With MacBook Pros you get:

- a backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor;

- a high quality display;

- significantly better battery life than any Windows lapt I've ever seen (due in part to software admittedly);

- the best trackpad I've seen on any laptop ever (seriously... Why do Windows laptop trackpads STILL suck??);

- better graphics than much of the laptops Macbooks are compared to;

- a pleasing industrial design.

3 years ago I would've agreed. Now? The "Apple Tax" is small to nonexistent.

Upgrades are often expensive. That's still true but ever big PC manufacturer does this. Dell is probably the worst offender, offering a really crappy spec for a low headline price and then offering, say, a CPU anyone can buy for $300 outright as a $400 upgrade from a $100 CPU. And that's with Dell's buying power.

And yes I know it isn't quite that simple: Dell may have a quota of CPUs they neex to move, etc but the assertion that they charge through the nose for upgrades is (IMHO) irrefutable.