My personal impressions of working with the computers in-person:
Macbook:
Awesome. Solid Chassis. Very thin. Appears to be high quality. It doesn't even look like a serious laptop because it is so thin and pretty.
The trackpad is AMAZING! I can't imagine how all the PC makers and MSFT have just sat on their fat-arses for all these years and ignored the trackpad on laptops. Apple got the multi-touch RIGHT! Once you set up "tap to click" (when you just tap the touchpad to click vs. pressing down to click) it is a brilliant set-up. I didn't like pressing the entire touchpad for a click. I thought that was a dumb design that just made a hassle out of navigating with the pad.
The gestures were the best part. I've always carried a mouse around with me on PC laptops because it was impossible to be efficient using a touchpad. I think with the Mac, I could go about without a mouse. The 3-swipe forward/back is going to be handy for navigating webpages, the two-finger scrolling is awesome for anything, and the four-finger up/down swipe is very convenient when switching between apps/expose. People who complain about lack of a right click obviously haven't used the system. Just pressing down with two fingers gets you the right click, and I think it is even more convenient than using a mouse. The larger trackpad area also means you get around easily without having to lift, and re-position your hand when you run out of room.
Dell:
It was just like any other PC I've used. Nothing new and exciting, and nothing surprising. Will definitely need to use a mouse (even on-the-go) because the trackpad sucks.
The Studio XPS looks awesome in pictures, but in-person it was really disappointing. That glossy black finish is really just cheap plastic. The leather on the case looks like the cheapest leather I've ever seen. I'd swear it was vinyl. The chassis itself was solid, but the plastic pieces where your hands rest feel like--cheap plastic.
To be fair, I haven't had experience with the 16'' version, they only had a 13'' version at best buy. But I think the materials are the same.
The only thing that is really holding me back on the Macbook is:
1. $$$ (even with lower performance specs than the dell, it will STILL cost ~$1000.00 more)
2. Compatibility
I will definitely need to run windows, so I will have to buy a separate copy of windows and use it via bootcamp or VMware (which is extra $$$).
If I had extra cash lying around, I'd just fully spec out of Macbook Pro with the 2.93 Ghz processor and 8 Gb RAM, but I am a little tight and I am afraid that today's top-of-the-line Mac will be obsolete in less than a year.
The other benefit of the Mac is the INSANELY long battery life (they claim 8 hours, but I have read it is more around 4) while I read that the Dell is lucky if it gets to 2 hours. I've recently experienced the pain of not having battery life on my laptop (flying) and now I am really thinking of that as a main concern.
I've had a bad experience with a Dell before, but it was a lower-end model. The fan blew heat right on the hinge of the screen, which was made of cheap pot-metal. The hinge broke. It appears that Dell has neglected this problem, as I've read that the Studio XPS blows hot air right onto the screen. I've also read that it runs hot.
Anyone here have experiences with SSDs? Is it worth it?
BTW:
The Macbook is a unibody chassis made of Aluminium. Remind you guys of anything???
