From some standpoints, yes. The design and build quality of machines like the MacBook Pro certainly trumps anything available from commodity PC makers.
It certainly trumps something that sells for $600, but is the build quality all that much better than a comparably priced ThinkPad or one of Dell's new high-end machines?
The only real hardware advantage that I can find which isn't available elsewhere is the nice, fully internal battery that the Pros come with now. You can get one that performs similarly from Lenovo, but it doesn't look as elegant.
Yes, I do think it's better. I've got a ThinkPad T400, a white MacBook right here (and my wife has a Pro).
The T400 has five buttons around the trackpad... and Apple accomplishes the same functionality with one trackpad and one button (and no button on the new models).
The T400 has a lit keyboard toggled by a key. The light is actually just an LED pointing down from the lid. I can see the PCB it's attached to. Compare that to Apple's ambient light sensing backlit keys.
There is a key on the T400 to zoom the screen, but it just changes the resolution! Compare that to control+two-finger-drag on the MacBook, which smoothly zooms in on any region of the screen.
The T400 has a physical switch on a corner of the case to turn off the wireless hardware. The MacBook provides it through a menu.
The T400 for some reason still has a plain old full-sized VGA connector with screw posts, compared to mini-DVI.
It's a holistic thing, I guess. A design is either "together" or not. Lenovo doesn't have it.
Some of these points have pros and cons, actually.
The T400 appears to have five buttons around the trackpad because it has an exta "trackpoint" red nub in the keyboard, so you can handle cursor, scrolling, and typing without moving either hand from the keyboard--indispensable to all the people who have learned to use it.
The T400 has an LED to illuminate keyboard and slightly more so you can turn it on or off when you need to, rather than when an ambient light sensor thinks best, and you can hold anything under the light to see it. (Think airplanes.) Very useful.
The T400 has a physical switch to turn off wireless hardware so you can do it when the machine is off, quickly, without booting up and using a menu, and so you can physically verify its status.
The T400 has connectors for devices most often found in its environment. ThinkPad evolves its connectors, but a little more conservatively than Apple. Which plan is best depends on what particular users need to connect. You also get some complaints that a new Mac can't connect to existing peripherals.
Design is vital, Apple has some great design points, but ThinkPad has some different but equally great design points. Read David Hill's blog (http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/) for insight into the meticulous design thinking behind ThinkPad.
"The T400 for some reason still has a plain old full-sized VGA connector with screw posts, compared to mini-DVI."
Why would you want mini-DVI? Mini-DVI is a proprietary Apple-only connector that forces you to buy an adapter so that you can connect all other hardware to it. By the way, the T400s has DisplayPort, which, OTOH, is an open standard.
The thinkpad has a trackpoint/nipple mouse. The macbook is limited with just a touchpad.
The macbook keys light up at inconvenient times, the thinkpads only lights up when I want it to -- and it lets me read dead-tree notes easily
I've never used screen zooming so I wont speak to it - the mac solution sounds nice though.
The T400 has an obvious, provable way of quickly disconnecting from a network. It's like pulling out the netword cord. And it has an option to turn that off in software.
The T400 connects directly to my projector, my monitor at home, my cheap plasma tv. For the mac I've got to drag around an extra converter thing.
There are plenty of designs you can knock as not being "together". The thinkpad design is pretty well tested though.
In less than 3 years my sister's 1700$ dell lost 5 keys (she was typing on the rubber under the keys) and 15% of the screen stopped working (thin lines from top to bottom). She replaced it a few months ago with a 2400$ apple laptop. She did not need more speed, or memory just something that would survive constant use.
PS: She did not have the free time to mail it back to be fixed, and waited for a break so she could migrate to the next machine. I suggested a new Dell every 18 months, but that was not worth the hassle. And worst case she can show up at the apple store and get it fixed while she waits.
Why did your sister need a $2400 apple laptop if not for the speed and memory? If you are in the US at least you shouldn't have to spend that much for a new Mac. The 13" MBP starts $1200 and you can get a 15.4" MBP starting at $1700 from Amazon, with free shipping and no sales tax (in the majority of states).
It's not about need, she bumped the RAM, Disk, and added the AppleCare Protection Plan because she felt it was a reasonable thing to do. Honestly, spending less than 3k for something you are going to use several hours a day for a few years seems reasonable to me.
