Maybe I’ll need to hit a few keys to jolt it. I open up a PC laptop (any brand) and maybe it’ll come out of sleep. Even the Lenovo ThinkPads are starting to fall behind. PC laptops, in general, are just awful in comparison to a MacBook. This is mostly (but not completely) a hardware issue. But PC users who love their TouchPads would likely return from using a MacBook rather pissed off at how clunky and half-assed their PC laptop’s touchpad was implemented. The ThinkPads, however, at least have a Trackpoint which serves as a good alternative. I’ve got a lot of different laptops here and nothing comes close in this area. On the PC, the touchpad experience could be considered, well crap. Four will let you quickly go between windows and programs. Three will let you go back and forth on a browser or other app. Two fingers will scroll a page (and do so incredibly smoothly and instantly). I say well designed because I’ve found no touchpad on the PC to be remotely as useful. As a Trackpoint fan, I am surprised with how much more enjoyable and useful a well designed touchpad can be. Its multi-touch touchpad is a joy to use. PC software, by contrast, tends to be ugly but designed for maximum productivity. And, frankly, surprisingly inconsistent even as it’s slick while being inconsistent. On the other hand, Mac software is flash over substance. PC hardware is dumb, spec’d by suits and engineered without passion. Let me summarize the key difference between a Mac and a PC in my opinion: Mac hardware is sublime, designed by the best and brightest. And as I use these machines, I recognize bits of genius far beyond my capability and a lot of half-assery that is disappointing and surprising. I know how it works and truth be told, I’m pretty good at it. And both these machines rock but for very different reasons and they both suck in very different ways. And a ThinkPad T400 (Core Duo, Solid State Drive, 8 GB memory). That is, I’m the happy owner of a very new MacBook Pro.

Mac tower computer 2011