Studio XPS 16 or Macbook Pro 15"

[thejadedmonkey]

I would argue that you're comparing the wrong laptops.

Apple's 17" Macbook Pro is a nice machine, but if you're looking for something in the same league as it from dell, I would highly recomend the Latitude z600. You'll give up some CPU and GPU speed*, but gain wireless charging and wireless docking. It's also thinner, and more portable.

here's the link: http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/...z/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-latitude-z&s=bsd&cs=04

*I would argue that if you're spending over $2000 on a laptop, and don't care that it doesn't have the greatest video card or processor in it, that you don't need the speed of it, and you're buying it purely for its appearance.

 

[kngelv]

A lot has changed in six years. Most notably, Microsoft's operating systems are now rock solid - I haven't seen a single application crash using the pre-release version of Windows 7.

As for customer support, I'm not sure you're calling the same Apple I am. When I called about my MacBook discolouring I got someone who certainly was not fluent in English and who did not understand my issue as a result. He had a script and it took me a very long time to get him to deviate from it. Eventually I got my plastic case replaced, but not until I had waited three weeks for it to make the round trip to the service centre.

Apple Stores are great if there is one near. Unfortunately they are spread so sporadically in the regions Apple sells its hardware that it just isn't convenient for a majority of people to go there.

If you call from the states you definitely get North American support. With you being in the UK that may be different. I have Windows 7 running in Bootcamp when I need to and while muuuch better than Vista it's still not as intuitive as Mac OSX.

James

 

[kurzz]

The core i7 is faster than the fastest Intel Core 2 Quad processor out there.
Core i7 > Core 2 Quad > Core 2 Duo.

 

[Theclamshell]

my dad said i could buy a mbp too so now im in the exact same position as you, im leaning towards the dell though because it is vastly superior to the mbp speck wise and i want something that will game well