The role of expectations (or is Apple popular because it overcharges ?)

I'm not gonna bother getting into the massive flaming, but the OP said something that got my attention.

I'm not a wine guy at all, but I am a beer guy. I love beer, and I know beer.
Once you have a quality beer, you prefer the good stuff, or in my case won't touch the cheap stuff.

I'll pay $7+ for a 6 pack of say Guinness, Sam Adams, or hundreds of micro brews that are crafted by people who love beer. (I'd paid $20 for a 4-pack before!)
This is opposed to people who spend $10 for a 30 pack of Natural Ice, which has little flavour, and the little bit it does could choke a donkey with it's disgusting taste.

I suppose if you don't know any better, you go for the cheap quality stuff, and people who know go for the good stuff (And are willing to pay for it, and would rather hold out to afford the better stuff).

Just like with laptops. Those who don't know go to Circuit City and buy the cheapest laptop on their shelves. Those who do get something better from a better retailer.

 

Im not sure how you configured the dell, but it came up as $1,224 with the same specs as the midrange macbook. I'd also like to note that the black MB is $200 for a 90gb bigger hard drive. Why? Also the base M1330 is $999.

 

I'm going to give a rather unbiased opinion of what I think about Apple and their MacBook Pro line specifically. I just received my first Apple product which is a 2.2Ghz MBP the other day so I haven't had a lot of time with it yet. In the past year alone though I've probably owned more PC laptops from different manufacturers than many of you have in your life so I've seen quite a few offerings. I'm actually typing this message now on a new Sony VAIO SZ 780 I just received the other day. Point is I've had my share of laptops from all different brands and I'm a pretty picky person so I notice small details that many people either don't notice or don't care about.

The first thing I'll have to say about the MacBook Pro is the build quality. The aluminum case construction and the backlit keyboard alone are far above the quality of any any other laptop I've seen. There may be some extremely expensive VAIO's or something out there that could compare somewhat but it' doubtful. To me personally the three most important things to me in a laptop above even the hardware specs is the casing, the keyboard and the display. If either of those three suck I'm not going to be satisfied with it to keep it. I don't care how many e-pee pee marks it gets in 3dmark2010. If all I cared about was performance then I would build a desktop with a 24" LCD instead of investing a fortune to play video games on a tiny 15" or 17" screen. Anyhow, I'll have to say the build quality, keyboard, and the display are all three pretty well above anything else I've seen. In terms of the display I do have a very good LED backlit display on my VAIO SZ and on the XPS m1330 I have but the MBP 15.4" LED-backlit matte screen is still very good. I personally will never own another laptop unless it has a LED-backlit display or something better that comes along. CCFL displays are poor in comparison in both brightness and contrast.

As to the performance of the MBP and my feelings about OS X things are sorta mixed but I haven't spent much time on OS X yet. I'm gonna have to say though that I'm probably more of a Windows Vista fan than I am OS X. I know everybody likes to bash Vista but the thing I don't like about OS X is it's more difficult to customize and do much within. I'm sure there are a lot more hidden options and tweaks I haven't fully explored yet but for the most part it's just more of a simple OS compared to Windows and sort of lacks the extensive structure. It's probably why it's so popular when many basic users that aren't that knowledgeable with computers. The OS simply works and there is less you can do to screw it up. Everything does seem to run very smoothly under OS X though and I love what a short period of time it takes for me to startup and shutdown the laptop. I'm sure I'll grow to enjoy OS X more as times goes on but I'll definitely be dual booting Windows XP/Vista as well.

So those are just my few cents on the thoughts of the MacBook Pro line now that I've had one of them in my hands for a few days. As far as the regular MacBook and MacBook Air go I can't comment much but I will say the Air is overpriced for the hardware you get and the MacBook is a bit lackluster in specs compared to the MBP due to the difference in build quality, CCFL-backlit display, heavier than most 13.3" notebooks, ect.

 

Purely physiological, and Apple as well as other large companies are taking advantage of it!

 

Have you tried the thinkpad T61/T61P or the Dell latitude D830 ?
The thinkpad has a metal chassis including the lid. Keyboard reputed to be the best. You can customize the screen resolution (you can have WUXGA on its 15.4" models). Same with the latitude. You can also buy accident protection warranty for both.
I believe the T61P is also linux certified.
I had considered getting a MBP a couple of years back (at a heavily discounted price ~$1600, with a 3 year warranty, and this in summer 2006). I decided against it mainly because of the crummy screen resolution (WXGA+).

 

Thinkpads a built well no doubt and their resolutions are nice. But I have had some overheating problems with mine and I am not going to be getting another Thinkpad or a long long time.

 

This is one of the most hilarious posts I've ever read.
Your 3 inch thick Voodoo computer which costs about 3x the amount of a Macbook Pro had BETTER beat the crap out of it, or else I fail to see any point in buying something that looks and weighs like a Gorilla in comparison to any Apple notebook. If your not fond of refined curves and elegant design and cram packed components, then theres nothing anyone can say. (By the way, that is exactly what your paying for. The Apple brand, glowing white Apple Logo, and the apple sexiness. I gladly paid it, because that's what I wanted, don't kid yourself of OS X's superiority, it's fine but its not really better than Windows and mostly, it's just slightly different and a hell of a lot SEXIER).

 

They're about equal.. but a well equipped M1330 comes close to the price of a MBP however.

Though, a better comparison would be the D630 to the MB.

 

It's amazing that the only negative and rude responses come from the common PC lovin' crowd. As soon as I read a very rude post I check out the signature and it's proves it to be from a common PC user. Be constructive rather than wreaking havoc because your responses are to purposely annoy people that use Macs and you know it.