While Apple has been popular among creative circles for quite some time, they have begun to build an insatiable mass consumer appetite for their products in recent years. For the noticeable price difference, are Apple Mac Laptops really worth the money?
All you have to do is spend a few minutes to compare laptops and you’ll see that you’re going to pay a premium for anything Apple. Looking at the product specs for a 17” MacBook Pro you see a i5 ori7 Intel processor, 4GB’s of RAM, and 500GB hard drive. None of that really jumps off the page to me. Not to mention the hard drive that comes standard is a 5400 RPM hard drive, while most Windows 7 laptops are all packing 7200RPM. To me, the fact that a premium laptop isn’t pushing at least 7200 RPM with its standard hard drive is rather disappointing.
While many point to the fabled “Apple tax”, it is important to keep in mind that Apple does charge more for relatively equal performance because of other measurables, not just superficial reasons. For instance, the build quality of Apple laptops is noticeably high. They use a unique construction process for the MacBook Pro series, reducing the number of parts, decreasing weight, all the while creating a more robust computer.
Going further with build quality, there are other advantages offers to its users. For instance, the track pad is done extremely well, something you will undoubtedly appreciate when you are not able to hook up a mouse. The screen is also noticeably better than most competitors’ offerings.
Battery life and quality is also relatively high. I know few people who have issues with Apple’s losing much of their battery capacity as time goes on. My experience with other laptops has been that the battery begins to lose much of its effectiveness as the number of charges goes up. Not a big deal, as it can easily be replaced, but still something you can avoid with an Apple.
A relatively big announcement was that newer Apple computers can run Windows as a stand alone as well as a secondary operating system. While this was a great bit of news for those who wanted to switch to Apple but were weary because Mac OS was unable to run certain windows programs, it leaves out the fact that you still need to purchase Windows. Another cost you would incur.
While it’s hard to argue with Apple’s design, and the quality of their products, it’s also rather difficult to justify the heightened price tag unless you absolutely need the added performance and stability promised to you with an Apple. For basic web use, word processing, and creating the odd playlist in iTunes, I just don’t see how people can justify paying a premium. Now if you’re someone who’s running high end video editing software, or multiple design programs, the latest Apple MacBook Pro seems a sound investment.