

Looking for a new Mac? Here's a pricing matrix - terpua
http://www.appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/

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SwellJoe
I went shopping for a laptop a few days ago, and checked out the MacBook Pro
15", which is $1738 at Club Mac (and that's after a $150 mail-in rebate). I
instead ordered a Dell Latitude E6500 for under $1250 (plus $50 for a Mini 9
netbook, which was available in a combo deal), equipped with twice the RAM,
the same CPU, the same disk, a magnesium alloy chassis (not as pretty as the
Mac's aluminum, but not bad and very light), same resolution LED lit display,
similar dedicated video card, backlit keyboard, a 9 cell battery (reportedly
~2.5 hour longer battery life than the Apple), web cam, roughly the same
weight, roughly the same height (1" vs. 0.95" for the Apple), and more ports.
Oh, and a three year pretty comprehensive warranty.

So, Mac OS X tax = ~$488, and I would have gotten less RAM, and deal with a
rebate which I seem to never actually receive even when I remember to fill out
the forms and stuff.

Just saying...the MacBook _is_ a fine looking machine, though. This Dell is
reportedly hackintosh ready, too, but I always end up just using Linux,
anyway.

~~~
kqr2
Your experience coincides with Microsoft's new series of commercials where
they give a person a fixed budget for a laptop:

[http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/03/26/...](http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/03/26/new_microsoft_ad_swipes_at_apple.html)

~~~
SwellJoe
Yeah, I saw that ad a while back, as someone linked it here at HN. That ad
didn't influence my decision to check prices at Dell. Though I _was_ deeply
disappointed to note that Dell imposes a Linux tax. The version of pretty much
all of their laptops with Ubuntu cost sometimes hundreds more (they just don't
go on sale, so the special deals that Dell always has running don't apply).
So, I'll take the Windows and install Linux on it myself.

For slightly less nice build quality the Studio 15 from Dell can be had for
another couple hundred bucks cheaper (it added up to $1086 with almost the
exact same specs). I decided that thinner and lighter was worth the extra
money for me (and the Mini 9 for $50 with the Latitude was a pretty big
draw...I love little machines, and the screen and RAM on my OLPC isn't _quite_
big enough to actually use for even on-the-train development or catching up).

------
badger7
Matrix? What's wrong with the "equivalent PC x 2" algorithm? Maybe it needs to
be trendied up a bit with some shiny translucent plastic? Or maybe it's the
fact that the variable 2 could be updated at a later stage without throwing
out the whole algorithm and starting again?

(Chill out fanboys, just kidding. Sheesh, you guys are tetchy)

~~~
wmf
This still isn't funny and the price difference between Macs and PCs has
nothing to do with the article, which is about the prices of Macs at different
stores.

