The BrandForward Blog

Being the resident tech girl among my IRL friends, I frequently get asked which computer someone should buy. I’m no hardware expert, but there’s hilariously no understanding in the free world that not all technophiles know everything about everything. Some techies are hardware people, some are networking, some are programming, and still others are application gurus. And some just know all the good porn sites.

But these distinctions do not exist for the technologically uninitiated. They think if you owned a computer in the pre-historic era (1990’s), you obviously must know everything there is to know about the entire world of computing, you regularly meet Bill Gates for coffee, probably have Steve Jobs on speed dial, and therefore are the elite authority on the secret inner workings of all the cheap laptops piled high at Best Buy.

If only.

So this time my friend Steve (not Jobs!) sidled up and asked that eternal question: “Which $500 laptop should I buy?”

Oh boy, this is gonna be good. I lick my chops in anticipation of bringing another PC user into the Mac collective.

I explain to him that he should get beyond the $400-$500 price point and look at features and ease of use. I ask him to remember the things he hated about his current laptop. The one he literally punched the daylights out of, after it crashed on him for the bazillionth time. Yes. He did.

I asked him to recall the pop-ups and lagging virus scans. All the crashes and freezes, the fruitless defrags, the 10-minute boot-ups.

Yeah, I’ve owned a PC or two.

I asked him how much time he’s spent waiting for the hour glass to show signs of life, how many times Microsoft Windows has eaten half a day’s work, and exactly how many times he’d wanted to violently obliterate the thing before finally succumbing in a frustrated outburst.

I asked him to put a value on his time. I asked him how his blood pressure is doing.

And you’d think all of that would have been enough to convince him that leaving the land of PC for the world of Mac would be a no-brainer.

But he can’t get past that $500 price point.

He can easily afford whatever he wants. But that $500 sticks in his craw like a beckoning belly dancer.

OOOOOOHHH AAAAAHHHH. Look at meeeeeeee. Five hundred dollaaaarrrrrs.

Unfortunately, until a PC user experiences a Mac it’s hard for them to imagine how wonderful computing can be and what a difference it makes to take for granted that your computer is going to work flawlessly at any given time. If you’ve ever owned a PC and migrated to a Mac, you know how dramatic and valuable the difference is.

Like I told him, you can buy a $500 computer. But then you’d have to use it.

To add to the confusion of whether to go with PC or Mac is the recent freedom thing. Apparently, everyone who uses a Mac is stuck behind Steve Jobs’ walled garden. The tech elite complain that he’s controlling Mac users, that we don’t have freedom, and that it’s ridiculous that he’s blackballing Macromedia Flash.

Au contraire.

The best argument I can use to demonstrate that Apple’s walled garden does not take away the kind of freedom that matters to an end user is to compare a Mac experience with the PC experience.

When I had a PC, I had no semblance of computing freedom. A day did not go by without some sort of system crash, app freeze, or other event that created a blockade to my creativity and productivity. I spent a decent percentage of my time cleaning up the hard drive and pricing out upgrade RAM. I was never free to just sit down at my desk and work endlessly, letting the creative juices flow. It was only a matter of time before something was going awry on the PC. And even the little annoyances like browser crashes or virus detection pop-ups can really get you off track.

Sure, I had the freedom to load every software app known to man. I had the freedom to initiate every hardware upgrade that might (on the off chance) improve my system’s performance. I had the freedom to attach any number of peripherals my heart desired. But the things I did not have were freedom from interruption, freedom from the complications of viruses, and the most important thing:

The freedom to forget about the computer and focus on what I want to accomplish on it.

That’s why the Apple devoted are so vigilant. It’s not so much that we prize the design or the brand or the caché. (Although we obviously do). It’s because when we’re using a Mac, it’s all about what we’re doing, not what the computer is doing. I no longer have to peruse the stack of PC parts catalogs, or camp out in troubleshooting forums. With a Mac, computer becomes background. In the foreground is creativity and productivity.

And Steve Jobs’ walled garden makes sure nothing is getting in my way.

Sure, some say it’s big brotherish. And a few of my friends who are hardware and networking techs bemoan the intrusion. But those of us who prefer a smooth computing experience with a superior product, and don’t necessarily want to earn any IT stripes, can happily co-exist within a walled garden and don’t mind paying more for the pleasure.

And because we’ve had bad experiences with those “free-wheeling” PC’s, we listen when Steve Jobs talks. When he says Apple will no longer support Flash on mobile products because it causes crashes (and there’s a better way to deliver content), we recall the cost of freedom.

Time, money, sanity.

So to answer the question. What is the best $500 laptop? I’ll paraphrase and borrow from my friend Erik’s advice on $500 laptops. If someone only wanted to invest $500 in a new laptop, I’d tell them that for $500 they’re going to be getting a low-grade processor, minimal ram, and few bells and whistles… if you’re only checking email and surfing the internet, that should be fine. If you plan to play video games and use editing software you’ll need “something beefier.” Either way, you’re going to face the decreasing performance that goes along with PC “bit rot,” and unless you buy a top-end model you’re on the “throwaway treadmill.” Erik, BTW is an uber user who’s a networking consultant, someone you’d probably expect to be the poster child for PC’s. Nope, Erik drives a Mac.

And I can guarantee the next $500 he spends on a computing device for himself will absolutely be an iPad. (He already has a 17″ MacBook Pro.)

I’ll take my walled garden, and PC die-hards can have their Waterworld of marauding pirates and mayhem. I’ll take my peaceful computing and they can have their high blood pressure.

I just hope my friend Steve takes my advice and ditches the $500 laptop idea. Or at least finds a good cardiologist.

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(Update: 06-16-10) Which computer did Steve end up buying?
Yeah, he ended up with a PC. After spending about an hour in the electronics section of Best Buy, he picked up a 14″ Toshiba Satellite E205, ringing up at about $900.

It also came with a “free” wireless gizmo (Netgear Push 2 TV) that lets him display the computer screen on his mammoth TV.



Steve says the reason he didn’t go with the $500 laptop was because they had less memory, slower processors, and smaller hard drives. And when he started comparing, he started to realize it was worth it to spend the extra money.

So yeah, the elusive $500 laptop exists. But does anyone ever really buy it?