The war between fans of PCs and fans of Macs has been almost as longstanding as the two companies have co-existed. Despite the number of die-hard fans on both sides, there remain a large number of people who are either undecided or who genuinely don’t know the difference between the two.
Without getting too technical, because the actual programming for the two machines is considerably different, this article will attempt to outline some differences between PCs and Macs that may be of interest to consumers.
The first difference one might notice is the price tag. Even the cheapest of Macs is pricey compared to mid-grade PCs.
However, to say that in a true comparison Macs are more expensive than PCs isn’t completely fair. Apple boasts that Macs use higher quality components, and are generally built for top performance, which means they generally have top of the line processors and more expensive parts.
Finding similar specs in a non-custom-built PC can be a challenge, and even if you could compare a Mac and PC with identical specs, the pre-installed software often differs greatly, and depending on the machine’s intended use, may add or subtract from the cost on either side of the equation.
Comparisons aside, the fact remains that if consumers have a tight budget, they will likely find that Macs will be out of their price-range, though it is important to note that in recent years the price gap between main-stream Macs and PCs has been slowly closing.
Another major difference between Macs and PCs is their performance. Since Macs traditionally have top quality components, you might assume that they would be superior in every way to PCs. This is not always the case, however. While Macs usually have faster processors, they also tend to have smaller hard drives, lower ram, and until very recently, were not very liberal with the number of USB ports available, and also tend to lack increasingly necessary HDMI ports.
However, one area in which Macs have long been considered superior is graphics. Everything from watching videos to designing graphics is easier, smoother, and faster on a Mac, thus the apple machines have long been the choice of graphic designers.
The final major difference between Macs and PCs centers around design, availability, and choice. While Macs have always focused on having a more unique design than the often-times generic-looking PCs, PCs have more customizable options available, especially to those who are building their own, or employing a company that specializes in custom-built PCs to build one for them.
Additionally, for consumers wishing to actually look at and touch the product before purchase, they will find that PCs are available at a far larger number of retailers than Macs are. Lastly, when comparing Macs and PCs, PCs tend to have a line of models for anyone: the web-surfer, the gamer, the file hoarder, etc. Each line has its own strengths, weaknesses, and vastly varying price ranges. Macs, however, offer a smaller number of lines, with only slightly varying specs and price tags.
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