News - Latest Microsoft ad campaign attacks Apple pricing

[HEXUS]

The latest iteration of the ?I?m a PC? ad campaign seeks to bring attention to how expensive Macs are.

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[Cozwin]

Microsoft have hit the nail on the head here it is how most of us feel.

Apple are overpriced they cannot justify the premium you pay, they claim that due to good design and good software they can charge stupid ammounts and these seems to be the same for every god damn product they make.

The in ear headphones for mp3 players £25 for crap earphones, the definition on CRAP there lol.

[b0redom]

Have you actually compared like for like?

The only 17" Apple do is the MacBook Pro. I just specced up a similar Dell XPS. The Dell was only about £200 cheaper, and was 2.6Ghz rather than 2.66Ghz, DDR2 rather than DDR3, and a slower GPU.

It's horses for courses, but it's not THAT much more expensive, if at all.

[shadowmaster]

Tbh macs may have a nice design or a good user interface but they are heavily overpriced.

[sawyen]

Have you actually compared like for like?

The only 17" Apple do is the MacBook Pro. I just specced up a similar Dell XPS. The Dell was only about £200 cheaper, and was 2.6Ghz rather than 2.66Ghz, DDR2 rather than DDR3, and a slower GPU.

It's horses for courses, but it's not THAT much more expensive, if at all.

I dont think so, Macbook Pro's have CPUs similar to most 17'' lappies. If you're just looking for a 17'' screen, and powerful CPU + RAM then you can do much lower than a 1000 dollars..

But I do know what you mean about comparing apples to apples.. and if you're comparing like for like, you're comparing Studio XPS to MacBook Pro

but the real point behind the whole moral here is, hide all the hype and very cool design (which Studio XPS also carries)..

Do you really need an 'apple' per se? You can do very well with just a banana that gives you just the same amount of nutrition (CPU + RAM + Screen) but cost a lot less..

I know the Mac OS is pretty good for its own good, but they are just charging too much for their culture...

[GheeTsar]

Don't forget that you are paying for all the smugness that you get with an Apple product too.

[shadowmaster]

Have you actually compared like for like?

The only 17" Apple do is the MacBook Pro. I just specced up a similar Dell XPS. The Dell was only about £200 cheaper, and was 2.6Ghz rather than 2.66Ghz, DDR2 rather than DDR3, and a slower GPU.

It's horses for courses, but it's not THAT much more expensive, if at all.

Try not to just look at dell.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=1236&subcat=

http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebo...e=XTREME%20780

The apple 17inch is not as overpriced as I originally thought, but for £2000 you can get better.

[colmo]

A few years ago, when the Core Duo chips were starting to hit the street, iMacs and Macbooks represented a fairly good deal, actually.

However, now they are doing so well, the value of these systems has got progressively worse - they've also cut corners, such as replacing the S-IPS panel in the 20" White iMac with a TN film one in the Alu iMac. I get the sense Apple are now gouging their own loyal fanbase.

The basic Alu Macbook (via student discount!) is probably the best deal they have; Mac laptops hold their value amazingly well, and an aluminium chassis will help the used value.

Macbook Pros have always been expensive, though I will admit, probably the best laptop out there for those not on a budgetary constraint.

iMacs (especially the 20") look a very poor deal these days; I note the price has gone up for the latest models. £1500 for a fairly bog-standard desktop with a fairly good 24" monitor? Insanity. The sexy design isn't worth that big a difference.

Mac Mini - £499?!! What are they smoking? The original concept of the Mini (a cheap, compact replacement for a dying beige box) has, alas, long since been forgotten.

The Mac Air exists in a market segment of one, so nothing to compare value to.

This all being said, I don't think a Windows Vista licence is worth the price either - my brief experiences with the new OS have generally been frustrating (they've moved everything around...again...) and painful (wireless handling is still a mess). Mac OS X is vastly simpler to the novice user.

Want a computer? Build your own desktop, install a recent edition of a popular Linux distribution, do some homework on it, and pocket the change.

[sawyen]

Cheapest MacBook Pro 17'' you can get...

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB
320GB Serial ATA @ 5400
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English)

Cost an eye watering £1949 inc here in blightly

Now, if we look past the beautiful casing, good OS per se..

Dell Studio 17''

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 Cache)
17.0" Widescreen WUXGA+ CCFL (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife™
6144MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x4096 + 1x2048] (with 64bit OS only)
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera - CCFL
640GB (5.400rpm) Serial ATA Dual Hard Drive (2x 320GB)
256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650
Blu-Ray ROM Drive (read/write CD/DVD & read Blu-Ray Disc)
Internal UK English Qwerty Keyboard

At a much more sensible £1200+ from Dell inc delivery..

I know about Windows needing more memory and all, but the price difference allows me to make up for the difference by adding 4GB extra memory..

And if you live with Linux, 6GB will get you flying..

If you get my point...

MS does have a point...

[finlay666]

Have you actually compared like for like?

The only 17" Apple do is the MacBook Pro. I just specced up a similar Dell XPS. The Dell was only about £200 cheaper, and was 2.6Ghz rather than 2.66Ghz, DDR2 rather than DDR3, and a slower GPU.

It's horses for courses, but it's not THAT much more expensive, if at all.

Really
You should be looking at the studio series for similar specs, the 17" studio for me came out £1000 or so with the 17" macbook pro almost £2000 AND you get 2x the storage (640gb instead of 320gb)

a 9600gt vs a 3650, not exactly high power either way.

Forgot to mention the Dell comes with a blu ray player £1,163.60 for the 1920x1200, 9 cell battery and upgraded cpu....

[b0redom]

Where'd you get the specs for that MBP?

Current model for £1949 is 2.66Ghz, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, Backlit LED screen, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB RAM.

Not trying to come across as a raging Apple fanboi - I have a Dell Mini 9, a 17" MBP (old rev) an iMac, a C2D Wolfdale desktop, a macmini HTPC a Linux NAS, and an Ubuntu workstation

but it is horses for courses.

As a side note, I wouldn't buy another 17" laptop anyway, it's far too bulky for carrying about for normal use - it's more of a desktop replacement - hence the dell mini 9

[sawyen]

Really
You should be looking at the studio series for similar specs, the 17" studio for me came out £1000 or so with the 17" macbook pro almost £2000 AND you get 2x the storage (640gb instead of 320gb)

a 9600gt vs a 3650, not exactly high power either way.

Forgot to mention the Dell comes with a blu ray player £1,163.60 for the 1920x1200, 9 cell battery and upgraded cpu....

Not to mention 4GB extra memory if you shell out the extra £100 odd extra..

6GB Windows Vista will not be far slower than a 4GB MacBook Pro

I always like to get into such a discussion with my boss.. and the only excuse he can shoot at me all the time is...

1. It looks cooler
2. It has a legit copy of OS X
3. I'm your boss, have a good weekend..

[sawyen]

Where'd you get the specs for that MBP?

Current model for £1949 is 2.66Ghz, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, Backlit LED screen, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB RAM.

Not trying to come across as a raging Apple fanboi - I have a Dell Mini 9, a 17" MBP (old rev) an iMac, a C2D Wolfdale desktop, a macmini HTPC a Linux NAS, and an Ubuntu workstation

but it is horses for courses.

As a side note, I wouldn't buy another 17" laptop anyway, it's far too bulky for carrying about for normal use - it's more of a desktop replacement - hence the dell mini 9

*Edit* my bad.. I clicked on the 15 incher..

Post above corrected accordingly

[b0redom]

Looks like the 4GB DDR3 ram is the mitigating factor - it's a whopping £408 from crucial. Those Dells looks to use DDR2. Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't want to spend anything like that on a laptop.

[Hicks12]

Apple are fairly expensive in general, i dont like their "style" its nice but why does it mean its more stylish than something thats had money spent on the design(different textures etc). For example, the Ipod Shuffle is about £25-35 for 1gb but yet you can get alot better mp3 players like the sandisk sansa clip which can be had for alot less, £30 buys you atleast 2gb and someplaces even 4gb and how does it compare? Better battery, OLED screen,more capacity,2 year warranty vs 1 year,much better sound quality so why is apple more expensive? Fan base pure and simple. Some of my mates say that apple are the best and say how bad companies like SanDisk are just because they are better .

[miniyazz]

I just like my Dell Inspiron 9400 I got in January for under £500. Upgraded with the 17" 1920x1200 resolution, 2.33GHz Core2Duo, 4GB RAM, 7800 Go, and 8-cell battery.