How does a Macbook compare to other laptops?

[Whatthefluff]

I see a lot of people have them but they're so dang expensive. Are they that much better?

[MrOracle]

Apple hardware is more expensive, no longer upgradable or user-serviceable in any way (all parts, including RAM and storage are soldered to the motherboard), so you must buy enough up-front (at inflated prices) to last you through your entire ownership. Apple has no incentive to repair anything, so if anything breaks outside of warranty or because of you (which means it's not covered by warranty), "repair" costs are intentionally so high that you are encouraged just to buy a new one again. For example, if you break your screen, they only sell entire upper halves for $600+, even though the screen glass may only be $30 or the screen itself $70. Apple also does absolutely ZERO data recovery - even when they could easily do so - which means if you don't back up your data, and your machine needs to be "repaired", it's going to get wiped clean and they'll make NO effort to save your data.

in my opinion, unless you are a Mac/iOS developer who MUST have a Mac, or you are wealthy and don't care what things cost, you are crazy to buy a Mac. Of course you can't fairly compare an expensive Mac to an entry-level all-plastic PC laptop, but there are plenty of well-made, metal-bodied laptops on the market that aren't Macs. I've been DJing with them for a decade, for example (HP Envys in my case). And I can replace/upgrade my RAM, storage, and WiFi adapters myself quite easily, which is why my 6-year-old laptop has WiFi 6 instead of WiFi G.

[Thatbaldguy]

Depends on your usage. I had a macbook that outlasted any windows based laptop I have ever owned. I used it for college, playing video games like WoW, and other general uses. I retired it after 8 years of use. It finally got to slow. I now have a microsoft surface pro 6 and have had that for awhile. Great computer. Very versatile.


What I liked about my macbook was its longevity. As well as I feel the UI is more user friendly once you get used to it. Also if you have an iphone, ipad, ipod, what have you it becomes a nice sort of tech ecosystem. Also there aren’t as many software updates with apple. Updates on my surface pro seem never ending.




What I like about my windows based microsoft surface pro 6 is versatility. Its a tablet that runs windows and has a magneticly attached keyboard cover so basically its a 2 in one.


Microsoft is still more commonly used so there is less concern about compatibility. No need to convert your written documents from Docx to pdf what have you when going from mac to windows. Though really thats super easy and most writing programs actually have the ability to save or export your documents as docx, pdf, etc. just an extra step.


One thing i also noticed is my macbook was faster then pc’s with higher specs, not sure why. Never got that into it to figure out.


Really its preference at the end of the day. Both have their place.

[Bethany22]

No, I don't recommend Apple computers. In addition to the computer, you need to buy all kinds of special adaptors for it, like ethernet cable adaptors, etc.

[QuadDamage]

If depends on what you're used to. PC's use Windows and Mac's use macOS.

They are two very different operating systems.

But to answer your real question, no. They are very expensive indeed. PC laptops are not that expensive at all. And you'll get an ever better one for less cost hardware wise...

👍

[QuadDamage]

Another related question is, what phone do you have Android or iPhone?

[LiamJHayden]

Only the older ones, like the 2012 A1278. Easy to upgrade. The one near me right now is running Monterey (Last year's Mac OS) and Windows 11 on a 2TB SSD and has 16 GB RAM even though these allegedly only support 8. The newer ones are absurdly overpriced and near impossible to upgrade by yourself.

[llorando]

Over priced pieces of crap that are a nightmare to repair. In my opinion I'd get a mid range Windows laptop. People think Mackbooks are better cause it's an apple product, when in reality, their just different, which doesn't always mean better.

[Z1pTD]

Security security

The biggest difference between macbooks and other computers is that macbooks have built in security systems that are constantly being updated to protect your information both from malware and government

With any other common computer you'll need to subcribe to some sort of anti-malware plan (which definitely won't protect your information from the government)

[HighValue]

Many games are incompatible with Apple products.

Also, Apple is supporting China's government, censorship, slave labor, etc. to make their products right now.

[jshm2]

It doesn't.

Macbooks are basically a posers PC. Hence why 90% of the business PC market is Windows and Linux.

[BJP21]

Speaking from experience the expense comes from how much storage you want in a laptop. If you're a student you might be able to get a deal through apple.

[dustybiker]

It doesn’t freeze and crash.

[Pudsmucker]

Software is more expensive also.