Apple's MacBook Pros Catch Up with Core i CPUs

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Plastic does just fine on a laptop, thanks. The aluminum is more aesthetic than anything. Besides, Apple has more than their fair share of quality problems for their inflated prices, but thanks to their Chinese-style censorship, you'll never be allowed to read about it in their support forums.

Of course, to get that inflated Dell price took some effort, people also love to build $10,000 Macs at Apple.com just for fun, the difference between Apple and Dell is that I can actually go to a retailer and get the Dell for a reasonable price. With Apple, you're not getting out cheaper by going to a retailer.

Want a true premium laptop? Get an Asus.
 

Ragnar-Kon

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[citation][nom]applerocks[/nom]I love the Apple Haters here...Where do you buy this mysterious Dell for half the price that has the same specs? By the time I customized a Dell M6500, to be roughly the same specs as the MBP 17, I had to upgrade the 802.11g wireless to N, I had to upgrade the screen 1920x1200 res, had to add the built in camera, had to upgrade the hard drive to 7200 RPM, the stupid thing costs several hundred dollars more than the apple and is twice as thick, has 1/3 the battery life, and is made of plastic not aluminum... I just dont see the deal here.[/citation]

I agree. I just configured a HP/Dell laptop with specs as close as I could get them to the new 15" Macbook Pro. The Dell ended up being $50 cheaper, and the HP ended up being $10 more expensive. And neither the Dell or the HP claimed a 9-hour battery life.

The problem is most people (not all, but most) in this forum don't care about a FireWire port, a DisplayPort, SD card slot, camera, iMovie, etc. etc. Which I don't blame them, last time I checked, you don't need a FireWire port to play video games.

But anyway, all in all, I am surprised that they didn't have a Blu-ray option for the 17".
 

norb8

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onekill: Apple claims 8 hours of battery life but in the real world you get six. Just like the Sony Z series, 4.5 hours of video playback and 6.5 hours of typing and net usage. It also has a 7200 rpm HD and an LED screen.

Having a 1080p screen on a 15" or 17" laptop is almost a waste. The human eye will only see a benefit of 1080p screens if 2.5 feet away from a 22" screen. Anything smaller and it is fine. http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

Why are you surprised with all the hate? Toms Hardware is a PC enthusiast site. What do you get from coming here? Benchmarks for PC components your Mac doesn't have?
 

Ragnar-Kon

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[citation][nom]dj1001[/nom]I bet there gonna cost 2000+ for the basic 13" model[/citation]

$1200 for the base 13" model. Doesn't go up above $2000 until you get to the high-end 15"/low-end 17".
 

Ragnar-Kon

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[citation][nom]tipoo[/nom]Really? My education discount only knocks off 8% of the low end 13' price from the Apple online store.[/citation]

My education discount brings the base 13" down to $999. 15" down to $1549 and 17" down to $1979. But I also have 2 education discounts, and a certification discount:
- Student discount
- IT worker employees by an educational institution
- Apple certified: Mac servers, laptop hardware, Mac Pro hardware

Although those I know that have only the student discount get 12% marked off the lower 13" model, I won't why yours is only 8%.
 

Ragnar-Kon

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[citation][nom]ragnar-kon[/nom]My education discount brings the base 13" down to $999. 15" down to $1549 and 17" down to $1979. But I also have 2 education discounts, and a certification discount:- Student discount- IT worker employees by an educational institution- Apple certified: Mac servers, laptop hardware, Mac Pro hardwareAlthough those I know that have only the student discount get 12% marked off the lower 13" model, I won't why yours is only 8%.[/citation]
Should ignore my inability to create sentences that make sense today. ;)
 
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No quad, No eSATA either... Apple is morphing into run of the mill!
 

war2k9

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and the Dell version of the SAME exact laptops cost almost half what the Apple products sell for!
I am looking for a new laptop please, give me a link to that la[top.
I went to dell website and i cannot find one that has the same exact spec half or slightly higher price.
 

ipp

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Better battery life and an IPS screen and HP/dell would trash apple on hardware, but currently nothing matches apple's offerings.
 

jay236

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It's about time they made the Macbook Pro 13" more powerful than the white polycarbonate version. It never really made sense for customers to buy the less equipped Pro version for $150 more.

However, other than that I think it's only worth paying for the 13" base model version...other ones are extremely pricey.
 
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Lol to all the apple fans saying they customized a Dell/HP laptop for the same price as these Macs. I can customize a Dell XPS-16 with a much more powerful GPU and core I-7 CPU for around 1200 Bucks or so. All those extra add ons are not mandatory stupids. And the XPS will blow the lid off you Macs. Get your stuff straight. Apple Macs suck and are way overprice. My old Dell Insipiron with a core-solo spins faster than my sister's 13 inch Mac.
 
mlopinto2k1 04/14/2010 12:10 PM
Not having a swappable battery is unacceptable. On the other hand, everyone has their reasoning. I wonder what theirs is?

$$$
Remember when the iPod first came out? You had to send it and $100 to Apple to replace the battery. About a week after someone posted online instructions on how-to, Apple reduced the the price to $80. They also said the timing of the price reduction was "coincidental".
 

frostyfireball

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[citation][nom]applerocks[/nom]I love the Apple Haters here...Where do you buy this mysterious Dell for half the price that has the same specs? By the time I customized a Dell M6500, to be roughly the same specs as the MBP 17, I had to upgrade the 802.11g wireless to N, I had to upgrade the screen 1920x1200 res, had to add the built in camera, had to upgrade the hard drive to 7200 RPM, the stupid thing costs several hundred dollars more than the apple and is twice as thick, has 1/3 the battery life, and is made of plastic not aluminum... I just dont see the deal here.[/citation]
Dell inspirion 17, all the same specs or better( HD5670 GPU), Customized at 1488$, it's got an advertised battery life of 8 hours so the same as the MBP. The MBP is 2299$. So you pay 800$ for a aluminium case and some annoying OS! I could buy the Inspirion 17, a nice netbook for when I want to move away from the desk(bus, plane, etc), and a 64GB Zune HD all for the same price.
 

gpfear

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[citation][nom]tipoo[/nom]13 inch still using a Core 2, blech. But thats more the fault of Intel's lawsuit, Apple didn't have a choice since Nvidia cannot make chipsets for the i-series. Since they cannot put a discreet card in the 13 inch, they were stuck with a Core 2 Duo plus Nvidia chipset. The larger ones use Core i-series with an Intel chipset and Nvidia discreet graphics.And still no blu-ray, double blech.[/citation]

Umm Asus U30JC???? Dell Vostro 3300??? I guess Asus and Dell were not stuck with two year old cpus.
 

esarantopoulos

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I used to resist using an Apple because it costs an arm & a leg but you get performance and most of all a hassle free machine!!! No DLLs, no random lockups, it's just a solid OS. I still use PCs cause I need to but there is no comparison folks. My experience anyway.
 

micky_lund

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[citation][nom]jimmysmitty[/nom]They are kinda the anti-Wal-Mart.[/citation]
lol
too true
if they stopped putting their prices up, other companies would have to put theirs down, and itd be cheaper for everyone, not just apple buyers
 

goodguy713

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personally i have been using apple computers sense 1992 i just like the way they work .. blame grade school for having the apple II lol with the massive floppy drives .. those things were cool played organ trail a lot .. any way its personal preference do i have a windows computer yea.. have had one for about the same amount of time .. wanna know what i dont like about windows you have 50 + million adware and spyware and freaking programs that pop up asking you to up date or upgrade or freaking virus software bugging the crap out of you to up date you definitions seriously! its a pain in the arse! not to mention every implementation microsoft has done was a half ass service pack ridden pain in the neck? which brings me back to the microsoft update suite constantly nagging you have new updates?! where as on my mac all i can pick and choose what i wanna install and it dosnt keep bugging me telling me i have more updates! seriously ??? really but mac is more niche specific i mostly use mine for converting file formats and audio solutions personally i prefer logic studio as a recording solution.. its cost effective and has a great tool set that matches pretty much anything out there..
 

del35

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Reading the coverage of this in the main stream media made it sound like Apple was the only laptop offering the cutting edge Intel Core i5 and i7. Ummm, when the main media unconditionally supports a company, everything is possible.
 

del35

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wanna know what i dont like about windows you have 50 + million adware and spyware and freaking programs that pop up asking you to up date or upgrade or freaking virus software bugging the crap out of you to up date you definitions seriously!

Ummm, that is what happens if you use a widely used operating system. To avoid this sort of stuff, intelligent people opt to dual boot to an alternative operating system like Ubuntu. Buying an Apple to avoid this, is like grabbing on to toilet paper hoping you will survive a shipwreck at sea while getting robbed at the same time...



 

reklatsa

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[citation][nom]jimmysmitty[/nom]Oh and in honesty, Windows 7 is actually easily on par with OS X.[/citation]

Now, that is funny!
OS X is in a league of its own.
Windows 7 is a half step in the right direction... Though it and its hosts will never be symbiotic, merely inter-parasitical.
 

tsnorquist

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I know HP computers aren't the high end, but my 6 month old HP has almost the exact same configuration as the high end macbook pro - it was $800 when I bought it.

C'mon Apple, we encourage profiting for any business, but those prices are awfully inflated.
 
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