Why do people hate on Mac's?

[Dathtom]

I personally own a gaming rig but if I wanted a productivity machine I would get a Macbook. When you look at how much performance you get, the build quality and software included I think the price isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. As someone who sells laptops and macs on a weekly basis I find that working and using a mac is a joy.

Just wanted to know your guys opinions?

Tom :)

[CaptainSi]

Macbooks are a really great product, but the simple fact is you can get an equally as well built, more powerful Windows ultrabook with a better display for the same price (this was different a few years ago,though). With that being said Apple's servicing and warranties can make up for some of the difference in price. If you look into it more carefully, I also think you'll find that when people hate on "Macs", they are hating on either the OS, or iMacs, both of which are horrible in my experience. From an industry standpoint, which is where I have used them, they absolutely can be useful, but only in lightweight tasks like programming, film donkeys, some graphics and web design, for example. However they are painfully underpowered for anything else, such as broadcast, animation, 3D, video post, GFX, proper graphics design, flash, and game development, which is really limiting, and leaving such monolithic gaps in usefulness makes the purchase stupid and unjustifiable. Apple has also (perhaps unintentionally) created issues in the industry, where firms will purchase whole studios' worth of Macs, simply because that's what they had before, and based on no computational knowledge. Its holding the producation and design industry back in a similar way consoles hold back the gaming industry, with stagnant and non-bleeding edge hardware, firmware and software. Also games.

[Dathtom]

So the new rMBP with a quad core 3.6 ghz i7 and 650m isn't powerful enough? Sure it's more expensive than a Windows laptop but it's also incredibly portable.

[CaptainSi]

For the tasks I mentioned, no, it is nowhere near powerful enough. As a portable machine it's great, however, simply said, you can get a better featured, more robust, Windows machine that is just as lightweight and portable for that price, so it doesn't really make sense unless your options are limited. Computers at that spec are only really useful for moderate video editing, flash animation, photoshopping and gaming, and the rMBP, due to its lack of optical drive and capacity to game is even more useless. I personally couldn't happily sell a customer a $2000 web browser without advising the better alternatives, it is dishonest.

[Prettyfinej]

So the new rMBP with a quad core 3.6 ghz i7 and 650m isn't powerful enough? Sure it's more expensive than a Windows laptop but it's also incredibly portable.

A similar spec'd ultrabook can be upwards of $1000 less, and for really intensive stuff, you would want something more powerful.

[EChondo]

So the new rMBP with a quad core 3.6 ghz i7 and 650m isn't powerful enough? Sure it's more expensive than a Windows laptop but it's also incredibly portable.

And how much is that exactly? I am looking at Apple's website and it says;

-15.4" Screen

-Core i7 2.3GHz

-GT 650m w/512MB

-4GB of RAM

-500GB Hard drive

-1440x900 Resolution

All that for $1799.00.

I can get a Clevo laptop with;

-15.6" Screen

-Core i7 2.4GHz

-GT 650m w/1GB

-8GB of RAM

-750GB Hard Drive(w/ an option to add a second hard drive without losing my optical drive)

-1920x1080 Resolution(w/ option for Glare or Matt)

-Windows 7 or Windows 8

All that for $999.00, I hate Macs and anything Apple because all it is is overpriced hardware for no reason whatsoever. The Mac OS itself is ~$40 and so the only reason you are paying that much for a Mac is because of the Apple logo, that $1799 version doesn't even have retina display! I personally do not think it is worth spending an extra $800 just because the Mac is "thin", I could care less if it's a few milimeters thinner and a bit lighter, I am not spending $800 more just for some overpriced hardware and the Apple logo.

[obsidian1200]

I'm personally really apathetic to the fanboys, haters, and whatever else kind of extreme groups you have when it comes to tech, gaming, and life in general. I don't mind Apple products, and in fact bought a second-hand MBP for college this last semester. Here are some of my thoughts on it:

-OSX is okay, with equally noticeable pros and cons to the other OSes (mostly Windows 7 and Ubuntu, some other Linux builds in VMs) I use regularly.

-The build quality is very good. The unibody feels very solid and I don't fear accidentally damaging it like I would with other laptops I've used. The hinge is okay, I haven't personally stressed it because I don't think that's a likely scenario my machine will ever be in. Even with the age of my machine, the battery gets about 8 hours of battery life from a charge while under regular use, the screen looks very good, and the thermals are, for a portable machine, acceptable. It also handles games very well for being a 3+ year-old laptop.

Still, I can see why people would dislike buying them new. They are quite pricey; I wouldn't have bought mine if I didn't get it for $400. Plus, Apple nickles and dimes their customers for basic upgrades, which will only get worse as they continue to solder their components onto the main boards and/or glue them into place. I have trouble respecting a company that does this with their computers, as it arbitrarily limits the lifespan of a machine. Think about it: if you buy a rMBP or an iMac with soldered RAM (I believe the base 21.5" model has this, not sure about the higher-end model), you can't simply add more RAM to get a bit more performance from your machine to last it a few years. You have to buy an entirely new machine for an upgrade, and that feels a bit wasteful to me. Then there's Apple's warranty on their parts, the sometimes oblivious "Geniuses," the constant media coverage, the lawsuits, et cetera...

[EricX2]

2 years ago I bought a MacBook pro and considering I work in IT I feel like I'm in the closet with my 'secret'. Anytime I tell them I have a mac they make fun of me.

It wasn't a high end one by any means, but I knew I could upgrade it. I bought it with 4gb of RAM and now it has 16gb. It came with a 320gb hard drive and I upgraded to a 500gb WD Black. Those were only about $150 in upgrades. Can I play games with it? I can play Minecraft. I can play all the games from the Humble Indie Bundles.

Is it overpriced? Of course. Once I got one I realized the build quality is higher (or at least was) than most other systems out there. I'm sure some new ones are as sturdy but considering what I had been used to from Dell or HP, this thing felt like a Rolls Royce compared to a Kia.

Is it perfect? No, OS X is like iOS... they got to one point and seemed to decide there was no reason to make big improvements.

[virusal19]

I don't hate "Mac's" but i wouldn't say that i love them, they overprice their laptops, and for upgrades it cost a lot of money for something that can be so cheap on a PC laptop like changing to more RAM can be $20 on a PC but like $150 on Mac. I do like ONE thing, the design, all else like the OS X is terrible.

It's a good laptop, but no where near being perfect.

[Dathtom]

I think the main reason people do that like OSX is the same reason why people don't like windows 8, it's different. From someone who interacts with people who are running xp, or never had a computer before, they find OSX interface much cleaner and easier to use. I'm not saying it's perfect, but once you get used to it I find it a compelling alternative to Windows.

[TechFan@ic]

I personally dislike them because they're highly overpriced .

[EChondo]

I think the main reason people do that like OSX is the same reason why people don't like windows 8, it's different. From someone who interacts with people who are running xp, or never had a computer before, they find OSX interface much cleaner and easier to use. I'm not saying it's perfect, but once you get used to it I find it a compelling alternative to Windows.

But then people use Bootcamp so they can have Windows on a Mac.

[MuZeVII]

Personally, I think the hardware is beautiful. But Mac OS and the blatant overpricing puts me off completely.

[J House]

one word "gaming" I like the OS though and they are sexy

[TheMightySals]

Just so over priced and i end up trying to have a resonable conversating with my friends who own macs and it all goes the same...

"but you could easilly get a same specd pc for alot cheaper"

"yeah but its a mac"

"but why do you need need half of that, all i see you do is use the internet and itunes"

"yeah but its a mac"

I mostly hate the way the users act with their macs/MBs... im trying to have a well reasoned argument here...

[TechTheWorld]

Well macs are under powered and over priced. Other than that there are perfect:)

[EChondo]

Just so over priced and i end up trying to have a resonable conversating with my friends who own macs and it all goes the same...

"but you could easilly get a same specd pc for alot cheaper"

"yeah but its a mac"

"but why do you need need half of that, all i see you do is use the internet and itunes"

"yeah but its a mac"

I mostly hate the way the users act with their macs/MBs... im trying to have a well reasoned argument here...

But, it's a Mac!

[Gavin]

I dont see why people say macs are better for productivity/editing/graphic design. I've used one for over 5 years. I'd rather get a modestly priced ultrabook instead of a macbook pro. The base prices on the macbooks aren't too bad, but they're still overpriced.

The bad part is if you want to upgrade the specs. On the $1500 retina display macbook, it comes with a 128GB SSD, if you want to upgrade to 256GB, it cost $200 more. Also, the new macbooks have their ram soldered onto the board, so you wont be able to upgrade that yourself, or through apple.

[KOtech]

hardware is expensive for what you get but people don't tend to account for the software benefits in their calculations. 

[R4STABAN]

I think the biggest problem with macs is that they have built a reputation of being owned by annoying popularity-contest hipsters, much like beats headphones and fixie bikes.

..umad hipsters? ;D

[TheMightySals]

Just so over priced and i end up trying to have a resonable conversating with my friends who own macs and it all goes the same...

"but you could easilly get a same specd pc for alot cheaper"

"yeah but its a mac"

"but why do you need need half of that, all i see you do is use the internet and itunes"

"yeah but its a mac"

I mostly hate the way the users act with their macs/MBs... im trying to have a well reasoned argument here...

Wish I could apply that to all of lifes greatest debates...

[Musguelha17]

Why are they underpowered? I have a 3 year old Macbook (a White Unibody) and it does everything I need it to do just fine. Yes, I only do light tasks on it but that's what it was intended for, If I want power I just get to my desktop and done, I have all the power I could ever need.

[EChondo]

Macs removes the clutter in my opinion. Premium feel along with solid OS creates the best productivity enviroment personally.

You dont get that with ultrabooks. fugly ultrabooks.. in my opinion.

BTW pages > MS WORD, anyday.

Same with Keynote.

:D

LibreOffice.

[Glenwing]

It's not to say that they don't have any power... Saying something is "underpowered' is relative to the price. If you saw a $400 machine with a GTX 660 Ti you'd say wow that little thing is powerful, but you'd say it was very underpowered if it were a $4000 machine right?

At the price Apple charges, you could get the same performance from a laptop in a much lower price bracket. And against the PCs in its own price bracket, it gets severely outperformed. If they halved the price of the MacBook Pros then they might be competitive from a performance standpoint.

Example:

My laptop has an Intel Core i7-3630QM (2.4GHz), 8GB of DDR3 1600, a GeForce GT 650M, and a 1TB 5400RPM hard drive stock (swapped with an SSD, but that's what it came with). It cost $729 straight from the manufacturer's website with student discount. I have had no issues with build quality etc. It's a great machine.

A MacBook Pro 15" has an Intel Core i7-3615QM (2.3GHz), 8GB of DDR3 1600, a GeForce GT 650M, and a 1TB 5400RPM hard drive. Essentially identical specs. The cost? $1800 straight from the manufacturer's website. $1700 with student discount. Considering the performance of other $1800 machines, yes it's underpowered, it's $1800 and performs like an $800 machine.

I'll give the MBP one advantage though, it has a better display. My laptop has a 1366x768 TN panel, this doesn't bother me though, I bought it knowing I would use an external monitor when I'm at home, so the display was not a big factor for me. Supposing I did care about the display though... Considering the equivalent specs and better screen compared to my $729 machine, I'd say if the 15" MBP were priced at $1000, I might consider it a reasonable option at the very least.

[SaerBear]

Personally I use OS X as my main OS. I have a Macbook Air for school etc and at home I have my powerful hackintosh. On my PC I use OS X for everything except for when I'm gaming (I boot into windows for gaming). I know Apple isn't as good value for money but the OS is priceless. Most consumers don't care about the specs as long as it performs well for the tasks they are doing and Apple products do just that.