help me chooooose:

[Kassem]

Looking for a new laptop that is not too bulky. I am going to be playing tons of starcraft 2 and other NON FPS video games. I will never be able to play FPS on a laptop. Also, battery life is a big deal to me and I hate HP so the envy is OUT.

Macbook Pro 15"
i5 2.26
4gb Ram
320gb HDD
+matte screen
+high res 1680x1050
this thing gets like 9 hours battery life....... O.O

1756ish post tax


Dell Studio 14
2.26 i5
4gb ram
500gb hdd
lower res screen
9 cell battery
hd 5450
backlit keys
3 year basic warranty

1200 pre tax and shipping


How much battery life am I going to miss getting the dell? Even with the 9 cell battery? I really like the aluminum of the MBP, and the battery life. And the screen is beautiful (never seen the dell). Also, the trackpad is really awesome on the MBP, especially once you learn the finger swipes and everything..

Also, how good is Dell's customer service?

 

[fralexandr]

the macbook pros are pretty and probably have better build quality. apparently though, from the mac osx preview of portal, it runs games worse due to lack of dx support, but SC2 and such should run fine anyway due to the gpu refresh.
I've never had to use dell customer service on my inspiron 6000 (4 years old) so i wouldn't know, but the notebook had terrible build quality (flexes barely when held horizontal with 1 hand, cheap paint job that wears away, cracks in the plastic from palm weight over time). I think they probably improved build quality over the 4 years though.
Dell tends to use normal cheapish/average panels, except on some of their Studio 16 line.
recently i got a alienware m11x, and its been pretty nice, but the trackpad doesn't seem to work as well as on the inspiron 6000 for basic gestures. and it has an annoying glossy screen and picks up finger prints all over. Left 4 dead also has mouse chopping issues when moving with the keyboard and aiming with the mouse simultaneously which is kind of a pain (probably some driver issues). I dislike how Dell sells their warranties. basic 1 year doesn't come with accidental. You might have to add accidental even for the 3 year if you plan on moving it around alot.
obviously all this is YMMV and doesn't apply to your case very well, but no one else posted so i thought i'd provide my experience.

Conclusion
I'd probably get the mac and dual boot with windows 7 if i had the money to spend on one. Otherwise if you'd rather save the 600$ just get the dell, it won't be too bad.

the asus u30jc/jt might be worth looking into also, as sc2 can be run on medium on the nvidia 210m. Its 13" can be easily modded for backlighting (people say it looks awesome) has a cheapish led panel, is about 900$ on amazon, great battery life 8 hours ish. 2 year warranty with 0 bright dots in panel for first 30 days.

 

[Emulex]

macbook: bmw
dell: hyundai

both make quality vehicles - but you know which one rules the roost forever.

you realize they probably all have foxconn mobo's in them. hp just had a bad run with nvidia - and that really wasn't hp's fault more nvidia.

i'd say apple - support - broken on sunday? no problem go to the mall - find a genius might get a fix on the spot (say charger blows up).

dell - they will remote in- turn on your webcam. laff at your wien0r pics and spend hours mucking about before telling you to send in your dead charger and they'll send you another.

WORD.