worth the price?

Jonny Apple Seed wrote:
My only question now is, are there new models coming out soon? I don't want to buy a powerbook pro today, only to find out they have a whole new line with faster processors in 2 months.

Everyone is saying to try and wait until around the end of February because Intel has a new generation of mobile processors about to ship in volume (Penryn) which is expected to end up in the MacBook Pro. But of course there can be no confirmation of this. I am also waiting for the right time, but until then my PowerBook continues to work for me day after day. So what if I paid more than a Windows laptop...I never expected that this PowerBook would still be good enough for daily work use 4.5 years later. That's a lot of the value of the Mac for me. If I can replace it half as often as a Windows machine it makes up for the cost difference right there, in addition to everything I listed earlier.

Yeah, that's been my issue the whole time. Especially laptops with 17 inch displays, Apple just doesn't offer anything at a value. Toshiba seems to have some really good deals.

You pay a premium for mac products for a couple reasons.

One the design is arguably the best in its class. I'm not sure another computer can compete aesthetically. Apple has a lot of firsts and original ideas (backlit keyboard, isight, battery indicator on battery, magsafe power cord, aluminum casing, etc)

The second thing is OSX. Users want an alternative to Windows. OSX is more user friendly to someone who's never touched a computer. It also arguably looks better visually (the dock, stacks, transparencies, Spotlight real time searching, etc)

2 weeks before buying my first Mac ( MacBook Pro ) I bought a 12" Dell Latitude for work. Then my personal pc went on the fritz for the millionth time, I went to an Apple store looking at the iPods and I left with a MBP. Overall it is Fantastic. Since I can run Windows on it too for work... "For Sale - Brand new Dell Latitude - make offer". As it stands, I will never touch a pc again.

First, level the playing field. Aside from the display and about $79 of third-party RAM, the specs of that Dell $1399 system are closer the specs of a more portable $1499 MacBook.

Second, it's Dell who's double-charging. This $1399 Dell is a Windows machine, period. That's fine if you're okay with just one machine running a copycat wannabe OS. But on the $1499-$1578 MacBook, add $80 of Parallels or VMWare Fusion and an OS from a dead PC, and you've got both a Windows machine and a Mac OS X machine, at the same time, in one little box. Windows virtualization exists, but it can't run a real Mac OS, only other flavors of Windows or get-what-you-pay-for freebies. Whee. Not.

If you really want justification to buy a MacBook Pro costing double that Dell ($1399 x 2 = $2798), you'd also have to be able to justify buying a $2798-ish Dell as posted by others. If you don't need anything more than the $1399 Dell, then you probably also don't need anything more than the $1499 MacBook.

Now, if the extra 2.1 inches of screen space and more powerful graphics card with a 160 GB HD are really your deal-breakers, then you make a good point that the $1000 difference between the $1499 MacBook and $2499 MBP is excessive for your purposes. Simplified product lines do that to us. Back when the MacBook didn't exist yet, and the specs I needed in an MBP cost less in a 17-incher than in a 15-incher, I chose to go with a bulkier machine than I really wanted in order to save a few hundred bucks.

These are first world problems.

For example, if I can afford a $2798 MBP, why not a combo of MacBook Air ($1799) with a Mac Mini ($799) and 19" LCD ($150 on pricewatch), all for $2748 ($50 less)? I get 200 GB of HD space, four cores, a superdrive, firewire, ethernet, and a big monitor, but split among two units. With Back-To-My-Mac, I could leave the Mini at home on trips; or if I need Firewire, Ethernet, or a Superdrive once I get to a hotel, the Mini is small and sturdy enough for checked luggage, if not the extra space left by the Air in my old Pismo carry-on. With Remote Desktop, the Air can act as KVM for the Mini, so it only needs a power cord. For hotels with Ethernet but no WiFi, the Mini can act as a base station for the Air. Then, there's the whole backup issue: "Got me an Air and a Mini, too; when one don't work, the other do." But, the MBP has a better graphics card.

Oh, the dilemma!!