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I went to dell.it and I configured it as following:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2.0 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB

Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005

Screen 15.4" Wide Screen UltraSharp™ WSXGA+ (1680x1050)

2048MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)

120GB (5,400rpm) Hard Drive

DVD-Writer DVD+/- RW 8x

256MB ATI® MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400, PCI-Express x16

Main Battery 9 cells 85 Wh

Price: Eur 1416.99

Now let's take the cheapest Macbook Pro: Eur 2000, and it comes with a lot fewer features.

I know, it comes with OS X, which I absolutely love, but is such a difference in price justifiable?

Edited 2006-12-07 01:43

This unfair. The MacBook has an X1600, this has an X1400. The MacBook has 160 GB HD, this has 120, the MacBook has a built in webcam, this does not, the MacBook has a faster version of the core 2 that this and it just goes on like that. Contrary to popular belief, macs aren't really more expensive and sometimes, even cheaper.

I got a decked out 6400 4 months ago before the duo2s came out. (bummer) I'm still happy with it.

I looked at the Mac lappys in my country of Australia.
For what I would get for a Dell 6400, Apple wanted 2x as much for the price!
I just didn't have the money to line Stevo Jobs pension fund. So I took the Dell (but I really like the Mac lappys)

But the truth is Fan boy *mad* they are too dear, 2x as much in my country (blame Apple Australia and their lack of stores there too)

Unless Apple buys Dell or Dell buys Apple, they are still some yuppie prize in my book.

"The MacBook has an X1600, this has an X1400."

Yes, that is true, but the 2000 Eur version comes with the 128MB X1600.

The 160 GB HD is a paid upgrade.

Built in webcam: not a great one, according to most Mac lovers, and I am one of them. Just buy a better one separately.

"the MacBook has a faster version of the core 2"

That is true too, but you can get it as a paid upgrade from Dell, and still you won't go any near to 2000 Eur.

Look, I am very sorry that we, the Mac community, are so divided about the cost of Mac hardware. At least we are united by the love for OS X.

Really? Then what does the Dell cost when you upgrade it to match the MacBook?

You compared a none-upgraded Dell at Eur 1416.99 to a Macbook Pro costing Eur 2000. Problem after you do all the upgrades to make the machine equal the difference in price pays for the quality differences to Apple's hardware.

You are comparing unequal machines.

He is not really comparing unequal machines, is he? He is just telling us what it costs him to get what he wants, which he can from Supplier A, or the closest thing to what he wants, which is what he gets from Supplier B. He finds he must spend more with Supplier B because, wait for it, they do not have exactly what he wants!

Happens all the time. I buy the Philips TV with a 19 inch screen and pay $300. I would have quite liked to buy a Sony, but they only have a 21 inch in this style, and it costs 500. I don't feel like spending 500 or having a 21 inch screen. I mention this to a friend, and he says, you're unfair to Sony. You're comparing two machines of unequal spec. No, I say, I'm just not buying a bigger screen than I want and spending more for it. What does this have to do with fairness or machine comparisons?

Edited 2006-12-07 08:34

The mac is also almost just two thirds so thick...

Yes, and people seem to see no value in that. I used to have a 3" brick of a machine before. There is more value to the industrial design of a Mac then a PC you can throw together.

"a Mac Pro is good value for money", "No, because I could throw together a better machine for $100", "And it would look like it was thrown together; I /want/ it to look nice." Why do so many people not care about the asthetics of their machine. You'd think they didn't want their computer to look as good as a nice flat screen TV, or other modern appliance.

this seems to have turned into a mac vs pc pricing debate..

the point i INTENDED to make was what does its benchmarks compare to!
Including a benchmark with no comparison is useless

i used mackbook as an example as it came to mind, but please feel free to compare it to sony, toshiba whoever!

You are missing the point surely? What he did was configure a machine, in this case a Dell, to the spec he decided he needed. Now he looked over at the Apple product line to see what that spec, or a close approximation to it, would cost him. He found, as usual, that he could not match it exactly. But he could buy a higher specc'd machine for more money.

He concluded that, for him, it was going to be more expensive. This was correct. It was going to involve him in spending more than he needed to get what he wanted.

Its ridiculous to call someone specifying what he wants and telling us how much it costs "unfair".

People mostly do this the other way around, starting out with the Mac spec, and then prove you pay roughly the same or a bit more to match it. But the question is not whether it costs you more or less to get something you don't want. The question is what it costs you to get what you do want.

Edited 2006-12-07 08:26

I am glad beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Although I can't see how you would see the Dell "prettier" than a MacBook/Pro. ?? Any Dell laptop I have ever used has been a heavy brick and made with cheap plastic. Nothing asethically pleasing about the Dell at all.

I kinda like the way the Dell looks myself. I prefer that style to the shiny look of Macs. But I do have to at least partially agree, too many of their laptops feel cheap and you get the definite feeling you don't want to ever drop or bump it. A friend of mine got a value line one, can't remember what it was, but in a year it was missing two keys, the case was scratched, the touchpad was flaking out, the fan had died and been replace, and if you tried to play 3d games on it without having a desktop fan pointed at the laptop, it would overheat and shutdown in about 15mins.

But I did see one of their 17" highend laptops and I have to say it was nice. And it had one of the best keyboards I've seen on a laptop (barring thinkpads, of course).

Marked up for funny. Nice one.

For some reason the only Dells I see in the Philippine market are laptops and notebooks. Guess IBM and HP have the high end desktop, workstation, and server market sewn up over here.

//Is it possble that OSnews is slowly becoming a hardware site?//

Good question.

What I want to know (from OSNews especially, and which is not clear from the original article) is:

(1) does it run Linux? If not fully, then what hardware does not work and what are the prospects of getting that fixed?, and

(2) can I buy it without Windows? Alternatively if not, will Dell provide a refund for unused Windows OS software?

"Jag håller med"

Also here in Sweden the macbook pro is just 4% more expensive than a comparable speced Dell 6400/E1505... Hard choice...

Taking into account all the mobile device news that's a good question.

You can read *more* code on a widescreen if you read more than one source file at a time. A 1680x1050 widescreen is enough room for three terminals side-by-side.

You must be one of those single-taskers. Ugh.

So you open multiple terminals side by side when you program or you actually don't do much coding, you just browse through other people's code?

I prefer having tabs in my editor and switching between them instead of having 3 code windows side by side.

And yes when i am programming, i focus on one file at a time, this is why i write good code. Do you write good code or not?

I'm a web developer and all those div blocks indented makes me horizontal scroll, so I like the widescreen.

The Macbook Pro is 35% more expensive in Sweden than the USA.

Yes, but the bundleware slowing it to a crawl is all NEW!