Dell M1530 vs Apple Macbook pro?

Question

Ok, so I want a laptop that will last me throughout college. I will use it for: papers, projects, power points, a little movie editing, photo editing, but mainly entertainment and web browsing. I may potentially do a MMO on it, so I want the ability to do that. but anyways right now...

XPS M1530

2.5ghz core 2 duo

320GB hard drive

4GB RAM

Nvidia 8600GT

1920X1200 glossy

vista ultimate w/

premiere and photo shop elements

$1,973

and

Macbook Pro

2.4ghz

200 GB hard drive

2 GB RAM

1440X900

Nvidia 8600GT

OSX Leopard

$1,999

Ok, from this, you can see, the dell wins in performance, and price and software. Is leopard that much better than vista, and will it outperform or equal the dell in what i want it to do?

Answer 1

Definitely a Macbook Pro.

Answer 2

defintily a macbook pro. the price is not hat different, and macs are way more user-friendly. plus, ppl will laugh at you if you DONT have a mac. i wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

Answer 3

Definitely the XPS, Macs are over priced and over hyped way to much.  Take a look...

The Macbook Pro has a slower clock speed, smaller hard drive, half the ram, and a smaller screen... but it cost MORE than the XPS.

To be honest, I wouldn't get a Dell either, there customer service is deplorable.  I would buy from HP, but between your two choices, definitely pick the Dell.

Answer 4

ADDED LATER:  After posting my answer below, I checked your question again, and it looks like  you are failing to take into account the educational discount offered by Apple.  You are entitled to a discount since you are a student.  The ACTUAL price to you would be $1799.  That is $200 less than you were assuming.  Go to www.store.apple.com, pull down on the menu (lower left of the page) to US Education, and see your price.

Once again, good luck!!

It seems like the PC vs. Mac thing is almost like a religion to some people.  But I am someone who uses both a Mac and a PC, so I think I am able to give some objective views here.  Overall, if you are going to buy only one computer, I think you are better off with the MacBook Pro.  

Dell makes good computers, so don't get me wrong about that (although I think the high-end Lenovo's are even better).  But yes, Leopard really is better than Vista.  Even Microsoft sort of admits the problems with Vista, which is why they keep postponing the end of life for XP.

But the real clincher is that the Mac will give you the option of running BOTH Vista and Leopard.  That is double the versatility.  The other big thing is that Macs are just less vulnerable on the Internet than PC's.  At last count, the number of known viruses for PC's was approaching 100,000, while the number for Macs is fewer than 5.  I use some PC software, but I *always* use the Mac for Internet stuff.  It's just plain safer.  

There is also the matter of support.  Apple is consistently rated by Consumer Reports magazine to offer the best support in the industry, and if you do have any problems with your computer, you have an easy and quick way to get them resolved.  (By the way, whatever computer you buy, be sure to get an extended warranty.  You need this to last throughout college, and laptops are not as rugged as desktop computers, because they get knocked around more.)

But if you can hold off buying for a few more weeks, there are rumors everywhere that the MacBook Pro is about to be updated.  If you can't wait, take advatage of the free iPod with a Mac offer they have on current stock.  (You have to order from Apple to get that deal.)

Bottom line:  There is nothing terribly wrong with the Dell, but you are still better off with a Mac.  

I hope this helps.  Good luck!!

Answer 5

Despite what the specs might tell you, Mac is hands-down the better choice for any sort of video/photo editing.  Besides that, Macs come with Boot Camp so you can have both XP and OSX, so if for some reason the MMO doesn't work on OSX, you can hop over to Windows and play it just fine.  I'm a web designer/developer and I do all sorts of stuff with my MacBook Pro.  I've also got WoW installed on this hard drive partition and Age of Conan installed on the Windows partition.  Worked better on here than my PC  : )

Answer 6

Do not buy right now. They are being updated with in 3 weeks time, if you can hold out, the specs on the MBP will blow the XPS out of the water ^^.