Fervent Mac users are quick to say, "You get what you pay for" to justify the price of owning an Apple Macintosh computer or portable Macbook computer.

Laptops are outselling desktops like crazy right now and have been for some time – and this counts for Apple as well. Their desktop line, like all other computer manufacturers, have taken a huge hit sales-wise.

In the "get what you pay for" realm, with the Macbook line the one thing you don’t get for the money is screen size – and that matters. For many people that’s the make-or-break decision on whether to buy a laptop or not.

If you want anything over a 13-inch screen on a new Macbook, it will cost you over $1000, period.

Microsoft has capitalized on this:

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0bb6a07c-c829-4562-8375-49e6693810c7&amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion">Video: Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion</a>

BUT… and this is a big BUT…

A 17-inch screen on a laptop is just too frickin’ big for most people. Yes, the display is nice, but it’s when carrying it around that it proves to be quite cumbersome.

The be-all/end-all perfect laptop screen sizes are 14-inch normal aspect and 15-inch widescreen. There has not been a size before or since that matches up for more people’s eyes better. It’s also more portable and lighter.

Those laptops can be had for under $400 new.

That’s less than half the price of a 13-inch Macbook. Now that’s a deal.

For the Mac fans that would say, "I don’t care, it’s still got crappy Windows on it", shaddup. It’s $600 less, the screen is a full two inches larger and if I don’t feel like using Windows I can put Ubuntu on it.

The best line from the commercial above is, "I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person."

In today’s economy, nobody wants to be "cool". If to be "cool" you must shell out $1000 for a Macbook with a 13-inch screen while other makes are larger and less than half the price, you can take your "cool" and shove it.