The Apple difference

First let me start by saying, I am a Windows user, growing up I had access to both Mac OS and Windows based systems (starting with Windows 3.1) but I always seemed to gravitate towards Windows. Perhaps this had something to do with the school using them, or games and applications being cheaper and more readily available. Or maybe the biggest factor was they were expensive.

During my high school days in the late 90s Mac's were seen as the best and contained quality components. Seeing as most people could not afford them for a home computer it made a Mac a niche product and if you had one, you either had too much money or were heavily involved in graphics or anything creative digital. The PC on the other hand was like the wild west every corner shop seemingly was putting together computer packages with Windows pre-loaded. The components were completely mixed, usually the only thing in the box that was genuine was the CPU. Seeing as Microsoft licensed the software and allowed any hardware vendor to build/assemble the hardware there was no quality control on how the end user would see Windows perform. Thus lead to the great Mac vs PC debate whether one was better then the other, it isn't that straightforward though as Apple controlled the Software and the Hardware, Microsoft only controlled the Software.

Apple did move away from crafting custom CPU's and chips favouring Intel's CPU's as a standard in all Mac's after 2006 however, in my mind I think I had always thought of them in that light even till now 2014.

So why bring this up now? It has been 8 years since Apple went to Intel processors? Well as I said I personally had a mental barrier that was preventing me from seeing Mac as an option when considering a new laptop or desktop. Something made me change my mind though, enter the Asus UX21E. You see I was in the market for a new laptop, something small, something that could be taken to client's sites and something I could hack away at on my lap when coding HTML or Javascript. At $900 AUD I figured why not? Certainly looked the part, specifications were great, price was right. About 5 months into the purchase I found I was not using it for the reason I purchased it. Yes I was taking it to client's sites it was light and handy, but I would do very little 'work' on it.

Everything about the machine felt a bit off, the way I couldn't open the top lid without the whole device tipping over, the way the keys felt when you hit them, almost like there was no feedback, the hinge in the screen having a weird tilt, the shininess of the screen which appears to collect fingerprints even though its not a touch screen. This is not isolated to this model either, as I have many other clients using Dell, HP, ASUS, BenQ and all explain similar problems. I then started to realise it's not too different to what had been happening in the late 90s with PC manufacturers, the problem hadn't gone away the PC manufacturers have just become better at hiding the shortfalls. The UX21E looks like a great machine at face value so I am sure it will sell. That however does not fill a person with confidence to buy another ASUS computer after the first one inevitably dies.

So after my UX21E died (well didn't die the power button just won't turn it on anymore) I looked to Apple for guidance about what I should get as a replacement. So I took the plunge and bought my first MacBook Pro 13inch with Retina Display (late 2013 model).

I will just some it up with one word, design. When you control the software and the hardware as Apple does, you can do proper quality control and testing, the result is a product that not only does what the owner purchased it for, but it becomes a tool for the owner which the owner wants to use.

I realise now the ASUS was a tool and it did what I needed it to do, but I never wanted to use it, I needed to. With the MacBook Pro I want to use it. This could be all marketing BS working on me from the Apple hype machine, but if it is I don't really care, as if marketing BS can get me to work harder then that's fine with me.