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Comment by chrisdevereux | Hacker News Reader

Cupertino should be worried. Acer's laptop is cheaper than the MacBook Air -- 1,999 yuan versus 4,488—and better—the Acer has a larger and sharper screen and a camera with higher-density pixels. Unless you insist on having a depiction of a piece of fruit on your device, you will go with the Acer offering every time.

Edit: Satire

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One thing we should've learned from apple long ago, is that hard numbers (larger, sharper screens, more GHz, more RAM) do not make a better product.

I won't change my macbook air for a laptop that will have a weaker construction, a fire-prone battery, and a less thought design. (I'm over-generalizing, just making a point)

The piece of fruit is just a nice final touch.

Yep as I always tell nagging people; give me a laptop of Macbook (pro/air) specs and quality for less than the equivalent non Apple one. There isn't much and most simply are not on par; feel like they will fall apart any moment like the Ativ 9 plus, which is actually more expensive anyway.

A second-hand Thinkpad.

Well which one? I like them and they are nice, but doesn't really compare to the air or the pro retina in handling. But maybe you have something in mind.

Funny thing is, I can't find any laptop that's the same form factor as the Air that has a similar/better screen/RAM/CPU and with a price that doesn't include Apple's "premium". (I've been trying to find one for running Linux on for a few years now)

Yeah that's what I meant with my comment although I think there is no 'premium'. Of course there is for them as they make insane profit, however, for consumer it's not really a premium as there is nothing comparable for that price. Twice as expensive you can get things but even then...

If the Air 11 inch gains retina and around 5+ hours more battery life, it is the ultimate laptop and there is no reason for anything else in life :)

fire-prone battery? They seem to be as fire-prone as everybody else's

http://www.zdnet.com/apple-macbook-battery-exploded-70000234...

Maybe, but is the charger as durable? The construction as good? The colors on the screen as vivid?

I am not trying to say apple is perfect, I am just trying to say that they show that bigger numbers do not correspond to a better product. And some of the things that DO make a better product are sometimes harder to quantify (will the laptop hinges squeak after a month of use?)

As someone in this thread mentioned, getting a laptop with comparable build quality and specs as a mac will not be especially cheaper, even though everyone seems to think so.

<sarcasm> Yeah, definitely. That's the only reason I spent extra money on a Macbook. I have a weird obsession with silhouettes of fruit. My decade of professional software development experience didn't even factor into it; I'm merely a slave to trends and popularity. </sarcasm>

Apple's laptops are really, really good. They don't really target the lower end of the market; while they have relatively lower specs for some components, they also use pretty high-quality materials and design. The cost difference between a Macbook and a similarly-specced, similar-quality machine from another manufacturer is minimal.

The tradeoff is higher in China, no doubt, due to the inflated price of Apple hardware relative to locally-produced examples.

In any case, even if you argument made sense (it doesn't), Macs have been "more expensive" (they're not) than other manufacturer's offerings forever. What's changed now?

I have a feeling the parent's post was a sarcastic quip on a similar sentence in the article. :)

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