ASUS & Compal are worthy competitors (Score 1)

ASUS and Compal have their own laptop lines that are well-reviewed, have excellent build-quality, and are on the same feature-level as the MacBook Pros. The new ASUS G1/G2, A8, and F series as well as the Compal IFL90/IFT00 notebooks have Santa Rosa with nVidia DirectX 10 graphics--and can be configured for at least $500 less than the equivalent MBP. Take for example http://www.powernotebooks.com/: Their Compal-based "PowerPro J 10:15 ULTRA" has higher resolution than the mid-range MacBook Pro, 512 MB Video RAM, and a 3-year service warranty, but comes out $500 cheaper.

The usual response to this point is that Macs are so beautiful that it transcends all criticism from these irritating numbers.