[mdnky]

Not really a fair comparison. The difference between the two processors is too great, even at the bulk purchase price the manufacturers buy them for. Figure a couple hundred dollars there. You can see that on HP's own site in the difference between the 2.16GHz and 2.0GHz model (only other difference is 7200rpm vs 5400rpm drive, about $100 there). The 2.16GHz model is $2049.

The price you found on the Mac also includes an additional operating system and license, which tacks another couple hundred dollars onto it. It also has a much larger hard drive, which in the laptop world can be a considerable cost difference. The difference in RAM is at least $100 in the after-market world, about $200 in the PC BTO world. Then you have to figure in the battery life (the HP has 72% of the Mac) and weight, built-in camera, better build quality, and standard warranties offered by each company (HP = 1yr, Apple = 2yr).


(vs. 2.0 model)
From Apple's site, the same computer is $2799 (minus the XP part). Subtract $300 for the processor, $200 for the extra RAM, & $100 for the hard drive. That narrows the gap to about $500. Figure $150 for the iSight, and you're down to $350. An additional year of warranty at HP costs ??? (let's say $50). Now you're down to $300 in difference, but we haven't even considered: build quality, screen quality, "Superdrive speeds", battery life (say $37 [percentage lost in time from cost of new battery]), shipping costs (free at Apple, so another $30 at least), etc.


There's just no way to do a real good comparison given the specs. The HP is not in the same class, it's more of a mid level book vs. high-end.