Microsoft hits Apple where it hurts, in the pocketbook.
Thoughts anyone? Can you really get a good 17-inch laptop for $699 with 4Gb of RAM and 250GB HD? She really didn't specify that it had to be good though. Just 17-inches big. Here's what she got.
I think I would have taken the MacBook for $999
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Comments (52)
...except OS X, ease of use, iLife, iChatAV...
Did she want the constant anti virus popups too?
sure you can, an Acer Aspire wil run you around $600-700. should be sufficient for what she's gonna do with it (judging by her knowledge of laptops (oeh it's shiny) she ain't gonna be running Maya 2009 or AutoCAD).
everybody has their thing, I'm sticking with my Macbook Pro
yeah I know Autocad is for windows only
You Pay: $699
You Get:
AMD Turion 2.1GHZ
17" Screen
4GB RAM
320GB HDD
Cons:
DDR2 Memory
1MB L2 Cache
Fast Ethernet NIC only
Wireless G only
It weights 7.8 lbs
Battery life 2.5 hrs
and it comes with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
No bluetooth either
why are you listing DDR2 as a con?
You're probably right. Even when DDR3 is the new standard and is faster and more power efficient; it is still more expensive than DDR2.
Anyways, it will all depend on the type of application you want to run on the machine.
And that 17" screen? 1440x900 resolution.
It's most likely a HP 6820s I'd say.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-321838...
Or not, given it's a Pavillion. Resolution stands, in any case.
And to go one further, I could even use logic and visit the actual site, where it mentions quite clearly it's a DV7-1245DX (Gotta love those model names).
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9166635&st=hp+dv7&lp=1&typ...
It is actually 1280x800, equivalent to a 13 in macbook. Best buy is listing the external screen size as the native screen size. Check the HP site. Oh and the graphics card is so old that ATI no long lists the HD 3200 in their 3000 Series.
Microsoft's Message:
IF YOU WANT A CHEAP PIECE OF SHIT, BUY WINDOWS.
Sell the crappy Microsoft paid for laptop on Craigslist and use the cash to put towards a new MacBook. Now you'll have a brand new Mac that cost under $1000. :)
I'm reminded of another commercial:
Getting a Mac paid for mostly by Microsoft? PRICELESS!!!
Brilliant!
I also bought PCs to "save money." Then after endless "update Thursday's" virus warnings and all the usual stuff you get with Windows, I switched to a Mac. Long story short I discovered the price difference is a really small price to pay for the better user experience. Basically I found it is worth a little extra not to have to screw around with the Windows OS. The best way for me to explain this to a PC user is that having a Mac after having PC's is a lot like returning to the US from a third-world country where stuff just doesn't work like it should. Its not about being "cool" its about being productive.
Amen to that! I tell people all the time that I am way more productive on a mac then a PC. I can run with tons of applications open at the same time, and when I am done using the laptop just shut the lid - waking up is way faster then any windows pc I have used and wireless connectivity is almost instant.
So, like some have noticed, what some call a premium price, I call quality parts. Now let put as the price comparison of price which I will address in the end. Anyone knows that Apple's laptops start with a determined decision in matching user experience (user desired features, reliability, weight, style, etc.) with cost effectiveness. Now let look at a laptop from Apple. For this purpose I will use the base models of the 13in Macbook and the 17in Macbook Pro to show how cheaper is not better and what she has decided to give-up by putting price over quality. The woman in the video buys the 699 HP Pavilion Laptop with AMD Turion X2 RM-72 Dual Core Mobile Processor-with a Bronze/Chrome finish because nothing say stay like bronze and shiny chrome. It looks meh. Both Mac's look way better. Anyone can see that.
In terms of mobility, I don't know of anyone that would consider any 17in laptop portable. I have always thought of them as mobile desktops because of battery life concerns running hardware too heavy for it to be useable. That said, she choose a bulky (11.2"x15.6"x1.7") and heavy(7.8lbs) computer compared to the MB (8.94"X12.78"x0.95") and 4.5lbs and MBP's (10.51"x15.47"x0.98") and 6.6lbs. I think that anyone without good reason should avoid 17 laptops, but she insisted. I don't think her back will be happy after a few trips.
She has an AMD processor. AMD is a bit behind the time in terms of performance per watt. I wonder if see noticed that? Apple stacks top of the line processors sometimes being the premiere system featuring new processors. Releases of new systems can normally be planned around Intel's release schedule. Intel is ahead of AMD in terms of processors. If Apple wanted to compete in that market, they could use last years technology. 2 and 3 year old processors could shave off those dollars. Use old system cards with low bus speeds and tiny caches. Processor speed sounds impressive until your look at the things surrounding it. Her system has 2.1GHz, with 1MB of L2 cache with 4GB DDR2. The MB 2.0GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 2GB DDR3 and MBP 2.66GHz, 6MB L2 cache with 4GB of DDR3. Good enough for today verses prepared for tomorrow.
Hard drive are another matter. HP uses the cheapest large hard drives out there. Apple provides the best hard drives with sudden drop sensors with 8MB cache buffers on disk sets with faster throughput.
Media card reader are like nice to have but never necessary. If you need one on you at all times, then that is a plus, otherwise it is added tech that you won't use often. Video cards make the system sound way outdated. ATI doesn't even bother listing the HD3200 on their site it is so old. Apple uses MB 256MB GDDR3 Nvidia GP, and the MPB uses 2 different GPUs for battery verse performance concerns, and both are GDDR3 256MB verses the 512MB.
She wanted a 17 in screen, but seemed to ignore screen resolution. Her HP has 1280X800 verse the MB(1280x800) and MBP 1920x1200 (thats true HD capable and much more screen usage). I'll take this time to point out that the 15in MBP has better resolution than her 17in HP. Note, the Best Buy site is listing the external monitor size as the internal monitor size, a little deceptive if you ask me. What she can see on her 17in screen she could view all the same content on a 13in MB and more on larger screens.
HP has a modem. Anyone using a modem... well it is upsetting to say the least if someone must suffer like that. It also does not have a Gb ethernet jacks and only supports wireless B and G. I am convinced she enjoys living in life 3 years ago... Macs comes standard with Gb ethernet, access to A/B/G/N networks. The MBP comes with a firewire 800 and a PCI-expansion slot for additional versatility.
Battery life which is a major point of a laptop. The HP has 2.5 hours. The MB 5 hrs and MBP 8 hrs. The Mac has a multi-touch trackpad. It comes with OSX which is better protected against viruses and malware for average users that can slow or corrupt a system. In addition to the OS being way better and faster than Vista's resource hog, the added software of iLife is celebrated for its ease of use and power. There is no comparing iMovie, iPhoto, or Garageband to anything out there in the consumer range.
The woman should also know that her HP will probably die after her one year warranty is up or a year from then. She will wonder in 2 years why her computer is so much slower than the rest of the computers out there. When she goes to throw out her computer, she will be hurting the environment, because her computer contains so many harmful components. The Mac is design with carbon footprint in mind, from the packaging, battery disposal, recycling, having LED backlit screens. I mean look at the size of the box for her computer.
I will close with this little nugget of explanation. In January of 2007 I bought a 15in MBP. It has a 2.16GHz core 2 Duo Intel processor, 4MB L2 cache support for Wireless A/B/G/N, 3GB of DDR2 SDRAM, 1440x900 Native display, a PCI-X expansion slot, Firewire 400 and 800, and a backlit keyboard along with other features. I am willing to say that a computer that came out in late 2006 is better than what that woman bought in 2009. On Craigslist, one person is listing theirs for 1100 and the other person is listing theirs for 1200. Mac maintain their value better than other brands. What I am saying is that when the time come for her to get a new computer, it is likely that hers will either no longer work or it will be close to worthless.
I'm a PC, and I got just what I wanted! A piece of $hit!
I'm a total Apple fanboy, but I find it refreshing to see a Microsoft commercial that is understandable and has a point. It's been years since Microsoft has delivered something a user could understand on a number of levels.
She's a cute redhead with no money who had to accept the degrading experience of buying a laptop from HP that runs Windows Vista Home edition. I'd gladly pony-up the extra grand so she can get a Macbook Pro so she can avoid the shame of not being 'cool enough' to be a Mac user. Lauren, call me.
Just what you wanted... a box of sh*t.
This is an example of someone who doesn't research what they want in a product before getting it. There are several things I want to point out here, so bear with me...
She said she wanted a 17" screen, comfortable keyboard and speed.
1. The 17inch screen on that HP Pavilion model dv7-1245dx is overrated. The Resolution is 1440x900 pixels. That resolution can be found on the 15" MacBook Pro, and is only about 25% larger than the Resolution of the 1280x800 13" MacBook. Not to mention that the MacBook is LED Backlit and has is more environmentally friendly, and she seemed like a GreenPeace person to me.
2. The Speed of the 13" Macbook is WAY better than that 17" HP. The Pavilion has the AMD Turion™ X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor model RM-72 which has only 1 MB of L2 Cache. The 13" MacBook has 3 times as much L2 Cache. This greatly reduces the time it takes to access memory. The MacBooks also have DDR3 RAM which runs 30% faster than the DDR2 in the Pavilion. And OS X manages memory much better than Windows Vista, so she would see much better performance from 2GB DDR3. The Graphics in the MacBook, as we know, are Very nice, Much better than the ATI RADEON HD 3200 graphics RS780M.
3. With all that performance and portability... i'm sure the pavilion has great battery life, right? WRONG... from the BestBuy site: "Good battery life
Of up to 2 hours and 30 minutes." Since when is 2hrs and 30 mins good?
4. Pretty much, all Notebook keyboards are alike. But because that pavilion is so wide, it does have the bonus of a Number Pad on the side, though miniaturized to fit.
5. Other things that make the 13" MacBook better: less than 1 inch thin rather than almost 2 inches. Multi-Touch Trackpad. Up to 5 Hours of battery life which is 2x the pavilion. Oh yeah.... and Mac OS X with iLife '09.
Lauren is a size queen!
That comparison is so biased...
I love this ad. Apple DOES need to reduce their margins. They make a better product...DAAAA...but who the fuck cares? Make it cheaper! THAT'S INNOVATION!
we all know apple is way better... but why not lower the prices little more?
Why SHOULD they lower their prices? I remember reading a report somewhere that 1 out of every 3 dollars spent on a computer is spent on an Apple product. Macs might only have a 10% market share total, but Apple has 33.3333% of all market income. Why wreck a good thing?
Also, after talking to a few Apple resellers, they all seem to agree that the price "weeds out" the casual (or "moron", to quote directly...) users which tends to lower tech support issues. As a software tech support rep myself, I can totally relate to their point. I get a million calls daily from users on the low-end of the PC spectrum who need help, but RARELY do I ever get a Mac tech support call. Mac users tend to "get it", whereas a lot of windows users can't even find the control panel... Sad, but true!
Why upset such a great ecosystem of knowledgeable users?
Family member went and bought cheap HPs for the kids cause macs cost too much. After getting them home, wiping them (to get rid of all the trialware / adware), reinstalling windows, locking them down, waiting a few weeks, re-installing windows (after removing adware that found its way onto at least one machine more than once), rinsing, repeating... I was asked what to do. I laughed. Was told yeah yeah, I know, you said spend the extra money. I said yeah, but you know your way around unix, so you know what to do. Install linux. Kids loved it, used it, quicker, faster, easier, more free games, etc. few headaches with that OS. The hardware, it flaked a couple times, and HP does not support linux... ;).
Well, you get what you pay for. That said, if you ever want to switch from mac, I'm sure you will end up on a free unix variant. At least that's where I will go when I leave Macs. Windows. nope.
moral of the story... offer a cheaper mac. i know a lot of people who are only dissuaded from making the switch to mac because of apple's high price tag.
i did notice how she purposefully called it by the wrong name, "the mac store". i don't think she went here: http://www.themacstore.com/