MacBook vs EEE PC

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I have been known as a bit of an Apple fan boy in the past, as I am a massive fan of the software, which I think is hands down better than anything on the Windows platform. Now I am working, I thought it was time to buy myself a new laptop, as my current Macbook has seen better days. But when I looked at the newly released Macbook, it made me think. The newly released white Macbook, has gone up from £700 to £800, which is a bold move to make as we are in the middle of a recession and seeing that average prices on laptops have gone down from £600 to £300 in recent years.

This overpricing of hardware, is known as the Apple Tax. Apple tries to make it impossible to install their OS (OSX) onto other vendor’s hardware. But there are groups that are working on hacking the software to work on any hardware. These computers are called Hackintoshes. The first main stream hackintosh device, was the Dell Mini 9, which I know friends have successfully installed Mac OSX on. Since then a number of netbooks have been hacked to run Mac OSX. In my research for this post, I found an impressively detailed compatibility chart for hackintoshs. With this number of netbooks being able to run Mac OSX, the question has to be asked, how does the Macbook shape up to other laptops. Below is a table comparing the Macbook to one of the more expensive netbooks in the compatibility charts.

Asus EEE PC 1005HA Macbook
Name ASUS EEE PC 1000HA Apple MacBook
Price £250 £800
Processor Intel® Atom™ N270, 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz
Hard Drive 160GB 250GB
RAM 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM 2GB DDR3 SDRAM
Screen 13.3-inch – 1280 x 800 pixels 10.1-inch – 1024 x 800 pixels
WIFI b/g/n a/b/g/n
Network 10/100 Ethernet 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Bluetooth Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
USB £250 £800
Mouse Multi-Touch trackpad Multi-Touch trackpad
Optical Drive None DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW
SD Card Reader Yes No
Audio Head Phone & Mic-in Single input/output jack
WebCam 1.3* megapixel 1.3* megapixel
Colours White, Black, Pink, Blue White
Weight 1.27Kg 2.13 kg

Admittedly this is a bit like comparing apples to oranges (mind the pun) as the speed of the Macbook is far in a way better than the netbook, but as for features, I think the 1000HA stands up pretty well. For many the £550 difference, could be a months rent and for me, it is a large percentage of my monthly wage. I think personally that I may end up getting a Macbook Pro, but I am not sure that I could talk others into doing the same.

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3 Responses

  1. Mark Sunter says:
    November 8, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    I wouldn’t get either. The Eee is only good because it is small, but for me that is the least important thing. An optical drive is a must, and so is Windows 7. And I would NEVER get an Apple crap because you are paying a huge premium for OS X which limits the platform and is only asthetics. The brand to me is also a big put off. But seeing as the Mac uses pentium processors and standard Laptop components, and Windows 7 is now much better than Vista, Apple is charging a huge price for a name and an image. As the basics are now VERY simular. For £800 you can get a much better laptop than the Mac such as http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177472 as just an example.

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  2. Jonathan Harris says:
    November 8, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    But that is the thing, I think that Windows 7 is much better than any other Windows yet, I am still a massive fan of Mac OSX as a designer. As someone that has never used it, you may not understand, but it is just a better platform for applications.

    Your right Mark, it has got to a point where the Macbook is just not shaping up compared to other laptops anymore.

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  3. Simon Harries says:
    February 15, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    Jon:
    Not too sure what you’ve done to your Macbook for it to have seen better days, but I got mine back in 2006 (Rev. A model) and it’s been my main computer ever since. Even now it runs just as fast if not better than my friends with new Windows based laptops. The only thing it struggles with is games, but that’s never been its forte and that is what the Xbox 360 is for…
    Granted you work now and have a salary to buy nice toys, but can you really justify a new laptop when yours is over a year newer than mine with enhancements such as Core 2 Duo, probably more RAM etc.?
    I know this is mainly a post of jealousy, but still… :)

    Mark:
    Don’t knock OS X until you’ve used it properly. Phrases like “you are paying a huge premium for OS X which limits the platform and is only aesthetics” just makes you look ill-informed.
    Read my above reply to Jon for an example of why you pay that premium price for Apple hardware/software. My laptop still keeps up with the best of them and beats a lot of new Windows 7 laptops.
    Yes, I have used Windows 7, I have it dual booting on my machine, so no retaliations of ‘Don’t knock Windows 7 until you’ve used it properly’…

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