Suitable Replacements for a MacBook Pro
As I anxiously await the verdict of what it will take to repair my MacBook Pro I have been researching my options in case I have to replace my laptop with something new. I love Apple products, but I am open minded enough to at least explore the non-Apple alternatives out there.
So I stopped by Best Buy today to see what is on the market for new laptops. I don’t think I could bring myself to use Windows, so I was looking with the plan of running Linux or maybe try to get Leopard to run on it.
As I walked from laptop to laptop I have to admit I was really disappointed. Aside from cheap price tags, there wasn’t anything that appealed to me. The specs of almost all of them were well beyond what I probably need in terms of storage and processing speed. Computers are so fast and have so much storage that you don’t really have to count gigabytes or processor speed like you used to. So what does that leave a person who is shopping for a computer?
Put simply, it is all about design. I want a computer that has been built with attention to detail. It doesn’t have to have Apple’s every-square-inch-has-thought-behind-it level of design, but it has to be a joy to use. It can’t have flaws that show that the people making the computer didn’t have me in mind when they built it.
I was a graphic designer for five years in the RV industry. If you know anything about RVs you know that this is an industry with very little differentiation between brands. It is hard to tell a Winnebago RV from a Fleetwood. The things that pass for innovations in the RV industry are quickly cannibalized and copied by competitors. All the products are basically the same, all purchasing parts from the same vendors. That’s how I felt in the laptop aisle. It was really hard to tell one brand of laptop from another. The same design flaws existed in pretty much every PC. I am talking about attention to detail: seams everywhere, flimsy plastic, non-intuitive keyboards, clunky buttons, cheap materials, screen glare, awkward textures, etc.
The thing that struck me as I evaluated the PC products was that I would rather have one of the generic PCs than the ones that tried to stand out from the crowd. The few computers that were a little different weren’t better. For example, the HP laptops now have a reflective metal keyboard and case. On the one hand, this sets it apart from the other laptops, but it doesn’t make it any better. The reflective surface is distracting and gets covered in dirty fingerprints almost instantly.
Another brand emphasized big woofer-looking speakers. Again, the design was different, but not better. Another was covered in an interesting pattern that although it was somewhat elegant seemed random and lacked purpose. Some had mouse pads that were off center for seemingly no reason.
The one computer that seemed the most promising was a Sony. It had a keyboard similar to the Mac. It also had some attention to detail that although it was meant to be Mac-like it wasn’t quite there. If I am going to buy an imitation Mac, it would have to be a great imitation.
So if I am going to by a PC I am left with two uncomfortable options. I can buy a generic looking PC that doesn’t have any new glaring design flaws. This option leaves me with a laptop that lacks personality. Option two is to buy a unique machine with obvious flaws. Neither of these options is acceptable.
So now I am back to looking at Apple’s product line where I know I can’t go wrong. The remaining question is: do I fix my old MacBook Pro or do I buy a new one. Hmmm.
