[ale] stupid pricing games

[Pat Regan]

Geoffrey wrote:
> Well, the dell I'm comparing my Mac with is a top of the line high end 
> laptop, so I would have expected it to have a 'top of the line high end' 
> display.  The damn thing is like a freaking mirror.
> 

When I last bought a "high end" laptop the business class Latitude I was
considering buying was significantly cheaper than the closest comparable
Macbook that I could find.  From what I've seen of Apple's current
pricing, this is likely still the case.

This was nearly 3 years ago, though, and my biggest problem with Apple
seems to not be a problem anymore.  My problem, oddly enough, was the
horrible low resolution displays that they offered.  At the time I had
to buy a 17 inch Macbook to get 1680x1050.  I ended up going with a 15.4
inch Inspiron with 1680x1050, but I was very, very tempted by a 15.4
inch Latitude with a 1920x1200 display.

Getting more than 1280x800 on a 15.4 or more than 1680x1050 on a 17 inch
laptop 3 years ago for a reasonable price was very hard to do if it
wasn't a Dell.  I imagine this particular reason for me to purchase a
Dell is no longer as valid as it was last time.

If anyone wants my anecdotal opinion of this laptop, here it is :).  I'm
very happy with it overall.  I've had the hard drive replaced, recently,
the screen replaced under warranty.  Something small, somehow, worked
its way between the backlight and LCD panel.  I've never seen that
happen, but a friend of mine recently told me that he saw a bug crawl in
between there on a laptop before.  I'm actually glad it happened,
because this screen has no scratches :p.

I would say that I abuse this laptop pretty good.  I'm on my third
battery (the first was replaced under warranty).  I tend to get a
battery down to about half its original capacity within about a year.
It is probably powered up for 16 hours a day.  It's been lugged back and
forth to worth many hundreds of times.

I expect it to last me quite a while longer.  But if I had to replace it
today I'm really liking the specs and pricing on the Latitude E6500 with
a 1920x1200 display.  I especially like the sound of the optional 12
cell battery slice.  :)

Pat

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