The battle of Mac versus PC is raging strong, thanks to the new MacBook. While Apple fans are still debating whether they really want Jony Ive’s minimalist gold notebook, rival PC markers have been quick to shoot down Apple’s latest innovation on Twitter.
ASUS, Lenovo and Dell all took shots at the super-thin MacBook, quickly pointing out that while terraced batteries and gold paint are nice, these notebook companies have been selling even thinner laptops for over a year now.
Take a look at their tweets calling out the new MacBook:
Lenovo
WE SEE YOUR thin laptop (#SoLastYear) & raise you 3 modes, 2 USB ports & a higher-resolution touch display. pic.twitter.com/vm3K08YCpt
— Lenovo (@lenovo) March 10, 2015
Dell
Our #DellXPS 13’s virtually borderless infinity display has 5.7M pixels – that's 2M more than a 12” retina display. pic.twitter.com/mrT9uwo7C2
— Dell (@Dell) March 10, 2015
Asus
ZenBook UX305 is even slimmer than the new Macbook. It's also about half the price. #Incredible pic.twitter.com/ATSENGVMIi
— ASUS North America (@ASUSUSA) March 11, 2015
I’m sure Apple’s team will enjoy some bigger laughs once they report millions of new MacBooks sold at the end of the quarter.
Via: The Verge
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
82 responses to “Shots fired: Rival PC makers attack new MacBook”
In a year ASUS, Lenovo, and Dell executives can all go into any cafe in any city and find everybody drinking their coffees and staring at these new MacBooks, and have a good laugh.
How did a 0.8 mm diff become about 4 mm i print..?
Its a technological marvel… the gold color…For fanboys atleast
There’s a reason that Apple has garnered so many fans. People are extremely fickle and for any company to maintain such a high level of customer loyalty can only come from excellent products.
As someone who uses both a Dell (work) and MacBook Pro (personal) on a daily basis, I can tell you that these computers aren’t even in the same league. I’ve had a problem for a while now with a “Host Process for Windows Tasks” using a high percentage of my processor. It’s become so bad that I resorted to using a USB keyboard because the computer has become too hot to touch and the fan is constantly buzzing. Also, there are a bunch of applications from Dell, Intel and Nvidea installed, because everything isn’t properly integrated into the operating system. Oh and I also use a USB mouse, because the trackpad is pretty much unusable. I tried using the gestures and they only work in certain areas after multiple attempts. There’s a Core i7 and Windows sticker on this for some reason. The entire computer is put together very poorly.
The MacBook on the other hand is a totally different story. All of the settings are in one place “Settings” organized nicely, even for 3rd party applications. Gestures with the trackpad work beautifully every time. While my screen isn’t Retina, it’s bright and crisp and all of the colors look far more vibrant. The build quality overall is unparalleled. Performance of the 4 year old machine is excellent and this is after going from Lion -> Mountain Lion -> Mavericks -> Yosemite (for free). Backups with Time Machine work beautifully and let you step back in time to get a specific version of a file. No 3rd party software required. The App Store is beautifully curated with high quality apps. Despite all of the enhancements over the years, Apple has maintained a consistency across the user experience.
I’m fickle when it comes to technology and I choose only the best. Right now Apple is the best. You’re in denial if you see it any other way.
Yes now if only I could get OS X, the haptic force touchpad, the new innovative keyboard, 10 hours of battery life, USB-C, and a color accurate screen in the rest of those crap PCs, it would start to come close to a macbook.
Oh yea I forgot, I can get it in 3 different colors. Thanks for reminding me.
No Flash!
Let’s not forget that Lenovo also comes with a free Superfish.
Just like when Samsung slammed Apple about non-removable batteries, no MicroSD slots and phone jack at bottom. Then did a 180 and did the same. Soon, all these people will eventually do the same.
Yea, and the bigger screen and more resolution and better camera… Oh wait that was someone else first…
I’ll never get why people get so wound up about who had what first. The more these companies all push each other, the better products we get as consumers. I hope they all come out with something new next year and then everyone has it the following year for less money.
It’s more fun to just sit back and enjoy the evolution!
high resolution and better camera…really?
Who is first?
firsy big screen is not from samsung either….check facts…
iPhone was the first retina, and first with active touchscreen … and first that actually worked as a browser on the web. mmm first all metal and glass, aka durable materials. And a UI that you could actually use instead of Windows CE.
Samsung was first with… uhm. I got nothing. Not a better camera, not a larger scree, and not anythings else. Google your facts man.
Bigger screens, higher MegaPixel cameras are not innovation and do not redefine anything new except higher numbers. I never said it was about who had what first. I said when a manufacture constantly takes pot shots at a competitor then does exactly the same thing is a total contradiction.
Agreed. Lets re visit this in a year when the new macbook is crushing them all in sales.
They always do… I heard Dell is trying to make laptops in metal cases now lol
Isn’t this what they said when apple did away with the floppy drives?
Yes. . . and now, none of them use floppy drives. They also laughed when Apple did away with the optical drive in the first Airs. . . and now, lots of other brands don’t use optical drives. And…
It’s funny that PC manufacturers continue to look at the actual thickness, the number of ports.. etc.. and fail to understand that what is missing from PCs is a good user experience.
The only thing Apple seems to think users care about is “thickness” and “screen resolution.” They even made up a fake term (“retina display”) to hype the marketing of their high-res displays.
User experience? Nothing in the Apple user experience is worth the premium that is charged for their mediocre hardware. Mac OS is a watered down, proprietary version of an old Linux distro.
Whats ‘fake’ about the term, please explain? If you cant make out individual pixels at a viewable distance, then its a retina. Apple has been very clear about it.
You really havent used OS X have you. As a computer science student, i experimented with numerous linux distros, but a hackintosh was such a better experience, i eventually got an iMac.
Your very own “Cult of Mac” has criticized retina displays and the specs. I won’t do the research for you, but you can look it up.
It’s really more of a brand/gimmick name than an actual specification, as the PPI depends on the screen size and distance you are viewing it from. Anyway, yes, it’s still just a fake term, and if it were a real term, other companies would use it. They don’t, because it’s silly. And fake.
But I thought you said you “… definitely do not read ‘Cult of Mac’ regularly.”
;)
I don’t read it. I found it as a Wikipedia citation while looking up the marketing term, “retina display.”
;)
I see, so you were uninformed about the term until you decided to be snarky about it… gotcha. ;)
No, I wasn’t, I knew what it meant. I just decided to do some research. Now, apparently, that is a bad thing. Can’t win with fanboys.
Sure.
Photo caption above: “The MacBook is drawing big laughs.”
What’s •really• funny are comments from the past, like these:
• “A non-removable battery in a portable?? Nobody will go for that.” (My mid-2009 Macbook Pro has the same non-user-removable battery, and works great.)
• “A ‘Lightening connector?” That’s ridiculous. How dare Apple replace our 30-pin connector?” (The Lightening connector was a huge success out of the gate. More reliable, more capable… and works in either orientation.)
• “AAC?? How dare Apple force a new audio codec on us? We’re happy with mp3.” (AAC (mp4) is a tighter compression, but sounds uch better at any bit-rate than an mp3. Apple Lossless, which was also scoffed, is even better.)
• “Apple building retail stores?? What nonsense. They’re not a retailer, and it will never work.” (Apple stores are the most successful, most visited and trusted electronics retail stores in the world.
And my personal favorite… “An Apple cell phone?? Worst idea ever! Will never be successful. Nobody will by a phone from a computer maker?”
What I’m laughing at is the photo of that guy above.
Screw AAC, FLAC & V0 forever.
It is the best. As to battery life, system functionality, and design (Aluminum) backlit, speed. I hate windows and PCs. You are far from comparing yourselves to the Apple brands poor Asus, Dell and the rubbish plastic Lenovo which cannot last for 1year after usage. I prefer using Adapters than using PCs which are horribly weak in performance.
They always poo poo Apple products and THEN they copy what they criticize and laugh at. ALWAYS.
This is perfect. Guess they are not smart enough to realize that Apple builds more than just the new Macbook. They might notice the Macbook Pro (has ports) and the Macbook Air (has ports). They know that Apple will sell a gazlllion of these new MacBooks and are now trying to defend their mostly plastic product lines. Love it.
Love reading these types of stories and hearing the fanboys’ reactions. Apple can do no wrong, we get it. They’re on the cutting edge, removing ports and then selling $80 adapters just to use a USB stick!
The “thinner, lighter, and more pixels” scam can’t last forever… so let’s see Apple truly innovate anything anymore.
Apple truly is a cult and you are all brainwashed.
Pot? Meet Kettle.
Oh, and they’re so darn clever and cute, too, with their hipster phrases!
I do wonder, however, why you think this is a pot-meet-kettle type of situation. It seems that maybe you don’t quite understand the phrase and just want to sound cool? Or are you going to assume something about me based on my username (and most likely be wrong)?
More likely, you couldn’t think of a rational, halfway intelligent response to my criticisms of Apple either because they’ve been de-programmed out of you, or you lack the common sense to see the silliness of your ways. Either way, I forgive you and understand why you had to resort to using such a cutesy, knee-slapper of a trite phrase, I really do, because your kind really doesn’t do well in the whole “think for yourself” arena.
Love it!
I’m trying to figure out why a LINUXGUY would bother going to a Apple-centric site… probably butthurt.
LOVE IT! ;)
Gosh, you guys are freaking clever, and funny… butthurt… LOL!
No, I found this story on Google News. I definitely do not read “Cult of Mac” regularly….
You seem a little wound up. Maybe you should consider some professional help for your self-esteem issues Mr. Kettle. After all, you seem to have tied a lot of your emotional well-being into being anti-Apple, apparently as much as some who may have done the opposite.
Nah, like I said, your reactions and brainwashed viewpoints just amuse me, that’s all. It’s not an issue of emotional health, although since that came to your mind, maybe you are projecting??
Mr. Kettle — wow, you are kind of creative!
So LINUXGUY, don’t hold back, what piece of hardware are you running, at least so we can ridicule your poor taste?
Pretty much irrelevant, but go ahead, ridicule my 3-year-old PC. We, unlike you, can take the criticism.
It sounds like you’re that guy who’s never owned a Mac, this to me means you haven’t even used one. Until such time, perhaps you should stay off the Apple forums.
There is nothing to rave about Windows or Linux running on random hardware with backyard drivers.
Actually, I have owned Macs, more than a few. I had a Powermac G3 (blue and white) in college, a 12″ Powerbook, and a white Macbook. The G3 was the best out of them all, but that was from back when they were a computer company and not a media/phone company.
The only one I still own is the Macbook, but it’s useless. Absolutely slow. Maxed out at its peak os of OS 10.5, unable to run any modern applications. The battery doesn’t hold a charge and there is an unrecognized DVD stuck in the optical drive.
It barely lasted 3 years, and it was a $1200 machine. The obvious thing to do would be to buy a new one, right? By the way, I have a Thinkpad T61 from the same era that I use almost on a daily basis and is a much better machine.
So, yes, I have used plenty of Macs, but I finally saw the light and realized I was being ripped off for 1.) sub-par hardware and 2.) an artificial lifespan imposed by Apple designed to get me to upgrade on their timeline.
How do you get sub par hardware? Apple are the first to release Intel’s new CPU’s and the first to the table with most new tech. Most PC laptops, don’t get this for 3-6 months afterwards.
At the end of the day you’re actually getting a good deal, not to mention nearly all ultra books with the same specs are the same price as Apple if not more and generally speaking are of lesser build quality.
There’s no artificial lifespan, new is created and old becomes outdated, just like your T61.
$1200 over three years is $400 a year, that’s pretty good value….
Hahaha, if only you knew sweetie.
Who uses USB sticks anymore? Dropbox? OneDrive?
Typical Apple response. Tell us the technology we use and that works for us is old and outdated.
USB stick is far faster? It’s reliable? Saves bandwidth? I don’t trust or want to use “the cloud”?
You must be another form over function person. :-)
Jeez man, calm down. Dont get hurt over a new Macbook. You dont have to buy it, no one has to. There are other Macbooks which still have the USB ports. Get them. Relax.
I stopped using USB sticks long ago, they are definitely not faster unless you pony up for an expensive one, the rest are just shit!
AirDrop, SMB, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box. I have one of each and haven’t needed USB for ages…
It is just a matter of time until usb-c sticks will appear => no adapters needed anymore. Welcome tot he future.
Great, then you can use a USB-C stick OR charge your laptop.. OR use an external display.
Your lack of knowledge is shining through, how about a USB-C Hub, it’s bi-directional technology so you can charge and have something connected at the same time. Good to see you’ve done your homework.
One connector to your Apple Thunderbolt Display and you have all the ports on the back available. That is if you need them?
Great, just what I always wanted. Another adapter and a hub. Let me guess, Apple makes one of those and it’s $100?
I’m glad I don’t fall for their nickel-and-dime nonsense like you all do.
It’s called new technology, and yes you have to buy it if you want to keep up. I’m sure they’ll be third party hubs and they won’t be that expensive. Shortly there will be USB-C HDD’s and keys, it’s a natural progression.
Here’s the best bit though, you don’t have to, and to mock someone that does seems kind of pointless, I work in the industry and need to keep my skills current, that is not going to happen on a T61.
If you want to fall into the dark ages where you send your data around with a carrier pigeon, no worries, your choice.
Bagging Apple like you do also seems pointless, as per my previous, you actually get pretty good value for money with Apple hardware with a like for like comparison.
IF THE DAMN THING IS THICK ENOUGH TO HAVE USB 3.0 PORTS THEN WHY DOESN’T HAVE LEAST ONE?!?!?!?!
The usual USB ports are fat. And they wouldnt have fit the design.
A couple of USB-C ports? That would have been nicer.
That’s still no proper excuse, usability over aesthetics first. Besides if that were really the case then they would have found a way to keep the backlit Apple logo (I’m assuming it has something to do with strength/reinforcement since the glowing itself is just the backlight of the screen)
When it comes to Apple, it is an excuse.
Devices are going thinner and we have had full size USB ports on laptops for more than a decade. About time a manufacturer swtiched to a smaller USB version. If the mini and micro USB ports are good enough for phones and tablets, then laptops could do with them too.
My gripe is that its only 1 port. A couple more would have been great.
The glowing logo, probably gone with the thinning of the display assembly. No space for the separate translucent material i guess.
Yes, laugh all you want. The greatest flaw with all these devices? They have to run windows.
I won’t want one even if they could run Mac OS X. The touchpads of these PC notebooks are horrible.
I agree, the PC laptop touchpads are absolute rubbish. I repair windows all the time, I have so many more Windows customers. Once I setup a mac, I never here from them
That’s exactly why PC users need ports, I have a Dell netbook for work and while the pad supports multi-touch, it’s not actually large enough to use with more than one finger (!) so I HAVE to plug in a mouse. I suppose I could use a wireless mouse, but that would require either a USB dongle or for my netbook to have bluetooth, which it doesn’t.
Not really sure what all this is about? They’ll sell a cubic assload of them and the USB-C port is just future proofing as Apple normally do. 10GB throughput, I think you’ll find that thunderbolt and USB3 will disappear now. If you have to buy a few adapters, so be it, it will certainly last longer than any of the crappy windows machines listed here. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. I’ll be swapping out my MacBook Pro 15″ with Retina for one of these just for the portability.
Just for the portability? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, since they are BOTH PORTABLE.
What you mean to say is, you have to have the latest Apple product because if you don’t, you’ll feel left out. Admit it, it’s okay. We won’t judge you.
The 15 MacBook Pro, whilst in the Laptop Category is 2 kilos, carrying this thing through AirPorts all the time sucks. This new laptop is under kilo and weighs about as much as the Gen 2 iPad.
Out of curiosity, why do you give a crap?
AirPorts? Apple has even corrupted your sense of spelling. Good golly…
Really? You are pathetic. This was autocorrected by Apple as its one of their products. Trolling much? It’s pretty poor form that you even bother posting on an Apple forum when you use Linux and an old PC with no functionality and you openly mock people for the opposite.
LOL! One of their products. Autocorrect. Nice. Glad to know Apple has your back!
You’re the pathetic one I’m afraid, defending your precious Apple with any cut-throat reasoning that makes sense at the time. You live in a fantasy world!
People like Apple because they are well built, well spec’d machines and have great free software. Can you edit videos, use a full office equivalent on your Windows or Linux machine without buying additional software?….. No
Just because your old Mac doesn’t work now and you need to upgrade it, fuckin boo hoo.
You can’t keep a machine for ever and expect it to work with the latest software with new hardware requirements. You’re delusional thinking this about any piece of hardware.
I like Apple hardware and software as it is a LOT more reliable than Windows and their shit range of plastic crap laptops. I’ve been a Senior Systems Engineer for 14 years and I’m definitely not obsessed, but it works for me as it does for most people on these types of forums.
I think you forcing your opinions on everyone else is pretty lame. Especially when no one cares what you think….
You haven’t supplied any reasoning to buy anything else here, what’s so cut throat about it?
Please provide me another option to buying this MacBook with the new fanless Intel CPU, 12″ High Res (you don’t like the word retina) screen, 8GB and 256GB (new faster gen SSD) HDD and a 10GB USB-C port for a similar cost?
Fantasy world seems pretty good right now….
My four year 15″ unibody macbook pro is twice as fast as this thing. Guess I won’t be upgrading anytime soon. I’ll take slightly thicker for power any day.
I don’t think so… 5400RPM drive, 4GB of DDR3 and 1680×1050 resolution and 2.5 Kilos, a carrier pigeon would deliver data faster.
The new Gen SSD’s will make up for the lack of CPU in the new fanless designs.
Your power is lacking…..
Try 2.2GHz i7, 8GB DDR3, and 480GB SSD. Yeah a retina screen would be nice, but I’ll wait for the next gen pro.
It’s hard to blame them for their ignorance. Mac users are now familiar with high speed serial bus, but it’s really something new to the PC world. They can hardly imagine how a tiny whiny wire is capable to handle all the connectivity requirement.
I do all my works on an one-year-old MacBook Pro Retina, and for most of the time I’ve only two cables connected to it. One is power cable, and the other one is thunderbolt for 24″ external monitor, gigabit ethernet, keyboard & mouse, external audio CODEC, two external USB3 hard drive for TimeMachine and VM, MODBUS industrial serial controller, FET EPROM programmer, and two keypro locks. I’d love to further reduce these two cables to one, if thunderbolt is capable to power MacBook.
Yes, yes…you’ll be fine…just like you always are.
It’s all great, as long as this does not mean that apple will cancel the MacBook Pro with all of the ports that I want….If somebody wants to buy the mac book, I’m happy for them unless it means apple is going to try to make me buy it by offering nothing else.
When has Apple NOT made you buy something else?
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
DDR4, Broadwell and 15″. Then I’ll settle. Not a fan of the dongle. They could have put more c-ports in there.
Asus, Lenovo, and Dell are sad. Lenovo and Dell build absolute garbage, Asus I haven’t owned. Sure one may be a higher res, which is a complete waste of GPU and battery, and another might be thinner, but for the battery, quality, screen quality, size… basically the burrito, you can’t beat this new mac.
They will jump up and down, while we ignore them like the crazy preacher on a street corner, open the door, and go purchase a new macbook at the apple store.
Yoga makes me laugh, stupidest design ever.
A Core M processor for $1300? Holy shit. Those haswell chromebooks for $350 have faster CPUs. Apple should be ashamed.
Apple doesn’t sell their products, they let people use their products if you pay for them more than what its worth. Once you buy them, then you are their slave as long as you use them. You cannot change the batteries, cannot change the hard disk, cannot upgrade you ram, bla bla bla.. If you want to do the above things you have to take it to them. Its like we are paying them and they are giving their products to us but if you want to upgrade it, then come back to us and we will upgrade your apple product with our overpriced components. It doesn’t truly feel like you own the product, its like apple owns us through their product.
Its the same with this thing, one usb-c port for charging, connecting peripherals, etc. If you want to connect multiple items at a time time then you have to buy their overpriced extender. They took them out so they can sell them separately.
Well, it’s funny how they feel the need to compare their products with Apple’s. To me that shows a lot of envy.
And even if they get the specs right, they will be still lacking the most important feature, the OS X, which makes life much easier.
I wonder how long until the ASUS, Lenovo and Dell* start featuring terraced contoured batteries, butterfly-mechnism keyboards, haptic feedback and force-touch enabled track pads and compact fan-less logic boards. I’m guessing maybe late-2015 or early-2016? I tell ya, I’ve been watching this crap happen for years now. No floppy on the iMac? Built-in laptop batteries in the Air? 64-bit processor in the iPhone? PREPOSTEROUS!!! To all Apple-fans everywhere, don’t listen to the bottom-feeder PC makers, they’ve never had anything useful to say, and they always end up following Apple’s lead anyway. Just wait a few months and see. Hell, I still remember when we used to make fun of people with cell phones! Times change and there are those who always laugh first, and those who always laugh last.
*lol, remember back when it was Compaq, HP and Packard-Bell?