I went through the same thought process in December, never owned an Apple computer but needed a new laptop. Despite trying to fend off the idea of getting a Macbook (due to some combination of price/not wanting to succumb to herd mentality/proprietary nature of Apple) I caved.
It felt silly to spend a lot of time researching and configuring a custom laptop. I've never purchased a pre-built desktop but customizing a laptop seemed too poor a risk/reward proposition for my liking. Even with a great deal of effort it would be difficult to create something comparable to what I could simply purchase.
Apple's hardware is easy to appreciate down to small details. You can open the lid without holding the other half of the laptop (my previous laptop would lift up otherwise) and the screen isn't too loose either (doesn't bounce when you type hard). The speakers sound orders better than any of my previous laptops. Battery life is great. Retina is beautiful & responsive (easy to read text, even while scrolling). The trackpad is unbelievable for a variety of reasons (click anywhere, accuracy to the very edge of the pad, multitouch/gestures). I hadn't previously seen any trackpad worth using let alone nearly as good as a standard mouse, but haven't ever needed to connect a mouse to this one. It's just a great overall experience.
There have been a couple software glitches that required a restart to fix, but other than that and the temps (~90°C) it reaches under load it has been a pleasure (@ 2 months of heavy use). Figuring out OSX took a week or two.
I don't envy anyone who tries to save money while achieving a similar experience.
So many little things that Apple just do better. I'd add some things to your list as well - the keyboards are nice and snappy, the machines are silent for general tasks, and the fans are generally quiet unless you're going crazy, with no stupid things like electrical noise / coil whine.
Even under heavy load you can sit the thing on your legs and it won't burn you. The machines are very sturdy and don't bend, so they remain level (unlike even the 'sturdy' Thinkpads). The rubber feet are svelte and not blocky and intrusive. There are no stupid panels to catch on clothing, or vents on the underside of the machine to get blocked.
Then there's stuff like MagSafe. And Thunderbolt (sure, USB 3.1 with Type C will do this stuff soon, but TBolt has done it for years already).
I would say it depends on what you do. Mac laptops definitely have strong features that their PC cousins don't have, but...
The two Mac laptops I have, they get hot and the fan is noisy, especially my Macbook Pro.
The port selection is nice, but the ports are too close together unless you're using all Apple cables. A chunky USB key or mini-display port cable can block other ports. I had to use a knife and shave off the edges of a mini display port cable I had.
>> "The two Mac laptops I have, they get hot and the fan is noisy, especially my Macbook Pro."
What are you doing on them? I'm generally running browser/Xcode/iTunes or Logic Pro X/iTunes/Browser and my fan never spins up. In fact it spins so rarely I tend to think somethings going wrong when it does. It freaks me out. I'm on the lowest spec 13" MacBook Pro.
I run mostly dev tools, text editor, etc. But I have a bad habit of having more than 50 Chrome tabs open, and Chrome is a notorious pig on just about every OS.
My Macbook Pro (2011, quad core i7) is famous for heating issues, but that aside, any app that forces use of the discrete GPU (at one point, even Coda did) would cause the fans to spin.
I don't want to sound like a snob, but the 13" MBPs aren't comparable with 15" MBPs, since many of them use lesser CPUs (i.e., not the MQ/HQ/QM series chips) that don't generate nearly as much heat.
Those 2011 quad cores are powerful machines, especially for their size (thickness, mainly). I've used HP Elitebooks with similar CPUs, that are close to twice as thick, yet still have worse heat issues.
You've gotta work them pretty hard to start reaching thermal issues - as you are doing with lots of Chrome tabs :P
Yes, they are. In raw CPU benchmarks, it will still blow away just about any latest rev mac laptop that isn't a 15" Macbook Pro.
edit - as for the thermal issues, you don't have to work it hard, that model year had all sorts of issues in general, hence the Apple repair order that was issued last year. My MBP bricked itself a couple of months before that repair order was issued. That was the first laptop I ever had (Windows or Mac) that just up and died.
Previously to this machine I had a 15" MacBook Pro (2012) and didn't have any issues either. I don't run many browser tabs, that might be the difference. Although I do think the fans spun up more often on the 15" you're right.
The 2012's had the second generation CPUs of that class, and they ran cooler than those used in 2011. A lot of people had major heat issues with the 2011, it's quite famous.
Apple was basically in denial about the issue until last year when they issued the repair order.
Having said that, most of the quad core models will get hot pretty fast, especially if you use something like Chrome. If you use Safari, you probably won't have those issues, as it's much more efficient than Chrome, but that's a preference thing.
Agree with all of this. Also worth noting that the best part is that these features are all in ONE device, not just a wishlist of things from a variety of laptops.
I agree with you that Apple hardware is generally much better than the competition. However, there is one thing that really bugs me about Apple laptops - they don't open 180 degrees, which make them somewhat impractical to use with a stand. And simply using a laptop as-is is not very ergonomic.
My 2015 MBP opens to 120° which seems like it'd be enough but I haven't purchased a stand yet so I'm not sure. Good to know since I've been looking at the Rain stand, which looks like it's pitched at 30°, so the laptop screen would be perfectly upright at most, as shown in images of the Rain stand: http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server800/c1529/product_images/u...
Not sure if that'll be okay, it is helpful to be able to angle the screen backward a touch if you're close to it and higher than the screen. That's probably less often the case with a stand since the laptop will be higher but helpful to keep in mind.
I'm a bit near-sighted so I prefer having my monitor somewhat close. That's especially true with a laptop, since the screen is smaller. However, if you're not near-sighted, then I suppose a MBP that opens to 120° might be fine.
It felt silly to spend a lot of time researching and configuring a custom laptop. I've never purchased a pre-built desktop but customizing a laptop seemed too poor a risk/reward proposition for my liking. Even with a great deal of effort it would be difficult to create something comparable to what I could simply purchase.
Apple's hardware is easy to appreciate down to small details. You can open the lid without holding the other half of the laptop (my previous laptop would lift up otherwise) and the screen isn't too loose either (doesn't bounce when you type hard). The speakers sound orders better than any of my previous laptops. Battery life is great. Retina is beautiful & responsive (easy to read text, even while scrolling). The trackpad is unbelievable for a variety of reasons (click anywhere, accuracy to the very edge of the pad, multitouch/gestures). I hadn't previously seen any trackpad worth using let alone nearly as good as a standard mouse, but haven't ever needed to connect a mouse to this one. It's just a great overall experience.
There have been a couple software glitches that required a restart to fix, but other than that and the temps (~90°C) it reaches under load it has been a pleasure (@ 2 months of heavy use). Figuring out OSX took a week or two.
I don't envy anyone who tries to save money while achieving a similar experience.