Do Macbooks still have the design edge?

When I looked at the high end the Windows laptops were quite similarly priced. That's not the case with desktops where the Apple offerings are a joke. The Mini is undermined by having a trashy graphics processor.

My experience has also been that a quality Windows laptop is tough and durable. In fact I'll take a tough, plain plastic laptop over an aluminium one any day if I want something I expect to take a lot of knocks. Battery life though was usually a weakness. Hopefully they have improved there as the Apple ones have.

Comparing the operating systems OS X just seems more coherent. Windows has improved in this area, but it still has that cobbled together feel, and of course it is still, sadly, carrying that Registry mess around with it. Not enough keyboard shortcuts either. And obviously the trackpads have typically been a joke in comparison to what Apple offered. From what I've seen lately it does look like that has improved, at least in regards to the physical size, but I don't know if they've gotten past the invariably bad drivers. Overall there are pros and cons to each. For some software there just is no decent equivalent on OS X. But overall I continue to find OS X much more pleasant to use in spite of having been a Windows user for more than 20 years.

Apple has obviously made a lot of money selling only premium hardware, but I'm not sure they can continue to do that. In my case Apple is losing opportunities not selling lower-priced machines. They should however stick to having a fairly small, easily distinguishable range of products even if they do start selling on the lower end.
 
I think display resolution should be high enough that one cannot distinguish the pixels. I consider that very valuable for making text easy to read. I would also like to see operating systems supporting device independence, so the user can decide whether they want smaller text, icons and so on or higher resolution text or something in-between. With a 2880x1800 display I'd choose to squeeze a bit more on the screen and use the rest to improve the image quality.
 
People have been saying Apple are losing opportunities by not selling lower priced machines for years now. In a sense it's true, there is certainly a huge body of sales that happens at the lower price scale. But it's primarily the low-margin scrabbling for survival kind of sales. Apple will rather sell an iPad Mini at $330-600, an iPad4 at $5-800 and a Macbook at $800+ - and they're raking in the sales and the cash hand over fist at that pricing tactic.


In terms of preferring a lower res screen to a higher res one, what are you stupid? Seriously? Even if all it does is makes your spreadsheets look sharper and browsing prettier, it's a serious improvement. You'd also rather have a slower heavier hotter bulkier plastick-er laptop than a faster lighter cooler one?
 
noxibox said:
I think display resolution should be high enough that one cannot distinguish the pixels. I consider that very valuable for making text easy to read. I would also like to see operating systems supporting device independence, so the user can decide whether they want smaller text, icons and so on or higher resolution text or something in-between. With a 2880x1800 display I'd choose to squeeze a bit more on the screen and use the rest to improve the image quality.
Click to expand...

The option to change the effective resolution does exist in OSX. Is that what you mean?
 
Rishalin said:
Hmm that's a pretty bold claim.. I know people still using the white MacBook and its going perfectly strong..
Click to expand...

I have a white macbook. It still works. I leave it in the guest bedroom as its pretty useless to me and just ends up annoying me. Was given to my by an inlaw.
 
I have always preferred unix over windows. Apples implementation is a good one.

I have and still do own a MacBook and a windows laptop. My wife uses the windows laptop. I use the MacBook. We have 2 stuffed up laptops in the cupboard. Wont boot up. They arnt Mac's. :) , however, I have to say that no laptop has ever stopped working while I was using it. I still believe my wife is careless with them. Which is why I will always buy her the cheapest crap I can get away with :)

The battery on my MacBook is far superior to any other laptop I have owned. That, it's build quality, and its OS makes it a better laptop in my view.

As for pixels, personally I don't give a sh##t ;) I don't use them to look at pretty pictures :)
 
cerebus said:
In terms of preferring a lower res screen to a higher res one, what are you stupid? Seriously? Even if all it does is makes your spreadsheets look sharper and browsing prettier, it's a serious improvement.
Click to expand...

If stupid is preferring better battery life over a ultra high resolution that looks pretty then I guess I am.
 
Crowley said:
If stupid is preferring better battery life over a ultra high resolution that looks pretty then I guess I am.
Click to expand...

What if you could get both in a notebook ? This is what Apple is offering.

zippy said:
I have always preferred unix over windows. Apples implementation is a good one.

I have and still do own a MacBook and a windows laptop. My wife uses the windows laptop. I use the MacBook. We have 2 stuffed up laptops in the cupboard. Wont boot up. They arnt Mac's. :) <snip>
Click to expand...

Also, Windows is not a "brand" of notebook.
You get expensive notebooks and cheap notebooks that can run Windows.
Some cheap notebooks outlast expensive ones... and some Apple notebooks have component failures. It is life.
You do not always get what you pay for.

BUT, back on topic...

Apple's OSx pixel scaling on monster resolutions coupled with excellent battery life are difficult to match on a non-Apple notebook. The Apples seem to still have the design edge... just look at all the non-Apple look-alikes... these also cost more in some cases and still come-up a little short in comparison.
 
Last edited:
Apple's OSx pixel scaling on monster resolutions coupled with excellent battery life are difficult to match on a non-Apple notebook. The Apples seem to still have the design edge... just look at all the non-Apple look-alikes... these also cost more in some cases and still come-up a little short in comparison.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much it. The Chrome Pixel seems to be the best built and specced alternative to a Macbook Pro/Air currently but honestly would YOU rather buy it than a Macbook?

I have a feeling that the Macbook design is in need of a physical refresh and it will happen before too long. In general with Apple's designs, it takes a couple of years to filter down to the commoditized sector when everything starts to clone what they were doing, and by that time Apple makes another drastic turn and waits for the rest of the market to get there. We're at that point now; I think silver aluminum has had its run and there are more interesting materials to be explored.
 
I have a 2008 macbook

So far I've replaced the battery (which swelled up one month out of warranty) and the hard drive which developed bad sectors two months out of warranty.

My daughters hp/compaq (same age) has given no problems - go figure!

Top tier manufacturers all have good quality but the normal curve applies - always
 
Crowley said:
If stupid is preferring better battery life over a ultra high resolution that looks pretty then I guess I am.
Click to expand...
You don't sacrifice battery life with the retina models compared to the non-retina models when it comes to the MacBook Pros. Despite the slimmer form factor they have a larger battery to ensure that.

I'd love to get my hands on a retina MBP but it's the other sacrifices holding me back.
 
It's not all about looks really.

The handful of metal cased laptops I've held in my hands just had other bad designs that made them rubbish. Like those little itty-bitty trackpads....one the main things that makes a Macbook fantastic to work on.

Then you have the non-metal variety that all feel like plastic rubbish and flex more than a Vespa in a hurricane.
 
cerebus said:
GT650m isn't much of a match for Diablo3 at 2880 res :(
Click to expand...

I grew out of gaming a while back. What I do is a lot of photo editing and thats where the higher resolution screen would come in handy.
 
bwana said:
I grew out of gaming a while back. What I do is a lot of photo editing and thats where the higher resolution screen would come in handy.
Click to expand...

Then...what other sacrifices are holding you back? The main one I can see is the graphics card just not being up to the demands of the screen resolution.
 
cerebus said:
Then...what other sacrifices are holding you back? The main one I can see is the graphics card just not being up to the demands of the screen resolution.
Click to expand...

There are a few inconvenient things. Storage is one, the cost to upgrade to 768gb is about $900. I still need to burn a fair share of cd/dvds. If i could convince people to return my memory sticks maybe that wouldn't be necessary, but for now....

The missing security slot is also a problem. There are plenty of times I just need to lock my mbp down. I still have a few FireWire devices, mostly card readers, that will also be expensive to replace.
 
bwana said:
There are a few inconvenient things. Storage is one, the cost to upgrade to 768gb is about $900. I still need to burn a fair share of cd/dvds. If i could convince people to return my memory sticks maybe that wouldn't be necessary, but for now....

The missing security slot is also a problem. There are plenty of times I just need to lock my mbp down. I still have a few FireWire devices, mostly card readers, that will also be expensive to replace.
Click to expand...

+1 to the missing security slot! - In our company security takes away laptops which are note locked down.. HAHA :)
 
bwana said:
The missing security slot is also a problem. There are plenty of times I just need to lock my mbp down.
Click to expand...
This and the lack of upgradeability are my biggest gripes. If I go for 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD upfront the second issue is sorted.
 
Hm yea hopefully they'll bring the Fusion Drives to the Mac Pros in the near future. It's insane to even think about the price of a 768gb ssd in a laptop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X