5 ms·

> But today, compared to Apple's pricing, they are so cheap that I can get equivalent HW for half the price (equivalent wrt performance, not manufacturing quali

> But today, compared to Apple's pricing, they are so cheap that I can get equivalent HW for half the price (equivalent wrt performance, not manufacturing quality!). How true is this? For instance, I often see the XPS brought up as an alternative to the MPB, but whenever I look into it, it seems like the price is comparable for similar hardware configurations.[1] [1] http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-macbook-pro-13-vs-dell-xps-13-apple-macbook-dell-xps-13/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-macbook-pro-13-...

nsxwolf 10y ago
It's only true if you focus on one or two features or specs and ignore everything else. When people make that claim they usually find something with the same CPU and amount of memory and use it as a comp.
- jlg23 10y ago
  Of course. But considering things I do not consider essential is like saying "yes" to "you save $1 when buying 5 apples, we charge for 4" when you only wanted one in the first place. The OP wrote about the specific "sw dev" group, not the average user. (e.g.: If I could downgrade the resolution of the displays for a significant discount, apple hw would be much more tempting to me - after all, 99% of the time I spend on computers I look at monospace fonts in emacs...)
  - matt4077 10y ago
    I feel like text is where the retina screens really pay off. I'm not even sure if I could notice the difference looking at photos. But a good font on a retina display is something I still notice, even after having used it for 2 years+.
wompfox 10y ago
In your source, it lists $1499 vs $849. Not so comparable to me. Also IMO the XPS has a bit of a 'premium' price tag to it. A similar hardware configuration on a Thinkpad T series would be significantly cheaper
dabernathy89 10y ago
Top of the line XPS 15, including touch screen is $1650: - i5 Quad Core (i5-6300HQ) - 8GB RAM (upgradeable to 32) - 256GB HD (upgradeable) - 2GB Graphics card (GTX 960M) Lowest quality new model MBP (15" w/ touch bar) is $2399: - i7 quad core - 16GB RAM (not upgradeable) - 256GB HD (not upgradeable) - 2GB Graphics card (Radeon Pro 450) So for $750 you get a little more RAM, slightly better CPU, and Mac build quality (I have no idea how the graphics cards compare). That seems like a pretty big difference to me for fairly similar specs. Especially considering that you can upgrade your XPS in the future. I'm on a Macbook Air now, but for my next laptop I'll be deciding between the 2 above (or possibly the last model rMBP).
- dabernathy89 10y ago
  If you don't care about touch bar / touch screen it's similar. $1400 XPS vs $1999 MBP, a $600 difference, but the MBP doesn't have a dedicated graphics card.
  - snovv_crash 10y ago
    And the XPS without the dGPU is cheaper too...
- Fnoord 10y ago
  > (not upgradeable) True, this is a real issue, and I agree we're paying premium_price^2 for the newest MBPs. However, in this day and age of networked computing and fast WiFi why would 256 GB not be enough? Did you check the performance of the XPS SSD compared to the MBP? I take it the RAM is DDR4. The 16 GB LPDDR3 RAM means more battery life. The resolution of the 2015 MBP 15" is also in between 1080p and 4k, a sacrifice, for battery power. The graphics card isn't upgradeable on either machine. And I did look at the XPS. I'm not going to buy a machine which makes a lot of noise, and the XPS has coil whine. Why don't you compare to the 2015 rMBP? I tried out the butterfly keyboard of the 2016 version in store and I found it far too noisy (the travel also isn't a good aspect). Do you really need the graphics card? Have you looked at eGPU?
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nsxwolf 10y ago

It's only true if you focus on one or two features or specs and ignore everything else. When people make that claim they usually find something with the same CPU and amount of memory and use it as a comp.

jlg23 10y ago
Of course. But considering things I do not consider essential is like saying "yes" to "you save $1 when buying 5 apples, we charge for 4" when you only wanted one in the first place. The OP wrote about the specific "sw dev" group, not the average user. (e.g.: If I could downgrade the resolution of the displays for a significant discount, apple hw would be much more tempting to me - after all, 99% of the time I spend on computers I look at monospace fonts in emacs...)
- matt4077 10y ago
  I feel like text is where the retina screens really pay off. I'm not even sure if I could notice the difference looking at photos. But a good font on a retina display is something I still notice, even after having used it for 2 years+.

wompfox 10y ago

In your source, it lists $1499 vs $849. Not so comparable to me. Also IMO the XPS has a bit of a 'premium' price tag to it. A similar hardware configuration on a Thinkpad T series would be significantly cheaper

dabernathy89 10y ago

Top of the line XPS 15, including touch screen is $1650: - i5 Quad Core (i5-6300HQ) - 8GB RAM (upgradeable to 32) - 256GB HD (upgradeable) - 2GB Graphics card (GTX 960M) Lowest quality new model MBP (15" w/ touch bar) is $2399: - i7 quad core - 16GB RAM (not upgradeable) - 256GB HD (not upgradeable) - 2GB Graphics card (Radeon Pro 450) So for $750 you get a little more RAM, slightly better CPU, and Mac build quality (I have no idea how the graphics cards compare). That seems like a pretty big difference to me for fairly similar specs. Especially considering that you can upgrade your XPS in the future. I'm on a Macbook Air now, but for my next laptop I'll be deciding between the 2 above (or possibly the last model rMBP).

dabernathy89 10y ago
If you don't care about touch bar / touch screen it's similar. $1400 XPS vs $1999 MBP, a $600 difference, but the MBP doesn't have a dedicated graphics card.
- snovv_crash 10y ago
  And the XPS without the dGPU is cheaper too...
Fnoord 10y ago
> (not upgradeable) True, this is a real issue, and I agree we're paying premium_price^2 for the newest MBPs. However, in this day and age of networked computing and fast WiFi why would 256 GB not be enough? Did you check the performance of the XPS SSD compared to the MBP? I take it the RAM is DDR4. The 16 GB LPDDR3 RAM means more battery life. The resolution of the 2015 MBP 15" is also in between 1080p and 4k, a sacrifice, for battery power. The graphics card isn't upgradeable on either machine. And I did look at the XPS. I'm not going to buy a machine which makes a lot of noise, and the XPS has coil whine. Why don't you compare to the 2015 rMBP? I tried out the butterfly keyboard of the 2016 version in store and I found it far too noisy (the travel also isn't a good aspect). Do you really need the graphics card? Have you looked at eGPU?
- 10y ago

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