Rumba Ho!

This is a comparison of my experiences with Windows-based Laptops and the Macbook that I have been using for a little over 2 years. For many years I had wondered what would make people pay so much more to get the same features that Windows-Based products have. I just didn’t get it. But finally, in 2009, I took the plunge and became the owner of a Macbook white. Here are 10 differences that i found between Macs and PCs which made me believe in Apple and Apple’s products. I guess it has turned out to be a Top 10 reasons why Mac is better than a PC or a Mac VS PC list but it do remember that it is written from personal experience.  It’s not because I am a fan of Steve Jobs or an Apple Fanboy. Read on for more…

1. Sleep mode

Windows has a 3 options to turn of your PC: Hibernate, Sleep & Shutdown

Apple has the same options as well.

With my IBM(XP), Compaq,(XP) and Dell(XP, Vista) Laptops I was never confident enough to put my laptop back in the the bag until I saw the HDD Light go off. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t ALL the time that the system would hang. Only around 1 in 10 attempts would fail. But a 10% failure rate  is risky business for someone whose work is completely focussed on their laptop and often has open unsaved files when closing the lid. There was never any comfort until that little light went off signifying that the hard disks were finally hibernating.

But using an Apple Macbook has given me a BIG advantage. When I close the lid of my Mac it goes to sleep. It takes it around 10-15 seconds. But it’s guaranteed to happen. I have found once or twice that my laptop did not “sleep” when I closed the lid. But this is very rare and it seems to happen only when I am not paying attention to the Software Update icon on my Dock even though it is jumping up and down. Now that I know what caused the issue, I am careful to note when my Laptop is telling me that it needs my attention. It never forces me to install the updates. I can just cancel the updates and close the lid.

 

2. Service

Dell XPS 13 has a known issue with the VGA display port. While my father was using the laptop he never needed to use the VGA port but once they moved to a new office and started using projectors he realized the problem. There are many sites which tell the story of Dell XPS 13 laptops that have failed VGA ports that just never worked. Another known issue is the wireless problem. The laptop just loses the wifi signal and refuses to recognize it until a reboot and often it will find the signal weak even if it is placed right beside the router. Even my iPhone has a better range than the XPS 13. So, I went to Dell for service and found out that my warranty had expired. I had to shell out $300 for a part replacement. As you can imagine, I came back home mad as hell.

White MacBooks have a known quality issue with the palmrest area. The magnets that hold the lid closed cause an impact with the palmrest which causes cracks and often small pieces of the palmrest fall off at the edges. Apple replaced these for free even in out of warranty laptops that were as much as 5 years old. I walked into an Apple Store, or iStore, and they immediately informed me that this was a free replacement from Apple. They didn’t even check if I was still covered by the AppleCare warranty. I walked out of the iStore quite satisfied with Apple, naturally. It took 20 minutes.

 

3. Stability

On my HP Compaq NX 7300 with a 2.1 GHz processor and Windows XP I can’t browse and Photoshop at the same time. The computer becomes painfully slow and it is impossible to select a tool in photoshop or click a link in IE without having to wait a number of seconds. In fact, with none of the Windows machines that I used, whether desktops of laptops, have I ever been able to use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and perhaps a couple of browser windows simultaneously without the machine slowing down to a crawl.

My 2.0 Ghz dual core Macbook White handles Word, Excel, Photoshop, Mail, Safari(8-10 windows) and Firefox (8-10 windows) all at the same time. And well. All this on the same 2GB RAM that I have in the HP Laptop with 2.1Ghz dual core processor mentioned above.

Note: My Mac and the NX7300 are around the same age (2.5 yrs) and so they make a better comparison than the newer HP laptop that we have at home.

 

4. Battery life

My HP Laptop battery has been replaced twice since I bought it in 2009. My Dell (D430 and E4200) both had battery replacements within 6 months of purchase. The Dell D430 had a second battery replacement at around 13 months of age. My old HP needed 2 battery replacements as well. My IBM had a battery replacement on the last day of its 1 Year warranty (Phew! Got lucky there).

My Macbook Battery, after over 700 cycles still gives me over 90 minutes of Wifi use or 45 minutes of video. It started with 5 hours of Wifi and 3 Hours of video. But the fact is that this Macbook Battery outlasted the Dell, HP and IBM batteries by far. They were all down to 20-30 minutes of usage time within 200-300 cycles.

 

5. Included Software

With all the branded Windows PCs/Laptops that I have purchased I received, pre-installed, various software like anti-virus trials, display managers, sound managers and many trial softwares. Most of these came with a trial period which started to expire within 14 days of my starting up my laptop for the first time. That’s when it started to get annoying. Why don’t manufacturers stop installing this trash unless people actually ask them for it?

My Mac, on the other hand, came with iLife (Garageband, iPhoto, iMovie) and iTunes. Great! Free software that doesn’t annoy you and is actually useful in some way. These softwares let you do more with your mac than you could ever imagine. I really enjoyed making my first “movie” with some videos taken on my phone and some pics of my friends and family. With a background score too! It’s not something I would do everyday, but it was easy enough that I finished the movie during a single sitting. It was only 3 minutes long but I went through hundreds of photos and dozens of videos before i finally picked and edited what I wanted. Fun!

 

6. Longetivity

I have a friend who turned me into a Mac user. He bought his first Mac in 2004 and kept praising it over the years until finally in 2009 I switched.

Read the previous sentence again. The guy kept praising the same mac for 5 years. He still has it at home. His kids (7 & 5 yrs old) use it to play some games online and his wife uses it for her online life (Gmail, Facebook, etc). She is a developer working for one of the largest IT companies in the world and she still prefers using, for personal activities, a 7 Year old Mac over the Windows Laptop her company gave her last year.

 

7. Price

Based on Point 6 above, it has actually worked out cheaper for my friend because he invested in a Mac. In 7 years he would have replaced a windows laptop at least twice. “Replaced” implies that he would have upgraded the laptop and bought a new one with a higher configuration.  That would surely have turned out more expensive than the Mac that his family is using now.

Now for MY experience. I am pretty sure that even though I am an extensive user, I would not require a laptop replacement for at least another two years. that would mean that this is the first laptop I have used for 5 years. So for a person who used 1 IBM, 1 HP and 2 Dell Laptops between 2003 and 2009, to be confident that he would be able to use his Mac for 4-5 years in total is quote significant.

In 2009, I purchased the cheapest Macbook variant, namely the Macbook White. I did not want to spend on a Macbook Pro.  The Macbook White cost around $1200-1300 (approximate equivalent of INR purchase amount) and it will surely last me 4-5 years. That makes its annual cost between $250 to $300 per year. My Windows Laptops have cost me Approximately $6000 over the 6 years of use at an average of $1000 per year. As you can see, the frequency with which I changed laptops makes me quite confident that Apple is better at the laptops game than any of the brands that sells Windows platform laptops.

Note: I have ignored the cost of replacing batteries since the laptop life alone gives a clear picture. Also, the “Price” comparison is based on laptops that I have had for MY use, not the ones which were bought for or by other members of my family for their use.

8. Wake times & Reboot Time

When I bought my Mac in 2009 it used to be off to sleep in barely 2-3 seconds. After adding 480GB of data, it now takes 10-12 seconds. I think that’s admirable. The ShutDown and StartUp times have gone up significantly though – from 10-12 seconds to around 80-90 seconds. But the newest Laptop in the house, an HP belonging to a family member, took that same time for startup within a month.

My Windows laptops over the years, would have startup times ranging from 90 seconds to 300 seconds. Just plain painful.

I haven’t tried Lion yet as I believe that it may slow down my Mac. If I ever do get around to using OS X Lion on my Macbook White, I will surely let you know the feedback.

 

9. Format and Reinstall Requirements

My Mac has never been reinstalled, reformatted or re-anything. All I did was upgrade to the OS X Snow Leopard when it came out since my Mac originally came with OS X Leopard. That was as simple as inserting the CD and clicking a couple of times. Everything stayed as it was except that I ended up with some extra free Hard drive space. The Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrade actually frees up a few GB space. Can you imagine that happening on Windows.

I am not implying that my Mac hasn’t slowed down at all. It has. But I know from experience and usage that with my Windows Laptops I would have required a clean reinstall every 8-12 months. That was the trend with me. I do not claim to be the average user, but I find it pretty amazing that a laptop can take as much of a beating as my Mac has taken without “needing” a reinstall. I know that I can probably improve performance by doing a clean reinstall but it would take me at least 8-9 hours just to copy my music collection and photos (been there, done that, won’t do it again). Maybe I’m lazy, but as long as I don’t “have” to, I won’t.

With Windows, it is never really an option. Between the Defragmentation and virus attacks and Services running in the background from free or trial softwares I never asked for, and some unnecessary background services from apps that are not even open, my Windows Laptops didn’t stand a chance.

 

10. Multi- Touch

With the launch of iPhone, Apple popularized multi-touch. It was the first available phone with the feature and it more than overawed the competition. Now all Macs have multi-touch. Macbook laptops have it built it and iMac desktops have the option of a Magic Trackpad. being able to swipe your way through your desktop or laptop is a whole new experience and it quickly becomes a habit.

My old Macbook supports a simple feature of scrolling with two fingers. So, technically, even this old machine supports multi-touch (or to be more specific, Dual-Touch). I struggle to scroll on the other Windows laptops (if I am forced to use one at customer’s offices, or with family) as I end up swiping 2 fingers along the trackpad and then I wonder why it won’t scroll.

To be fair, some Windows-based laptops do have a built in feature that allows you to scroll with 1 finger along the edge of the trackpad, but it is not the same. If you use a product that supports multitouch then you would know how natural it is to have that feature built into the product that you use daily.

 

Conclusion

The experiences and points given above are not meant to give the impression that Windows is a terrible product. Windows has the advantage of having many accessories and peripherals that are plug-n-play. Macs have only a limited list of peripherals (though the list is large enough that you would easily find any item that you wanted).

Windows machines have such a large gaming developer community that the list of Mac based games seems minuscule by comparison. Not true for the iPhone gaming VS Windows Phone Gaming though, but that is a comparison for another day.

Initial investment into a Windows laptop starts much lower than for Macs. Hardware options with Macs are limited to whatever the company decides is good for you. So, for a user who does not intend to do more than some browsing and emailing, even a low end Windows machine would last many years.

Often, Macs don’t “just work”. Moving from Windows to Mac was a difficult experience after 15 years of Windows use. But once I got use to the Command and Option buttons and the slightly different way that Macs work, it has now become second nature to me.

Still, I would trade all of the Windows advantages for just one single feature that I have mentioned above – the ever-so-reliable SLEEP Mode. I shut the lid, my Mac sleeps, I open the lid, my Mac Wakes.

 

And one more thing…

Investing in an Apple product is usually worth it. Apart from being a style or fashion statement, Apple products have the feel-good quality which always gives you the comfort that you are using a great product. While many just pass it off as marketing, I believe that Apple products are actually worth more than Windows-based products. I wouldn’t mind it if they were cheaper but all I can say is that I’m very satisfied with my purchase. For now.

 

And one more one more thing…

Steve Ballmer – Ugh, I hate that guy!

 

If you are on the fence about owning a Mac and moving away from Windows OR you have any questions about Macs VS PCs, let me know in the comments and I shall give you whatever honest answer I can.