“Despite all the urban myths to the contrary, when you actually compare Apples to comparably equipped Dells, the Apples are not only tastier-looking, but they’re less fattening, too! Every single one, which I have to admit surprised me a little bit,” Leland Scott writes for Musing from Mars.
“And my shopping experience also confirmed my suspicions about Dell. In every single case, Dell starts you off at a ridiculously low price, only to lead you slowly and surely to a much higher one. They do make you feel better–at least, in the “home” computer section of their store–by showing you that you’re still getting $250, or $350, or $500 off, but the discounted price still turned out to be higher than Apple’s,” Scott writes.
“The most ridiculous case is their ‘budget’ system. Walk into the store, and you look around and say, ‘Wow! Look at that, Martha! They have a computer for $299! It comes with a printer, too!’ But what a crock that is. The $299 system is so ridiculously crippled that no one will ever walk out of the store with one and be happy. No, before you know it, the price has climbed way up, well above the Mac Mini comparably equipped,” Scott writes.
“How refreshing it was to step into Apple’s store after the confusing mish-mash that is a Dell shopping trip,” Scott writes. “At Apple, the choices are simple, and you can make your choices and be out in a few minutes. It’s very easy to understand the differences between the systems, and the choices are clearly explained without distracting you from your task. Try that at Dell! No way.”
Scott looks at Apple Mac vs. Dell in five categories: Consumer laptop, Pro laptop, Budget desktop, Consumer desktop, and Pro desktop and finds that, in every category, Apple’s Mac models cost less than comparable Dell PCs.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple Macs are less expensive, more secure, longer-lasting than Windows PCs – April 21, 2005
Switching from Windows to Mac? Save money by asking to ‘crossgrade’ your software – April 12, 2005
Apple Macs are far easier, cost less to manage than Windows boxes – March 02, 2005
Just to add a lighter side to the posts, here is a little scoop- ‘Library in Computer Bug Hell’.
Enfield Library service here in London (UK) bought some Dell computers of late (yes they never question despite the existing ones barely working) and surprise, surprise they were full of bugs making them totally unusable. However these bugs were slightly different from the normal Dell variety in as much as they were real wriggly ugly, bug infestations for which the IT department (not unusually) had no answer whatsover. They were packaged up ready to be returned to Dell Hive Central when some plonker (wanker) broke in and stole them. If we get a plague of Colarado beetles destroying our potato crops I will know who to blame Mr Dell.
spidey –
Wow.. they got hosed. With on-site they absolutely come to you (if it’s not available in your area, they won’t sell it to you), and I’ve never had to “upgrade” to it — it’s part of the standard business purchase, at least, and I think a friend who bought a home Dell recently has the same deal. I think this has been the Dell deal for several years — were your examples from a long time ago?
Either way, I assume they all got whatever money they paid for “on-site” service back.
I think the latest one was about a year ago. And they were all home users, not business users. At the time, they had to upgrade to on-site warranty.
I just checked Dell’s website, it appears they now offer their “At-Home” service as standard, so need to upgrade anymore.
I’m not sure about them actually getting their money back though.
All of them are based in Santa Barbara, CA.
I took the plunge last year and decided to build my own PC.
Not only was it one of the easiest and most simplistic things I have ever done (think Snap-tite models from when you were a kid) but it also showed me how overblown this whole issue is.
If you build it yourself, you can make a top-of-the-line PC for under $1000 (depending on the video card). The same system I built for $800 would have cost close to $2400 from Alienware or Dell.
That said – price is relative!!
Let’ just agree to one thing….The Macintosh is WORTH THE MONEY YOU PAY FOR IT!!!! Who gives a crap if it slightly more expensive or slightly less expensive.
A tool is worth ANY cost when the tool performs the function you need it to and makes your job easier.
spidey23 and pc apologist:
i agree with pc apologist. i’ve had a dimension 8200 for a little less than 3 years, and when I purchased, I extended it ot the 4 year warranty. my graphics card recently crapped out and needed to be replaced. i was on the phone, and based on the LED diagnostic system on the back of the tower, the tech was able to diagnose the problem in about 10 minutes. he insisted that they send someone out to my house, but i insisted more that they just mail it because it would save me time. basically, if you pay for the at home service, you will get it if you want it. sometimes you might end up talking to an idiot on the phone, but that’s the nature of the business. i had to call apple the other day about an ipod shuffle,a nd it took them an hour to finally agree to replace it after I talked to 3 different people.
ok, i’m afraid that the person who wrote this article is not hte most objective of sources. i’m looking at a configuration for the base dell desktop right now:
2.4ghz celeron
256mb ram
cdrom
free printer
40 gb 7200rpm drive
17″ CRT
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
final price: 298 (no tax in most states)
mac mini
1.2 ghz g4
256 mb ram
combo drive
32 meg graphics card
40 gb 5400rpm (correct me if i’m wrong on RPMs)
no monitor
no keyboard
no mouse
final price: 499 plus tax in most states
so now let’s look at the differences. no graphics card in the dell. yes, this is a glaring difference, but for someone only wanting to spend 299 on a computer, it likely doesn’t make any kind of difference to him. it’s not upgradable on this model, but the price of a 32 meg graphics card is probalby no more than $50. no combo drive. this might matter more, so you can add $99 to add DUAL drives to the dell making the price 397.
now what the mac is lacking. no keyboard/mouse. apple charges a ridiculous $58 to add this making the price 557. apple’s hard drive is slower. apple is lacking a 17″ CRT (probably $50-$100 depending where/what you buy). apple is lacking a printer.
basically, the dell is significantly cheaper than the mac mini on the order of about $200 at base prices or more if you take into account the hardware differences.
those who argue that the dell is “unusable” at the price of 299 are full of many kinds of sh*t. the type of person looking to pay 299 for a machine likely wants a computer for internet access, email, and basic word processing. the 299 dimension will just fine for those kinds of tasks.
now the final argument all the macaddicts will make is the argument that they always arrive it: mac osx is better. maybe so, but it’s difficult to quantify this difference in quality, and if we are talking strictly about which system is cheaper, the dell is cheaper hands down (even if you add in the $59 value of ilife).
Everyone. Always have.
um…they do? seems to be no mention of it whatsoever on teh website
bisabuelo,
If you can’t upgrade to a graphics card you have to upgrade the whole computer. Find the cheapest one with a graphics card and start over. PC users play games. They need a dedicated graphics card.
You can get a monitor and keyboard and mouse for a Mac in any PC store and change back for $75. USB works on a Mac.
Yes you can get cheaper but can you get an EQUIVALENT computer cheaper from Dell.
RTFA
Final words on this:
– You *can* add the grafix card to the dell. Like he said, $50. You wanna play 3d games, you can buy a $400 video card and put that in there. No option for such with the mini.
– MacMall gives you a free printer, kb, mouse, and speakers when you buy a mini.
– If you decide you want more RAM later on, you’ve got 2 slots in the Dell. only 1 in the mini.
– If you decide you want a faster proc later on, you’ve got a standard celeron socket and can buy a faster same-gen proc. It’s a whole mobo replacement (really a different system entirely) with the mini.
– If something comes unseated in the Dell while you’re moving it from a to b, you can open it with your thumbs and seat it. The mini uses a sharpened putty knife which you must build yourself (can’t buy) and opening it is much more likely to damage than with the Dell.
And, of course, they come over the next day and fix it if you need them to. I still think the Mac has the better OS, but Dell definitely undersells equivalent hardware in many situations.