Sure, if you buy top of the line equipment and pay the sucker price you might as well get a Mac laptop. I just got a Dell 1505 pretty well loaded for $1260 last month though, because it had a $600 instant rebate. Dell’s got deals all the time, and a super deal about once a month.
People really pay $3000 for a laptop? What the heck are they doing with them? I push my computers hard, and I can’t seem to spend over $1300 on a laptop as long as I shop around a bit.
A 13.3" laptop with only a half a gig of RAM and a boutique operating system that can’t even run WinMerge? What would I do with it? Look sexy in coffeeshops?
The dual boot / cheap laptop thing ignores the cost of an additional Windows license, by the way. Not a factor for everyone, but something to think about.
re: windiff
Jeff and I have a running joke on WinDiff vs. Beyond Compare. The real point I was making was that an out of the box bottom of the line MacBook isn’t really a bargain if I want to run my Windows programs - the model he listed at $1099 would need a RAM upgrade and a Windows OS license, which would bump me back over the $1260 I paid for mine. Plus, I’d be stuck with a tiny screen.
So, I agree with the general sentiment that Apple makes great hardware and that the prices have come down to the point where it’s approaching being comparable to the PC market, but I wouldn’t call them Good, Fast, and Cheap. The Good, Fast ones are not at all cheap ($2500+), and the Cheap ones are not Fast (no RAM, slower CPU’s).
It’s is absolutely stupid to compare the price of a MBP to a Dell Inspiron. Why? Because Inspirons regularly have a $750 off coupon that every non-moron can find by a simple Google search.
MBP are neither cheaper nor better than the competition. For their price I can buy a much better Lenovo ThinkPad or ASUS Ensemble, without all the overheating problems of the Mac. Same for the MB.
Are they a great deal? Maybe for Apple fanboys, who are used to paying hundreds extra for the fruit logo. Who do you think is paying for that stupid cube on the Fifth Avenue, Mother Teresa?
Actually, I would never compare a Macbook Pro to a Dell Inspiron myself. The Inspirons are budget computers, meant for people who look at the specs first and quality second. The Dell Latitudes (which have their own $400 of $1600 price deduction) are much better computers.
There are tons of better notebook PCs than the MBP, without its famous overheating problems. Just a few examples: the Fujitsu E8210 or the Lenovo ThinkPad with FlexView screen (the former is consumer-oriented, the latter business-oriented).
Of course, lazy impulse-buying people will always find some good pretext for buying the Macbook (Pro). One can rationalize all he wants, but the truth is: the only reason for buying a MB§ is that… one wants a MB§.
I’ve been researching my notebook purchase for more than a month now, and I still have doubts. sarcasm Thank God for the intelligent people who have decreed that Macs have better price/(performance x quality) ratio. My search ends here. /sarcasm
“the only reason for buying a MB§ is that…”
Sorry. I meant the MAIN reason.
“Who do you think is paying for that stupid cube on the Fifth Avenue, Mother Teresa?”
Steve Jobs paid for that out of his own pocket.
Oh, the charitable Steve Jobs! Come on, anyone can see the megalomania.
“I am not going to quibble about a few hundred bucks here or there when I’m talking about my computer, which I use for hours a day, every day. Quality matters.”
Really? Then go buy a ThinkPad.
I would consider the MBP a disgustingly overpriced notebook, even if it worked perfectly. Right now it is just a good-looking on the outside, melting on the inside, pretty regular notebook with a $600 operating system (the only thing that’s good in it). Why do you think Apple is so afraid of selling OS X for PCs?
“The Cult of the Mac, the Church of Steve Jobs.” Whoever said it, s/he was right on spot.
Not the case here, but the funniest is when I see open-source zealots being fanboys of the most proprietary computer company.
The way the Mac zealot came up with the idea that the MBP is $500 cheaper than the Dell. 
michel,
That is a very good argument, and I am all for it. A computer is just a tool, and everybody should buy what they prefer.
I am just pissed off when people start to apply their bias to comparing “the tools”. I didn’t lie when I said that I had been researching my future notebook for more than a month. I would bet that none of the “preachers” who declared the MBP a winner did anything close to real research.
3-4 months ago the MBP was number one on my list. But, in the meanwhile, I learnt that there are so many better PC notebooks that I shouldn’t buy a Mac, except the case I couldn’t live without OS X.
Buy your Mac, be happy with it, but stop the elitist crap. It’s not the nineties anymore.
michel,
I don’t really see anything revolutionary in what Apple does. They put a nice interface on an otherwise excellent OS (BSD). And made it all proprietary. (Can I install OS X on a non-Apple PC or can’t I?)
For me, Macs are not tools, but designer tools. They DO the same thing as normal tools, but LOOK special. And, since I don’t buy $3000 suits, I guess I won’t buy Macs either.
Anyway, it’s not worth arguing about a company which has 3% of the market. Whatever you say, people!
Jeff,
In my opinion, respectfully, you need to do more research, starting on notebookreview.com and notebookforums.com. Search for MacBook Pro (overheating) problems. You’ll find plenty. Not to speak about underclocking the graphics card (now isn’t that a shady move?). That’s unacceptable for a $1850 computer.
Better buy a Mini.
Best regards.
" Search for MacBook Pro (overheating) problems."
It’s a bit premature to say this is a “widespread problem.” Given that I know several dozen people with MacBook Pros who don’t seem to have any heat problems, this could just as well be a relatively small number of vocal people. (Along with a bunch of others who have never used a “hot” laptop before, read the complaints of group #1, and think, “Yeah, my MBP is too hot, too!”)
Like most things Apple, if it isn’t perfect out of the box, people make a fuss about it. My guess is that just as big a percentage of Dell, HP, and Lenovo Core Duo laptops get just as hot, but their owners chalk it up to normal operation. Today’s faster laptops get hotter, people – it’s called the Conservation of Energy 
Matt, you’re like those dwarves at the end of the Narnia chronicles - the ones who could have gone to paradise/heaven, but refused to believe it was real.
Yeah, macs have been overpriced for a long time, but that’s not an absolute.
Do macs still use SCSI? Do macs still use different keyboard connectors than PCs? It’s about as absolute as those things. Times change - change with them.
“Oh, the charitable Steve Jobs! Come on, anyone can see the megalomania.”
Think what you want. But what precisely does this have to do with the pricing of an Apple computer? You claimed the price structure of Apple’s lineup is paying for the “stupid cube.” Clearly, it’s not, since Jobs paid for it himself. So, what’s your point? Do you usually argue by spouting vitriolic and irrelevant trash about a company’s CEO and a glass cube storefront when you can’t come up with a better supporting point?
For programmers, one should consider that the Macs come with a complete set of developer tools for C, C++, Java, Python, etc. This includes a tool called ‘Shark’, which is a really excellent code profiling tool for C, C++, and Java, which helps you see the bits of code that are slow and need optimization, and even gives you hints and suggestions on how to improve the code.
Shark alone is probably worth hundreds of dollars, judging by the prices of similar products.