I'd like to add to this. It's the little things that i like about my macbook pro. The magsafe has saved my laptop several times. Optical audio out makes music so much more enjoyable. The trackpad is easily worth 5x as much as the nearest pc laptop that i have used. The battery life is significant - around 38% better than windows 7 on mountain lion, and i'd imagine the situation is even more pronounced on mavericks.
plus the lack of pre installed spyware etc. makes everything just so much more pleasing. I haven't run a virus scan since i got a mac.
I had a 2010 MBP and the magsafe stopped power cord tripping. That wasn't what killed it though. There ate numerous millions of other ways to kill a notebook.
Buying a machine that can survive relatively extreme drops and liquid incursion (for me a ThinkPad) covers way more possibilities than a magsafe cable. In fact I've fallen over the cable and pulled it off the table a few times and it doesn't suffer any damage. I think the wrong end of the problem is saved with the cable design.
I do think the Apple hardware is beyond reproach for the most part. But it should be at the price I'm paying for it. I grab my rMBP for on the go trips before I grab any other laptop I own.
> But it should be at the price I'm paying for it.
Are you talking about the 13" or 15"? As a lifelong PC user I just bought a 13" because the comparable ultraportables costs more than the rMBP. I'm getting better hardware for less money w/ Apple. Look at the new Lenovo X1. They want $2100 for 8GB/256GB!
plus the lack of pre installed spyware etc. makes everything just so much more pleasing. I haven't run a virus scan since i got a mac.