New Inspiron 1520 vs Macbook Pro

I agree with all of that but I also think that the lack of hardware choice limits OS X adoption. There are quite a few gaping holes in Apple's lineup:
- Budget and semi-budget laptops (under $900 or so)
- 15.4" laptops under $1500
- Ultraportable laptops
- Desktops that are not all-in-one and don't use all laptop parts and don't cost $2000+

Now whether these hardware categories appeal to you personally or not, they do together make up a large percentage of computers sold overall, and I think OS X adoption would greatly increase (probably double) if there were a respectable compatible hardware offering in each of these categories.

 

I appreciate your patience and repped you for that.

Honestly I love those other options and I am well aware of them from the sweet design to the led lcd and they may be worth their weight in gold.

Maybe someday I won't have to pay such a high premium for them.

I feel I am in the realm of the average customer, and if the average customer can't buy a MBP without breaking the bank then who is Apple targeting their computer too? Just doesn't seem right. But then again I'm bitter because I don't have $2224 to spend on the Mac I like.

 

Couldn't have said it better. What is Apple playing at? Who is their target market? Logic would seem to rule out the low and middle class, and leave only the rich and high class societies.

 

Well, definitely the 18-24 year old (college) crowd with their iPods and Macbooks. I'd say they're doing a damn good job too. Everyone and their mother has an iPod on college campuses (and just in general), and Macbooks are becoming very common. Macbook Pros though... definitely for the professional crowd or dumb college kids like me who put it on credit, haha.

 

Here is my reason:

I needed a powerful computer (both CPU and graphics card) with long battery life and as small as possible. I had 2 choices. 1 the macbook pro or 2 the Samsung X65. The Samsung is still not available and I have been enjoying my macbook pro for the last month.

I gladly pay 800, 1000 or even 1500$ more for the smaller size. I also have a Lenovo T60 (14") and the Macbook pro is about the same weight. But it is thinner which makes it more portable then even the 14" Thinkpad. Also the battery life... I get over 5 hours on my MBP. With most other laptops I would need a 9 cell battery which adds weight and size.

The macbook pro with its bright screen is perfect for working on the road and it is so solidly build that you dont have to worry about it much.

Also who ever pays the sticker price for anything? The 2.4GHz macbook pro is available for 2000€ and the little 2.2ghz MBP (with 3GB Ram) for 1700€ (1600€ with 2GB). Those prices include 19% tax we have here. The official apple prices are 2400 and 2000€. I am sure there are good deals in the USA too.

 

Everyone else has already justified the reasons why MBP is better and I agree with them (the biggest is 3.5-4 hours battery life) but I think you should go for the Inspiron because you are faced with a budget constraint; if you have slightly more room, you would have gone for the MBP straight away.

 

How about shipping delays? I hear estimated ship dates are still a month from order date for Inspirons.

 

Here's my 2 cents on this debate.

1st Cent: Your comparing apples to oranges. Apple created the MBP to achieve power and portability. The Dell 1520 is more for standard users, whom do not need the extra power just to surf the web or do office-related stuff. If you want power, you'll have to go the XPS route.

2nd Cent: This is my own personal thought on the build quality of both lines. The MBP feels like its built with premium parts, that all work better together. The 1520 on the other hand will likely have less quality parts that when mixed may pose more of a compatibility issue. You'll have to go to Dell's XPS line to get higher-grade parts to match what the MBP gives. The XPS line is also more expensive than the MBP when you upgrade its parts to better match what the MBP offers.

 

For mine it was more like a 2 week wait. I have heard this is about the same for everyone else. Dell tells you a month or more but delightfully surprises you with 1 to 2 weeks earlier than predicted.

 

Its more of a hit or miss on this note. My cousin ordered a 1520 four weeks ago, and had the estimated ship date of August 2nd, but it arrived August 17th. Dell is not serving people on a first-come-first-serve basis. That is shady.

 

Yeah that was just my experience. I do not like Dell as a company on whole. Their customer service is horrible. If it wasn't for the fact that I got my specs at $1000 plus tax then I would not have gone with them. I really tried hard to beat my laptops specs for price, but since budget outweighted beauty I had to go with the Inspiron.
I am not disappointed with the Inspiron now that it is in my possession, its a hell of a fast laptop. I do wish that Apple was more competitive so I could have spent maybe something like only $200 more for a MBP. Since the only Mac even close to my specs is the MBP. Oh well.

 

this is (and was) my point.

if you only want comparable performance, you can go with dell's offering that is significantly cheaper.

The Acura is more expensive than the Honda by a significant margin, but that Acura isn't THAT much better. You can save a BUNCH of cash by going with the Honda. People still buy Acura's and are wiling to pay the price premium, and they ARE better, just not that much better.

The same is true of Dell and Apple. If you are on a budget, you can swing a lot of cash and get performance that approaches a macbook pro with dell. If you really wanted to see how "expensive" an apple is, though, you would need to compare it to something like an Asus G1S that you can outfit with the same parts. However much more the apple costs than other equally outfitted machines describes the cost of the other features - LED screen, build quality / design, etc.

It turns out that you don't have to pay so much for that.

If you don't need the extra processing power or gpu power, then you will probably feel like you are getting screwed with the extra $$$ in cost.

If you do need it, its there, and the price premium is the same with apple as it is with everyone else.

You can always find a competitive solution that approaches the high end on budget. Thats my point.

 

Agreed with masterchef, you are unfairly assigning magical values to certain specs. "close to" performance is not "equal to" and you would pay for that whether it was an apple laptop or not. Why is the Asus-g1s the price it is? please answer this question for me... tell me why I would pay that much for the Asus? Can't asus offer the laptop for cheaper? Oh wait, they do... their lower models go down in price gradually as the specs downgrade gradually... Just like your Dell is "almost" the same specs as the MBP, your dell is actually more comparable to an Asus notebook with slightly lower specs than the G1S.

Finally the biggest thing that I would be willing to pay for (your number of 800 which is total bs to me, because I got my 2.4GHZ MBP for 2000, just like you got your dell with coupons off) that hasn't been mentioned is this...


I would pay probably 1500 for the ability to use WINDOWS LINUX AND MACOS on the SAME machine... it's like I am buying 2 laptops in one. Besides the fact that the MBP build quality and durability is way higher in my mind than my roomates plastic inspiron (and in his mind too).

So over the Dell, 500 from your configuration to my 2.4 SR MBP

-I get Better build quality, metal case
-Faster CPU (You can't even configure it with the 2.4)
-Lighter by a pound or more if you choose 9-cell
-Mac OS with free software like iMovie and iDVD, Garage band... etc... no virus's for now. An editing program will cost you for windows
-Ability to Boot natively Windows AND Mac OS
-Better battery life, in addition to that a second battery only cost me $49 off ebay
-Ambient light sensor to auto dim my screen
-Backlit keyboard which is HUGE for me
-LED Screen which is brighter, and DARKER when it needs to be (ever been in complete dark and wished you could turn your brightness down more?) also more efficient and more evenly lit, I am a photographer so it matters to me that it is also the best lcd in a notebook for color accuracy thus far. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-8741-9027
-Faster Video card, which I game as well so it matters to me, not to mention playing games at native 1440 makes way for sense over 1650 because it will run faster and not be tiny on the screen.
-DVI/converted to HDMI port (Inspirons have old analogue VGA output)
-Firewire 800 (obviously for external HDD it is good BUT excellent for Video editing, the inspirons do not offer anywhere in their lineup this feature)
-iSight built in (inspirons have the option to include, but again costs you extra)
-Magsafe connector is really really nice for fast connection and safety

That extra pound or more is huge for me, and the only 1" thick profile as the notebook is carried in my camera bag where space and weight is at a premium.

All of those things, not to mention applecare is amazing, and the MBP is really quiet, add up to an easy 500 dollar upgrade to me.

 

I understand your point of view, the Mac is a better notebook hands down. This is only true however if price isn't involved. You made a lot of points that just aren't true and invalidated my points without reading earlier posts which provided sources.

First off I paid $1000 for my laptop you paid $2000. So you paid $1000 more for your specs. I have a 1420, which is just as light as your 15 inch MBP. But this thread is comparing the 15 inch MBP and Inspiron 1520.

Sure 2.4 isn't offered, but you won't find many techs out there telling you that there is a significant difference between 2.2 and 2.4ghz on the same santa rosa cpu (both have 4mb cache, both run at 800mhz FSB)

Yes your video card is better, much better in fact. I wish I had it, again if you were to add and 8600 gt as an upgrade on a 1520 it would cost you $200 more for your base cost still a heck of a lot cheaper than the MBP. Sure the difference is GDDR3, but again significance on a 1440 x 900 screen is going to be very little, and only see be the hardest of video gamers.

It costs over $200 to upgrade to the 7200 RPM 160 mb hard drive on a MBP, so lets just cancel the video card and the faster hard drive out and you are still $1000 more expensive. 7200 RPM is again of small significance, but I think makes more sense for the average college/ graduate user since loading your programs faster is always a plus.

Inspiron does in fact have firewire. The keyboards on the new inspiron are highly rated especially above the MBP keyboard. The inspiron keyboard has been compared to the award winning ibm lenovo keyboard.

MBP beats the Inspiron on thickness, design and weight. It has a few nice bells and whistles, like led lcd and mag-safe. If that is worth $1000 to you then so be it, but please do not tell me that the MBP is so much better in performance than a highly rated Inspiron, its just not true. Some things the MBP does better (video card) and some things the Inspiron does better (higher screen resolution). But these things are few and performance wise of little significance. Therefore based on pure "performance" the 1520 and MBP are practically equals.

That said if you think $1000 is worth the thickness, metallic design and weight and a few bells and whistles then I am fine with that. But please do not try to argue performance against performance. Its not a significant argument.

 

Yes, I absolutely agree. On pure performance for price ratio I actually think the Inspiron 1520 is better than the MacBook Pro.

 

This seems kind of late in the topic.. However the weight you have is incorrect. The macbook pro is 5.4 lbs.. If you want to compare apples to apples you'd compare the 1520 to the Macbook Pro 15" screen one

The 17" is the one over 6 lbs.

 

Actually during this current season you won't get a Inspiron 1520 or a M1330 before the date listed on the site... Got 3 friends at work that were delayed on there 1520's. I ordered the M1330 and cancelled.

Wait itll October and order might get better luck... Back to school is weighing dell down, not to mention it's part shortage. Mainly due to it's large variety of options.

Anyway enjoy

 

As stated before your mileage may very. We all have friends who are this and that. I happen to have friends that got theirs 2 weeks earlier than ship date and they ordered at the end of July. Your friends weren't so lucky. If your point is to add a notch to the Mac is better than Dell pole then you are too late. Shipping isn't significant in this argument. Everyone has their horror stories about each company.

That all sounded a little standoffish, my apologizes.

 

Wasn't an argument, just wanted you to be aware of some delays currently affecting the machine. On the bright side if it's delayed too much you can likely call them up for a free upgrade \ coupon.

 

I think we all agree that the aluminum casing of the MBP is better looking than the plastic casing of an Inspiron. Stating that aluminum is more durable than plastic is quite a stretch, though. Aluminum is much softer, and as a result, bends and dents much easier than plastic.

True, when plastic is put under too much stress, it cracks. But, in most cases, the amount of pressure necessary to crack plastic is much higher than the amount of stress that aluminum can take before it bends.

 

Why are the Dell XPS series notebooks so expensive? Seems like the 1420/1520 can be configured almost the same (except with a lesser video card) for nearly half the price. Do they print money or something?

 

Small thin design, LED backlighting, weighs nothing, these are big features in notebook. Plus the design itself is amazing... Between a MBP and a M1330 I'm hard pressed! Cept MBP ships faster... So won on that basis and well Mac OS X!

 

The main reason I spent the extra money for an apple computer:

When I call the 800 number I immediately speak to an English speaking person located in Cupertino California who actually understands the system they're helping you with and isn't just reading from a screen.

I'd say that this is worth even the stretched quote of $1000 you said you have.

 

The XPS M1330 is very sleek while having tons of power in a lightweight case, very unlike normal Dell design . The new 1730 is hideous though ...I wonder if the XPS M1330 is a one-hit wonder for Dell.

 

Yeah I hope it's a sign of things to come... I still have my XPS Gen 2 notebook... And it's basically a BRICK! lol but it performs super well

 

Design-wise, Dell has hit a home run with the m1330. I wouldn't be surprised if they try spreading the m1330 styling throughout the XPS line. They'd be nuts not to.

 

Yeah, Dell has finally got a great looking laptop. Unfortunately they are having manufacturing problems with them. There's a situation with the red and white color scheme options. They already discontinued the white models. Who knows the status of the red line.

My brother is in line for the m1330 (red color option) and his ESD has been delayed once already and in 3 days or so it will seem like it will be delayed again as its still in Dell's "build" stage.

Anyway, back to the subject of this thread. Both the 1520 and the MBP have their strengths and weaknesses. It is up to buyers to decide on which features they really need and go with the model that best fits them. Price is an issue, but I feel that Mac hardware has been overall very good.

 

I'm aware of the m1330 problems. Over time, these will work themselves out.

Personally, I think they should end all of this color madness by either doing away with the colors, or paying Colorware to do it.

 

oh no red matte is the way to go... *drools*

 

How married are we to the Mac design? Would you take a Macbook over a 1420? Even if its a sacrifice of performance?

 

The problem with many notebook manufacturers is that they focus more on trying to stuff as much functionality in a laptop and forget about physical form factor. They try to entice buyers with stuffing many components and the like everywhere they can. Many college-bound people need something that can be easily transported and doesn't take too much unnecessary space in their bags. Having a thin-and-light MacBook or even the XPS m1330 suits this requirement perfectly. You can have both performance, design, and practicality now.

 

I got sick of waiting for my XPS M1330, and I am out of a laptop since I gave my new Vostro 1400 to a friend, so I thought to myself perfect opportunity to try a Mac. I've thought about this all week - Macbook or Macbook Pro. This is my first Mac ever, so I thought to myself go cheap and learn the Mac OS first before I splurge. But wow that MBP is a thing of beauty!

If the price difference is in fact $500, I think it is worth it to go with the MBP. Why? Resale value on the Macs are MUCH better than any Dells. In a year or 2, you'll be lucky to get half of what you paid for a Dell. Sell the MBP in a year or 2, I wouldn't be surprise if you get $1500 back for it.

So far I like OS X. It's gonna be a learning curve, but I think I will grow to love it. Being a Windows guy for all my computing years, what's the first thing I do on a Mac? Install BootCamp and Windows of course

I am still waiting for that M1330. When/if it ever ships and if I don't absolutely love the design, I might move up to a MBP.