Dell is attempting to compare their Latitude E4200 laptop (catchy name) against Apple’s MacBook Air (Dell incorrectly titles it “Macbook”).
Dell’s video begins with a familiar manilla envelope, but, boy is this one stuffed with thickness!
Direct link via YouTube here.
Nowhere in the video does Dell mention that their thicker laptop is OS-limited whereas Apple’s MacBook Air – and all Macs for that matter – are OS-unlimited. Of course, it’s not surprising that Dell doesn’t want to mention that only OS-unlimited Apple Macs are capable of running all major operating systems and offer users the ability to run the world’s largest software library.
Apple’s original MacBook Air TV Commercial:
Direct link via YouTube here.
Find out more about Apple’s MacBook Air here.
[Attribution: MacNN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Peter” for the heads up.]
And what’s with the hairy arms on the dude?
And why does this look like it was shot by a student filmmaker?
Probably cuz Dell has no money for marketing… so rip off Apple, get a student to work for free (or for a Latitude whatever it’s called) and upload it to YouTube.
Something’s rotten in Texas.
The ad suffers from continuity dis-connects. The envelope keeps changing in each scene.
The opening scene shows a stuffed, blank Manila envelope. The scene with the unwinding of the red tie string has the envelope opening toward the left, with printing on the back below the tie. In the very next scene, the computer is taken out with the opening toward the right, the printing has been magically transferred to the front, and the back is suddenly blank back with vent holes in the envelope paper.
It’s probably a subliminal hint as to the inconsistencies of the OS installed on the Dell…
DELL did NOT make this Ad. Fanboys did.
@ HMCIV
Interesting that Dell offers to sell you 5 GB of ram when 32 bit Vista cannot use more than 3.2 GB according to a recent <a>href=”http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/03/road_to_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bits_santa_rosa_and_the_great_pc_swindle.html”> Apple Insider</a> article.
Best quote:
“And so many PC users are installing 4GB of RAM in their PCs and thinking that it is being used by the system, when in fact it is no more beneficial than if the RAM were simply poked halfway into the CD slot.”
i guess the macbook air is more than a novelty if Dell has decided to try to compete against it.
@ Swordmaker
It’s probably a subliminal hint to the Zune Tangs of the world that like an ugly broad, in order to play with it, you have to put a bag over its head.
so dull.
“It’s probably a subliminal hint to the Zune Tangs of the world that like an ugly broad, in order to play with it, you have to put a bag over its head.”
And they’re a lot more fun once you unwind their little red strings.
@PC Apologist
Matching up the hardware AND software between the Dell Studio 15 and the MacBook (Black, not the base model) I come up with $1,417. Superior hardware? Yeah. More cache in the CPU and 2 inches more screen real estate (but at the same resolution). If you want the discrete GPU you pay more and the cost gets near regular MacBook Pricing.
You have to include the FULL version of Vista. Vista Home is not comparable to OS X 10.5 Leopard.
You need to include something to compare with iPhoto and iMovie (Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements).
You also need to boost to the 802.11 N, boost HD to 250G, up the RAM to 2G, add 30 days phone in support to match the other specs on the MacBook.
By the time I was done it cost more than the Black MacBook. So sure, you get “superior hardware,” but only by splitting hairs. A hotter processor, to be sure — 2.5GHz and 6M of cache. Once the other options are matched it no longer seems nearly as much in Dell’s favor as your initial statement would suggest.
@NIck Fury
….and really gross fat rolls fall everywhere……
I was just issued a Dell Latitude XT at work. How bad is it? I wanted my 3 yr. old RIM Tablet back.
What they trying to say. Apple have made smaller notebooks than the MBA. PowerBook G4 12″ anybody?
Dell are really reaching this time.
The design and size of the Air is amazing. Performance? Size of hard drive? Both leave a lot to improve upon.
If Apple had delayed the release until they could put a faster processor in it and a 128Gb SSD, I would have bought one and this laptop would have been a real contender.
However, Dell did break an important rule of salesmanship… don’t bash the competition. It makes one’s own product look weak.
Couldn’t Dell have used a NEW manila envelope?
“Couldn’t Dell have used a NEW manila envelope?”
No. Budget cuts.
To me, the key point in this ad is that a leading PC manufacturer now finds it necessary to compare one of their products with a Mac.
That’s great! A few years ago they wouldn’t have bothered.
So to make it smaller, they had to make it fatter. It looked like that envelope was about to break. How many “takes” and how much glue was needed to make the commercial? Dell and Microsoft needs to spend their money wisely instead of making these stupid commercials.
Please dell, it’s over and you are so lost. You don’t now when to give up.
Sure its ugly and boxy, but it is smaller, lighter and just slightly thicker than the Air. The MBA looks so small because of the extreme taper to the front edge. You have to admit that the Dell has the Air totally beat with respect to connectivity and ram capacity. Gigabit ethernet, USB, Firewire, e-sata, VGA out, audio out, express card slot, dock connector and audio in (mic). Pretty slick. However, it is powerful ugly. I still love the Air, but wish it had the options that the Dell has…
I am getting really sick of the pompus attitude that MDN and many MDN users display on a daily basis. Maybe the Dell commercial was poorly done. But for lots of computer users, the Latitude E4200 is far superior to the MacBook Air — although in truth I wouldn’t buy either machine because a computer without an built-in optical drive seems stupid to me.
With the exceptions of processor (uncertain), screen size, and obviously the OS, the E4200 is better hardware than the Air. For example: memory card reader (none on Air), optional fingerprint reader (none on Air), up to 5 GB of DDR3 @ 800 MHz RAM (only 2 GB of DDR 2 probably @ 667 MHz RAM on Air), up to 128 GB solid state drive (only option for Air is 64 GB solid state), Intel’s new 4500MHD integrated graphics (only older Intel X3100 on Air), a “starting weight” of 2.2 lbs. (Air weighs 3 lbs.), etc.
PS: It appears that 64-bit Vista is an option on the E4200, as is XP Pro for Vista haters.
“I am getting really sick of the pompus attitude that MDN and many MDN users display on a daily basis.”
And yet, you keep coming back? Glutton for punishment?
Justified, for many the Dell may be better, but NOT for the reasons highlighted in the video (can’t be an official Dell video).
The Dell is “smaller”, but not in ways that help the average user (My briefcase holds 8.5×11″ things by default, like magazines and file folders. I carry around a 8.5×11″ sketchbook wherever I would take my computer).
The MBA is large enough to have a full size keyboard and a good size screen. That design decision “cost” me nothing, since making the footprint smaller only means it would rattle around next to my papers. On the other hand, the thinness is a huge help.
The only way I can see the Dell as “better” would be in the other features it offers.
@ Modbus: MDN is a great source of interesting stories. But MDN and many of its users have obviously been indoctrinated to believe that Apple deserves nearly-unconditional loyalty. As I argued in my previous post, the E4200’s hardware is superior to the MacBook Air’s hardware in nearly every way. But neither MDN nor 99% of MDN users will ever willingly acknowledge the superiority of the E4200’s hardware, because they think that Apple is Heaven and Steve Jobs is God.
Mac OS X is a fantastic operating system. But intelligent computer users may be tempted to pick the E4200 over the Air because of the Air’s inferior hardware. Thus, a computer user who buys an E4200 is not automatically worthy of scorn & ridicule.
@ disposableidentity: I agree with you that the Air may be better for some, while the E4200 may be better for others. But IMHO, there is a good chance that the Dell ad is real. Time will tell…
You guys are all losers. LOL. The MAC Air book, Or whatever it’s stupid name, is a lame computer. It’s a joke in the computing industry and is an example that Apple has lost the ball when it comes to computing. In a couple years it will end up in the bottom of the ocean next to all the lame iMacs. Boy I feel sorry for the losers that bought into that crap. LOL….. Gimme a Dell any day!