Legit Reviews

Im in the market for a new laptop and have easily narrowed it down to these two options.
At first i was pretty much settled for the Macbook Pro until i was reading the LegitReviews News section and came across this very very sexy laptop, the Dell XPS 15z. Now I am at a fork in the road. I was really excited about trying out OS X but when this laptop looks real slick and its $430 cheaper.

Uses:
Can't say anything specific, I just have always wanted a laptop. Gaming isn't really in my list of uses sine I have a desktop for that. Even after taking that into consideration I am still having a hard time choosing.

15" Macbook Pro

* 2.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
* 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
* 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
*Intel HD Graphics 3000
*AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5
*Built-in battery (7 hours)2
* SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display
* Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
* Accessory Kit

Will be upgrading the HDD and ram on my own (could be cheaper this way, im sure)


DELL XPS 15z

Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Reader X
PROCESSOR 2nd generation Intel Core™ i7-2620M processor 2.70 GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0 - 3.40 GHz
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® Home Premium, 64-Bit, English
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M 2GB graphics with Optimus
MEMORY 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz Memory
HARD DRIVE 750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 & Bluetooth 3.0
BATTERY OPTIONS 64 WHr 8-Cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
SOUND OPTIONS Waves Maxx Audio 3
HD DISPLAY Elemental Silver Aluminum 15.6" 300-nit FHD (1080P) WLED Display with Webcam
KEYBOARD Backlit Keyboard - English
ONLINE DATA BACKUP No DataSafe

Just me but the Dell is the winner hands down IMHO. You are already $430 down with the Macbook, after avoiding the cost of bumping the RAM and HDD you could get the Dell and a decent sized SSD and it would handily spank the Macbook in performance (once again IMHO). Seems like a high price to pay for "trying" OS X.

As a second option you could buy a Mac Mini for cheap, if you consider $700 for the below configuration "cheap" that is, and play with OS X to see if you like it,

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB memory
320GB hard drive1
8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics
Mac OS X Snow Leopard

All of the above said, I would go with the Dell and a decent, good sized SSD.

Unless OS X is what you want the Dell is the much better computer. If you do get the Dell you can use the saved money and buy a 256GB SSD and really run circles around the Mac.

If you just want to try OS X look on ebay for a used Macbook. That way in the future you'll know what you want.

*EDIT*
Found this, don't know if you've seen it.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/dell-xps-15z-review/

I'm not sure if your looking for the mac look but I almost bought this the other day http://forums.legitreviews.com/about34495.html. Had to talk to the wife to remind me that I don't need another laptop.

A friend of mine just bought a Mac and says he regrets getting it because he never uses OS X and is always booting into windows 7. He is also regretting the 2k he spent on it.