This summer I broke both my Mac and my iPhone. Yikes. I'm usually good in dealing with cracks, but both the phone and laptop were either beyond repair or way too expensive to repair. The laptop repair would cost around $700 and combined with the iPhone repair or replacement, the total cost would be upwards of $1,000. I immediately looked into ways I could get some extra hours in at work and other ways I could earn money on the side to afford such costs. Then I came back to my senses. Here I am, trying to make over $1,000 just to pay for a REPAIR and replacement, when I could get a non-Apple products (scary I know) for much less money. People become so blinded by Apple products that they are willing to shell out absurd amounts of money just to get some fancy features. Apple products do have amazing technology but when's the last time you heard someone say "I love this (insert Apple product here), it's so cheap and durable!"? Never!! Apple products are notorious for breaking, and yet we still put up with their prices - what gives? So as an experiment, I tested non-Apple products as both a phone and laptop to see if Apple is really worth the extra cash.
First off: the phone. When I say I "tested" these products, I really just borrowed my brother's and my dad's Windows phones and played around on them. This lasted a couple of minutes and already I knew there was no way I would be getting a Windows phone. I've become so used to an iPhone and its layout that I can't unlearn it. The Windows phone was confusing and foreign to me, and I wasn't about to be one of those people who's accidentally pressing speakerphone instead of Bluetooth or hangs up on someone when they're trying to pick up. So as much as I wanted to give the Windows phone a chance for the price, I just couldn't stand the layout. Nu-uh.
As for the laptop, I was already using a Windows laptop at work and I also played around with some laptops at Best Buy. While I Windows 8 was cluttered anad confusing, Windows 10 was more compartmentalized in its layout. Additionally, the specific laptops I was looking at all had touch screens which I was really enjoying and getting used to using at work. Buying a laptop that wasn't a Mac was much more realistic for me. I was still attached to my Mac, with all my photos and the backlit keyboard which was surprisingly hard to find in other non-Apple products, but I was willing to give up these comforts to save money. I finally chose an HP 15" laptop with touchscreen for around $430 and a used iPhone for around $300. So instead of getting just the laptop repair, which would've cost about this much, I got a fairly new iPhone and a brand spanking new laptop. Needless to say, I was pretty happy with myself for not getting lured in to pay all my money for Apple products.
Fast forward to now and am I still happy with my decision? Well, let's see: my iPhone has a cracked screen (I've dropped it at least a million times, many of which were on hard surfaces so it's actually a miracle it's not completely shattered. Also I don't have a case on it... I should really get a case) and my laptop is doing just fine. I love the touchscreen, I'm comfortable with the software and layout, and not having a backlit keyboard hasn't been a big deal. Yet, despite the lack of problems with my new pc laptop, I still miss my Mac. I am a humanities major so I write a lot and having a laptop I'm comfortable with is extremely important. I'm comfortable with my current laptop but there's something about mac laptops that are just so homey. I had the case for my laptop all decorated in fun stickers, I had lots of cute photo booth pictures, and the laptop was just so light and convenient. There's an inexplainable quality about Apple products that is special and almost (ALMOST) makes their prices reasonable. I felt much more motivated last semester to do papers or any type of work on my laptop. Given, I was also an eager-beaver freshman and everything excited me so I really don't think the type of laptop I had would've mattered much. But still - the laptop was lighter so I was more inclined to use it, having iMessage was always a plus, and that backlit keyboard really did come in handy at night. So while I don't regret my decision in buying a pc, there are times when I dearly miss my Mac. Times were so simple back then.
