10 reasons: Should I buy a Mac or a PC this holiday season?

3 December 2015, 05:00

This is hardly a new debate (!) and, okay, I’m hardly unbiased. But here are some bang-up-to-the-minute factors you might want to consider.

1. Macs are more reliable in the long term compared to PCs. Research proves this. With the move towards universal solid state storage in Macs this can only get better because there are fewer moving parts. The new MacBook laptop doesn’t have a single moving part – aside from the lid hinge and keys, of course!
2. Macs have excellent resale value, which is to say the total cost of ownership is significantly less than competitor brands. This might be hard to believe. Here’s an example: Earlier this year I sold my old MacBook Pro, bought new in 2009, for a quarter of the price I originally paid for it. That’s a six-year old computer still getting a decent return on eBay. A Dell or Lenovo laptop of the same year and spec-list wouldn’t fetch anywhere near as much.
3. Macs are completely compatible with iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs (both old and new generation). In fact, they’re more than compatible. They’re designed to work in complete harmony. Start writing an email on your Mac and you can instantly pick it up on your iPhone or iPad, for example, thanks to Continuity. You can output your Mac’s screen on your TV via the Apple TV and AirPlay. No hacks, special knowledge or third-party apps required – it’s just all part of the same ecosystem, and the chances are you’ve already bought into that.
4. I hate to mention it but, let’s be blunt: Apple stuff is so cool that it’s in a market sector of its own. You’re part of the elite if you pull a MacBook out of your bag when in a coffee shop. Pulling out a Dell…? For real, dude?! In the corporate environment it’s no different. Want to show colleagues that you’re serious about your job and want to do it the best way you can? You need to be sitting behind a MacBook in those meetings.
5. Macs are terrific for gaming. Yes, really. Steam currently lists in excess of 5,500 titles for the Mac – both major titles and fun little indie efforts. For games that are resolutely PC-only you can virtualise Windows using Parallels, or use something like Wineskin. People do this all the time and one guy’s even produced a tool that does the hard work for you.
6. You don’t have to play the “guess-which-corner-has-been-cut” game when buying a Mac. You know what I’m talking about. You’re interested in a particular model of Windows laptop. The screen’s great, it’s got 16GB of fast RAM, a speedy SSD but… the trackpad lacks sensitivity, and the speakers sound like tin cans connected by string. Corners were cut and/or the manufacturer simply didn’t care enough to pay attention. Well, on a Mac every detail has been obsessed over. Apple goes the extra mile, and that means you can sit back and rest comfortably knowing your computer is the best it can possibly be.
7. iTunes is significantly less pain-inducing on a Mac. On a PC using iTunes induces violence. iTunes is designed from the ground-up for the Mac – which is part of the reason why PC users hate it so – but this means on a Mac that iTunes just fits in better. It’s still not the best example of software design but it starts quickly, is easy to use, and just makes a whole lot more sense.
8. You haven’t got to worry about security with a Mac. This one’s an oldie but goldie but I’ve been using Macs since 2004 (a.k.a. “the modern era”) and have never had an antivirus app installed (outside of tests I’ve undertaken for my computing journalism). Many Windows users I mention this to simply don’t believe me, or consider me stunningly naive. It’s similar when I mention that installing an app on the Mac doesn’t also install a ton of crapware alongside. Folks just don’t believe me. This isn’t to say Mac users can forget about security completely. But you’re not persistently one-click away from being compromised, as with Windows.
9. Apple leads the world in software development for end-users. Windows 10 boasts a brilliant new virtual desktops feature. This is a straight and blatant copy of Expose/Mission Control, first seen in OS X back in 2003. More than a decade ago! Put simply, Apple brings you the cool new stuff way before Microsoft has even finished scratching its ass.
   
   Windows is and always has been merely adequate. Microsoft should make this their advertising tagline: “Windows. It’s adequate.” What a horrible word that is. Do people get married because they find each other adequate? Do you buy a new car because it’s adequate? Why should your computing experience be merely adequate? Why shouldn’t you actually enjoy it?
10. No bloatware. Boot-up a Mac for the first time and you haven’t got to spend hours removing all the “free” apps, or demos, or shareware, or hardware add-on apps (why the hell does a basic laptop with a standard hard disk need an Intel RAID app?). I’ve gone from booting a new Mac to using it for work within 10 minutes. The only delay was downloading and installing Microsoft Office, and signing into iCloud to access my files. Boot-up a new PC and the first thing it does is to fight against you using it! How did this ever become considered normal or acceptable?

[Super awesomely brilliant photo by Alexas_Fotos]

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