What makes Macbook Pro worth it ?

[saturnotaku]

Also, the Airport Extreme is very well priced for what it provides... both in hardware and software. It's ease of use is unparalleled. It's hardware is top-notch outside of business class network equipment. And lastly, the antenna design on the latest generation is quite impressive. I've had one in the lab, personally, and it outperforms just about every consumer router out there... even most that have external/protruding antennas.

Just recently I experimented with the USB/hard drive port on the AEBS. I hooked up my old WD 1 TB drive to a $20 USB 2.0 enclosure, connected it to the router, and installed the Airport Utility on the Windows side of my MBP as well as my wife's Toshiba notebook. In just a few clicks, the drive was visible as a network share in Windows Explorer and could be both read from and written to despite being formatted in HFS. The process could not have been simpler. The only small criticism I have is that the drive has to be formatted as HFS or FAT32; exFAT isn't supported, despite both OS X and Windows 7 having the ability to read/write to such partitions.

Edit: As far as costs go, I think we can throw refurbished Apple products into this discussion because they carry the same warranty and support as new ones. There are often significant savings to be had.

One other aspect of Apple is service - you can go into their stores for service and training. If you want Dell's version (in-home or in-business), you have to pay for the service.

It's nice if you live near an Apple store to take advantage, not so much if you don't. I wish Apple offered in-home service as well as accidental damage coverage as part of Apple Care. You can get the latter on an iPhone, so it's not as if it doesn't exist within the company's ecosystem.

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

One other aspect of Apple is service - you can go into their stores for service and training. If you want Dell's version (in-home or in-business), you have to pay for the service.

Depends on which notebook you buy from Dell. If it's a consumer laptop (Insprion, etc.), then your argument holds true (iff you live near an Apple store). However, you've ignored Dell Business, where 3yr NBD warranties are standard on their business laptops (Latitude, Precision, and maybe Vostro though I doubt it). I believe HP Business has the same standard NBD warranties.

[mmoy]

> It's nice if you live near an Apple store to take advantage, not so much
> if you don't. I wish Apple offered in-home service as well as accidental
> damage coverage as part of Apple Care. You can get the latter on an
> iPhone, so it's not as if it doesn't exist within the company's ecosystem.

I'm 10 minutes away from an Apple Store from my office (could actually walk there) so it's something that's of benefit if there is one nearby. If you're 100 miles away, then the value (to me) would be considerably less.

> Depends on which notebook you buy from Dell. If it's a consumer laptop
> (Insprion, etc.), then your argument holds true (iff you live near an
> Apple store). However, you've ignored Dell Business, where 3yr NBD
> warranties are standard on their business laptops (Latitude, Precision,
> and maybe Vostro though I doubt it). I believe HP Business has the
> same standard NBD warranties.

I have not purchased Dell laptops in a very long time but they were all
consumer models. I think that most consumers purchase consumer
models because you get more compute power for your buck. You just
take a hit on build quality. I do have a few desktops from Dell small business
that didn't come with on-site service. The on-site service was an option.

One disadvantage of the on-site service model is when the repair guy
comes to your office and doesn't have the right parts to fix your system.
The Apple Stores do seem better able to manage the logistics of repair
than the Dell guys (from my experiences).

[saturnotaku]

One disadvantage of the on-site service model is when the repair guy
comes to your office and doesn't have the right parts to fix your system.

Such is the risk when a company deals with outside sub-contractors. You never know what you'll end up getting. It's not just technicians who might not show up with the right parts; they could very well not know what they're doing at all. One only need look at the Alienware sub-forum here for those horror stories.

The Apple Stores do seem better able to manage the logistics of repair than the Dell guys (from my experiences).

That's one thing I do like about the Apple support experience. I've had nothing but great service in terms of sales and tech support in-store, over the phone, and online. It's all very cohesive, too.

By the way, are you on some sort of mobile or old web browser? I only ask because when you're quoting multiple people here it looks really bizarre...nothing like the forum's built-in multi-quote feature.

[Mitlov]

It's a six-hour round trip to the nearest Apple Store.

[crpcookie]

Resell value. I literally sell the previous model around the same price I bought it for and upgrade to the latest and greatest. You won't believe how many people who are completely illiterate about computers. And the Apple brand helps as well.

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

Resell value. I literally sell the previous model around the same price I bought it for and upgrade to the latest and greatest. You won't believe how many people who are completely illiterate about computers. And the Apple brand helps as well.

That, my friend, will be a failing of the average consumer, not a pro in favor of the MBP .

[ygohome]

Kindof off topic but since it was brought up about Dell warranties and repair services vs Apples I'll share a little about my experience with each.

I have several DELLs and I always get them with Accident Protectin and onsite NBD service for at least three years. This is one of the few areas where I have to admit that Apple is lacking, especially for businesses who use Apple products and who can't have a computer down for days, weeks or longer while it is in for repair. DELLs accident protection plans and their higher end (pricier) onsite NBD warranties that they sell to small businesses are not cheap, but they really have paid for themselves (for me). I wish Apple offered accident protection and NBD type of repair, I'd buy it.

I've had Dell laptops that required motherboards, daughter boards, displays, palmrest/touchpad, etc and entire laptops replaced under warranty. DELL has stepped up and for each occurrence they are onsite at my office, usually the very NBD. DELL overnights the parts to the local repair contractor or to my office (my choice)... I've had to wait sometimes a day or two longer as the wrong part was initially shipped. I have the choice of performing the repair myself or having a contract repair company come out to do it. I always opt for the repair company to do the work. But for the most part I get the laptop repaired the next day or two without me having to travel anywhere. And "no questions asked" other than diagnostic type of questions so that they ship out the correct part.

Having a local apple store is great if it is something they can resolve right then and there. But usually, if it is something like a hardware issue, then you leave the laptop with them for varying lengths of time. I've had to leave our MacBooks at Apple stores for at least a month while they replaced the display under warranty. No way would that fly for a business laptop that had to be operational ASAP. *thats why I am ridiculous about always making backups in addition to using cloud synching such as dropbox and having multiple machines. That way I can continue on with my business using another machine while Apple geniuses take their sweet time replacing a screen on the broken mbp



Now, with that all said, perhaps it says something about DELLS quality if I needed all of those repairs performed to begin with. lol. I've also had the contract repairman arrive to fix a DELL and they failed by breaking something else or not doing the repair properly, requiring a 2nd contract repairman to come out the next few days with more parts to do it right. That is frustrating. But I've had Apple repairs, from Apple themselves, also perform shoddy repairs.

anyway, I wish apple had accident protection (cuz I do sometimes break things myself, no fault of the mfr), and I most definitely wish apple offered a NBD repair warranty pkg.

[Burtonjp]

thats pretty vague... I've still never had a problem.

Once a video starts streaming there's severe lag between user commands and action. For instance, pressing the pause button and the video doesn't actually pause for a good minute or two. This is only when the video is still being loaded for steaming. It happens for me on multiple sites when on macs. Switch over to windows via bootcamp and works perfectly fine.

[Bill Nye]

Once a video starts streaming there's severe lag between user commands and action. For instance, pressing the pause button and the video doesn't actually pause for a good minute or two. This is only when the video is still being loaded for steaming. It happens for me on multiple sites when on macs. Switch over to windows via bootcamp and works perfectly fine.

Example site?