Internet Warfare

A common argument on places like Digg and Slashdot is over the price of Apple’s Macbooks. Typically, an Apple fan will say that any laptop with the same specifications as the Macbook will cost as much or more. This is worth checking to see if it is true. This won’t be complete unless I check every single 13″ laptop out there, so I went out there and checked the specifications on the Dell XPS M1330, the Apple Macbook, the HP dv2700t (14.1″)and tx2000z (12″), the Gateway C-141XL ,and the Sager NP2092 (14.1″, I haven’t listed it, nearly identical to the Gateway C-141XL). It wasn’t easy for me to find how to customise Clevo laptops on the website so I didn’t bother. These were the specifications I chose:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz T8300
• 4Gb RAM (2×2GB)
• 250 GB 5400rpm
• No extra software
• No additional warranty. Default 1 year parts and labour.
• Except for the Macbook, all laptops had discrete graphics. The Macbook has Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics and no option to choose discrete graphics.

And the results are as follows:

As you can see, the Dell XPS M1330 beats the socks off the Macbook on features alone (discounting the services because they’re bundled and I have no clue how much the equivalent cost on the Mac). I hope that ends the argument. Interestingly, the Macbook is actually close to what the cost of a similarly featured laptop would have cost back when this particular iteration was first released. They just refuse to adjust prices when the cost of components go down. If you want to be price-gouged or if you want the OS X operating system, then pay the extra.