For instance, this laptop can't manage to hit the MacBook Pro price point, and it's in a plastic case, as opposed to a single-piece slab of aluminum. Which do you think will hold up better? Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement? Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
If you configure a 17'' MacBook Pro to have similar specs as this, the MacBook Pro costs a little more.
On the other hand, the Razer will offer a much better GPU and will be $150 cheaper than the high-end MPB 17".
It's hard to compare machines built for such different specs, but I'd say the $150 premium on the MBP is more than justified.
Ultimately they serve two different needs and therefore two different markets. For one person the Macbook is a no-brainer, but for someone else, the Razer laptop is a better choice.
The use of a dual-core CPU instead of a quad-core CPU should cover most of the cost of the GPU upgrade, which means that either Razer's trying to make a lot more profit per machine than Apple's flagship laptop, or Razer's getting screwed on the cost of a bunch of commodity components.
I would liken the gaming PC to an audiophile hi-fi setup, almost no one expects it to fit in a messenger bag and run off a battery. For the connoisseur, no portable setup will fulfill all of their needs, and in all likelihood, they'll have setups to cater to each use case. But what if you can have a machine that's ultra-portable, but could also be docked to a setup that allows for high frame rate/high res gameplay? Some people already do this on laptops with express card bridges to external PCI-E sockets. Works pretty well. Here's an example of one such build, although I've seen better:
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/graphics-...
For me, the real $150 premium that makes the MacBook Pro justified is the fact that it runs OS X. For hardcore gamers, that's not really a plus. Also, the optical drive is a "meh" at best.
(Quoting from https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ThinkPad#Leno...)
The following are some of the changes that have been made to the ThinkPad line:
Added Magnesium-alloy chassis roll cage to reduce motherboard flex caused by holding the laptop one handed on a corner.
Added Magnesium-alloy lid roll cage for a sturdier lid while replacing the lid material from magnesium-alloy to plastic for better wireless signal reception.[12]
Added Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic to 15 in (380 mm) ThinkPad Models.*I use a laptop cooler on my desk and lapdesk on the couch.
Edit: ooh - feel the downvotes! Go to apple.com and count the number of mentions of 'notebooks' vs. the number of mentions of 'laptops'. The only place you really see the word 'laptop' is in quotes in the customer success stories.
Not plastic.
Hold better against what? Parachute drops? I have a laptop with a plastic case and I take on trips and use it at home, never had anything happen to it when I was thinking "man, I wish this thing was built out of a single-piece slab of aluminum to hold up better"
> Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement?
A company that is passionate about their customers...?
> Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
What does that matter. I'll just review whatever else is new and suitable for me and buy that (It could be a different company).
My Lenovo T400 has taken a lot of abuse, and it's still kicking.
> Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement?
In the PC world, each manufacturer contracts this sort of thing out. Apple does it in-house, sure, but that's not how it works outside that ecosystem. I've had no problems dealing with the Lenovo warranty people, and it's fairly likely that it would be the exact same people.
> Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
I don't need them to be alive at the end of the machine's life. I just need them to live through (or insure) the manufacturer warranty; then, I can just get any repairs directly or do them myself.
I would be very surprised if this laptop manages to bankrupt Razer within the term of the warranty, even if they did bet the company on this thing.
Able to and want to are definitely different when gaming on MacBooks.
Were they just doing that as a test? Because there's a Mac version of WoW...
Oh yeah, it also includes a CD/DVD drive and a decent GPU (although it is external only).