Based on the numbers provided by the keynote, the 9400M is 82% as good as the 8600M GT at best and 55% as good at worst. Looking at the numbers on the Apple website, comparing the new MacBook Pro to the new MacBook, the 9600M GT is 1.5 to 2.3 times better than the 9400M. I also looked at the benchmarks at Notebookcheck.com which say that the 9600M GT is 25% better than the 8600M GT and the 8400M is only 44% as good as the 8600M GT. So with all these relative numbers, the ranking is approximately:

If you’re not convinced, here’s the sanity check… 67/80 ~= 82%. 44/80 = 55%. 100/67 ~= 1.5. 100/44 ~= 2.3. (100–80)/80 = 25%.

So is having 1lb less weight and faster FSB and memory at the cost of having a GPU that’s 55% to 82% as good, smaller screen/resolution, and less connections worth an extra $250? I don’t plan to travel much, but when I do I like to travel light. I don’t plan to game, and I’m more likely to do more computationally intensive tasks than graphic intensive tasks. I also don’t own that many peripherals. While home, the laptop will be hooked up to an external monitor. The new MacBook fits my needs better, but the late model MacBook Pro seems to be the better value. I’ve got the money sitting in the bank. Decisions, decisions.

UPDATE (04 Jan 2009): Two and a half weeks ago, I was hired by a company as a contractor and they are predominantly Macs. The fan on my old Compaq seemed to be dying since the laptop overheats and freezes, so it had to be replaced. So I settled on purchasing a 15″ early-2008 MacBook Pro. My primary reason was lighting in the office was not conducive to a glossy screen and I got more bang for the buck with the MPB since there was very little performance advantages between the old and newer models. Then of course I hear it’s not easy to drag & drop and use graphic editors with the new trackpad. Plus I didn’t have to go through the added hassle and expense of purchasing an adapter for hooking up to my monitor. For resale value, I opted to get the 2.5 GHz with 512MB video ram for $1499 since the hard drive and memory can be upgraded later. In any case, it’s still cheaper than the 13″ 2.4 GHz Macbook. However, having traveled with this laptop to LA and back, I have to say, a 13″ version would have been more comfortable to use on the plane. Here’s hoping Apple, brings back matte screens and lowers the price on the 13″ models.

The new phone costs $40 more over the life of the 2-year contract. The upfront costs are lower. The browser speed is over 3 times faster than the original iPhone. Better features. But it still practically costs the same which, with all the upgrades, makes it a better value proposition than before.

The bottom line is that it’s an $80 per month expense. It seems AT&T won’t be providing a GoPhone option either which could have saved an additional $10–15. I wonder if you can choose an Edge data plan instead of a 3G data plan; that could be one way to save some money I suppose.

So yeah, the half-price savings is an illusion. You don’t save any money at all, but you do get improved features in exchange, and you’re not shelling out a fortune with the initial purchase.

My current plan is a grand-fathered, out-of-contract AT&T Blue plan giving me 200 anytime minutes and unlimited nights and weekends. It costs me nothing to receive text messages (which is the way it should be) and costs me $0.10 to send them. All this for $29.99, originally. Add on the $4.99 maintenance fee plus taxes and fees, and my bill comes out to an average of $42 monthly. It turns out that I average about 160 minutes per month, and that includes nights and weekends. My texting charges are all but non-existent. So it would seem I made a good choice. Or did I? Given my average monthly usage and charges, that comes out to over $0.26/minute.

The closest AT&T contract that matches my current plan is the Nation 450. That’s more than three times the number of minutes I would end up using. Plus after taxes and fees it would be an estimated $59.24. And I wouldn’t even get unlimited nights and weekends and they’d start charging me to receive text messages. If my usage stays the same the equivalent rate would be about $0.37/minute. Talk about overpaying for service!

Looking at prepaid plans, AT&T offers two types—Pay As You Go and Pick Your Plan. PAYG is a traditional prepaid plan in the sense that you refill your account as needed by purchasing refill cards or directly depositing funds into your account. Pick Your Plan is sort of a hybrid between a contract and PAYG. At the beginning of each month you’re charged a specific amount based on the plan you picked which gives you a limited number of minutes. If you use up the funds, you have the option of adding more funds to your account or waiting until the next month for the next scheduled payment. If you don’t use any funds, they rollover.

Pay As You Go has two rate plans. The first is the flat rate plan which I call the “pocket payphone” because all calls are charged at the rate of $0.25/minute. At first this looked good since I’m a low volume customer, but at 160 minutes per month, the bill would be $40. In fact, anything over 120 minutes and this plan is no longer that attractive. If you need a phone just for emergencies or as a backup, then this plan makes the most sense. The second PAYG rate is $0.10/minute with free mobile-to-mobile calls. About a third to half my calls are to other AT&T customers so I thought this would be a good choice. However, this plan charges you a daily activation fee of $1.00 if you use any voice feature (make a call, receive a call, check voice mail, etc.). Since I use my phone on average 25 days per month, any savings I get from the low per-minute rate and M2M calls are pretty much wiped out. In fact, versus the flat rate, I’d only save $6 per month. In order for you to save a significant amount of money using this plan, everyone you call has to be an AT&T customer that way you’re only charged the daily activation fee.

Pick Your Plan has four rate plans starting at $29.99 up to $69.99. More expensive plans give you a better per minute rate ranging from $0.15/minute to $0.108/minute and add unlimited minutes. Since the point is to save money the PYP 200 at $29.99 is the only one I’d consider. It gives me up to 200 minutes every month. I can refill the account if I run out and any unused minutes will rollover. Which I can use for that occasional text message I need to send/receive. Also one of the key differences between PAYG and PYP is that PYP has nationwide roaming. Since I travel, it pretty much tips the scale in favor of PYP over PYAG.

To summarize:

• Pick an AT&T GoPhone Pay As You Go Flat Rate…

• …if you don’t like being in a contract.

• …if your usage is under 120 minutes per month.

• Pick an AT&T GoPhone Pay As You GO M2M…

  • …if you don’t like being in a contract.

  • …if you primarily call other AT&T customers.

  • …you don’t use your phone daily but use it more than 120 minutes per month.

• Pick an AT&T GoPhone Pick Your Plan…

  • …if you don’t like being in a contract.

  • …if you use your phone daily and more than 120 minutes per month.

  • …if you can’t qualify for a contract because of bad credit. (The PYP 400 and PYP 650 are more expensive and have less features than similar Nation plans.)

  • …if you need nationwide roaming.

• Pick an AT&T Nation Plan…

  • …if you don’t mind being in a contract.

  • …if you want a discount on a phone. (Technically the discount of the phone is factored into the bill so in the long run it’s not really much of a savings, unless of course you find some rebate deals that pay you back like the ones available from Amazon.)

  • …if you average more than 300 minutes per month and have good credit. If you average less than 300 minutes you may be better off with a PYP 200 or PYP 300 plan.

  • …if you need nationwide roaming.

Amazon offers a wide selection of phones for both prepaid and contract service; there are even unlocked phones. Prices are low. So low in fact, you can make money through their rebates. And there’s little risk with their 30-day return policy. I had to take advantage of that when I ordered the wrong phone, and of course Amazon’s customer service is top-notch. Here’s a sampling of their offerings for AT&T. There are no discounts for the prepaid phones but you start off with $40 of airtime. The contract phones are some of the cheapest around.

My best advice is to match your usage to a plan. When going with a postpaid contract it’s cheaper to have extra minutes than come-up short since overages are charged at $0.45/minute. When going with a prepaid plan, buy as many minutes as you foresee yourself using. That way, you’ll get more minutes for the money and the chances that they’ll expire before you use them is less.