For what it's worth I went to an apple store this weekend and actually played around with the new entry level, non-touch screen, 1499 13" mac book pro in space gray.
Not sure what all the fuss is about: that machine is awesome and reasonably priced by apple standards. It even has the esc key that everyone is whining about. It is indeed missing a few ports, but the machine itself is so solidly built and fast from my first interactions, that I am considering buying one. I'm going to wait for the touch screen ones first though.
Also for the record, I've ordered the XPS's and Lenovo's people are mentioning here are alternatives. They are decent machines, but it takes 2-3 tries to get a fully functioning one without QA issues.
> Also for the record, I've ordered the XPS's and Lenovo's people are mentioning here are alternatives. They are decent machines, but it takes 2-3 tries to get a fully functioning one without QA issues.
One company I worked for offered to buy me any laptop I wanted. When I asked for a MacBook Pro, they talked me out of it and I got a Lenovo running Linux instead. The machine had great specs on paper, and it ran software just fine, but it was the worst laptop experience I've ever had. The trackpad was completely unusable, the keyboard & screen were crappy. It was fine as a desktop computer, when you plug in an external mouse & keyboard & monitor. It was truly awful as a laptop.
I bought a Dell XPS-13 a couple of years ago with Ubuntu pre-installed. It seemed like a good idea to try out something new and give Dell the business to reward their support for desktop Linux.
Boy was that a mistake.
As I recall the laptop was only about $200 cheaper than an equivalent Macbook Air. In return I got a non-functioning trackpad [1], flaky Wifi NIC, and a lid that takes two hands to open. Oh, and the same non-replaceable hardware and limited port selection that people complain about on Macs. It would have been far better to get a Macbook and just install Ubuntu on it. Say what you will, but Apple hardware is really great.
p.s., The Dell laptop and I made our peace after I propitiated it with a USB Mouse. I still use it.
"Also for the record, I've ordered the XPS's and Lenovo's people are mentioning here are alternatives. They are decent machines, but it takes 2-3 tries to get a fully functioning one without QA issues."
Citation needed. The implication that 1/2 to 2/3 of Dell XPS and Lenovo laptops fail QA would seem to be ... big news.
Not sure what all the fuss is about: that machine is awesome and reasonably priced by apple standards. It even has the esc key that everyone is whining about. It is indeed missing a few ports, but the machine itself is so solidly built and fast from my first interactions, that I am considering buying one. I'm going to wait for the touch screen ones first though.
Also for the record, I've ordered the XPS's and Lenovo's people are mentioning here are alternatives. They are decent machines, but it takes 2-3 tries to get a fully functioning one without QA issues.