Comparing the New Apple MacBook Pro To the PC Competition
Apple, with little fanfare, announced the refresh of their MacBook Pro line of notebooks on Tuesday. A longstanding assumption among PC users is that MacBooks are overpriced. If you’re comparing specs, you can just get more bang for your buck with a Windows machine. So how do the new MacBook Pros compare to the competition? This is not a comparison based on the operating system, as we all have our preferences and my purpose is not to feed that “holy war”. Instead, this comparison is on hardware specs alone.
Using price as the cut-off, I went to Toshiba, Sony, Dell and HP to compare what one could get for the same price as Apple’s new base configuration MacBook Pros.
Apple MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro is our baseline system. The 17-inch comes with the following:
- Core i5 processor
- NVIDIA GeForce GT330M discrete graphics with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory
- 17-inch 1920×1200 resolution display
- 500 GB hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm
- 4 GB of DDR3 memory
- 8x Slot loading SuperDrive DVD Burner
- Up to 9 hours of battery life
- Multi-touch trackpad
- 6.6 pounds
The cost of this base configuration is $2,299.
The specs for the 15-inch MacBook Pros which start at $1,799 are as follows:
- Core i5 processor
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M discrete graphics with 256MB of GDDR3 memory
- 15-inch 1440×900 resolution display
- 320 GB hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm
- 4 GB of DDR3 memory
- 8x Slot loading SuperDrive DVD Burner
- Up to 9 hours of battery life
- Multi-touch trackpad
- 5.6 pounds
Both can be configured with other options and there are other hardware components in the base models, but these are the most significant numbers that will be used for comparison.
If I was handed either $2300 or $1800 for notebook, what would kind of 15 or 17-inch notebooks could I get from the competition?
Toshiba
Toshiba Direct has exactly one notebook computer with a base price close to the 17-inch MacBook Pro. It is the Qosmio X505-Q880. It comes with the following:
- Core i7 processor
- NVIDIA GeForce graphics with 1 GB of memory
- 18.4-inch 1920×1080 resolution display
- 564 GB of Storage across 2 drives (64 GB SSD + 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA)
- 6 GB of DDR3 RAM
- Blu Ray Disc and DVD Super-Multi drive
- Less than two and half hours of battery life
- 9.7 pounds
In purely a specs war, I would give this round to Toshiba. It has a faster processor, more RAM, more hard drive space. With SSD and higher rpm both drives are faster. And it has a Blu Ray player! In Apple’s favor the Qosmio does not get near the battery life and it is much heavier at 9.7 lbs. compared to 6.6 lbs. for the MacBook Pro. But with the difference in price, I’d get an extra battery or maybe an extended battery.
To compare with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, I originally chose the Toshiba Tecra A11-S3502. Here are the specs for this powerful notebook.
- Core i7 processor
- NVIDIA NVS 2100M graphics processor with 512 GB
- 15.6-inch 1600×900 resolution display
- 320 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
- 8 GB of DDR 3 memory
- DVD Super-Multi disc burner
- 3 hours of battery life
- Just over 5 pounds
The price as I customized it is $1,779 bringing us in just barely under the price of the MacBook Pro but with a faster processor and much more memory. However, the battery life of this machine is a third of the MacBook Pro. That’ a big trade off which is not compensated for by the other specs like the Qosmio did. So, this one is a push, in my view. Neither side gets the tally mark here.
Round One: MacBook Pros – 0, The Competition – 1, with 1 tie
Sony
The largest Sony notebook computer is the Sony Vaio F series. Here are the specs:
- Core i7 processor
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 1 GB of dedicated GDDR3 memory
- 16.4-inch 1920×1080 resolution display
- 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
- 6 GB of DDR3 memory
- Blu Ray Disc burner
- Up to 4 hours†of battery life unless you sacrifice some power somewhere else and get the higher capacity batter, then you get up to 6 hours
- Nearly 7 pounds
Despite the poor battery life, I would still give this one to the Sony. Again, it has a faster processor, faster storage, more memory and a Blu Ray burner too! If you sacrifice something like processor speed, memory, or the Blu Ray burner; you could get the larger battery and still be at the same price point as the MacBook Pro. As it is, the VAIO is only $1,529.99, so win one for Sony over the 17-inch MacBook Pro.
To go up against the 15-inch MacBook Pro, I selected the Sony Vaio E Series. With it you get …
- Core i5 processor
- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 with 512 MB of VRAM
- 15.5-inch 1366×768 resolution display
- 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
- 8 GB of DDR3 memory
- Blu Ray Disc burner
- Up to 3.5 hours of battery life
- Almost 6 pounds
The total for this PC is $1,519.98 and that includes Windows 7 Professional and the optional blue chassis. If you take the extra cash and get another battery you end up with a more competitive battery life and you have a nice computer with a faster hard drive, Blu Ray burner and more memory. This is not as obvious a win for the Sony, but I still think you have to give it the nod since the only advantage in the hardware department for the MacBook Pro is battery life.
Round Two: MacBook Pros – 0, The Competition – 3, with 1 tie
Dell
Dell’s Precision M6500 is a performance notebook that competes best with the 17-inch MacBook Pro. I configured one that costs $2,306 as follows:
- Core i7 processor
- ATI FirePro M7740
- 17-inch 1900×1200 resolution display
- 250 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
- 4 GB of DDR3 Memory
- Slot loading DVD burner
- 9 cell battery life (no hours given but with the configuration it will not be very long)
- Over 9 pounds
This PC is actually more expensive than the MacBook Pro — but not by much. There are pluses for both systems making this one a draw.
Dell’s lineup of notebooks to compete with the 15-inch MacBook Pro includes the Dell Precision M4500.
- Core i5 Processor
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M
- 15.6-inch 1600×900 resolution display
- 250 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
- 4 GB DDR3 memory
- 8x DVD burner
- 6 cell
- Over 6 pounds
Like the previous system, this one is actually a little more expensive than the MacBook Pro and the hardware is not that much different. You get a faster hard drive but less battery life. So this round goes to the 15-inch MacBook Pro as a better value for the buck.
Round Three: MacBook Pros – 1, The Competition – 3, with 2 ties
HP
I wanted to go with the Elitebook system to compete with the 17-inch MacBook Pro, but their base configurations at that size were $500 more expensive than the MacBook Pro and come with the older Core 2 Duo processor and no Operating System. So, I went to the Home side of HP’s online store and found the Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition. I configured it as follows:
- Core i7 Quad Core processor
- 1 GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M discrete graphics card
- 18.4-inch 1920×1080 resolution display
- 128 GB SSD hard drive and a 320 GB 7,200 rpm SATA hard drive
- 8 GB of DDR3 RAM
- Blu Ray/DVD Burner combo drive
- Up to 3.5 hours of battery life + and extra 8 cell battery for a total of up to 7 hours
The total is slightly less than the MacBook Pro at $2,069.99.
This looks like a win for the HP system. It is much more powerful and has a Blu Ray drive. It also has better battery life than the other competitors and is just shy of what Apple rates the 17-inch MacBook Pro. One drawback is that you would have to change the battery to get that kind of life. It is also heavier than the MacBook Pro. But if I was picking, I’d want the HP.
In the 15 inch range I looked at the HP ENVY 15 series. Here is how I configured it to compete with Apple.
- Core i7 processor
- 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 graphics card
- 15.6-inch 1920×1080 resolution display
- 320 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
- 4 GB DDR3 memory
- External USB 8X DVD burner
- 6 cell battery for up to 2 hours of battery life
This one is a tough choice. Clearly the specs are more powerful with the HP, but the dismal battery life and the fact that you have to carry around an external optical drive if you want two watch movies, backup your stuff, or install something makes the ENVY 15 less exciting as an alternative. The fact that it is actually $50 more than the MacBook Pro at $1,849.99 makes me pause even more; but it does have a faster processor and hard drive, so in the end I have to place this one would go in the toss-up category as well.
Round Four: MacBook Pros – 1, The Competition – 4, with 3 ties
Conclusion
And the winner is? The consumer!
I was surprised at how comparable the Apple systems’ base configurations were to the high end notebook PCs from the major venders. I expected the Windows PCs to blow the MacBooks away; but some of these were very close.
This was not a Windows v. OSX competition, but purely a hardware specs v. hardware specs evaluation. Also, one would have to get their hands on these computers for it to be a truly fair comparison.
The point of this comparison was to find out if the commonly repeated mantra of PC enthusiasts is true. Do you usually get more bang for the buck in terms of hardware by purchasing a PC instead of a Mac? From our very unscientific comparison, the answer is not a resounding “Yes!”, it’s more like a a qualified “Sometimes.” In the end competition brings better hardware and better prices to the market and all consumers, Mac and PC, win.
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comparing the new macbook pro to sony F series is a joke. try Z series next time.
HI
. Well most of the stuf are taste related but some…
Nice post, but i have to say i desagree with you almost on everythink
I hoppe you dont mind that i give my opinion on every notebook 1by 1.
But first of all just a litle think on the cpu. The i5 cpu in the apples is the i5 540m, is a two core 2,53ghz and 3,06ghz in turbo mode(using just one core). Every of the pcs (except 1) have the i7 720qm which is a quad core processor 1,6 ghz witch 4 cores, 2,4 ghz with 2 cores and 2,8ghz witch one core. So on aplication using 1 or 2 cores the i5 will be a bit better that the i7. But in aplications using more than 2 cores will the i7 be 20-30% faster which is a lot.
So the Qosmio vs mac: as i think the Qosmio is a huge and ugly plastic monster this one wins mac . Even if Qosmio is quite more performant and has 2 hard drives(64 ssd is a bit small for the os) its not performant enough to beat the thin,alluminium mac design and its battery life.
Toshiba Tecra: it has a i7 cpu but its the i7620m so a dual core not to confuse with the i7 720qm, but its still a giid cpu. 8gb ram is a lot but the mac can have it too. The interesting think here is the NVIDIA NVS 2100M. This is a bussines gpu used mostly for video and photo editing, analytics and geographic imagery, so if do nothink of it its just not a pc for you. Its scores very low in 3dmarks(the lowes of all notebooks on this list) so gaming would be difficult.So again an othere one for mac here.
Sony Vaio F series:same gpu as the macs, good display resolution and sony usualy have good disply quality(although i dont think it can beet the macs display), i7 720qm ,6gb ram which is quite a lot and a good price vs mac. So as i am mostly a pc user (rarely use mac) i ll deffinitly go with the sony.
Sony Vaio E Series: same cpu as macs, 8gb ram as i said before macs can have it too, and a weak gpu. Without taking the NVIDIA NVS 2100M as it is made for pro aplictions, the HD 5470 is the weakest gpu on this list. And just up too 3,5h battery life. My choise here is the mac 15.
I ll skip the precisions and write about the at the end.
Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition: well the i7 quad, 8gb ram and a 128gb ssd that sounds good. But the gpu is a litle weaker then the one on the macs and again its huge,not ugly this time but still huge.So here again mac wins it for me.
HP ENVY 15: heh mac design,quad i7 and a better grafic card than macs but not by too far. Hmm the external dvd burner is a big minus, i mean its a 15 inch notebook.
But the biggest issue for me is the heating on this machine.I red a test witch quite high temps. at full load. So i think here again the mac wins (didnt read any tests on this new macs so i dono how the temperatures are).
Dell Precision: And here comes the critic from my part
. Well you just cant compare these with macs and any other nbooks on this list. Hmm actualy you can compare but the other on this list arent comparable with the precisions.
These are mobile workstation not usual notebooks, which are made for heavy profesional usage as CAD, video editing, renderings… Even the weakest graphic card
on precisions, the nvidia quadro fx880m(above in the precision 4500m), performs as well in games as the geforce gt330m and is maybe 4-10 times faster in every professional aplication. And their capacity to upgrade is much bigger, up to 16gb ram,up to i7920qm which is the most powerfull mobile processor.
And the ATI fire pro 7740 on the precision m6500, scores twice so much in game aplictions and 3dmarks as the geforce gt330m and is 5-20 times!!! faster on every professional aplication so there s no way that the macs or the other on this list are comparable to the precisions.
BTW i own a precision m6500 with the ati card and some more ram…but its pretty much the same. am working now on a projekt(am an architecture student) with two other guys, one has a macbook pro(older version with the geforce 8600gt) and the other a dell studio 17 with i7 720qm and a ati radeon 4670(comparable with the cards on your list) .when i got the precision we did a lot of test together so i can tell this from my own experience. The m6500 ist a very good gaming notebook (much better the any on the list) but its the most powerfull pc i ever user for professional usage.
OMG sory for such a long post
, and btw the only problem with this list is that the notebooks are equiped very differently, by tha i mean that to some adder a ssd drive or a blue-ray and others not,some gave twice the ram….As these options are very expensive it is hard for someone who dont know the prices of these individual components, to compare the actual prices.
Hoppefully it make some sence, i am realy tired now 3am am going to bed.
Bey
Martin
PS: for comparision of mobile GPUs and CPUs there are some very good lists on notebookcheck.com, 3dmarks (2003,2005,2006, vantage) and cinebench r10 for every card. For profesional applications bechmarks u have to digg i litle deeper.
You fail to consider a number of things. In almost all cases, the MacBook Pro is considerably lighter than the competition – sometimes by a large margin. Since we're talking about portables, that's important. AND, look at battery life. You're comparing a computer with 8-9 hour battery life to computers with 3-6 hour battery life.
Then, there's the fact that Apple wins nearly every reliability and customer satisfaction survey ever done. You're comparing a Bentley to a Ford.
Of course, you can also add the cost and hassle (not to mention the performance problems) for adding antivirus software to your Windows PC.
And, yet, with all of those things, the MacBook Pro is quite competitive on price in most cases. So you can get a lighter, more reliable, better built computer with vastly better support without spending much more money.
It's so obvious that the person that wrote this is a pc user/fan. Bottom line you pay for what you get. Cheap pc cheap performance even with the same specs. Expensive Mac you get excellent performance and a product that performs the way it's supposed to perform. Here is something simpler. Mac has lines of people waiting and rumor excitement when new products are released. I don't ever hear lines of people for pc.
I guess the Windows machines are bargains if you really just want to use Windows OS. I'll give credit to those Windows PC companies where it's due. There will never be any Mac product that will outdo a Windows PC when it comes to pure specs and features. I feel that Apple may never put a Blu-Ray drive on a notebook. I can live with that. I'll still prefer my MacBook Pro that can run both OSX and Windows and would rather have the longer battery life and am willing to give up 15% processing power for it. Same with weight. I would rather carry around a lighter portable. I like the finish of MacBook Pros and also want the better customer service that Apple offers for its products.
It all comes down to a matter of choice. Windows computers are less expensive and offer more features. They nearly always win hands down on specs. I'm not saying they're junk, either. But to me, OSX beats out Windows 7 Ultimate (which I also use) for my personal taste. I wouldn't even consider switching platforms for what I consider the small hardware and cost advantages that Windows PCs offer. Your comparisons seemed fair enough based on cost which is what the whole article was about. Spec bang for the buck. User experience will have to be saved for another article.
The think is that it always depends on what you need.
If you need a light internet + word notebook with a long battery life, than theres nothink better than a mac.
If you need a gaming notebook a macbook pro will play games but its not gona be any miracle, so in this case you should go with an alienware or if you r not ready to spend that much money thers sager(clevo), the new asus g73 is very powerfull in gaming and runs quite cool which is real good.
But if do more than just internet, word and gaming. CAD, video editing … the macbooks are just too weak for this usage. Of course this applications will run on a mac or a usual PC but its about time spending and quality work. And heres not a big choice: Lenove thinkpads, hp elitebooks and dell precisions, well and Fujitsu has some mobile workstations.
The mac advantage is that they are stable, they run smooth very smooth, the buid quality is realy good and the service is perfect. But than there is the price.
Here in europe a macbook pro :i5 540m /8gb ram/gt330m/500gb ram 7200 = 2650 €.
Thats a lot of money, if you need power you surely dont buy that.
Bough my precision m6500 : i7 720qm/8gb ram 1333mhz/ATI firepro 7740/two 320gb hdd 7200/white LED LCD 1920*1200 for about 2000€. Its quite cheaper much much more powerfull, the build quality is comparable (but still macs is a bit better), dell service is good too (have 3yo pro warranty), the screen is great too not glossy and it runs cooler at full load than most macbooc pros.
On the other hand its 4kg + 1kg the powersuplay which is a 210W (a brick its real bigg) and the baterry life is just 2h30 on internet, a bit more than 1h on full load.
There's only one problem with the non-Apple machines. None of them run Mac OS X.
Once you go Mac you will never go back – to PC. I am a long term PC user of 20 years. I have had a Macbook Pro for 2 and will (from now on) always own a mac. I may have to use PC's at the office, but Mac is where I spend most of my time. I don't think I can talk the tech language of some of you guys, I just know the my Mac delivers all the time and I don't have the frustration of dealing with Windows and virus protection, and 3rd party software hang-ups. Plus, Apple customer support is intelligent and superb.
“need” a gaming notebook. Good!
I have done comparisons like this in the past and have come to the same general conclusion. I think the “problem” with Apple's lineup is lack of choice, not price. Apple's strategy is to be focused and by design have a limited lineup. If you want to buy their product you end up with a higher end model in whatever segment you are shopping in. If you want something a less featured but still aimed at that segment, too bad. If you want a wide selection of graphics cards and processors, too bad. My conclusion is generally similar to yours – Macs sell at a premium but it's relatively modest. However, unlike other suppliers they rarely on sale, so the “blow-out” pricing that sometimes ends up on the net as comparisons will never favor Apple. It's just their strategy to target the higher end of each market segment and have a relatively restricted product set. Guess that's how they kept the boat afloat all those years when they had a small market share.
You know what I love? Mr. Purcell mentioned several times in the article that he was not comparing operating systems, but that didn't stop you commenters, now did it?
This comparison is important to me, as I am typing this from a first generation Intel MacBook that I have maxed out, performance-wise. It is time to upgrade. And my next machine will most probably not be a Mac. I've been programming video applications for more than 10 years. I know digital video and believe me when I tell you that there is no credible technical reason for Macs to not have Blu-ray. I'm not paying anyone $2000 for a computer without it. That's insane.
Hmmm. The thing is, Apple is really a software company that makes its money selling hardware. To do a comparison, you need to factor in the value of the INCLUDED software. You need to consider iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD, iMovie, iWeb, etc. Each application is fantastic for what it does. For example, iPhoto one click fix is all I do for most 98% of my photos (and Photoshop the rest). But for most consumers, these are all you need.
Once you get to a certain level of hardware, it is all about the software. If your software does not run on a Mac, you buy a PC. (or Parallels).
The article only told us that the Mac hardware price, without considering the software is in the same ballpark. It just failed to consider the software value. My guess is that when software is factored in–Apple wins.
Interesting. How many of the competing PC laptops have illuminated keyboards, multi-touch trackpads, FW 800 etc.?
First off I think this was about as fair a “hardware review” as I have reviewed between the Apple and Oranges debate of the PC and MAC platforms for laptops. Great job! Now for my two cents. I am a systems engineer and have worked with Macs since 1986 and PC's that far back as well and I will tell you, honestly your talking about two kinds of fruit, apples and oranges. If you want stability, longevity, complete integration with OS, software and hardware, the Mac is untouchable with the far superior OS X and the bundled productivity software that comes with the MacBook Pro's, you take it out the box, turn it on, work, period, end of story. PC laptops require much more configuration of the OS, the software for productivity, and just laborious configuration of the OS and the software you need to be productive. No Windows OS system can run my OS X software yet with Parallels software, I have Red Hat Linux, Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP, and SUSE Linux all running as Virtual Machines on my Mac OS X Powerbook. Truly, for the money, lack of frustration, major ease of use out of the box, PC laptops are not even comparable to the POWERBook.
Your report brought back memories of my old Mac laptop, back in the 90s.
It had 2 ports (one on each side) that could accommodate batteries.
I owned 3 of these batteries. The 3 bats, w/the laptop, were still pounds lighter than comparable PCs.
I was on a flight from Sydney, Australia, back to the US, working on my computer. I was in business class (thanks to upgrade miles), and virtually everyone around me was using their laptops.
As we got into the flight, one by one, the other laptops ran out of juice, and the owners shut them down.
I worked off one battery, then the Mac switched over to the other one. When it started getting low, I swapped out the first (discharged) battery w/the 3rd fresh one.
Seven hours into the flight, I had half the cabin looking at me. Everyone's laptops had quit hours before. Finally, someone close by said, “What kind of computer is that?”
“A Mac” I answered, smiling.
Lots of rolled eyeballs. But the fact remained: I got hours more work done on every flight, because Apple had designed a system that could run hours longer than any PC laptop.
So don't discount the long battery life. A faster processor isn't very fast when the battery is dead, and you're 30,000 miles up.
-A road warrior who wound up loving the Mac
I think your way of comparing laptops or “notebooks” are flawed, if i was looking for a powerhorse, i would be looking at desktops. Battery life is the most important thing for me among similar specs of notebooks since i take my laptop out with me in the morning and sometimes i don't get to charge it for several hours at a time when I need to use it. I would say all of these have similar hardware specs. So Macbook vs Competition for me is a win at all except for HP, which is a tie with the extended battery. Depends on how clunky that is. I'm not a pussy so i don't usually mind a few more pounds but why carry more then you have to? I'm going for a Macbook Pro for next year but this is great, especially seeing that the hardwares are so similar. i was afraid i was giving up on power when at the dorm (not bringing my desktop there form home) with the mac for reliability and batterylife/weight. But I guess I am not. If mostly used around the house though, then the toshiba also seems great. But again, i don't understand why you would buy a laptop then. Regard, Emir
Simply put, you can get a better deal with a PC laptop IF you don’t need a long batter life. If a long batter life is a must then a Macbook Pro might be the best choice. If you need exceelent performance and occasionally move locations (you don’t take it to your local Starbucks everyday) I would definitely go with a PC laptop. As far as the operating systems go, OSX is definitely fun to use but so is the new Windows 7. When you buy a Mac you’re really paying for the brand and looks more than anything. It’s like buying a car that looks really good but runs average, and when it comes to specs Macbook Pro is really quite average compared to PCs.
I think the review is generally good, but one eyed.
Manufacturers bump up the PC hardware at lots of cost. System heating, or in the case of most common notebooks “OVER HEATING”.
It’s not as if you cannot upgrade the RAM/Hard Disk of a Macbook Pro… its not exactly a built-in chip
Multi touch trackpad anyone?
I might have a soft spot for Apple, but one has got to admit that these people always deliver in quality. Sometimes their competitors are crappy (aka iPod vs the rest) but in this case it’s an industry that they cant simply overrun
Wow, marvelous weblog format! How long have you been running a blog for? you make blogging look easy. The total glance of your web site is great, let alone the content!