To Mac or not to Mac, that is the question...
My trusty Dell Inspiron 8600 has lasted me through 4 years of college (with a few minor injuries) and overall I have been happy with it. I have worked with both PCs and Macs over the years and I have tended to prefer owning PCs in the past because of software compatibility. However, it seems that those sorts of worries are becoming a thing of the past and more and more I recognize the value of the OS X operating system and Mac hardware (especially when compared to Vista!). As it comes time to leave my old (trusty) laptop behind and make an electronic fresh start in law school I am more than tempted to invest my hard earned graduation-gift dollars in a Macbook Pro. I would have to install a copy of Windows XP on it using either parallels or vmware because the test taking software at UCLA law requires Windows, but I would enjoy the flexibility of having two OSs available. Still I pause at the price point. The Macbook Pro is equivalent to a mid-high end Dell or Lenovo in terms of hardware and performance but they are SO much more expensive!! For the $2500 that I would spend on a Macbook Pro with Applecare (absolutely necissary for an Apple product...) I could buy one of these fancy new Dell Studio notebooks completely maxed out with a Blue-Ray player and 256 MB ATI graphics card. I mean really Apple? Really? I guess it is easy to overcharge when everyone seems to accept the Macbook as a superior product but really? REALLY???
That is all for now...decision pending
2 comments:
Dude, I struggled with the same decision. The only thing that made it easier is that my Dell was not so accident free, which was compounded by terrible customer service, so I at least knew that I wouldn't be going back to Dell. Ultimately I decided that the Mac pricing was just too unjustified, especially since I wanted an ultra-portable and the MacAir is even more absurdly priced than other Macs. I also wanted to experiment with a tablet PC, so I went with the Lenovo X61 (and I've been loving it!).
So there are my two cents. Look forward to seeing the post on the final decision.
I have looked at Lenovo and been very tempted. I think at this point that I'm going to by some sort of ultra portable that is very reasonably priced and keep some money in case I want to splurge on a Macbook later.
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