Apple takes top places in all laptop categories at Consumer Reports. Also top in tech support.

[onehandle]

Consumer Reports continues to shower praise on all things Apple it seems. In a report in the June issue, the Magazine says Apple won the top three places in the 13 inch laptop derby. The unibody MacBook was in first place, followed by the MacBook Air, with the white plastic MacBook in a solid third place.

CR also named the 15-inch MacBook Pro as top laptop in the 14- to 16-inch group, and the 17-inch MacBook Pro walked off with the honors in the 17- to 18-inch category. The HP Pavilion publicized in the first Laptop Hunters ad from Microsoft came in 4th in the category behind Dell and Lenovo laptops. The Sony VAIO FW370 that was the star of the 3rd Microsoft ad came in 5th in the 14- to 16-inch category.

Apple also took the honors for best in tech support.

This won't bring smiles to the folks in Redmond, who are going all out to convince people that Apple computers are not a good value. It should be noted that none of the Apple laptops were rated a best buy, but they all scored the highest in each category and were recommended by the magazine. Of course Apple has repeatedly said they are not trying to win on price, but on quality, and Consumer Reports seems to accept that as the case.

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/05/consumer-reports-still-hearts-macs/

If you have a subscription, you can see the results here:

Laptop Ratings & Reliability

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/computers-internet/computers/laptop-ratings/ratings-overview.htm

[walldude]

1. Mac is great...

if you are afraid of computers, if you don't like tinkering, and if you like to be led by the hand in everything you do. I own both Mac and PC and because I like to tinker so I am more of a PC fan. Mac is great if you don't want to be bothered knowing how stuff works.

[ContinentalOp]

5. That may be true, but mac is also great...

if you love computers and you do like tinkering.

[Sal Minella]

13. And then, on the other hand, there are those of us who do NOT enjoy

venturing into the bowels of the software to try to reconfigure the hyperframus modalities sockets every time Bill lays another automatic update on us and fucks up the works.

If I wanted an Erector Set, I'd buy an Erector Set.

[onehandle]

17. While Mac users are being productive...

PC hobbyists are fighting viruses and troubleshooting drivers.

Hey, lookee me! I paid four hundred bucks for my PC!

Yeah, well I was on the internet with my Mac before you finshed booting up.

[walldude]

19. Oh please....

I use both PC and Mac and Mac users seem to think that PC's are nothing but trouble. That's bullshit. If you know how to use your PC and you know how it works it's easy to avoid spam, spyware, and viruses. They are two different animals for 2 different types of people. Mac people have a tendency to think themselves superior but the fact is both systems have good and bad points. And while there aren't as many viruses on Mac they crash just as much as PC's do. The guy who talked me into getting the Mac kept telling me it would never crash. Well on the first day I spent 5 minutes in Photoshop before the Mac locked up on me. He was sitting next to me when it happened. :rofl:


Oh and BTW I spent a lot more than $400 on my PC and it'll smoke any Mac on the market in performance and reliability. And I built it with my own two hands. Some Mac users seem to think that taking pride in the fact that I am able to build a PC is a bad thing, funny how those are the kind of people who are always calling me for computer advice.

[imdjh]

I'm a convert and my experience is different from yours. My Lombard is 11 years old and works.

I have had this Macbook (2.4 ghz black duo) since November and it has never crashed. My only complaint was that the set up thing where you connect it to your old Mac and everything transfers over didn't work because my old Mac was a 2000 iBook and too old.

I confess, I didn't think much of the iBook Snow with the duel operating systems. I found it to be slower than my 1998 Lombard in some applications including Photoshop and the iBook did lock up now and then. There was some glitch which I suspect had to do with me having OS 9 and 10 on the computer at the same time.

I find the value of Mac to be not only the quality of the experience, but also the longevity of the product. I have bought seven macs for my family since 1997 and they are all still fully functional.

[onehandle]

26. Thanks for your anecdotes.

Mean while in endless studies and surveys...

[Tesha]

54. So did you use hot-air or IR reflow? And were you green enough to use an aqueous defluxer?

And how long did it take you to place all those 0102 resistors?
Ge'ez those are small!

Tesha

[walldude]

62. Now you are just being an asshole. But if I had a fucking clean room and the

equipment I needed I would build my own motherboard from the ground up. I take pride in the fact that I can do things for myself.

Honestly when people start making fun of someone because they take pride in building things themselves it just shows how fucking lame and shallow they are.

[Tesha]

66. Ahh, so you don't actually "build your own PCs".

You just plug a couple of components on to a Chinese
motherboard and then screw a few bits into a case.
And then think you're cool for doing that.

Tesha

[walldude]

67. I had a nasty little reply for you but you aren't worth the effort.

It's people like you who remind me what a huge bastion of losers Du has attracted lately.

[dem629]

60. You are going to anger the Mac evangelists.

[walldude]

63. Well they can rant and rave about it while they wait for their "appointment"

at the mac store. :rofl:


The irony of all this is I'm typing this on a Mac... hehe. No matter what you do you can't say anything bad about Mac without their cult members getting all upset.

[Sal Minella]

70. "...If you know how to use your PC and you know how it works

it's easy to avoid spam, spyware, and viruses."

If you know how to do a craniotomy and know human anatomy, it's easy to remove brain tumors and intracerebral vascular anomalies.

Some of us want to do other things with our time, though, yanno?
Like, sail around in eBay without being thrown on the rocks.

[Telly Savalas]

42. I paid $350 for my laptop.

I haven't had problems with viruses and drivers.

It boots quickly enough from hibernate mode that spending several hundred dollars more just to speed things up a few seconds doesn't seem prudent. Some people like to spend that kind of cash to get their computer to boot faster. My income is limited enough that I prefer to use the money on things like food and my mortgage payment.

I'm pretty happy with my purchase -- not so fanatical about it that I'm going to put a windows logo sticker on my car though. I'd probably be happy using a Mac if someone gave one to me.

I view a computer as a tool, not a foundational element of my identity.

[LanternWaste]

61. I imagine some people like...

I imagine some people like Coke, while others like Pepsi.

[alfredo]

25. It is an option on the Mac. If you want to dip into the UNIX underpinnings

you can. Otherwise it stays out of the way.

[Sal Minella]

40. I wouldn't dream of TOUCHING anybody's Unix Underpinnings.

Sounds like the XXX version of Dr. Denton's.

[alfredo]

56. It is

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. You know I am the proud owner of a macbook, a netbook

and the nightmare

Here is what I have found

The Macbook works PERIOD

The Netbook works (it runs xp, and would be running linux but there is this particular app that does not play well with wine... and even less with crossover, so surrendered, but it is XP, it works, period... and it IS a netbook... it has a gerbil for a processor... I know. Fine for a glorified word processor though)

Oh and the qpp is liquid story binder, specialized writing app... if you are a writer I highly recommend it

And then the nightmare, otherwise known as the gaming rig... don't ask... but if hubby wasn't a gamer I'd kick that thing to the curb... PERIOD

What I despise of the redmond campaign is that they are focussing on STATS not performance

My mac has 1 gig of RAM... and your point is? It is as fast as the Vista machine with... 4 gigs and a quad... and it IS the damn fracking OS!

Oh and futzing with drivers... oy

[Clear Blue Sky]

2. I wish Mac would make a net book.

Their "Air" is nice but pricey. I would like to see something like the Acer or Asus at around $500.

[ContinentalOp]

3. I just bought a slightly used Macbook on ebay for $550.

You can pretty much get last year's model for $600 or under all day long. It's a nice machine. Mine came from a place that had a bunch of them that were corporate lease returns.

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. That's what I do.

Haven't bought a new Mac since about 1998. When the Intel MacBooks came out (2006 I think), I bought a slightly used, mint condition iBook G4 for only about $600.00. Saved me over $400.00, and it looked and worked just like a new one. There was even about two months of warranty left on it.

[ContinentalOp]

21. What I'm terrible at but trying to get better is SELLING my old macs.

I tend to buy a new one, stop using the old one and put it in the closet before it eventually gets sent to goodwill years later. If you're organized enough, it's probably smartest financially speaking to buy a slightly used or refurbished model, use it for a year or two and then sell it while it's still worth a few hundred dollars.

[Elwood P Dowd]

24. I hear you.

I've still got two ole Blueberry Macs I've owned over 10 years. Now they're worth nothing. I did notice a place selling the same iBook as mine for $450.00, so maybe I should think about a used or refurb MacBook while the iBook is still holding it's value and bringing a decent price.

[alfredo]

27. I keep mine for a long time. My G4 I kept and used for 8 years. It is

now at the local Democratic Hq.

[Elwood P Dowd]

31. Do you still have the Mac Mini?

I had the original Mini for a few months before I decided to go with a laptop. The original Mini was okay but needed more RAM, and I didn't like the idea of popping the bottom off with a putty knife. When a deal showed up on the iBook, I moved on. My nephew has one of the newer Minis and it's far better than the early models.

[alfredo]

36. I still have the mini. I like that I can pick it up and carry it upstairs and

plug into our TV.

I will get a new Mini sometime soon and move this one upstairs to act as a media center.

[ContinentalOp]

32. See, that's what I always hope for, is just to give an old machine a good home.

I hate to see them just end up in a pile of ewaste in China or something when they are still perfectly good, working machines. Unfortunately I need to upgrade fairly frequently for work. I guess I should look into donating to Dem Headquarters, although a lot of places are wary about taking on donated computers aren't they?

[alfredo]

34. It had been upgraded in RAM and a second drive. Because

Photoshop 7 won't work on Leopard, it was useless to me. It also had some real good open source applications like NeoOffice, Scribus, GIMP, Inkscape. It had games like Quinn, and Jewel Toy.

[onehandle]

4. There are Tons of hints and rumors that they are working on that right now.

Possibly for later this year. Apple loves Christmas.

[Clear Blue Sky]

6. Hope so.

Mac Books are small, but not as small as the new netbooks. They are great for travel. Internet, email and wifi, all in a tiny and light package.

[onehandle]

10. Just yesterday a job listing was spotted at Apple for a "3G specialist for Macs."

There are currently no Macs with 3G capability.

Or are there?

[alfredo]

37. They are probably going to include it in their laptops and whatever

comes next. Maybe it will be their answer to the Kindle.

[Clear Blue Sky]

38. iPhone is but technically that's not a computer.

[alfredo]

57. Rumors are a favorite sport among tech writers.

Of course if Apple wants to keep a secret, they can. How many knew that the Intel version of OSX was always on par with the PPC version from day one? They knew there was an Intel version, but they didn't know if they were going to switch platforms or offer the Intel version along side the PPC. Other products and advances kept the Intel rumor off the front page.

[Tesha]

55. I'm pretty sure you'll see a tablet running the iPhone OS real soon now.

Whether you'll ever see a classical folding, keyboard-
equipped Apple-branded netbook is more open to
debate.

Tesha

[Touchdown]

58. Pics of Apple's rumored answer to the netbook...

These are all speculative renderings, but Apple's real version should blow everyone's socks off.

[Sultana]

65. oooooohh, pretty

:o

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. No surprise

Macs are terrific computers. I won't own any other kind.

[dorkulon]

9. Meh. We already kow that Apple makes really good, really expensive computers

Mercedes makes great cars; I just can't afford them.

[KillCapitalism]

52. Yeah, they are nice if you can afford them.

I'm in the same boat as you, but I'm happy enough with my $350 Asus laptop.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

59. No, wait, let me guess: 1000HD?

[Tyler Generation]

11. I use an iMac but I bought a PC Laptop

My iMac is for all the real work, files, everything. Honestly if Apple would make an affordable Laptop we would have gotten one.

I like having a PC for the Laptop though. Brand new for $350, and I now have Mac and PC capabilities. No limits.

The whole Mac vs. PC thing is stupid anyway. Apples(no pun intended) and oranges.

[imdjh]

30. What kind of laptop did you get?

My sister wants an inexpensive PC laptop and I don't know the products well enough to shop for bargains, so I considered my only option to be Sony Vaio since I have confidence in Sony. But the Sony and the Mac are pretty close in price.

I just don't know what's a safe and functional buy in the sub $500 market. Help, please.

[Tyler Generation]

39. An "eMachine"

It's what Gateway makes now. Google it, you should find the good inexpensive one.

[LeftyMom]

12. An entry level Apple laptop costs what? Versus a PC?

Let me know when Apple sells a real lappie (not a netbook) for $500. There are plenty of perfectly good PCs in that price range these days. :shrug:

[Occulus]

15. My *desktop* PC is FAR more powerful than it would be if it were an Apple product.

That's because I built it myself, and got a gigantic bang for my buck.

I shudder to consider what a quad-core AMD Nvidia 9500GT x2 SLI 4GB RAM system would cost if it came from Apple. Thanks, but no thanks.

Oh, and Windows 7 looks to be Micro$oft'$ best OS yet. I'm using the 7100 release candidate build right now, and it seems to have fixed most of the issues Vi$ta had.

Of course I prefer linux, but I can;t game on it very well yet. Gaming is a holy grail of sorts in linux, which is another reason I studiously avoid all things Apple.

[LeftyMom]

16. Building your own is the way to go for desktops.

I'm going to be doing a rebuild on my kid's Dad's gaming rig in a minute, the equivalent hardware on an Apple product would be obscene, and he'd need to run Boot Camp and install Windows anyhow, so there's no point to it really.

[walldude]

20. I just finished a new gaming rig... If you are going with Nvidia

be wary of the PNY brand on the new 260/280 series of cards. I went through 3 of them before I got one that didn't overheat. And I'm running water cooled! New Egg wouldn't refund on the card so I was stuck with it.

[Sal Minella]

71. . . . . .

[ContinentalOp]

22. My mac pro booted into windows is a fine gaming machine

:shrug:

[onehandle]

28. Macs run Windows better than PCs.

This is according to PC World.

[Occulus]

35. Memory management, probably

I'm not willing to emulate an OS or run one on top of anything else unless I absolutely have to. Were I professionally required to use a Mac, I would do my level best to avoid it; absent that, I would very grudgingly run XP or 7 using bootcamp.

But no, as a gamer, that is simply not sufficient. I require 60 frames per second throughout my games or I am a Sad Panda.

[Occam Bandage]

44. Why would you run 7 on bootcamp "very grudgingly?"

It's not emulated or run on top of anything.

[Occulus]

49. I get edgy when I need to have one OS to run another OS.

Besides, if I *did* have a situation in which i needed both, I'd just dual boot. I like the idea of Bootcamp, but for some reason can't see myself using it to run Windows apps on a regular basis.

There are better solutions. I find it hard to believe that Windows apps running under Bootcamp actually run better than when they are running on a native Windows machine; I'd have to experience that firsthand to really believe it.

If you have that sort of setup, by all means, benchmark and let us know. It would be a gigantic slap in the face to Micro$oft, if nothing else.

[Occam Bandage]

53. An Apple computer running bootcamp is a native Windows machine.

You say "I'd just dual boot?" That's what bootcamp is. It's software to assist people in setting up a dual boot.

[Occulus]

68. Sorry, I meant "I'd just use Grub"

I prefer not to rely on a commercial application to manage my OS selections. That usually does include my Windows partitions as well.

[ContinentalOp]

46. It's not emulated. Bootcamp runs windows natively.

But yeah, it probably wouldn't make sense to buy a mac just to run windows full time! But it's nice being able to dual boot.

[Occulus]

48. If I want to dual boot, I'll set up another Win-lin box.

If it's a choice between Window$ and linux or Window$ and an Apple OS, I'll choose win-lin every time. It's one less commercial license to worry about.

[Occulus]

50. Depends on how hard your games push your system

Crysis is tolerable on my machine with most video options set to high (including volumetrics) and water set to very high.

Crysis requires a PC from four years in the future, which can also enter orbit by itself, in order to play it as it was intended to be played.

I get 60fps out of The Last Remnant in Windows 7 with DX 11. It makes me smile to be able to say that. :)

[Nordic65]

18. Won't happen anytime soon n/t

[kanrok]

14. I am typing this

on my 13-inch MacBook.

It is my first Mac, and I LOVE it.

[ContinentalOp]

23. I just realized I'm on #9!

That is my 9th personally-owned Apple computer, not including dozens of different machines I've gone through at various jobs, and my wife's computers.

Apple IIe, Mac SE, some Performa something or other (sucked), a Power Computing clone (really sucked), G4 tower, G4 laptop, G5 tower, Dual quad-core Xeon, Macbook. Plus since I've known my wife she has had a G4, an iMac G5, and now a xeon tower like mine. Damn, that's a lot of computers gone to the landfill!

[Occulus]

51. Please tell me it's not the screen that's 13". n/t

[alfredo]

29. At closing: AAPL $132.50 MSFT $19.79 It's a crazy world.

[mtf80123]

41. I LOVE my Mac!!

!!

[spanone]

43. once i had a mac, never wanted to go back.....

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

45. Then why the fuck couldn't they fix my iBook?

I keep hearing about this saintly Apple but everybody I encountered over the course of my iBook ownership was a fucking moron, especially the "Mac Geniuses" at the Apple Store.

I lost count of how many times they replaced the logicboard and when ever I took the piece of shit to the Apple Store there was an entire mob of other iBook owners with the same problem waiting for their moment with the "Genius" so they could turn in their machine to NOT be fixed.

Replacing one defective logicboard with another defective logicboard is NOT a repair.

[Steely_Dan]

47. I've Used Macs Since 1984...

I think I have had a total of a 6 crashes in all those years.

Not unlike the VHS vs. Beta battle, the Beta (from Sony) was a far superior product, but more expensive than the VHS system. Of course, the cheaper product won out and we suffered with a lower quality picture for years before the DVD. Mac is simply a better product, period.

-P

[Sultana]

64. Woot, Macbook owner here

I love it so much :*

[anonymous171]

69. Woohoo, just gives them another excuse to charge their fans even more.

[LiberalHeart]

72. Did they test the Panasonic Toughbook?

Never had a better laptop, and yes, I've owned a Mac.