Does the look and design of a Mac affect you?

[silvarios]

Lew Zealand wrote:
Dell laptop designs are pretty functional, with little concern for form and that is where they fail miserably. You do spend a lot of time looking at your laptop and that's where Apple has hit it's home run - the laptop designs are pretty damn good with very good to excellent function following excellent form.

XPS 13? Smaller and lighter than the 13" MacBook Pro retina (I think lighter than the 13" Air as well), but still comparably specced. Nice design as well.

Lew Zealand wrote: The issue comes from the minority of us who like a bit of upgradability. Put another way, we still want to max out our Mac but would rather do it over time for less $ instead of up front for more $$$.

This. Apple makes me feel like I'm either overpaying up front, just in case, or risking upgrading the whole computer sooner because I might not have the specs quite right. Neither makes me feel good about my purchase.

[Robert M]

pRIC,

The design is a contributes to an annoyance factor. It's annoying to swap cables. It's annoying to have to buy an extra dongle to keep from swapping cables. A good tool should decrease rather than increase annoyance.

Robert

[vision63]

Even with HP, they have some great designs on some products (The Envy Series for ex). Everybody is designing nice looking machines now, so that's no longer an Apple benefit. The Apple difference is simply OS X. It's still better to me. But Windows is fine as long as it works properly which for me it does. The Mac Pro's looks diminutive and pretty much like nothing much. They cost too much for me so that's not happening. The iMacs look great from the front. That bowed out part in the back looks weird to me.

The MacBooks looks similar from the time that they made the TiBook. I like that they have a gold colored MacBook now. They should do a black one. The new MacBook Pro's should be black. That would be badass.

They're going to make a mint off of selling watches, which means they're going to care less than fluck about what I want, which is more functional computers. They see computers as a way to sync toys now.

[ka jowct]

I remember being shocked when I got a look at the innards of my brother's mid-range Dell years ago. Yeah, it was cheaper than a Mac. But it was a shoddy throwaway machine. It had expansion slots but one was taken for Ethernet, and the graphics card was so bulky that the adjoining slot could not be used. Cheap, flimsy plastic parts. And so on. The exterior was not attractive. I saw enough crummy windows PCs at my old job that I took added pleasure in having my various Macs, whether it was a Plus, a Mac II, a 7500 or an 8600.

I love my Silver Mac Pro, which is my favorite of all the Macs I have owned and used. I just wish that Apple would produce a post-Snow Leopard OS that matched the 5,1 MacPro's elegance and power and flexibility.

[jdc]

Robert M wrote:
jdc,

I shouldn't have to buy an extra device (or dongle) to restore what I consider basic functionality for _any_ computer. That's the point.

Robert

Yeah, but yet again, you are applying your needs/wants to something clearly not meant for you?

See my Corvette vs Silverado comparison.

Even one of your basic "needs" -- flash drives -- for me is useless. I haven't used one more than 10 times. Ever. And that was years ago.

Nathan -- yes, Bondi shipped in late 98, translucent fad didnt start until later that year and all of 99.

[Robert M]

JDC,

Nope. I am actually well within the market for one of the new Macbooks. I have a secondary machine which is an '09 Macbook Pro 13". It serves as a travel machine and a backup machine for my office. I use flash drives with it. I use external hard disk drives with it. If it didn't have a built-in optical drive, I'd use an external optical drive with it on occasion.

The new Macbook would make for a fine replacement for the referenced machine. The size, speed, RAM and storage specs are dandy for the jobs I'd do with it. The one issue is the single USB-C port. That's the critical flaw in the design. I can work around the issue but it shouldn't be necessary.

Robert

[kj4btkljv]

Kraniac wrote:
My first machine was Quadra 700...

I loved that machine.

I think that model, along with the big brothers (900 and 950) were the first stand up Mac models Apple made. Granted, you could turn a IIci or IIcx upright, these Quadra models were designed to be stood up tall.

Jeff

[vision63]

kj4btkljv wrote:
[quote=Kraniac]
My first machine was Quadra 700...

I loved that machine.

I think that model, along with the big brothers (900 and 950) were the first stand up Mac models Apple made. Granted, you could turn a IIci or IIcx upright, these Quadra models were designed to be stood up tall.

Jeff
This was my baby that I got right after my IIci. Total sweet spot. I was probably my most productive in my life with the IIci (with the 13" Apple screen) and the Quadra 700.

Not to mention this guy:

[RAMd®d]

Does Mac styling make a difference to you and why?


Yes.

Because I appreciate a graceful blend of style and substance.

I'm seldom if ever in a position where I have to sacrifice function over form. There are sometimes small compromises made but they almost always fall short of actual sacrifice.

Fine design aesthetic and craftsmanship are things I look for, as well as function. Whether form or function gets the nod over the other will vary. I'm willing to pay more for a refined execution, in most cases. Metal, glass, wood… Some medium that someone has crafted into a precision object gets my attention every time.

In this day and age of choice, even in something that I demand the utmost in function and reliability, there's often an alternative with an aesthetic quality that wins me over.

It doesn't bother me a bit if someone wants to pay as little as possible and has no regard for form. It's a choice, not a sin. I'd just wish they'd STFU about how proud they are of that, as though my choice is some direct affront to them.

So I pay "tax" as I see fit.

[Speedy]

Yes. I like Apple's attention to detail.

I brought my then-new TiBook 1GHz on a family visit to Mexico City where Macs were rare. My niece saw it and said, "I want that computer." I told her it wouldn't run Windows and she was very disappointed. A year later we returned for another visit and we had the identical exchange. Style does matter. And she now has an iPad to go with her ugly PC.