Got an email today from Apple with the subject “More speed. More power. The new MacBook Pro family.” Sure enough the new MacBook Pro line was out! What!?! (you gasp I am sure) Apple can sell something besides and “phone” or “pad“?!?

I like Macs so I took a look at the new machines and reflected on my recent need for a new laptop for my personal and business usage.

I’ll admit as a fairly competent (or incompetent if you ask my father-in-law) geek, all the features when you look at the MacBook specs are pretty impressive. So is the price. It seems Apple still holds court on selling at a premium price whereas other name brands (HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell) cannot seem to regain that coveted (and highly profitable) higher ground.

Now I see a lot of articles extolling the value of Mac at home, school and increasingly in business. And when I go to Starbucks these days I’d say the Mac to PC numbers are pretty close to 50/50. So Mac you’ve done a great job. Heck I bought my first Mac (a 20″ iMac in 2006 – the first I’ve used since University) and still enjoy it – and I swear it does run as nimbly as it did the day I unboxed it.

However….

As an individual that is running their own company and needing a new computer, over the past couple months I have done a bit of research into what I should buy. And with the new Apples finally out I thought I’d revisit this to see if my mind might be changed…

My core criteria were fairly simplistic and I’ll list them here:

1. Quality of brand: I am going to keep this for 3-5 years (ideally) and wanted a brand I could trust (translate I was looking in the >$1,000 range at a min)

2. Up to date technology: Like my iMac I bought almost 4 years ago, I was looking for the best specs to fit my budget – leading edge processor, graphics card, screen (had to backlit LED for outside), at least 4 GB in memory and 7200 RPM HDD (SSD are coming and this will be the last HDD device I bet I buy so I want a good one), bluetooth and a comfortable keyboard.

3. I didn’t care about the O/S – I have exp with XP, Vista, Win7 and OS X from 10.3+, personally I have found that since Microsoft’s Win7 the O/S is right back where it should be (behind the scenes doing its job without bothering me)

4. Decent size to weight ratio: I found myself looking at between 13-15″ and approx 5 lbs.

5. Battery life: I work everywhere and while I know I need power, I don’t want to spend my walking time looking for seat close to a power outlet.

So with these in mind, I started looking for my perfect machine.

I won’t bore you with all of the machines I looked at, there where great ones from all the manufactures that I listed from Apple to Toshiba but I settled on two primary machines after about a week. The Apple MacBook Pro 15” and the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 with discrete graphics. I acknowledged that the new MacBook Pro with Intel’s i5 or i7 processor was a month or so out and was willing to wait if I chose it. Heck I like being a cool kid, I drive a German car after all….

So I made an assumption during the comparison (on-line reviews, vendor website for pricing, etc.) that if I chose the Apple I’d happily wait for it. So back to my criteria…

1. Lenovo ThinkPad line-up and Apple’s MBPro both qualified equally. Great machines with good build quality.

2. Both had (Lenovo had Intel’s i7 in market Apple was on the way) all the tech specs I needed. Apple offered a 15″ glossy screen and the Lenovo was 14.1″I slightly preferred the non-glossy backlit-LED for outdoors usage and both offered up to a 500 GB HDD at 7200 RPM. They both had included or for margin add-on pricing all the same bells and whistles.

3.Windows 7 Pro versus OSX – I like OSX I really do, its very nice looking and just works without getting tired. Windows 7 has been out for less than a year, so while a little less road tested (I have been fortunate to have used it since April 2009) it has show in my experience to be a very solid  bit of code.

4. The Lenovo weighed in at 2.23 KG while the Apple was 2.54 – a slight difference, but noticeable in my opinion

5. The Lenovo has a 9-cell battery (~6 hours) while Apple’s (as of today) has an even longer lasting battery (promising up to 10 hours?)

Given these two machines are very similar it really came down to my pocketbook. This is where the Apple turned a bit sour in my opinion. Even today with the new MacBook Pro finally released the investment for equal machines is squarely in favour of the ThinkPad – in my opinion.

Here is the pricing (as of today, April 13, 2010) with two machines configured as close to equal as possible:

Both have Intel’s i7 2.66 , 4 GB RAM, 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD, wireless, discrete graphics (Lenovo 256, Apply 512), bluetooth, camera, SD slot, DVD burner, numerous USB etc ports, 64-bit O/S (Win & Pro for the Lenovo), plus a finger printer reader for the Lenovo (security matters)….

The Lenovo t410 with discrete graphics @ www.lenovo.ca totalled $1543.00 + tax

The Apple MacBook Pro @ www.apple.ca totalled $2249.00 + tax.

For those counting at home this is a $700 difference! Now I don’t mind paying a premium for quality, but seriously for the $700 I can get the ThinkPad and a New iPhone (off contract) for the price of the MBPro! If I consider equipping a small business (or even a large business that $700 should multiplies quickly! Of course I am ERP expert, so calculating ROI on hardware isn’t my thing but…

So to nut it out. I am forgoing the Mac (although I’d look a lot cooler at Starbucks I am sure) for the Lenovo t410, the only question now is do I buy that iPhone with my savings?