Buying a Student Laptop (Part 2)
I wanted to see how prices would compare between buying a Mac laptop and various PC laptops. I went to the Web sites of the manufacturers and sought out student pricing (if available) and did a rough comparison of the data.
Here are my findings. Please note that these are rough estimates and the laptops don’t have precisely equal features. Apple offers a student discount as well as a free iPod Nano, so I subtracted the value of that from the price. I also factored in that if I bought a MacBook, I’d have to buy a copy of Windows to run side-by-side with the Apple operating system (vice versa not an option with the other brands).
My conclusion is that prices are comparable across the board. You pay a little premium for a MacBook, but it’s not much (especially if you consider the iPod). The main disadvantage of the MacBook is the screen size. But to me the whole package is better. For students, I think it’s better to buy through Apple.com. For others, I think it’s better to buy through Amazon (though you can’t customize).
Final note: Intel just released an update to their “dual core” processors called Core 2 Duo. Manufacturers are just starting to roll these out. In my opinion (having worked at Intel until recently), it’s definitly worth the wait.
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September 5th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Did you consider the Mac Book Pro? If so, why did you leave it out of your analysis?
September 6th, 2006 at 8:18 am
I actually did look into the MacBook Pro and should have mentioned it.
I think the Pro is also a great product, but it’s a bigger jump in price ($600-800) than I’m willing to pay for the larger screen and slightly better other features. This brings up another disadvantage (though not a huge one) in buying a Mac…generally what you get is going to be more solid but you have fewer options. For example, you can’t customize screen size on the MacBook. They just have 13″.