Recently we did a review of 15″ Core Duo Laptop PC’s. We played with different features and prices for those that were easily customizable. Looking at Gateway notebooks we tried to assemble the best possible system they could offer. This is what we came up with:

2GHz Intel Duo processor,
2GB 533 MHz DDR2 SDRAM,
100GB 5400 rpm Serial ATA Hard Drive,
Modular 8x Multi-Format Double Layer DVD Writer (DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW),
15.4in. 1680 x 1050 WSXGA+ TFT LCD,
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics card with 128 DDR memory,
Bluetooth, 1000MB LAN, WiFi a/b/g,
Win XP Pro

This M465-E Core Duo notebook costs $2539.

Notice anything interesting? After today’s surprise processor upgrade, here are the features of high end Apple MacBook Pro, with 2 GB of memory:

2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor,
2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM,
100GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor,
slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive,
15.4-inch widescreen 1440 x 900 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness,
PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory,
built-in Airport Extreme WiFi wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR,
built-in iSight video camera,
1000 MB LAN port,
the infrared Apple Remote
OS X

This MacBook Pro goes for $2799. And you will probably be able to get it for $2649 from Amazon after $150 mail in rebate. Just $110 more then comparable Gateway system.

And if you add Notebook Web Cam (+$45), change Gateways RAM to a faster 667 MHz memory ($40 per 1GB module, for a total $80) you get Gateway notebook for $2664, which is actually $15 more then high end MacBook Pro from Amazon! And you still get better graphics card, better hard drive, Apple remote and OS X.

Yes, we know that we are comparing Apples to Oranges (or Cows for that matter) (pun intended) ;). But with ZDNet dudes claiming that their Dell Duo’s are $1000 less then Mac Duo’s here  and here , I think we are entitled to spin the other side of the story.