Historically when you bought a new computer it was a no-brainer, but now that Macs are becoming increasingly popular it can be hard to decide.

We will compare the two in several different areas so that you can base your decision off qualified questions rather than what your friend said.

Being in the IT industry I must start out by saying that I will only use a PC for varies reasons, but I will do my best to stay as unbiased as humanly possible because my goal here is to give you just the facts. I want you to base your decision of the two on the facts and nothing else. I use a PC because it is a better fit for me; however, there are people out there that a Mac might be suited to better. When deciding on a Mac or PC there is no one question to ask yourself. There are several qualifying questions that will identify the right computer for you.

Mac vs. PC: Round 1!

–          Usability: This is a very simple topic. One reason Windows is credited with gaining so much more traction than Mac back in the glory days was that Windows was designed to be simple. Mac has come a long way, but here is the bottom line: Ask yourself how proficient you are with your computer. If the answer is not very, then ask yourself how long it took you to learn this much? Mac and Windows are COMPLETELY different so it would be like starting all over basically.

Mac vs. PC: Round 2!

–          Quality: This is the category that Mac often wins. When you look at a Mac the first thing you notice is the sleekness. When you hold a Mac you can definitely feel the quality. With that said, if I spent $3000+ on a PC, I could get the same look and feel. We will dive in to price later though. Several PC manufactures have very clean products that look great. HP even has a PC that looks almost identical to the Macbook Pro.

–          Hardware: In the old days Mac engineered much of their own internal hardware; however, now-a-days they are reaching out to popular companies like Intel to make parts for their computers. The quality of the Mac internals is very good; however, it is nothing special. PCs can have pretty much the exact same parts.

Mac vs. PC: Round 3!

–          Price: The Mac only has two levels: Expensive and Very Expensive. PCs have the luxury of endless options. A Macbook Pro will run you in the neighborhood of $3000+ by the time you are done getting recommended upgrades from the base model. A PC Notebook that has the exact same specifications, quality, and performance will run you about half of that. You can find a PC Notebook in the range of $400-$5000. PCs can be customized to fit the owner’s needs and budget.

Mac vs. PC: Round 4!

–          Maintenance: This round may go to the Macs (for now). Hopefully you have read my blog post on the myth of Macs not getting viruses. If you have not let me sum it up. Macs CAN get viruses. They just don’t get them very often now because no programmer wants to waste his time. Mac has maybe 10% of the market share. The programmer that is making a virus will infect a lot more people if he designs his virus for Windows. With that said, for now, Macs get far less viruses. That is really the only Pro they get for maintenance because you still need to do routine maintenance in almost the exact same fashion as a PC.

–          Cost of Repair: Yes, you may spend less on Virus cleanup, but Apple definitely makes up for it in other areas. For example, if your hard drive crashes and you need a new one installed it will run you a nice little bill of $600-$700 at the Apple store. This repair varies at the different PC repair shops, but our company charges about $180 to swap the hard drive and reinstall Windows for you. Mac has very good customer service, but it comes with a price. The other thing about Mac is that you have to have Apple repair it for you. They design many of their cases so that only the Apple store can open them. Also, in the event that you do need to take your Mac to the Apple store for repair, you may have a wait time of days before they can get to you. PC repair shops can come to you and have far quicker lead times.

Mac vs. PC: Round 5!

–          Compatibility: This round without a doubt goes to the PCs. From a software stand point there is a great deal of stuff that is not even made with a version to work on Macs. If you have a Mac you will constantly be asking yourself this one question, “Is this compatible for Macs?” Apple even realized this problem, and attempted to remedy it by making it possible to install Windows in a virtual environment so that you could run these applications on your Mac. Furthermore, many of your corporate networks will not support Macs quite as nicely. Sure you can integrate Macs into a corporate network, which is probably running off Windows servers, but it will run up your IT bill in the long run. Because Macs don’t integrate as nicely, they have more problems on the network, and take more time to setup and troubleshoot.

Mac vs. PC: Final Round!

–          Multimedia: Most people that have heard the myth before are jumping out of their seats right now and saying, “O Macs got this category for sure!” Well I hate to tell you, but that just isn’t true anymore. Traditionally yes, Macs did excel in that area, and that is why many studios use them. Now you can get a Dell XPS that has a higher resolution display, a better graphics card, and speakers tailored for great sound. Does this mean that Macs aren’t still good for multimedia? Absolutely not. This just means that they no longer have a claim to fame in the multimedia sector.

–          Battery Life: Macs come out of the box with a nice battery life that usually lasts 6-8 hours depending on what you are doing on it. Most PCs do not come with a nice battery like this; however, just like we stated above you can pay more for anything on a PC to upgrade it. You can upgrade to the 9 cell battery on a Dell to get 8 hours of battery life.

So there is it is. Now you have the facts about the most important areas of consideration. Both computers are very different so you really need to make sure you buy the one that suits your NEEDS best and not what Jonny your neighbor told you.

By: Josh Grillo