I'm no Apple fan, I don't even own an iPhone, but seriously, what is the "secret" behind their Macbooks...

why does the pixel cost so much? is it just higher profit margin?

>Aluminum
>Stained plastic

hmmmm. I even like thinkpads, but it's not even close.

Not to mention that the Airs are pretty fucking fast. The don't have gimped processors and the PCIe SSDs are serious.
It's literally a MBP clone

>Airs are pretty fucking fast

Macbook consistent high build quality is a myth.

They're just like all other brands and range from half-decent to good depending on the exact model. You're going to get around the same if you spend the same or less money in Lenovo or Dell.

>Not to mention that the Airs are pretty fucking fast. The don't have gimped processors and the PCIe SSDs are serious.

Certainly not faster than my Lenovo Y50 4k which I bought for the same price. If I wanted to sacrifice so much performance for battery life then my priorities would much better align with a Chromebook.

>buying a plastic gaming laptop

Cajoling aside, you're definitely disregarding a middle ground where performance and battery life meet. I can't disagree with you, but having great battery life and reasonable power isn't totally ridiculous.

I don't know about that, I like my Lenovo flex 14 a lot more and it only costs 600+.
The thing can run dead space and is really thin.

Not really. Chromebooks are cheap because the hardware sucks. And you'd end up trying to get crouton going and then you'd complain that it was slow... The air is good enough for most people, but I understand if you're doing 3d work and such..

Google builds very few of them so the cost per unit is much higher than truly mass produced laptops.

Fuck no. Just like large flat phones are a fucking disgrace since small fat phones are objectively the better form factor by ANY metric, slim laptops with 0 ports are a disgrace since they're unusable for common use cases like docking, they overheat like shit even when merely browsing the web, and they often have old, unsolvable critical issues, like skylake CPUs breaking under "heavy load" where heavy load is defined as regular internet browsing. All because muh slim. Note that slim form factors for laptops ARE optimal, the issue is that the components are not able to support the form factor, making the device useless by definition.

lel no. Just remember, any site that disses Apple doesn't get kickbacks pre-launch for clicks.

Planned obsolescence

>buying a plastic gaming laptop

Metal is a terrible material for a laptop case due to how much it conducts heat. Which is why MBPs get so unbearably hot when pushing the CPU.

As for "muh gaming laptop": It runs multiple VMs well like I need it to and yes I can play Overmeme as well as other demanding games when I want some alone time doing nothing. The gaming part is not a deal breaker but I wanted a great screen for programming and it came with an optional discrete GPU, am I supposed to feel bad for it?

>I can't disagree with you, but having great battery life and reasonable power isn't totally ridiculous.

There is a segment for that, for which the Thinkpad X260 or T460 offer a better experience than the MBA.

> Chromebooks are cheap because the hardware sucks

There are a few Chromebooks which make great developer laptops and you aren't relegated to Crouton. Check out Gallium OS.

HP, Dell, and Lenovo have produced some metal laptops with good aesthetic

The real problem with AAPL notebooks is the mainstream rape. The devices lack performance in effort to remain thin and attractive. Utter crap.

In all honesty I'd just go back to a Clevo D900F or something like that. Big motherfucker with workstation performance, not mobile performance.

>muh premium metal body

Metal bodies are dogshit. Ever wonder why so many iPhones are either bent or have shattered screens? You guessed it! There is zero give in a metal body and it transfers energy directly into the internals/screen upon being dropped. It also holds its shape upon being bent. I don't even know why this needs to be explained to you retards.

>build quality
Rossmann literally has a business built on repairing these pieces of shit.

Former Apple employee here.

Can confirm that as long as the presentation of whatever garbage released is 100%, everything else can take the backseat.

>Metal bodies are dogshit

Retards assume rigid, cold metallic bodies are "premium" even when they're not necessarily the best for a computer device.

As someone who's used a few Macbooks, all I can say about them is:
They're tidy.
That's it.
They're not good, they're not powerful, they're not cheap, they're no longer even virus-free, but DAMN they're tidy on the inside.
Not worth it anyway tbqh.

1. Consistent build quality. Dell/Lenovo may make laptops of similar build quality, but in the $1000+ range, I can't say they are consistent. This feeds into the consumer brand mindshare. When you buy a MBP, you know what you are going to get. You can hardly say the same about the XPS lineup which is hit-or-miss. Please note the consistent != best

The only other brand to have consistent build quality is IBM.

2. High lifetime. Macs just last longer. Maybe people treat them better, Maybe "Genius Bars" and having a trained staff are part of this. When the battery is going to shit, you get a notification and instructions to replace it (Even if replacing it costs like $400). Even then models from year ago are still supported.

Apple is rarely the best, but they are consistent. I think Sony's Carbon Fiber Vaio Zs 2010-2012 was probably the best laptop ever made, but the Vaio Z after then were shit and broke confidence. I couldn't recommend a Sony laptop today.

At that price range, Apple is sure bet, while most other brands are still a fucking gamble.

>fagbooks
>build quality

Pick one.

>aluminum
>stained plastic

so this is what you macfags value.

ok sure then, who cares what the computer does, so long as it looks pretty.

lol, you fucking dumbass.

the thinkpad can do anything the mac can do, at a fraction of the price.
if the fact that it doesn't look as trendy is what makes you buy the mac instead, you seriously need to just fucking neck yourself.

Not all metal bodies are shit. I think you just mean Aluminium, Mg-Alloy is used in more durable laptops and springs back into its original shape after a drop, it would crack long before you could permanently bend it, and it takes a gigantic amount of force before that will happen.

>muh build quality

By what metric exactly? Many laptops exist made out of higher quality materials and meet more rigorous requirements for reliability. How does that not qualify as matching apple?

Only reason I even want a MBA is because I already have a desktop I can upgrade to hell and back.

Manufacturing process wasn't leaked in China/SEA for years. MS/Google is just now finding out that they basically have to force feed their manufacturing partners to get them to make nice hardware.

>By what metric exactly?
MIL-STD-810

>whole thread people talk about consumer and business tier laptops
>no rugged tier
>"best" build quality

If you compare the winners of the special olympics to the losers, you are all still retarded!

Any laptop will survive if you cover it in blankets and pillows. The whole point of laptops is portability, so remaining small yet durable is what real build quality really is.

If you're a casual user, you're not going to research which laptop models have good build quality, and which are crap. Most people don't even know which model of laptop they own, just "oh its an asus" or "its a sony," oblivious to actual differences between the models.

It's pretty safe to assume that if you buy a macbook, you're going to get a nice looking laptop that will last you for 3-5 years with maybe a battery replacement halfway through its lifespan and not to much OS issues. The average consumer doesn't give a shit about any other details.

That said, I'm a university student with a 300$ laptop, and crack up at every mindless zombie around me using their 1500$ macbooks for nothing other than Microsoft office and facebook. I'll never understand why people throw away money like that, but its their choice to make.

You sound like an Applefag desu

Ok, name one Rugged workstation, I'll be waiting.

?
I could just google it, this isn't facebook IM

None? I thought so.

I think the HP Elitebook has grade body
I don't know any ruggedized ones off the top of my head, Applefag

Just how rugged do you want? You could spray this one with a pressure washer and throw it off a 20 story building, run it over with a car, then download some sketchy .exe's off limewire and it would still probably work.

The point is, you don't need some super "rugged" laptop for day to day use. Virtually every product out there can withstand normal day to day usage for years without any issues. I would expect a 1500$ laptop, regardless of brand, to last longer than a 300$ laptop... But even then the 300$ one usually has "good enough" build quality to last until it's out of date anyways.

I got my cousin a 13in macbook air. It is indeed a really nice laptop, and plus most people cannot tell 1920x1080 from 1400x900 believe it or not.

There are plenty of rugged notebooks, notebooks designed to be servers, and rugged luggable workstations.

Getac make some beauties:

rugged-portable.com/multi-lan-rugged-laptop-server/

Want rugged displays? Bring money:

curtisswrightds.com/products/electronic-systems/video-management-displays/mission-displays/

>throw it off a 20 story building
That would destroy it without a doubt

So, my sister recently got a Macbook and was showing it off to everyone. I had a play about with it, and, albeit it is a "nice" device, it is ultimately very boring. It reminded me of nothing more than an iPad with a keyboard attached. To conclude, 'nice' but quite boring and stale.

Apple laptops aren't even that expensive. Take an equivalent Lenovo or XPS13 and you're paying a similar price, for a slightly more powerful laptop.

Laptop manufacturers make laptops based on specifications, and don't think about the overall experience and package, which is why most laptops still have sub-1080p displays.

Putting up $200 for a thinkpad will net you something capable of doing just about anything you would do with any laptop, let alone the base model Macbooks. Putting $2500 into a decent Asus or MSI laptop will get you something that shits all over the highest tier Macbook Pro at equal price.

Anything not Apple will shit on Apple products dollar for dollar, has less compatibility issues, and is easier/cheaper to repair if anything goes wrong. You buy Apple products for the logo and OS.

>less compatibility issues

topkek user, just because you love driver issues and bluescreens doesn't mean everyone else does.

You'll very rarely have either unless you fuck up building a PC, this isn't '95. But OS X is not compatible with a large majority of programs developed today, because Windows still rules the market.

Funny how this review concludes that the rMBP is the best notebook in its category

>Putting $2500 into an Asus or MSI laptop
Will get you a machine that lasts a year at most before needing to be returned for repairs. RMAs will take 2-6 weeks.

OP, drop the act.

How much are they paying you? Is there a supervisor browsing the thread with you?

Tell us some juicy Apple secrets.

I could go through every brand out there, but I'm sure you'll claim they all burst into balls of flame the second they leave the door. Except for Apple products, because they just werks.

Your post could do without the hyperbole of the MacBook being the best laptop ever made but regardless, they are well made machines.

The reason is actually fairly simple though, and this is something that holds true for most of Apple's product lines like the iPhone and iPad in addition to the MacBooks. Simply put, Apple sells a metric shit ton of units of a relatively small product line. This gives them two huge advantages over competitors:
1. They can amortize cost over a larger number of individual units, this is largely responsible for their insane profit margins.
2. Because they move so many units, for many component manufacturers, ranging from LCD panels to semiconductor fabs, Apple is the single most lucrative customer. Not only does Apple get better pricing on components than anyone else in the industry, due to the size of their orders, they even get to pick the highest binned parts. For example, if you went to Sharp or JDI, or whoever makes most of their LCD panels, not only would you have to pay a higher per unit price than Apple, you would get lower spec panels since Apple gets allocated the highest bin panels.

The key to Apple's profits and quality is largely their mastery of the supply chain. They also have a rep for being absolutely ruthless and will sometimes drop existing partners to go with new partners for the sole purpose of keeping downward pressure on all component manufactures.

>Metal is a terrible material for a laptop case due to how much it conducts heat.
Isn't thermal conductivity a good thing in a laptop since the entire body can act as a giant heat sink and transfer heat away from the CPU/GPU?

But srsly, user, are there any laptops that match the precision and the gesture support of a MBP?

The x260 has a better build than both the Air and the Pro for a little less, and it has the ability to run a non-cancer free OS.
Fuck off

Channeled cooling, like on a Thinkpad or Inspiron or whatever, is great. Heat is directed out of the housing and away from the user.

Macbooks do not do this. They heat up under load, becoming uncomfortable to operate and because of heat soak, they cause all of the components to heat up and cause throttling.

>implying all laptops are made by the hands of rich men in suits

But seriously, aren't most electronics made by folks in (and i know it's not cold war time anymore) third world countries who probably live and work in sub-par conditions?

You know macs have fans too, right? There are vents in the hinge and heat is blown upwards.

>4k on a 7" screen

what a time to be alive

I am blown away by my surface book, especially with switching modes along with maintaining workflow. once you figure your particular usecase up, it's like an extension of yourself

17", can you even read?

Those fans never spin up, they're only there for aesthetics

>being an illiterate retard

I could have a toilet made of solid gold, but I'm still going to take a shit in it, user.
Having an Apple product is like having said toilet, but then the seat part is permanently sealed to the rest of the toilet (i.e. you can't lift it up) and has a diameter of about 3 inches. Sure you can use it.
...But you'll have to sit down and put your dick through a small hole when you need to take a piss.
...And you'll have to be careful to position yourself rather uncomfortably when you need to take a dump.
...So is it really worth it?

When people buy a laptop they either buy a consumer grade shittop or an apple laptop

Now compare your average consumer shit laptop to an apple laptop, then you will understand why people prefer apple. Also there is a gorillion windows laptops out in the market so even if there were some good ones most people wouldn't know about them.

the true answer

Yep, it's the same with Android and iPhone a lot.

"I had an android a few years ago and it was so slow, I love my iPhone"
well no shit, you probably had a $50 android

i work with a 15 in highest specs mbp from this year and it's a disgrace.

Constant freezing when connecting to my screen or usb keyboard, hideous UI IMO, software asking to be updated every fucking day and the popup iare so fucking invasive, audio stops working, I can't fucking have a video hangout without having to close every other application running otherwise it lags and freezes, noisy as fuck, you can't put it on your lap without almost catching fire, and the magnetic connector gets so fucking hot, you can get some serious burn if you touch it accidentally

My guess is to shown the FireWire port that apple created and killed

>gayming
>business
Pick one

I actually 100% disagree. The OS is the only reason to get a MacBook as a non-normie. The hardware is subpar. The aluminum easily gets scratched and sometimes bent. It causes a lot of heating issues that leads to throttling of the CPU, worsening performance. The famous trackpad is actually really uncomfortable. The keyboard is fine. I mean, for a chiclet it's not really better or worse than most I've typed on. Screen is great, of course. Modern 16:10 panels. Only real downsides are that they're glossy, but if you're indoors this doesn't matter much.

Pic related is an old but gold example of why you, as a Cred Forums user, should care about MacBooks (if you do at all).

Now let me just say finally that I don't actually own any Macs or use Mac OS in a VM or otherwise, but I can greatly respect it as a very nice unix-like operating system. My OS of choice is GNU/Linux, but I would never complain about having to work on Mac OS. I did a lot during high school and it never really bothered me. You still get a nice terminal, openssh, vim, etc. out of the box. Plenty comfortable in that regard. I really do need a TrackPoint or equivalent for me to buy a laptop, though.

any idiot can fucking google images of busted macbooks. but customer satisfaction and reliability surveys done show macbooks rate highest in class in both.

Isn't everything Apple made in China like everything else?

that's because they've cucked people into believing they like the product by charging so much. If you spent 2k on a laptop, would /you/ admit it was a piece of shit?

butthurt poorfag logic. how about growing the fuck up kid? people like nice things. doesn't mean you have to be mad about it

>Why is it that no other company can match its build quality?

Aluminum really is a horrible material for a laptop, magnesium is much better (and lighter, and stronger as well).

The only good thing about MacBooks is the trackpad, not even the "Retina" bullshit IPS panels are all that interesting and never have been.

But I have to give it to Apple on the trackpads, those are actually quite useful things considering.

Everything else? I don't give a fuck and I'd rather have a Dell Latitude any day and twice on Sunday since Lenovo has utterly destroyed the ThinkPad line and reputation. HP Elitebooks aren't so bad but it depends on the model - the Envy shit is just that: shit.

Spotted the buttblasted poorfag.

consumerreports.org/cro/laptops/LaptopReliability

buttblasted by facts

>normie wants to buy a new laptop
>ask them what they will use it for
"Oh i just want to browse the web, do assignments, watch netflix."
>suggest a cheap thinkpad
"Oh i dont want to have to deal with viruses"
>suggest a cheap chromebook
"But macs are really good at art and music!"
Do you ever do that sort of stuff?
...no
Then why pay 4* as much
Because i like macs
then Why did you ask me for laptop suggestions?

>inb4 B-B-BUT MAGNESIUM EXPLODES WITH WATER

Its a fucking magnesium aluminum alloy. The worst it will do is make vinnegar bubble slightly if you pour it on it and scrape it a lot.

Worked on an MSI today, they can't just make them simple to disassemble.
Every MSI gaming laptop I have repaired has stupid puzzle setups.
I have 2 gripes about the repairability of macbooks.
The keyboard is glued together and so is the LCD.

>buy a 10 year old apple laptop
>shouldn't matter since "they last forever unlike pc"
>it doesn't just work
>nothing works
>Firefox not supported
>Chrome not supported
>Updated Safari that isn't ass not supported
>crashes all the time (I thought this was impossible)
>can't find a fucking iso to wipe and reinstal
>macfags expect me to shell out more money for a discontinued OS

Don't get memed kids

Laptop reliability by brand is a flawed measure. Apple only produces high end, high prices laptops. Every other manufacturer also offers at least some low quality, cheap laptops, which of course have lower reliability and drag down the average for the brand.

Some high end PC laptops may well have better reliability than Macbooks for less cost, but because the company also offers crappy cheap models, Apple comes out on top on average.

>buy a 10 year old piece of shit PPC monstrosity
>expect it to run modern software

you can't fix stupid user

I'd expect a reasonably high end 10 year old PC to still be alright, though definitely on the slow side and likely not suited to running demanding new programs.

it's not flawed when that's the very fucking definition of reliability. apple laptops are expensive because apple doesn't cut corners. this isn't some fucking price weighted metric. holy fucking shit

>Buy Thinkpad T60
>Everything that user mentioned runs fine

As part of the deal to get Apple to move away from PowerPC, Intel put a bunch of stupid rules with what processor can be put with what screen size, etc, so that non-Apple laptops can't be specced right by OEMs and are fucking awful.

>macbook
>3 to 5 years
I had a hearty laugh at this one.

OSX updates are guaranteed to make macbooks run like shit within 3 years, assuming the thing physically lasts you that long, whereas shitty Windows laptops with older Windows versions continue to run perfectly on old ass hardware.

You buy macbooks expecting to buy a new one every year or 2, just like their iPhones.

Macbook(fucking one port crap) is shit, but I would get rMBP, so

like i said you're an idiot for buying a piece of shit dead end powerpc model. and you didn't have the foresight to test it thoroughly before you put the money down on it too. if you had half a brain you would have at least bought a C2D Mac. those are still supported by the version of OSX that came out fucking last year

No. The definition of reliability is, if I buy THIS ONE, is it likely to break. I don't care if the same company also makes a cheapass model or a gold-plated diamond-encrusted model. I want to know if the one I'm thinking of buying is going to last.

If you look at, say, an HP Elitebook, it's going to be quite reliable. Quite possibly more reliable than a Macbook. But this site's brand-wide average reliability scores will rank HP rather low because their cheap consumer line is utter trash.

>gaming and business
>go to business meeting
>associates pull out their macbooks and chinkpads
>pull out my MUFFUKKIN LEDS AND BLACK AND RED
>get fired for being a child

All about the blue and white fuccboi

HP makes trash thus they are a trash brand. Again follow the fucking back links you mong, the discussion is about Apple reliability in general and the link was submitted in counter to that. Fucking autist.

Not if you throw it off the 1st floor.

Are you literally retarded? Yes, HP's consumer machines are junk, but their business ones are about on par with Thinkpads. Again, when I buy a thing, I don't give two shits about whether the same company makes a better or worse model. If the one I'm buying is a good value and reliable, I'm happy with it.

No one gives a shit about that you autist. That isn't the disussion. AGAIN this all stems from some retard saying Macbooks (COLLECTIVELY) are not reliable. This was countered with fact. Now you're being a fucking autistic interjecter going on about HP when no one gives a shit about that.

How can you tell if a laptop is shit? I've gone through a couple "high ends" but...

I bought what appeared to be a bottom of the barrel Toshiba laptop for $250 that I literally ran 24 hours a day for almost 5 years until dead.

i lost

it's the macbook pros that throttle
the airs actually don't have to run their fans maxed out under full load
and it's only the 15" pros with dedicated graphics that have heat issues. (especially the 2011, 2012 retina, and the 2015)

Razor pro. Is black macbook with power pc inside

Can confirm, my 2011 15" mbp overheated once.
Apple fixed it for free though so no worries.

Nuke that shithole and install Lubuntu, they have a power pc specific version. Works amazing.

Jesus christ are you capable of processing the concepts an example and replying to what you just wrote?

The "fact" that you countered with is flawed and based on meaningful but useless categorization of laptops. I only brought up HP as an example of why grouping it by brand is misleading. One might buy a Macbook for reliability, assuming it's the best when in fact other companies' high end offerings might be even more reliable.

Reviews. Also, business oriented laptops tend to be more reliable, though they usually have potato GPUs and suck for games.

HPs are shit. deal wit it poor fag

Fine. My point still stands.

Take Dell instead, or any other non-Apple brand that has good high end models for that matter. Latitude and Precision lines are pretty good, designed to be reliable and easy to service. Yet you can also buy a cheapass Dell for $150 at Walmart, get horrible performance and quality not much better than a cheap HP. The line your laptop is in is good, yet there are cheap ones from the same company, which drags down the brandwide average.

...

as long as you have a 2011 macbook pro it's going to overheat, and it's just a matter of time before it dies again.
Apple could have made the issue a lot better by just using leaded solder that would reflow easily instead of cracking and killing the computer.
but noooo, we have to "save the environment" by creating a bunch of overheating laptops that will just end up in a landfill.

This so much.
Varying reasoning though But why do people ask for suggestions and/or help if they have already made up their mind and drawn conclusions (sometimes wrong conclusions but nvm)?
Most normies I know pick a Mac because they like the looks and have fallen for 'muh thin!'. Fair points if you care about that but don't try to reason with arguments like performance if your real point is looks.

Because virtually everyone else makes a better business machine. Apple is mid tier at best.

>Why is it that no other company can match its build quality?

Surface Book

>macbook
>business machine
are you retarded or something?

Thanks for the recommendation, Ivan.

I've been using a rMBP for work over the last month, so far the best things have been:

- The trackpad is easily the best trackpad I've ever used, it feels great, the OS feel optimised to utilise the trackpad.
- The build quality is fantastic, everything feels and looks like a premium product, which is important because these things cost £2K.
- The screen is amazing, 2560x1600 on a laptop looks fantastic, scaling actually works unlike with Windows.
- OS X is polished and works well, everything is easier to do in OS X as opposed to Windows
- It integrates well with other things in the Apple ecosystem, it detects my Hackintosh at home and lets me sync things no problem.

Sounds like you're just a fucking pleb.

is this real life?
No one would expect that. It's hard to believe anyone on a tech board would actually buy a PPC machine and expect it to run a modern OS.