Briefly About the Show

It's no wonder people planning to buy a computer are always stuck with the idea that Macs are more expensive as they shop. Irresponsible reporting (if you can call it that) from individuals, companies, and experts (heh) everywhere. Let's look at a recent post at Dealnews and look at their claim that you can get 2 Dell Laptops for the price of 1 MacBook Pro configured "similarly" - yeah, that last word is used in the loosest sense.

I'll give them credit for pointing out "some" of the missing features from the Dell, but they sure do paint a rosy picture of those Dell machines. (Read their Article first)

They compare the new MacBook Pro 15" base model with a Dell that has...

It includes an Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2.16GHz 667MHz FSB processor, 15.4" 1280x800 widescreen LCD with TrueLife, 2GB RAM, 80GB 7200 rpm hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 802.11g wireless, 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 video card, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. To get this specific configuration:

The differences? Vast, but we'll get to those later. In the end, Dealnews claims the Dell will be $1,031 after coupon and the MBP $1,999 ($2,174 if you up the RAM to 2GB). So let's do our own "more accurate" comparison.

Dell Upgrades to match MBP:

• Processor to 2.16Ghz Core 2
• Windows XP Pro (closer to OS X)
• LCD to UltraSharp SGA
• Leave RAM at 1GB, but note the Dell has "shared" at 533Mhz while the MBP is 667Mhz
• Hard Drive up to 120GB to match MBP
• 8X DVD Burner chosen
• X1300 Radeon Mobile 128MB - the X1600 choice not available on Dell
• Hi Speed Dell Draft-N wireless card (yes, the MBP has that)
• Internal Dell Bluetooth card
• Interlink Media Remote - the MBP comes with a remote control
• I'll be nice and leave out the anti-virus software and just assume a Windows user has already purchased something.
• Basic video editing bundle with photo slide shows and DVD player to match loosely what comes with the MBP

So at this point the Dell is $1,615. A very good price for such a computer, but let's look at what's still missing (and can't be configured) from what the MBP offers...

• Dell's RAM is slower 533 vs 667Mhz
• Dell's 1GB of RAM comes in 2x512 chips, so to upgrade to 2GB you'd have to replace both chips and lose both 512 chips (1GB) in the process. The MBP comes with a single 1GB stick, which (even wholesale) is much more expensive but also more flexible than the 2x512 for upgrades
• the MBP has Gigabit Ethernet - a 10X speed improvement over what the Dell has when you're at the office or in any Gigabit network.
• the X1600 video card has a far better core for graphics and gaming
• There's no software on the Dell for generating PDFs. Huge for business users and built-in to OS X. This would cost $189 from Dell (Acrobat) had I chosen it, which I did not.
• The Dell has no built-in camera. Whether you "need" it is not the issue, it's part of the product being bought.
• The Dell has no mention of Firewire ports anywhere in the config, much less FW800. There go fast external hard drives or video capture.
• For the professional, the MBP is upgradeable to 3GB of RAM, where the Dell is capped at 2. This is a big deal in high-end production work and certainly if the Dell user upgrades to Vista which is recommending at least 2GB for all the pretty GUI effects.
• MBP has a back-lit keyboard & drop motion sensor (to prevent data loss)
• The Dell can only run Windows, while the MBP can run Win/OSX

So the two machines stand with a $384 price difference and there's a massive amount of hardware still missing. Look, if you're a home user and don't want a machine that's configured with premium options, yes, the Dell is the way to go (unless you want OS X and then it's the MacBook - not the Pro). But let's not compare a home machine with a Pro machine and cry out about sticker shock.

Next up - you can apply a promotional discount offer code from Dell and get 30% off. Applying this makes the Dell $1,212.50. Let's face it, this is an excellent deal, so if you're in the market for a new machine and this suits you, go for it.

I don't particularly think comparing discount codes and sales is an accurate way to value the hardware, but it's about a deal and this is one. For the record, you can get over $200 off any Mac using a little trick that's just as well known as these Dell coupon codes - and the Mac trick isn't a limited time offer.

So bottom line: Dell with discount $1,212.50 vs MBP with discount $1,799.99. Over $500 difference, but worth noting the large number of differences between the hardware configurations.

My take on the whole price war thing? Macs are configured as all-in-one solution machines and they are packed with features that most other manufacturers don't even offer. When I have truly found a machine that compares 99% with the MBP, the prices have literally been within $20 of each other and even had the other guy coming out to be more expensive.

So if you're comparing prices or this argument comes up and someone says, "Oh, I can buy 2 Dells for the price of 1 Mac." Just say what my friend says... "Yeah, I can buy two Hondas for the price of 1 Lexus too. What's your point?"

Note: If you want a more accurate comparison - compare the MBP with another high-end laptop from Alienware like the Area-51 m550. The prices come out to: Alienware $2,069 and MBP $2,164. And the MBP still has a faster video card, built-in camera, drop protection, and backlight keyboard to distinguish it.

Oh, and please don't post comments about how Hondas are actually better than Lexus for all these reasons. Just take the point of the analogy