April 1st, 2009
Is Apple's new 17-in. MacBook Pro overpriced vs. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony?
Hot on the heels of Microsoft’s line-in-the-sand advertisement for “Lauren,” the girl who “isn’t cool enough for a Mac,” comes this laptop shootout from Technologizer pitting Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro against similarly-equipped PCs to find out if there really is a $500 Apple tax.
In this corner, the 17-in. Apple MacBook Pro, for $2799.
In the far corner, the Dell Precision M6400 Mobile Workstation for about $3,000; the HP Elitebook 8730W for about $3,000; the Lenovo ThinkPad W700 for about $2,500; and the Sony Vaio FW for about $1,600.
It’s a comparison I couldn’t have done better myself (though I gave it a shot with last week’s luxury thin-and-light laptop shootout).
So what happened?
As it turns out, there is an Apple tax. And a Dell tax. And an HP tax. And a Lenovo tax.
Get the drift? Companies make profit on product, and the margins widen as the price tag grows. Surprise!
But all did not come in at the same value proposition. Here’s author Harry McCracken’s scorecard, giving points to which computers had which features:
…as it turns out, the most featured machine is the 17-in. Apple MacBook Pro, followed by Dell and HP in a tie, then Lenovo, with Sony trailing the pack.
McCracken notes that he didn’t weight the categories, thus giving the same importance to a fingerprint scanner as a CPU as environmental impact. How important those things may be is up to the user, and price does enter into this mix.
But his findings are pretty clear: a distinguishable Apple tax that makes Macs more expensive just doesn’t exist, at least not within the top-flight, desktop replacement laptop segment.
In the Microsoft advertisement, “Lauren” shuns the 17-inch MacBook Pro for a much cheaper HP Pavilion. Is it really a fair comparison?
Looking to compare other 17-inch laptops? Compare them all in ZDNet Reviews.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
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