Gateway One vs. iMac

Gateway is releasing an all-in-one PC called "One".

In its official press release Thursday, Gateway said it plans ship the One series in late October with two retail models and a single online-only version. Pricing for the retail line is slated to start at $1,300 for a model that includes a 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, and Intel X3100 graphics. A high-end model ($1800) will boost the processor speed to 2GHz, memory to 3GB, hard disk space to 500GB, and add a Mobility Radeon HD 2600 dedicated video card.

The online model ($1,500) sits in between the two store models with the same hardware as the base PC save for a 400GB hard drive and Radeon HD 2600 chipset. (AppleInsider)

Compare this to the current iMac:

Apple's new aluminum iMac line starts at $1200 for a 20-inch model with a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB of memory, 250GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory. For the same $1500 as Gateway's online One model, Apple also offers an iMac with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 320GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory.

Jumping up to the $1800 price point, Apple buyers get an addition 5-inch of screen real-estate (24-inchs) compared to Gateway's high-end One model, which remains at just 19-inches.

The Gateways come with more base RAM and hard disk space.

The iMacs come with 20-33% faster CPU, dedicated graphics card even on the low-end, and a bigger screen.

And people still say Macs are more expensive than PCs?

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UPDATE

And the Gateways are easy to open(*) and have wireless keyboard & mouse.

It's not exact comparison. But the Gateways are not a better deal based on components alone. It depends on what pieces you value more and what would be more easy to upgrade if necessary.

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(*) My iMac G5 is also easy to open. Apple designed them to let users replace components (even the monitor). But subsequent iMacs are harder to work with, I hear.