I recently compared a baseline Macbook Pro(1200$) to a Lenovo 340E($600)
The Lenovo weighs .2 more pounds but also has a 1 inch larger screen and a 1 hour longer lasting battery.
The processors are a 2.5GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 for the Macbook Pro and a Intel Core i3-2350M. I compared them on the Intel site here, http://ark.intel.com/compare/53452,53438, and the Macbook Pro processor seems to be only a very slight advantage over the Lenovo one.
Both computers have the same ram.
The hard drive for the Macbook Pro is a 500GB 5400-rpm Hard-drive Vs. Lenovo's hard drive is a 320GB Hard-Drive with a 7200RPM difference. From what I understand, macs is slightly better but it can also be up to personal preference.
I also brought the Macbook Air in the comparison ($999) and it literally gets blow out of the water in every tech spec, making it weigh so little (~2.2 pounds)
I did all this to research the computer to get for college, and when I found this out it kind of surprised me, any opinions?