A price comparison of three 17-inch Core Duo notebooks: two Dells and the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. The results may surprise you:
Spoiler:
1. MacBook Pro – US$3,148
2. Dell Inspiron XPS M1710 – US$3,642
3. Dell Precision M90 – US$3,601
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Contributed by: Kenn Marks
A price comparison of three 17-inch Core Duo laptops:
1. 2.16 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro
2. 2.16 GHz Dell Inspiron XPS M1710
3. 2.16 GHz Dell Precision M90
(All items in Bold indicate areas of difference.)
CONFIGURATION 1: MacBook Pro 17-Inch
The 2.16 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:
17-inch widescreen 1680 x 1050 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness;
2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor;
1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;
100GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)optical drive;
PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
DVI-out port for external display
(VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
built-in iSight video camera;
Gigabit Ethernet port;
built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
three (3) USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor;
the infrared Apple Remote;
68 watt hour lithium polymer battery;
85 watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.
Apple USB 56K Modem (+$49)
Windows XP Professional (+$300) w/BootCamp
Weight 6.8lbs; 1.0″ Thin
Total Package = US$3,148
CONFIGURATION 2: Dell Inspiron XPS M1710
The 2.16 Ghz Dell Inspiron XPS M1710
17-inch widescreen 1920 x 1200 LCD display
2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor
1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512MB) expandable to 4GB
100GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm
8x CD/DVD Burner with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Navidia GeForce Go 7900 GS with 256MB memory
DVI-out port for external display
VGA-out port for external display
S-Video port / Component Video and S/PDIF digital audio out
Non Dual-Link support
Built-In Camera – NONE
10/100 Ethernet w/ integrated 56k Modem
Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 802.11 a/g and Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
PCI/Express Slot NONE Spec’d
Six (6) USB 2.0 ports, and one FireWire 400 port
one audio line in and one audio line out port (line-out analog)
5-in-1 removable memory card reader
Remote Control (Only works with XP Media Center Edition)
80 watt hour 9 cell Lithium Ion battery
Windows XP Professional
Web price 5/2/06 US$3,642
CONFIGURATION 3: Dell Precision M90
The 2.16 Ghz Dell Precision M90
17-inch widescreen 1920 x 1200 LCD display
2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor
1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512MB) expandable to 4GB
100GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm
NTFS File System
8x CD/DVD Burner w/CyberLink PowerDVD (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Nvidia QuadroFX 1500M with 256MB memory
DVI-out port for external display
VGA-out port for external display
Non Dual-Link support
Built-In Camera – NONE
10/100/1000 Ethernet w/ integrated 56k Modem
Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 802.11 a/g and Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
PCI/Express Slot
Six (6) USB 2.0 ports, and one FireWire 400 port
one audio line in and one audio line out port (line-out analog)
85 watt hour 9 cell Lithium Ion battery
Windows XP Professional
Weight 8.6lbs plus options; 1.6″ Thin
Web price 5/2/06 US$3,601
A more definitive comparison is made on Digg combined with an exhaustive list of comments and rants. My main objective is a line item by line item comparison to make of similarly configured 17″ widescreen professional laptops. Everything above is non-discounted so a less expensive purchase could be obtained if time is spent shopping but this is not a best buy piece but what you might pay when purchasing directly from the manufacturer.
Contributed by: Kenn Marks
