Apr 7

If you can find it, you can keep it . . . but you might not like it

You get what you pay for, I guess. Microsoft’s new marketing campaign against Apple is trying to paint the Macintosh as a snobby, over-priced computer that users only buy because it’s shiny. Luckily, lots of people are taking a closer look at the comparisons Microsoft is making.

In the latest ad, Giampaolo buys an HP Pavilion HDX instead of a MacBook. The Apple Insider breaks down the features that “G” was looking for. Here’s a quick summary.

Portability
HP: 16″ screen, 1.7″ thick, 7.3 lbs
MacBook: 13.3″ screen, .95″ thick, 4.5 lbs
MacBook Pro: 15.4″ screen,.95″ thick, 5.5 lbs

Battery Life
HP: >3 hrs (>2 hrs in reviews)
MacBook: ~5 hrs
MacBook Pro:~5 hrs

Power
HP: 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB 533MHz DDR2 RAM
(and if he’s not running 64-bit Windows, he only gets to use about 3GB of that RAM)
MacBook: 2.0 or 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2-4GB 1066MHz DDR3 RAM
MacBook Pro: 2.4 or 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 2-4GB 1066MHz DDR3 RAM

And let’s not forget the poor 1366×768 resolution on a 16″ screen. Or the hours of time Giampaolo will spend looking for drivers, updating his virus software, and uninstalling bloatware. Try again, MS.

Date April 7th, 2009 Filed in Uncategorized
2 Comments »

2 Responses to “If you can find it, you can keep it . . . but you might not like it”

  1. David Cintron Says:
    April 7th, 2009 at 10:45 am

    I especially enjoy Giampaolo’s quote about the MacBook Pro he inspects while at the store, “This is so sexy, but Macs to me are about aesthetics more than they are the computing power. I don’t want to pay for the brand. I want to pay for the computer.”

  2. Nick Says:
    April 7th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

    “And while Giampaolo can upgrade to even more RAM, he can’t upgrade his new system to use the faster DDR3 RAM specification used in the MacBook. That would make his system faster overall and allow it to take full advantage of the installed CPU’s 1066MHz front side bus, which HP chose to cripple by pairing it with a 533MHz memory architecture to save money and deliver a cheap system for people who don’t know what they’re really buying as they shop at Fry’s for good-sounding GB and MHz numbers rather than focusing on finding a computer that does the things they want it to do.”

    For so long I’ve been wondering how HP could get away with such “beefy” systems for so cheap. Why the processor and RAM numbers could be so comparable to the MacBook Pros I love and yet be “so much cheaper”. This gives a bit of a hint into it.

    Also, HP marketing is all about aesthetics too. Look at their products, Ridgeway’s new HP is a wanna-be MacBook Pro…

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