Which is the best dollar value in a Mac notebook - a low-end price
leader, a top-of-the-line machine, or something in between?
As with most things, it depends.
I have long been an advocate for the value of going low-end when
you're buying new because in terms of performance for dollar spent, you
almost always do better with an entry level machine than the top
dog.
Back when I bought my first Apple laptop, a base-model PowerBook 5300 end-of-life leftover in
October, 1996, I paid Can$1,799, which at then-current exchange rates
would have worked out to less than US$1,500. However, that
bargain-basement 5300, which had listed at US$2,200, had only four
differences from the top-of-the-line PowerBook - the $6,500 PowerBook
5300ce (about $8,500 in Canada, and the most expensive laptop and
arguably the worst value in a laptop Apple ever built):
- A 16-bit 800 x 600 10.4" active matrix display vs. the 5300's 4-bit
640 x 480 9.5" grayscale passive matrix screen
- 32 MB of RAM vs. 8 MB
- a 1.1 gigabyte hard drive as opposed to a 500 MB unit
- a 117 MHz 603e processor instead of a 100 MHz unit
However, the 5300ce sold for an amazing $4,300 (Can$6,700 dollars at
the time) more than the base 5300; even considering the much superior
display and the higher price of RAM in 1995 (16 MB RAM modules for the
5300 were then selling for Can$999), that seems like an outrageously
poor return on dollar spent, and the depreciation on the 5300ce was gut
wrenching.
The 5300ce was more than a bit of a rip-off or the entry-level
machine was a stupendous bargain relatively speaking - take your pick.
Today, either a 5300 or a 5300ce in good working order would sell for
less than $100.
Stops Along the Way
When I replaced the 5300 with a PowerBook G3 WallStreet, I
again went with the entry-level model - a 233 MHz G3 with 512 MB of
Level 2 cache and a 12.1" active matrix display. The price gap wasn't
quite as dramatic between that model and the top-dog 300 MHz
PDQ/WallStreet, but it was still pretty substantial, and two or three
years on, the difference in performance between 233 MHz and 300 MHz
seemed a lot less significant, although I would've preferred a 14.1"
display.
On the other hand, my next 'Book, a used (but pristine) Pismo PowerBook was the
top-of-the-line 500 MHz model that I got at a very attractive price (a
hardware swap deal equivalent to about $1,500 in value) for a year-old
machine with Zip and SuperDisk expansion bay drive modules included,
and it represented a much better value than a used 400 MHz low-end
Pismo would have at the time.
My next laptop, purchased just before New Years 2003, would be
another new one, and I dithered for a while over whether to go with the
base 700 MHz G3 "Opaque White" iBook for Can$1,549, or to get the
midrange "Crystal" 800 MHz model. The bottom line price difference, in
Canadian dollars, including taxes and delivery, came to $575, or 32%
more for the 800 MHz iBook. I didn't think that was outrageous for the
extra stuff you got in the more expensive model: a Combo drive instead
of a plain-Jane CD-ROM unit; a 50% larger (30 MB) hard drive; a 14.3%
faster clock speed processor, and 100% more (32 MB) video RAM, as well
as the snazzier, "Crystal" case instead of the "Opaque White" case of
the base unit. The value was arguably there.
In the end, I went low-end again, although I second-guessed myself
as the little 20 GB hard drive filled up and again when OS X 10.4
Tiger was released on DVD only. Still, I got more than three years of
excellent service from that little iBook as my number one production
machine, another with it as my "road" laptop, and my wife is still
using it as her workhorse Mac.
I went Apple Certified Refurbished for the iBook's replacement and
back to an erstwhile top-end model with a 1.33 GHz 17" PowerBook,
which I got for about the price of a middle model iBook or MacBook
(although the MacBook hadn't yet been introduced at the time). I
haven't regretted the purchase for a moment, and it's certainly nice to
have all those high-end bells and whistles the Big AlBook came
with.
The rule of thumb here - and certainly the pattern I've ended up
following myself - is that if you're buying new, you get your best
value for dollar spent by going with a low-end (or at least not the
top-of-the-line) model, but if buying used or refurbished, a high-end
machine will likely not cost a whole lot more than its lower-end
contemporaries due to the deeper depreciation bite on more expensive
models.
Current MacBooks
Take the
current 15" MacBook Pros for example. The top-end 2.5 GHz model
sells for $2,499 - 25% more than the base 2.4 GHz model at $1,999, but
for your extra 500 bucks all you get is 100 MHz more processor speed
(4% faster), a 50 GB larger hard drive (25% bigger), and double the
video RAM (512 MB vs. 256 MB). It's not quite the PowerBook 5300ce all
over again, but unless you really need the extra video muscle, I simply
don't see the value return for the increase in up front cost.
With MacBooks,
it's not quite as clear-cut. The base 2.1 GHz model sells for just $200
less than the "middle-model" MacBook, but it has a 300 MHz (12.5%)
slower processor, half the RAM, 40 GB (25%) less hard drive capacity,
and a Combo optical drive instead of a DVD-burning SuperDrive, so it's
pretty hard to argue that the $1,299 model isn't a better value than
the $1,099 price leader considering what you get for just a 16.7%
greater price.
However, the top-of-the-line MacBook at $1,499 is a questionable
value with just a black case and 90 GB more hard drive room for your
extra $200 over the middle-model.
The folks at Primate Labs have come up with a
simple formula for objectively calculating relative value based on
performance punch per purchase price dollar by dividing the cost of the
computer by its Geekbench score, coming up with a "Cost Per Point"
metric. When applied to the
new Penryn iMacs released last week, the base price-leader iMac
comes out on top even when brought up to the RAM configuration of the
next-higher model (and using Apple's inflated RAM prices at that).
Conclusion: if you're looking for the best value in terms of raw
processing power, the best unit to get is the base model, but as
Primate Labs notes, this analysis only takes processor and memory
performance into account, and ignores features you get with higher-end
models like larger capacity hard drives and more powerful video
cards.
With new machines, buying the high-end can rarely
be justified in terms of value for the money.
Other elements of the value-equation are how long you keep your
computers between upgrades (I average about 2.5 to 3 years), the degree
of satisfaction and enjoyment you get from the extra power and features
of a high-end unit, and whether you're buying new or refurbished/used.
With new machines, buying the high-end can rarely be justified in terms
of value for the money. Depreciation will, as we've noted, be worse
(sometimes dramatically worse), and you're melting percentage from a
higher starting figure, while in two years (or less) your expensive
bleeding-edge machine will be just another old computer, likely
eclipsed in performance by the lowest of low-end current units (think
early 2006 1.83
GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro vs. early 2008 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo
MacBook). The high-end machine will still have some nice deluxe
features, of course - it isn't all about raw performance figures.
The Quandary
You can buy a middle-model MacBook, replace it with a brand-new one
in a year-and-a-half or two years for just about the same money as one
high-end 15" MacBook Pro, without factoring in the resale value of the
first MacBook, which brings me back to my own ongoing upgrade
deliberations. My machine of choice would be a base $1,999 ($2,099 in
Canada) 2.4 GHz 15" MacBook Pro (well, I would really like to have a
17" MacBook Pro, but I'm trying to keep it real), but for my actual
needs it's hard for me to justify buying anything higher-end than a
MacBook, which leaves me in virtually the same dithering mode as I was
back in late 2002 with the iBooks. Base MacBook or middle model?
In Canadian prices, the difference is $1,149 vs. $1,349, but hey,
what's this? I see the Apple Store Canada has Certified Refurbished
examples of these new Penryn models posted for Can$999 and Can $1,149
respectively.
Hmmmm.
