Shock: MacBook Cheaper than Dell Laptop


Slashdot is running an interesting discussion on its boards - and the bottom line is that the new MacBook is cheaper than a Dell. Even with one of those coupons. No kidding.

One poster clicked together a Dell Latitude D620 and the price came out at $1,216. Someone tried again and got it down to $1.098. Delete more stuff from the Dell (essentially like gas-axing as many panels off a VW Beetle and cutting fractions of a second off a standing 1/4 mile) and you get the grand total of $928 (and we're not talking a Porsche 928 for that money).

The lower price is achieved by deleting FireWire and the webcam and the poster said he'd never use them. Fine. But if you want to run your digital videocam via FireWire, you have to have it.

And this ignores the point; all MacBooks come fully equipped. Sure, you can always strip down a budget PC to make it cheaper, but you also reduce its utility (and, come trade-up time, its resale value).

The MacBook also comes - arguably - with a much better software bundle. And no Dell on earth can run OS X. A good point made by one poster was that you would also need to invest in a copy of Win XP Pro to get the kind of server tools available in OS X.

Of course, for the coupon hunter, it may just be possible to get the Latitude's price down to $809. Then again, look long enough and we're sure the price will be $0.

Or, possibly, Dell will owe you money.