There Macs are still pretty much the cheapest all in one pc on the market despite been so expensive last I checked there was only 2 competitor who did the same thing and that is Sony / Dell ( who charge similar prices for upgrades and its just as difficult to upgrade) Comparing a pc desktop unit with monitor to an All in one PC is hardly a fair comparison. Theres 2 All in one pcs that get good user reviews outside of Apples own they are made by Dell and Sony, The base price of both machines is £1099, Base price for the Apple machine is £1099.( £1033 with student discount) Dell does offer a Student discount scheme maybe someone can update with the prices on what it offers. Macbook pro laptop is as easy to upgrade as any laptop if you want memory or hard drives easy. Anything else is difficult and not really end user serviceable but that could be said for any laptop. Price wise the Base range Macbook pro Retina is cheaper than its competitors, Macbook Air since its for a uni has no real competition at the price its offered to students. Thats also what people are not taking into consideration in there price comparisons. Going on the Apple website is all well and good but unless you can access the student page you can not view the latest price discounts. They are one of the few tech companies to give student discounts. The new MacPro looks insane in truth if I had £13k spare or whatever they plan on charging it buy one.
Not sure where are you looking at AIO's, if we ignore anything bellow Sandy/Ivy Bridge then prices start at 339.10 euros here in Slovakia for HP Pro 3520 - sure it is only 20", only Celeron G1610, but it is an AIO. Ok, let's limit it to 23" and higher AIO's - Lenovo IdeaCentre C540 is 400.48 euros with Celeron G540 or 419.54 with Celeron G1610. Ok, let's limit it to the Core i3/i5/i7 and 23"+ - whoops, we are still only at 610.26 euros for Lenovo IdeaCentre C540 with Core i3 3240 and 23" display; or 648.06 euros for ASUS AiO with Core i3 3220. But OK, let's try to find a 21" with Core i5 - whoops, ASUS AiO ET2210INKS-B003K, 21.5 "LCD 1920x1080, Intel Core i5 2400S is only 686 euros. Or Lenovo IdeaCentre C540 with 23 "1920x1080 LED, Intel Core i5 3330s Ivy Bridge is 762 euros. Want touch ? Acer Aspire Z3-605 Touch with 23 "1920x1080 LED, Intel Core i5 3337, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD8670 is only 884 euros. Still very far from 1350 euros Apple asks for the 21.5" Core i5 iMac. Cheapest AiO on the market ? Hardly.
If that's so then US and Germany have bad tax-systems. Over here anyone who does work and pays taxes can put their work- or education-related expenses in their tax-report. True, if you don't have a tax-report because your parents pay for all your stuff, then you don't have this option.
Not meaning to be contrary but; isn't that true of any company if you elect to take out a care plan(which most offer)? I.e. a gamble on the initial outlay of such plan against whether the product actually goes wrong. Seems less than free to me unless I'm missing something. EDIT: (Yes... I'm missing the store part. But I think that is a romantic view of how long it will take. Dell and HP have people out to us the next day for repairs. Broken screen... done. Mainboard replacement, you know it. Never had an issue) I'm with Elton. I think they look fantastic. I would have one if I thought it was worth it to me.
Not sure why did you include US in that list, i am from Slovakia. And here unless you are a self-employed person with your separate tax number, then the only things which lower your tax base are the required payments to the social system, untaxable base (a fixed sum everyone can deduct from their income which won't be taxed), life insurance plus few more extra tax exempts connected to the kids and family members. Everything that remains is taxed by the income tax, which you paid every month in advance, and at the end of tax year you either have to pay more or less from next month salary. Once you are self-employed, you can do more complex stuff with your tax forms - include various expenses connected to your "company", as you are pretty much considered to be a company with a liability to the full extent of assets you own. So no, you can't put your various work/education expenses in your tax form unless you are self-employed (but that again brings another list of tasks and payments you have to do).
I've only recently begun using OSX, being intrigued by trying to get it to run on non-Apple hardware at first and then finding a cracking bargain in a white Macbook (£200!). It was nice to have OSX just running sweet as a nut on a proper piece of Apple hardware. After trading it in for a Macbook Pro, I'm pretty much set for a laptop now. I know that it'll have a good resell value if the time ever comes. I find OSX extremely easy to use, although I haven't even tried to dive behind the scenes. It gets the job done whether grazing across the interwebs, d/l, gaming, pretty much standard things really. I love the large touchpad and I find I really miss it on other laptops. I find the click anywhere so easy to use and often do it on other trackpads. Possibly my least favourite thing is the noise the superdrive makes when inserting or ejecting a disc, it's a bit noisy. Also, the cooling fans are quite noticeable, but not more so than other laptops of similar ilk/age. I can only see myself upgrading to another Macbook tbh. Probably a MBA with the 4th gen i5/HD5000. A bit more gfx oomph would be well appreciated. The only issue is the almost complete lack of upgradability.
For Every one who says get apple its great only cost £900 on student offer. Not every one has a grand to spare on a laptop especially with the rise in UNI Costs. Also some people do not want to take out loans to buy something that will be outdated as soon as you unbox it. So its would be nice if the OP would mention some cheaper options like a AMD APU netbook as it is definitely good enough. I am sure some readers would like to know this. Even if its just a note at the end.
Yah, that's the part what I meant with, if you only need the basics, the macs pluspoints don't negate it's price. If all you need is basic computing, a laptop for 1/3 of the price is sufficient (if not as convenient)
I think a point of clarification must be made though. The Imacs are admittedly rather expensive. AiO wise they're not the best value. That said, the laptops are generally a pretty good buy if you want that shiny package and the rather good support. In defense of the Imacs though, the build quality (if it matters) generally is very good and there isn't that annoying issue of bloatware or anemic support. I'm not arguing in favor of one another, but specs are one thing. Usability is another. Windows is not exactly the world's most user friendly interface at times.
Neither is, as i stated above about my experience with OS X. As i stated, i was very annoyed by the Home/End behaviour (i was unable to configure it even with KeyRemap4MacBook) and window resizing options (or rather how cumbersome they were) And the good support part - that depends on your location. For example here in Slovakia apple sells only through 3rd party, has no own shops, no presence at all outside the website listing the products and the items they sell to the shops selling Apple stuff. True, those shops are trying rather hard, for example m:zone provides in-place service, they installed an SSD in my Mac Mini (a rather crazy task) in a hour for 36 euros; sure, i could do it myself, with right amount of patience and tools. But i am sure they wouldn't be in such hurry in case of a free RMA.
Fair point. I suppose that applies to everyone in different places. Still I won't count out apple products as they aren't as bad of a deal if you don't mind dishing out. For budget power users. There is no point. But for everyone else. Why not?
