Macbook is fantastic. (Review)

Ok, well I've had mine for almost a week now- It is a week 31 (production), so far no moos, whines, or problems whatsoever. (I want to apologize ahead of time If you find me rambling or disorganized )

I want to start by saying the keyboard is an absolute joy to use.

This is my first mac, and OS X is also a joy to use, it makes multitasking to much more streamlined- I'm the kind of person that makes use of all the hotkeys - I'm having a great time with Expose and Dashboard.

I am a college student, and the size is wonderful- I returned a 15.4 in dell, this laptop is portable, but large enough for me to do regular activities, along with draft, and do audio work. One might think the resolution is average, maybe even low (1280 x 800) but since the screen is 13.3 in, it is comparable to a high res WSXGA (1650 x 1080) resolution.

I did try boot camp, to make sure Adobe Audition would run without any sound card issues (the reason I returned the dell). And it runs wonderfully, the 2.0 ghz processor lets me make multilayered projects and process effects on the fly without even sweating.

I need windows for Adobe Audition, Autodesk Inventor, and AutoCAD. And the macbook does it all, I'm set up to use OS X for regular activities like web-surfing, e-mail, music etc. And switch to windows for those 3 apps above. Maybe some gaming, but Ive got a desktop for that.

I uninstalled windows until I get a bigger harddrive (I'm waiting for a hitachi 5k160) And If the parallel os options gets more efficient (like gpu sharing) then I would strongly consider that option.

I had 2gbs of 667mhz Transcend JetRam left over (from the dell). I had bought the ram off of Newegg to save money, luckily the ram was compatible with the Macbook, and I had no trouble changing the ram. The machine is blazing fast.

Let's see, I was able to make use of my education discount at apple, I also grabbed the free 2gb Ipod Nano and will be selling that. I have a 20gb Zen Sleek Photo that I use. I like to carry my entire music index with me at once.

Did I mention how good it looks, the finish is beautiful, the lit apple logo is an eyecatcher, all the ports consolidated in one place is great, it is only an inch thin etc. etc. etc.

Front row is great, DVDs are great, so much to go on and on about. It has a full sized FireWire400 port, unlike the dell which has a mini FireWire port.

The only other things I could ask for from this notebook would be some sort of cardbus either PCIMCIA or ExpressCard but I can do without, the speakers are pretty weak, but still usefull- if your in a setting where it isnt quiet- they are indeed unuseable. However, the sound output- if your using headphones, external speakers or a stereo of some kind, the audio output is top notch.

If anyone has questions, I'd be glad to answer them.

 

Great review, glad to hear you're enjoying your MacBook and OS X!

It seems like the lack of expresscard or pc card is one of those things that Apple uses to differentiate the consumer notebook from the pro line, which I guess is kind of unfortunate (since there are people who only need a MacBook but would still benefit from an expresscard slot).

 

Yeah, the Full Size Firewire port was one of the bonuses for me, quite frankly these mini-firewire annoy me because whenever I get something new and it comes with firewire, its always a full size one, never a mini-firewire. Anyways because of that I have to go out again and get another mini-firewire cord.

 

I would hope they did not put in a cardbus because there was no room- rather then them leaving it out just to differentiate their product line.

 

Yeah, its because they need to somehow make the Macbook different from the MBP, if they both had ExpressCard there wouldn't be much sense paying the extra for the pro, however I guess they could have put in a cardbus, but then thats really falling into a PC side of the market where that is rampant.

 

Yeah. I think Apple still hasn't quite figured out how to differentiate their consumer and pro lines in some ways, so you do end up with these sort of weird situations where you have a MacBook that is pretty much just as powerful as the more expensive pro computers, so Apple has to use whatever other features they can to justify the difference (i.e. bigger screens, dedicated graphics, expresscard, lighted keyboards, etc.). But you end up with the consumer notebooks lacking some features (like cardbus/expresscard expansion) that can be found on even budget PC notebooks.

I think it's really been a problem for Apple ever since the concept of a "consumer" Mac laptop was introduced with the original iBook. Ever since then there's been this sort of constant issue of Apple finding ways to differentiate the consumer and pro lines.

 

HEy Congratulations on the new Macbook!

I literally just got home with my new MBP - not to jack your thread or steal your glory =) Nice review as well!

Ill post a quick pic or two i have of mine (not that we all dont know what they look like haha). Also, anyone know if you can transfer your bookmarks from a PC to mac any convenient way - otherwise Ill just start loading them into an email to myself.





Congrats again!

-c

 

Hey, I got a question, I have seen a small ipod nano sized box included under the macbook in the case in a review, can you tell me what you get like any CD's that come with the macbook or manuals that you get. Thanks!
~Arman

 

If you're using Firefox at least, Firefox lets you go to Manage Bookmarks and Import or Export your bookmarks, so that would probably be the simplest way. I'm pretty sure even if you're using IE on your PC you can export your bookmarks into a standard file that can be imported into Firefox.

Safari also features an "Import Bookmarks" menu command in the File menu that you should be able to use to import a Bookmarks file.

 

That's right, it's basically just how Apple packages the CD's you need (software restore CD's, etc.), quick start guides, etc.

 

Can you install the OSX onto a Windows Machine with the disk they give you?

 

Also do they give you ilive06 cd? If I am planning on getting a new hd like a 7200 rpm one, I want to have all the ilife06 software and frontrow as well as osx software that comes with the macbook.

 

Yes, if you get a new HD, you can use the CD's to restore all of the software (I'm not sure if the MacBooks and MacBook Pros specifically have iLife on a separate CD or not).

The main thing though is that when you use the restore CD on a new HD, it basically makes it just like how it came from the factory.

Regarding your question about installing OS X on another PC; no, you can't do this - at least not officially. People have managed to get OS X installed with varying degrees of success, but this isn't officially supported. I'm not sure if you'd need a normal OS X CD (as opposed to a Restore CD) though.

 

Not sure if you could do it with those discs, but even if you could, it is not worth your time. It will run VERY poorly since you are running a hack.

 

ah ok. Thanks, and Sorrry if I sort of stole your thread mate

 

Congrats on your macbook!

I got my white macbook for about a month now.

so far loving it (although all I do right now is surfing the web with it), so I might have wasted a lot of $$$$


but...i might start playing with garage band and imovie later

 

You'll slowly find more and more use for that Macbook, I know I did.

 

Ok, to answer a bunch of questions-
The little box underneath the macbook has your macbook/os installation cds, and a little guide, and I think the warranty card offhand.
You can't officially or easily install OS X on a pc.
iLife is on the installation cds along with optional installs like X11
FrontRow is also on those installation discs if im not mistaken. I don't know why it wouldn't be..

 

AFAIK, OS X in a compatible machine runs at native speed; there are lots of driver problems though. The Intel Macs have TPM enabled so retail/Apple supplied versions of OS X can't be installed in a non-Apple machine.

 

I have seen OS X in action on a Dell with ATI graphics. Very poor performance. Slow and lots of crashes.

 

I got a friend who is running OS X on his Dell budget laptop, he was so obsessed with getting it to work that it wouldn't recognize his video (go figure) and he searched around the net for how to get it too work.

Well, First off I can tell you that he voided his warranty doing this (nuts yeah I know) and it required opening his laptop and rewiring inside, for some reason this was suppose to make it work and it actually did.

Anyways, he claims hes poor (yeah right; should see the stuff he has) and that Apple rips people off with their hardware prices so he uses a hacked version of OS X, and love thes OS which I can't understand because it's gotta be running pretty dang slow on it.

 

I'm curious if he at least bought a legit copy of OS X?

 

I highly doubt it. The installation disc has to modified and is eradily available through questinable sources.

 

No, it wasn't a legit copy.

I got very annoyed at him for it, because I feel that Apple deserves their money for their products, because they are one of the very few companies left out there that is still committed to their customers, at least as long as Jobs is there. I really hope he gets a big say in his successor, and that his successor follows his footsteps.

Anyways, my friend says until Apple lowers their "ridiculous" prices than he'd buy one. I told him since he is using it regardless he should buy a license anyways.

 

Regarding the OS X on Windows machine:
I've tried the various hacked installs on the net on my dual core AMD Opteron 165 (overclocked to 2.4G) [arguably the first __"intel"__ 64-bit machines running OS X before the release of the Mac Pro?] over the last year.

It runs fast...

Problem is of course the drivers - USB refused to start up automatically unless I unplug and replug the keyboard and USB mouse (PS/2 fine) then it'd work, getting QE/CI to work wasn't too hard with a hack on my ATI X800 but not supporting widescreen of my Dell 24" was unfortunate, bit of a hack to get my Broadcom Linksys WiFi card to work...

Have been dual booting like this for close to a year now. Of course I do have a legit copy of OS X on my Mac... But you cannot install directly to a PC from that disk.

I think the "OSX86 community" have been looking forward to the Mac Pro since hopefully now more drivers will be released with broader options for peripherals.

[You're right Starlight, forgot the 64-bit PPC's ].

 

The Power Mac G5 was also 64-bit. So no

 

The only reason why people are still going to be building Hackintoshes after the release of Merom/Conroe Mac's(iMac,MBP,MB) is just simply that they are cheap bastards. If you are spending so much time getting an OS to work on ****ty hardware...why not spend that extra time working on a true Mac system..its not like Mac's are twice the price for the same performance...I'd say its about 10% more expensive but definately worth the price...and when vista comes out...a dual boot of leopard and vista would be killer.

 

I'm avoiding Vista at all costs

I think Apple is aware of all the attempts to get hacked OS X to work on other hardware and that leopard is going to more effectively lock out other users.

I mean Apple doesn't have a large varying amount of different hardware for their products, they could simply lock in the OS to run on certain hardware only. Like a certain model of a motherboard, certain model of cpu, certain model of audio, etc.

 

I'm considering in buying a macbook too. But what I'm worried about is the weight.

1) It looks like it's pretty heavy if you campare it to other 13,3 inch models... making the macbook not very portable...

2) I'm also wondering whether i's possible to play some emulator-games on it? I have the Mame emulator and it does have some great old-school games. Always fun to play it a bit...

3) I'm also a bit worried about the white color. I saw a macbook in a store and the keyboard began to be a bit yellow. I'm afraid that the keyboard would be easily get dirty.

- I'm stil thinking of buying a macbook or a sony sz2 or an asus w3j
It's very very hard to decide!

 

I think what you need to ask yourself is if you wanna use OS X or not, in the Apple portion of the forum here the regulars realize that most questions in here come from possible switchers, and when these users end up finally switching we see never but raving reviews from them and their newly annouce love for OS X.

5.2lbs really is not that much, plus when you carry one around its most likely in a backpack or in a bag around your shoulders (I personally recommend backpacks that have notebook slots in em).

I don't know the specifications of those two other notebooks, but it really comes down to this. Sony has a decent reputation and Asus has a great one for the quality of their stuff, but Apple stands next to Lenovo in terms of quality.

One other point I like to bring up which I believe is important is to understand that OS X has different system requirements need to run fast and stable, and the requirement is less than Windows XP so really comparing the Apple notebook and PC notebook is pretty dumb in terms of specifications, you should only take that specification into account if you're going to soley run Windows XP on the Apple notebook, other than that try not to pay attention to it.

I own the Macbook 2.0Ghz model and I love it, I had three other notebooks prior to this (all PCs) and the Macbook stands above them all. The only other notebook I've seen that has the level of quality Apple does is Lenovo, and certain HP ones (business class).

If you have any questions at all a great thread to check out is this one

There is currently companies still designing products to protect the white macbook, and some already have some out. I have the InvisableShield thats in the link above, and after a month of use I found the sheild to turn a bit yellow, but the underlying Macbook is still white as new. It was a good investment in my eyes.

The emulator games should run fine on the MGA950

 

Many people think my argumentation for eventually buying a macbook is strange. I'm a windows-user and I don't have any plans for switching to osx nor have plans to not switching to osx. I like using the macintosh A LOT MORE then windows when making graphic designs like photoshop, quark xpress, illustrator etc... But I have 2 other desktops on 2 different locations which are windows computers.

In my future job, journalism and/or graphic design, they all use macintosh laptops/computers. So, when I would work there, I just need to plug in my laptop and I'm logged on into their network. Compatibility is that way very handy. Also, when I have to go to different locations, it's pretty certain that one day I come across with mac-files, so it's handy to have a mac and windows compatible laptop with you.

I like using mac os but also windows. I'm used in using windows, although I know their flaws, I can handle them because many problems are the user's fault, and not windows'.

 

Actually I think that is a decent idea, as long as you are not going to use Windows 90% of the time. I see no reason to go Apple and use OS X 10%. Here is what I would do if I were you. Use OS X mainly (trust me you will want to forget Windows after having the ability to use OS X everday) and then use Windows through parrallels not Boot Camp. Then get something like MacDrive for your other computers if you want to share files and you are set. And don't worry about being used to Windows, you sound like a younger guy so learning a new OS will take you all of a few days.

 

here's the catch: yes, I think I will use windows more then mac os. Simply because I don't have the intention to switch or not to switch. What I just will do is do my work on it like I would normally do. Many people keep saying me to buy a windows laptop then, but I would like to use photoshop etc in mac os. Simply because it's better on mac os and, like I said before, to log on to future mac-networks. If a windows laptop could handle mac os, I think I would rather buy a windows laptop. But since it's not like that + macbook has got a nice design + durability, I'm more in buying the macbook.

 

What programs will you be using Windows for?

 

I know there are many mac-variants out there for almost each program, but I have so many programs on my HD, small ones too and you can guess that it's for me very hard to learn each small piece of program. Like I said before, I would just use windows because i'm used to it and use mac os when I'm about to layout or design something.

I also think that it's much easier to find software for windows on the internet for small problems. e.g. mp3gain to normalize the volume of my mp3's. Also my friends all use windows so it's easy to exchange stuff with them.

But the most important thing is when I want to exchange things with my desktop computers or to continue work on my desktop that I started on my mac. For native file formats

 

I'm guessing that English isn't your native langauge. If it's not then I applaud what you have written. It's pretty good. That being said...

I agree with you one-hundred percent. You can't ignore the Windows part of life when you are in the business of working with company distributed machines and most everyone else using the MS operating system.

Your plan sounds perfect to me because I'm in the same situation. I got a Mac as a toy because the people I DO know that use them rave about the OS...not the machines themselves.

Everyone I know that uses a Mac...let me say that again...EVERYONE I know that uses a Mac has to deal with a Windows environment in real life somewhere. It will always be a benefit to know and use BOTH in the real world.

Whether you like OS X better (FWIW...I do) or not, you CAN'T ignore Windows when it comes to business.

I'm not flaming the Mac fans here...far from it as I have one and love it...but real life is real life and Apple will never have a major share of business applications.

 

You don't know what might happen, when bill gates leaves for all we know it could start going under, as well as the possbility for anything else. Apples market share has been doing nothing but growing.

I mean if the Roman Empire could fall so can Microsoft, and that applies to any company.

 

Yes, I agree that "never" is too long. OTOH, I wouldn't like an Apple monopoly anymore than I like the present Windows monopoly. I agree with cashmonee as well, Paralells (or VMWare, since they are working on VMWare for OS X - yay, about time too!!) would be better fitted.

 

my engish is indeed not my native language. When I'm typing english, I often don't think about my phrase structure

Well, it seems like you understand my point. It's possible that I will mac os on my macbook all the time because I only use the macbook on the road and not at home. Besides, the usual programs like office or photoshop can open mac- and pc-files