Price Deathmatch: Apple MacBook Pro vs. Dell Inspiron E1705
Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 4:40PM Today's Shuffle Song: 
Sweet Surrender by Sarah McLachlan
First, a note. I read on MacWindows that iEmulator will be running on Intel Macs in very short order. I hope it's true.
I decided to see just how much of a price premium (if any still exists) on Macs vs. PCs. This is a much easier task than in the past, because you can match components exactly. I'm starting off today with the MacBook Pro and I'll try to address the iMac soon.
I went to Dell.com and tried to quickly locate a product based on the Core Duo. I couldn't find one easily since Dell divides their product families across stores targeted at different groups of users. So, I used the search feature and found the Inspiron E1705.
I configured the two machines as closely as possible. The only change I made to the MacBook was going with two 512 MB DIMMS instead of one. I had to change several options on the Dell to match the Mac Book (add remote, bigger HD, add DVD burner, add Bluetooth).
Final Price:
MacBook Pro: $2,399
Inspiron E1705: $2,341
These are still not identical machines. The Dell has a dual layer DVD burner vs. the single layer in the MacBook. The Dell's battery is slightly stronger (60 vs. 53 WHr). The MacBook uses a Radeon X1600 Mobility while the Dell uses a GeForce Go 7800. I favor the 7800 slightly. Of course, the MacBook has a built-in camera and backlit keyboard--features unavailable on the Dell. Lastly, and most significantly, the Dell is based around a 17" screen. It has a similar resolution to the MacBook, but is 2" larger. This also makes the Dell much heavier than the MacBook.
In terms of OS choice, things get more complicated. Mac OS X and Windows XP Pro have always been equivalent in my mind. I obviously prefer OS X, but XP has solid SMP support, excellent networking features and features lacking in XP Home.
Now, Mac OS X has Front Row and offers a superior "10 foot" interface when compared to XP Pro. However, you can get Windows Media Center Addition pre-loaded on the Dell for a superior (feature-wise) 10-foot experience to the MacBook. Doing so will save you $149. It doesn't seem possible to gain parity on the OS front for now between the two machines.
When you look at other options, Apple's RAM prices are insane. Moving to 2 GB RAM will cost you $400. That was no surprise. What was shocking was that the Dell was almost as bad at $325. Just go to crucial.com when/if you buy either machine and want additional memory.
Apple's cost to move to a 100GB 7200 RPM drive is $100, while Dell is $324.
In terms of availability, Dell claims a ship date of 2/17. Apple just says "Feb."
I can't help but feel like the famed "Mac price premium" is a myth here. Dell currently offers cheaper Intel based computers than Apple, but feature-for-feature Apple's pricing is fair. I'm posting PDFs of both stores so you can double-check my work.
As always, the comments are open.
MacBookPro.pdf
InspironE1705.pdf
*Update 12:34pm EST* - The biggest problem with this comparison is trying to weigh the value of the Dell's 17" screen against the built-in iSight, backlit keyboard and other features on the MacBook. None of Dell's 15.4" notebooks are available with Core Duo. I've come across the Acer TravelMate 8200. Although the MacBook would have to be downgraded in some respects via a CTO order to match its specs, these look to me a much closer match feature wise. The only issue is, I can't find it for sale anywhere. If you can, please leave a comment so I can do another comparison.
Reader Comments (159)
There are a couple significant changes not mentioned; first and foremost, the Dell is a 17" model with two panel options, which is nice to have. Also, it weighs over 8 pounds! I also somehow doubt the Dell is 1" thick. :) Though they both are meant to be desktop replacements, Dell and Apple clearly have accepted different comprimises on the design of these products.
I should have mentioned the difference in screen size in the article, even though the resolution on the two is similar. I'll make an edit to reflect that.
I couldn't find a Dell with a Core Duo and a 15" screen.
15" + ati x1600 vs 17" + nvidia 7800 GT is a big plus on the Dell but you didnt mention the free iLife that comes with new Macs.
Intel iMac at $1299 is a better buy than MacBook Pro.
I'll trade 17" LCD that weighs 8+ lbs anytime for 15" LCD that only weighs 5.6 lbs... I know what it's like carrying a heavy laptop around
Actually, there is no advantage to the 17 inch display on the Dell if the resolutions are even close to the same. All you get with the 17 inch screen would be bigger pixels, which should be less clear than the MacBook's screen: no advantage other than "look, I have a 17 inch screen."
also note that there are always a number of coupons for dell that can reduce the cost of the computer a great deal.
Apple is shipping MacBook Pro Feb 15.
I bought one, and that's what the Apple website says.
At 1:14 PM, Anonymous said…
also note that there are always a number of coupons for dell that can reduce the cost of the computer a great deal.
Well that will be quickly eaten up by the cost of anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc that you have to buy and of course the time it takes to maintain it (updates, process of removing once it flags a file, etc blah, blah, blah)
lol, there are many free spyware and adware tools. You are just making up anti pc fud.
The price point difference is sure as hell there for academic pricing. Apple is out to lunch on this aspect of selling their hardware...wow I save a whole 100 bucks going to the Apple-edu store. They need to discount their hardware for the academic (especially higher academic) market much much more.
Has anyone here actually ever seen (or carried around) one of the Inspiron 17" models? We have one here at the office (one of the P4 mobile models). They're truly monstrous, both in their bulk and chinsy metallic plastic design. The 17" Toshiba models I've seen are similar. For the same price, I'll take the precision-engineered 15" MacBook Pro with a sleek anodized aluminum finish, thank you.
Has anyone here actually ever seen (or carried around) one of the Inspiron 17" models? We have one here at the office (one of the P4 mobile models). They're truly monstrous, both in their bulk and chinsy metallic plastic design. The 17" Toshiba models I've seen are similar. For the same price, I'll take the precision-engineered 15" MacBook Pro with a sleek anodized aluminum finish, thank you.
It's great that Dell ships the DL DVDR but without software it's useless. If you add the bundled CDR/DVDR software the Dell comes in $2 more, at $2,401.
The Dell has a modem. The resolutions are both 1440x900 so the Dell's 17" is a liability unless your eyesight is bad.
XP is also at the end of life phase, while 10.4.4 is basically equivalent to Vista, if not superior in some ways.
Are you trying to tell me that XP Pro's SMP support is better than BSD's???
You messed up the PDF links. They both link to the DELL.
truthfully, the dell coupons end up knocking off HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS of dollars. the people who buy dells without searching for coupons are enabling the rest of the population to get insanely great deals which undercut apple by discounts of -- on occasion -- a thousand dollars or more (as in the new 30" LCD which can be had from dell for $1,399, compared to apple's bleed-out-the-back price).
just sayin that the coupons simply have to be factored in.
The Edu discount for the MacBook is $200. Depending on the hardware, it's even been $300. And it sure beats waiting for limited-use coupons from dell. However, if you find them for the 2005fpw, jump on it! I love this monitor!
Mike!!
I click a link on Digg and what pops up but Mr. McHargue's blog!
Hope everything's going well for you, and nice write-up.
-Micah "anamexis" Buckley-Farlee
Another big difference is that Dell offers affordable accident protection (say, if you happen to drop your new notebook, etc.) Apple does not.
"Actually, there is no advantage to the 17 inch display on the Dell if the resolutions are even close to the same. All you get with the 17 inch screen would be bigger pixels, which should be less clear than the MacBook's screen: no advantage other than "look, I have a 17 inch screen."
Um... That's assuming that you believe resolution is more important than size... most large HD TVs are way lower res than my computer monitor, but I'd still much rather watch a movie on the TV... Size matters, and if you don't think it does, you're just crazy. I think the weight is less of a big deal, especially since these are meant to be desktop replacements.
The price point difference is sure as hell there for academic pricing. Apple is out to lunch on this aspect of selling their hardware...wow I save a whole 100 bucks going to the Apple-edu store. They need to discount their hardware for the academic (especially higher academic) market much much more.
Exactly why should Apple discount more? Does Dell?
Does Apple owe you a discount just because you're a teacher or student? Do you deserve a discount for everything else you buy?
about the spyware/adware...how about get a macbook, where the company that makes them actually updates their software and protects the system instead...saves a lot of time. I never want to deal with spyware adware or viruses again. I switched to a mac, and I won't...I'm not trying to be a posterboy, I'm just saying, we aren't lying to the PC world...there are very few security risks with macs.
I want to respond to an earlier comment about the educational discount on the MacBook Pro only being $100, but what is the educational discount on ANY of the Dell machines?
I think by far the biggest addition to the macbook that any xp machine won't have is iLife. iLife in my mind has always been the over-riding factor in buying a mac, OSX playing in at a close second. Forget about specs, cpu speed, memory etc, it's the "experience" on the Mac that counts. And iLife plays a huge part of that. If iLife never existed, I would have a hard time justifying a move from my Athlon to a mac, but with iLife 06' I deffinately will do that
I think by far the biggest addition to the macbook that any xp machine won't have is iLife. iLife in my mind has always been the over-riding factor in buying a mac, OSX playing in at a close second. Forget about specs, cpu speed, memory etc, it's the "experience" on the Mac that counts. And iLife plays a huge part of that. If iLife never existed, I would have a hard time justifying a move from my Athlon to a mac, but with iLife 06' I deffinately will do that