beginning of Summer when I noticed a system with a Turion64 X2 (good processor, just not quite as fast as a Core 2 Duo) and a GeForce Go 7600 for less than $800. At that time, that was a steal. I realized I could have spent about half as much money and gotten a system that was far more capable.

Either way, I won't be buying an Apple product again until the hardware prices are more in-line with what they should be. They SHOULD have a consumer 15.4" notebook for around $1,000 WITH a DVD writer and 128MB GeForce 8400M GS (minimum, there are lower end dedicated GPUs out there). The Mac Mini SHOULD include a 2GHz C2D and DVD writer at the $599 price point. The $2,000 MBP with a 128MB mid-range GPU is more of an insult than anything else..

Last comment -- you seemed to indicate you were running Windows on your Mac a lot. If you were running VMs, they are taxing on any system. I have a demo Dell laptop that has to run 2 VMs during a demo. I have to walk tenderly when they are running, or I can end up crashing the system. Running VMs is handy, but is still a relatively new concept, and will present issues into anyones environment. I have never crashed Tiger pulling text out of the trash, but I could see an early release of VMWare or Parallels destabilizing Mac OS.

I've tried Parallels and Fusion. I generally don't like either, so I just keep Windows in Boot Camp. But virtual machines have been around a long time ;) Look at Virtual PC and all of VMWare's established software. Parallels and Fusion might be new, but the "Virtual Machine" concept has been around for a long time now.

perhaps a counter-reaction to your Apple experience? Given your passion in adopting OSX back in March, I suppose you could be equally passionate in rejecting OSX and re-adopting Windows.

One last thing really.. My opinion now is based on my Apple experience, as well as how Apple has treated me (and others) as customers. The iPod games, the deliberate locking out of 3rd party video accessories with the new iPods for no reason other than to sell authentication chips and resell accessories to consumers. Locking the the iPhone and deliberately (and possibly illegal under the DMCA, ironically) blocking attempts to unlock. Poor customer support (why does AppleCare phone support close at 6PM and stay closed all weekend?)

The thing that gets me is that Apple gets away with so much when it comes to treating customers bad, yet people continue to defend then and act as if Steve Jobs is some kind of savior.
 
It's not like MacBooks are well built. They have numerous problems, from case cracking, discoloration (still happens), uneven backlighting, failing optical drives, etc.

And yet, there are many satisfied users out there.

Poor customer support (why does AppleCare phone support close at 6PM and stay closed all weekend?)

The thing that gets me is that Apple gets away with so much when it comes to treating customers bad, yet people continue to defend then and act as if Steve Jobs is some kind of savior.

In Apple's defense, at least when you call customer support, you get someone in the States, as opposed to someone from India who only barely speaks English (which was my, and many other people's, experience with Dell).
 
And yet, there are many satisfied users out there.



In Apple's defense, at least when you call customer support, you get someone in the States, as opposed to someone from India who only barely speaks English (which was my, and many other people's, experience with Dell).

I've called Apple several times thanks to what happened with my MacBook and my 3 3G iPod nanos that have tilted screens. 50% of the time I have talked to someone who spoke English as a first language, the other 50% of the time I have not. It's the same with HP.

Also, Apple uses DHL. Anybody who uses DHL knows you can't schedule pickups after 2:30PM. I'd rather be able to call at 3PM and have the box for the return on my doorstep the next day rather than waiting 2 days. Not to mention the fact that the first time my MacBook went out, I couldn't call until 2:35PM and had to wait on hold with DHL for 20 minutes only to be told "it's too late" and that I could have taken it to a local drop off location that isn't run by them.

Let's look at a realistic situation. Say a computer simply stops working at around 9PM. With HP and others you can call immediately and setup the repair. The box will be shipped out in the morning. If you have Dell's current warranty or another on-site warranty, you can call at 9PM and schedule the repair for the next day. What happens with Apple? You have to wait until the next day to call and explain that you don't live nearly close enough to an Apple Store, especially when you know the Apple Store will just mail it out anyway. And then if you can't call until after 2:30PM Pacific (where my repair boxes have always shipped from), then you have to wait until the next day for the box to ship out via DHL. Thats how many days just waiting to send the system out? With other manufacturers, by the time the Apple owner is FINALLY getting the box to ship it out, the manufacturer of the other PC already has it and is working on it.
 
MacBook 2.2 Ghz! Lovin' it!

Really, I've been thinking about switching to Mac for over a year and finally ordered my first Mac on 30th of December. This is my New Years gift to me. I must admit that I was feeling a little uneasy during the interim between ordering and receiving it through UPS. I ordered it on MacMall - saved a bunch!

I purchased 2 - 2 gig sticks of ram and installed myself. Works great.

The oddest thing is that I have less to do now that I own a Mac. I don't have to deal with defragmentation, disk repair, etc. It really just works. As long as Apple keeps making solid products, I'm Mac for life.

By the way, I keep reading about this ultra portable being released at Mac World 2008. Well, I can't imagine anything powerful and more portable than my MacBook. I wouldn't want to give up my Superdrive just yet.
 
this just seems to be abit of a slagging match now between mac and windows users. sorry if i offended any, but i was just trying to point out that mac's aren't more expensive than PC's, as people tend to believe they are. they are pretty much the same price for similar spec machines, ones using pretty much the same components and not just ones with the same spec's.
 
this just seems to be abit of a slagging match now between mac and windows users. sorry if i offended any, but i was just trying to point out that mac's aren't more expensive than PC's, as people tend to believe they are. they are pretty much the same price for similar spec machines, ones using pretty much the same components and not just ones with the same spec's.

Well, Macs are more expensive. The MacBook comes with only a 13.3" screen, 2.2GHz C2D, Intel GMA X3100, 1GB of memory, 120GB HDD, and a DVD writer for $1400 or so after taxes.

If you head over to HP or Dell, you can get a bigger screen, dedicated GPU, twice as much memory, HDMI output, etc. for several hundred less. Even if you go with a similar screen size or overall size, you can still find those kinds of systems for several hundred less with dedicated GPUs. Look at the HP dv2700t for example. A 14.1" "travel/mobility notebook". It's roughly the size of the MacBook, only slightly larger, but it has a "wedge" design for proper cooling (unlike the MacBook) so it is 1" thick at the front and 1.5" at the back. Starting price is $799. Configured with a 2.2GHz C2D, 128MB GeForce 8400M GS, DVD writer, 120GB HDD, DVD writer, 2GB of memory, a webcam and fingerprint reader comes out to be $984.99. With a double capacity battery for up to 7 hours of real world battery life (4 hours of real world life on the included battery) $1,033.99. Add the 3 year accidental damage warranty and it comes out to be $1,373.98. When you add sales tax into the equation, then its only slightly more but you get a lot more for your money. Better warranty (24/7 phone support!) as well as better hardware.
 
I think this issue has become confused too.. If you want to game you need a MBP. Which can handle most games you throw at it. I've just played Portal with High settings and it was gorgeous on a MBP.

This is the only disadvantage I can see to MacBooks. They are superb machines. My mum was in the market for a new laptop and I talked her into getting the lowest spec MacBook. She was initially worried that she wouldn't get on with OS X, so I installed windows. Now she barely spends any time in windows and she told me the other day that she is extremely grateful I told her to get a Mac.

I think it's fairly futile comparing the costs of Macs and PC laptops. I'm perfectly happy paying the premium for a mac for the following reasons:
  • I can dual boot if I wish - you don't get that option with a PC
  • The resale value of Macs is vastly superior - I got £700 for my G4 Powerbook, after the intel MacBook Pros had come out
  • The design is nicer
  • The option of taking any mac into an apple store to get free advice is excellent. It doesn't even matter if its out of warranty.

I don't wish to add to the Mac/PC debate, but I cant help it! I think for the majority of users a MacBook is a great choice for a portable. If it wasn't for the lack of a dedicated GPU I would have been completely satisfied with my purchase.
 
No remorse here. A. I never get first generation so I wouldn't trust a new ultra portable until it has been through at least one cycle. B. I love my Macbook, I tend to kick myself when previous models get phased out and I like the previous generation more. For instance, I just bought an old Clamshell iBook (blueberry) that me and my husband are going to refresh just b/c I love the design. I'm so glad I have the 5.5 generation iPod b/c the Classic (which I had for 2 weeks) annoyed the crap out of me just based on spin up time and the fact that it may be called "annodized alumnium" but I call it plastic. The old iPod mini's, THOSE were annodized. I'm also thankful to have the 2nd generation shuffle b/c the colors were way better. The newest ones are too freaking pastel. My Macbook has a much better screen then the 3 crappy Pros I went through, it stays nice and cool and I like the Black, it doesn't scratch and it looks pretty darn sweet with my Gelaskin on it. I'm a happy camper. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a new Apple TV, if they announce an update on that, I'm so dropping some cash on it.
 
Well, Macs are more expensive. The MacBook comes with only a 13.3" screen, 2.2GHz C2D, Intel GMA X3100, 1GB of memory, 120GB HDD, and a DVD writer for $1400 or so after taxes.

If you head over to HP or Dell, you can get a bigger screen, dedicated GPU, twice as much memory, HDMI output, etc. for several hundred less. Even if you go with a similar screen size or overall size, you can still find those kinds of systems for several hundred less with dedicated GPUs. Look at the HP dv2700t for example. A 14.1" "travel/mobility notebook". It's roughly the size of the MacBook, only slightly larger, but it has a "wedge" design for proper cooling (unlike the MacBook) so it is 1" thick at the front and 1.5" at the back. Starting price is $799. Configured with a 2.2GHz C2D, 128MB GeForce 8400M GS, DVD writer, 120GB HDD, DVD writer, 2GB of memory, a webcam and fingerprint reader comes out to be $984.99. With a double capacity battery for up to 7 hours of real world battery life (4 hours of real world life on the included battery) $1,033.99. Add the 3 year accidental damage warranty and it comes out to be $1,373.98. When you add sales tax into the equation, then its only slightly more but you get a lot more for your money. Better warranty (24/7 phone support!) as well as better hardware.

can we just agree to disagree? this thread's kinda gone off topic.

and, ilovemygeek, i'm close to gettin one of those ibook's too, just for the retro looks. it'd be nice to have the old against the new :)
 
all I'm reading here is a bunch of jiberish. Seriously. It's running quickly towards rediculous anti-mac pro-pc crap.

Bottom line. Dude had a bad experience. He clearly started off a PC fan and hard core user for 17 years. Thought he was gonna use the mac more than he was and quickly ran into some issues that were resolved by apple. Along the way he realized that he was more comfortable with the ways of using a microsoft OS and quickly fell back into comfortable habitats. It's common really.

I will say this... had you put more effort into learning the ins and outs of osX I guarantee you'd have been more comfortable using it. But saying that I have a feeling at some point we'd still be reading this post from you because you started out and still are a hard core PC fan and user.

So... You said your say. Go sell your apple and go back to the PC world.

Gamers shouldn't be buying apples YET anyways. Apple isn't focused on that and the programmers aren't focused on apple.

Oh... and common pych. and person experience leads me to doubt your crashing and praise for pc's in that rant you posted. You are a PC fan and apple doubter, common pych 1 tells you that you'll focus more on the positives of the one you're used to and biased towards and the negatives of the one you're not.

I've been on apples and PC's since 94 or so. Bought my first and last PC in 97. I like macs better. So I'll be sticking with mac. You go stick with pc's until you realize how lazy microsoft has gotten.
 
People who use Windows are 12 year old gamers concerned about the SLI logo on their desktop to impress their friends in middle school. Thats the end of the story.

People who use Apple products are "hipsters" who don't mind getting mommy or daddy to spend a ton of money so they can try to impress the cute guy at starbucks with the turtleneck and the emo glasses., I would rather have the SLI logo.
 
I always have remorse when I buy Apple computers. I am still trying to chase my first high. They all start off great, but in the end, I either have a fast, faster, fastest choice.
 
I think this issue has become confused too.. If you want to game you need a MBP. Which can handle most games you throw at it. I've just played Portal with High settings and it was gorgeous on a MBP.

See, the thing is.. you shouldn't have to buy a MacBook Pro. Look at the cost! $1,999 for something with a 128MB mid-range GeForce 8600M GT? For less than that you can get PCs with 8700M GTs with 512MB of memory, or dual GeForce 8600M GTs with 512MB total memory, or the faster (yet previous generation) GeForce Go 7950 GTX... or two of those even.

When you look at the specs of a MBP and then compare it to a PC, you are literally paying $700 or so more just to get the Apple logo and OS X.

I honestly do not understand why Apple cannot offer a dedicated GPU in the MacBook. My girlfriend's sister has a late 2005 iBook and it has a better GPU in it than my mid 2007 MacBook.

I should say, I don't understand why Apple cannot bring hardware up to the same level as PCs. The MacBook is marketed as the "consumer" notebook, yet it doesn't even have features that notebooks costing half the price have, like memory card readers, HDMI output, ExpressCard slots. You go up to the $900 or so mark and you can get HD DVD readers, dedicated GPUs, HDCP certified HDMI output, etc.

The MacBook Pro is supposed to be the "professional" notebook. Yet, when compared to business notebooks in the same price range, it's not built even half as well, the warranty is an absolute joke (most business notebooks come with a 3 year warranty standard, and optional warranties include on-site support), you get anywhere between a quarter and half as much video memory as the same priced PC.. I could go on.

Really, Apples prices are nothing short of highway robbery.

I also wanted to add that I've played Portal on my HP with a dedicated GPU. After taxes, the system can be had for about $450 LESS than the MacBook with a DVD writer.

I can dual boot if I wish - you don't get that option with a PC

Why can't people dual boot on PCs? You can install as many operating systems as you want on a PC. Use a boot loader like grub and you can install as many operating systems as your hard drive can hold.

The resale value of Macs is vastly superior - I got £700 for my G4 Powerbook, after the intel MacBook Pros had come out

That just means the person who bought it was stupid.

The design is nicer

Thats a matter of opinion. I find the new iMacs to be butt ugly. I can't stand the design of the MBP either. It feels too cheap and gets beat up too easily.

The option of taking any mac into an apple store to get free advice is excellent. It doesn't even matter if its out of warranty.

Thats nice. It's too bad Apple's phone support closes at 6PM Pacific every night.

can we just agree to disagree? this thread's kinda gone off topic.

Well, no it hasn't really. You specifically said that you wanted to show that Macs do not cost more as some people "think", and you wanted to know if people had buyers remorse. It has clearly been proven that Macs DO cost more and that people DO have buyers remorse.

Dude had a bad experience. He clearly started off a PC fan and hard core user for 17 years. Thought he was gonna use the mac more than he was and quickly ran into some issues that were resolved by apple.

Quickly? I was without my system for a month! I had to send it back and forth to Apple's repair depot multiple times before they finally replaced it. Not to mention the repair depot caused more issues than it solved. How do you replace the top case and screw up the mouse button... twice?

Along the way he realized that he was more comfortable with the ways of using a microsoft OS and quickly fell back into comfortable habitats. It's common really.

Actually, I was quite happy with OS X. Until it started crashing randomly when doing common tasks. Then I realized I was booting into Windows to do simple things like watch DVDs because.. well, even in Leopard, DVD Player is an insult to movie lovers and the quality is terrible.

had you put more effort into learning the ins and outs of osX I guarantee you'd have been more comfortable using it. But saying that I have a feeling at some point we'd still be reading this post from you because you started out and still are a hard core PC fan and user.

Had I put more effort into learning the ins and outs of OS X? Please :rolleyes: Why is it that whenever someone complains about legitimate issues with OS X or simply does not like it, or finds that it's not as good as its hyped to be, it's "their fault"?

My problems with OS X come from the lack of software, the stability issues, and the hardware prices.

Oh... and common pych. and person experience leads me to doubt your crashing and praise for pc's in that rant you posted. You are a PC fan and apple doubter, common pych 1 tells you that you'll focus more on the positives of the one you're used to and biased towards and the negatives of the one you're not.

Haha funny. Now you're saying that my system didn't crash. So all those times Finder locked up and I couldn't do ANYTHING in the system, not even move the cursor, I was imagining things. Right :rolleyes:

I really did like OS X at first. But then I realized how limited the hardware was and the crashing began, and I had to use Windows for doing something as simple as watching a DVD.

Why isn't there a good DVD player for OS X? Apple's DVD Player is an insult and VLC isn't very good either. Software developers need to realize that theres a lot of us who are very disappointed with DVD Player and would be willing to buy something thats on-par with the quality you get in Windows.
 
I knew I would have buyers remorse so I waited. I was going to get a Macbook two months ago but I decided to wait because if they unveiled something I like I know that I would kick myself for it. It's happened before. I bought a bloody DS before E3 then they released the DS Lite :mad:
 
Oh I see whats happening. Yeah sorry guys I didn't mean to feed the troll..

Its funny how when someone points out the negative truths about Apple they're a "troll".

Yet if somebody makes up a bunch of nonsense about Windows (such as one person at this forum trying to claim Windows only supports 2GB of RAM) nothing is said about them.
 
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