Well I'll be damned.. call me Jesus

Kosmo

Was just strolling around the web, mainly checking out the Wacom Cintiq 21UX, errrrrrotic.. But then I got an idea to compare various laptops and their prices. And I came in to the conclusion that MacBook Pro isn't that expensive, most high end laptops go for the 2.8K € area, if you want the absolute best you shell out to 3k and over. The compare is not easier since you can get a Dell with same CPU and same Memory, the GPU is tad better than the one in MacBook Pro, but I'd prefer the MacBook's GPU since it eats less power than the Dell's. But anyway, when did laptops become so expensive? I'm not that much of a laptop guy since my hobbies have always needed very high power computer so I have had to stick with the desktops since not until very recently you have been able to get some of the high end toys for laptops, and here I'm mainly speaking of the GPU :P But since I'm trying to get in to the school this year I'm in the market for a laptop, if Apple is going to make the 13" iBook with widescreen I just might go for that, any other suggestions?

Minisweeper

Laptops got expensive? I'm bang slap in the middle of the laptop market atm as i remain searching for the best thing i can get for a grand (£1000). I'm sort of out of touch with the desktop world so price comparisons from desktop->laptop could be biased in my opinion, but the spec of machine i've set my heart on seems damned reasonable to me. I'd have to spec up the same desktop to see what sort of price difference there was, but if you take into consideration a) legal software (~£100), b) a high res (though small) display (~£150), wireless keyboard/mouse/speaker set (~£50+), and the additional cost of having to use batterties (£100+), thats already £400 of expense which i just wouldnt have if i was getting a desktop and it ends up i'm 'only' paying £600 for the actual hardware. And i can live with that for the benefits i reap. I wasnt aware of the 13" ibook coming out, but i must say that the macbook pro's themselves did seem very reasonable when compared with similar boxes. I'm still waiting on a reply from a friend in the biz but i'm hoping to get myself a turion 64 2.2ghz, 1gig of ram, 80gig disk, 15.4" WXGA brightview, wifi/bluetooth/all the shebang. And a dock and dual 12 cell batteries (10 hour total life). To me for £1k that didnt seem too bad. Maybe i'm naive.

Bergamot

Since when have laptops not been expensive?

Kosmo

There was a time when laptops weren't as expensive as they are now *stares at setting sun* but like all great things, the time of inexpensive laptops will end, like the age of buffalo. Ok, I'm no indian. But anyway. You can get almost the best desktop you can imagine with 1000-1500£ It's long way from the mere 2000£ and even then you can't get a laptop as good as the desktop and you have very few things to choose from. So laptops are expensive to me, it's the matter of thought.

jesusphreak

I could be wrong, but its always seemed to me that laptops were expensive. I don't see some massive increase in price, infact, I see the opposite with people like Compaq and such offering low-end laptops around the $500 range.

Bergamot

"The average price of a laptop today is about $1000, compared to $1250 in 2004 and $1640 in 2001, according to the Wall Street Journal."

"The average price of a notebook computer dropped from $1,422 in October 2004 to $1,081 in October 2005, according to NPD Group."

Those were the only two recent laptop stats i could find in the 5 minutes i spent on google. If you'd like to present better data, I'd enjoy seeing it.

I do agree that the Macbook Pro is priced competitively with other high-end intel notebooks, especially if someone gets an easy-to-use windows bootloader running. I simply do not think that the average cost of a laptop (low, medium, or high range) is higher than usual.

EDIT: Here is the WSJ article in question; I think the NPD one is behind a pay wall.

Bergamot

Also, it's entirely possible that UK laptop prices are artificially high.

giginger

Everything in the UK is artificially high

3stripe

Nah that's just the kids at the weekend dude

Minisweeper

Petrol prices arent artificially high. Thank god we have america fighting to keep it that way...

giginger

hahahaha!

lech

Really depends on what you're going to be using the laptop for, if you plan on just using it for homework, spreadsheets and coding overall general use, you should be able to find a laptop for well under $1200 that's sufficiently powered to do what you want and then some. Most of those laptops prices are bent basically around what kind of drives and extras come with them, that's where the price gouging will get you. If you look around, most of those 2.5 HD's will run you a decent ammount of money just for 10gigs when you could get a 3.5 equivalent with 300gigs for around the same price. The next thing is the Graphics board packaged in there, if you're not planning on running games, you should forget most of the high-end laptops, as most of those simply have upped specs for games and some insane resolution offerings. I'd say stick with something mid-level under the $1500 mark if you're just planning on using it for school, dell or not, I can guarantee if you look at the options and compare them against others, you'll find many things very off.

Kosmo

Don't you dare prove me wrong :P I didn't consider the cheapo laptops, but I agree, they are now way cheaper than they were like 2000 for example. But when comparing the bleeding edge and the highest end laptops, their price has soared like an eagle. The overall cost has been getting lower, but at the same time the amount of options you have has increased, your standard laptop maker has around 4 different types and several models of each type of laptop, when few years ago, there were just one or two different types and maybe two different models in them.

lech

True, but if you look at dell, they have like an entire line which matches up to the number of desktops they have or even more. It all really falls into what you're going to be using it for though. And while true, there's more options these days then there were 5 years ago, even 5 years ago, how many of those options were you actually using on a regular basis?

Bottom line, get a laptop with options and features you absolutely know you're going to use, otherwise look for something else.

Also, gaming on a laptop (fps games that is) doesn't compare to gaming on a desktop. Too many limiters and weird keyboard assignments tend to make your gameplay worse than better most of the time.

lech

Oh, AND I DARE!

Kosmo

Well I guess that it all sums up to this: The laptops that have the options I would regularily use have gone up in price. Mainly gue to the availability of high end graphics cards and large good quality screens.

lech

We agree to disagree :) But yeah, that's about where most of your prices come from if you're looking at laptops and desktops alike. For laptops however, prices also exceed that in the area of upgrading ram and HD's as well. so keep those 4 things in mind when purchasing.

Minisweeper

Thats perhaps where we differ then - while it'd be nice to have one, a high end graphics card really isnt a requirement for my laptop since i very rarely game and i totally suck at graphic design. As for all the options i slapped on mine (the base model is something like £400) - i chose them because i'm almost certain i'l find them useful. The only thing i'm a little dubious about is the dock and i can very easily take that off the order (and buy it later if i want)