"Sheila" has a US$2,000 budget. She wants a fast processor, a big screen, and she plans to edit lots of video on it. The MacBook Pro at that price point only has 2 GB of RAM, so she ends up choosing an HP HDX 16t.

Of course, the Mac faithful are not impressed. AppleInsider describes the HP laptop's hardware as "4GB of slower DDR2 memory, a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 512 MB of video memory, and a display with a maximum resolution of 1366x768."

In addition, she may be missing a Mac alternative that would fit her budget and memory needs: Refurbished Apple hardware. Refurbed macs aren't bargain-basement stuff, but it's often a good deal. Apple provides a one-year warranty, but a three-year AppleCare plan has -- at least for me -- always paid for itself for computers I use daily for work.