Archive for the ‘Reality Distortion Field’ tag
Reality Distortion Field strikes again!
Yesterday, I posted a quick and dirty article entitled “Apple Tax: Stealing your Benjamins, one wallet at a time“, with the purpose of illustrating the difference in cost between a Dell Studio XPS 16 notebook which was fully loaded, and a base model MacBook Pro with memory upgraded to match that of the Dell (so that the configuration was similar).
One of the comments on that article made me wonder if the Reality Distortion Field turns a persons perception of life into pure gold in fields of roses…
gremme had this comment:
You should not buy it if you aren’t willing to pay a premium for good service and construction and a sleek look. Not only that, but you also are buying into the mac experience and lifestyle. If you don’t have the money then buy your dell, you get what you pay for.
A premium for good service? AppleCare in many countries (including Canada) doesn’t even offer mail-in service for MacBooks, which is pretty bad considering Dell, HP, Gateway, Lenovo, and Acer have been doing this for years (some even go above that by offering next business day on-site repair service and accidental damage coverage). Having to drive for an hour to drop a $2,000+ notebook off at an Apple Service Provider isn’t exactly the best solution.
Good construction? Need I mention the many issues with the Mini DisplayPort adapter and external monitors not working? I mean, using an external display with a notebook has only been possible for years… no reason for this not to work. How about those with scratches on the aluminum enclosure straight from the factory… dust under the glass screen covering… glass screen covering coming loose from the display unit… uneven lids… issues waking up from sleep…
As for “buying into the Mac experience and lifestyle”, this statement makes me believe even more that there’s some sort of cult surrounding Apple. Did I miss the memo where spending $2,700 on a notebook, leaving it on your desk and admiring it in all of its “premium design glory” was classified as normal?
As I wrap this post up, I just wanted to also point out a comment left by stephen which just made my day:
“Yes because we buy a laptop to stare at it all day and think about how good-looking it is. Macs are economically just as much as a lifestyle as Starbucks, and you can see where they’re going. Yeesh.”
For the purpose of full disclosure, I was a Mac user for the past year. I never have, and never will, agree with the Reality Distortion Field.
Editors note: This is a guest post by Kristan Kenney.