Eventually, My Macbook
Finally, I can put up my report on the Macbook. After some issues with the display and the correct color schemes, I am now typing on a brand new Macbook Late 2007. Compared to my older Powermac G4 (I found a promising new owner for it), the new Core 2 Duo processor (Santa Rosa chip, I hear) runs amazingly fast. Today’s review is dedicated to everything that is related to my new Macbook. For a Leopard review, check back next week.
Bear in mind that I skipped 2.5 processor generations, so my being amazed in terms of speed is caused by that fact. Frankly, I imagined it to be even faster in daily tasks, but one feels the “real power” when running intense, power-guzzling operations (these include iPhoto ‘08 imports, editing and filing of huge amounts of pictures…).
Macbooks have been growing to an attractive product in recent years and that’s why I finally ordered it. A couple of years ago, I would have never purchased an iBook because of my advanced needs. The power of this year’s Macbook basically covers editing in Photoshop, doing web design and extensive blogging. The price of 1.2k Euros seems quite reasonable to me. If you are bound to Mac OS X, it’s probably one of the products whose price/performance ratio is close to perfection. I didn’t want to pay for the syllable “Pro”; in my opinion it isn’t really worth it bearing in mind that I will probably want a new handy device in a couple of years. A Macbook for students is therefore highly recommendable.
The quality of the Macbook is surprisingly good. There are no loose plastic carbon covered parts that bother and bug people like me. That’s good news, because there are still numerous people out there who associate something cheap and sloppy with a the Apple’s consumer products. The iBook is indeed the Macbook’s evil twin , man, I didn’t like iBooks either!
Apple’s in-built keyboard used to be somewhat of a pioneer and I hardly hear voices who despise the new typing experience. I realized that you had to hit the notebook’s types harder compared to the external USB Apple keyboard that I got a month ago. Once, you start using those flat keyboards, you will hate every minute of using regular ones.
As you can see in the pictures, I have a nice set up: Apple USB Keyboard, Logitech Mouse and an Apple Display connected with my notebook. I basically got the notebook for mobility reasons having university in mind. Yet, I didn’t want to give up on my 20″ Cinema Display and my external keyboard. I am just not used to writing on a notebook, ergonomically I prefer the external keyboard to the in-built one.
And the 20″ display leads us to next point. The glossy screen. Love it or hate it, Apple does not offer an alternative. Some think this is a huge mistake and some just love it. I have to admit, that I am not a lover nor a hater of the glossy screens. It is true that the color displaying is not accurate enough when it comes to design. There is no doubt that it is saturated. Watching a DVD or running a photo slide show you will not have to worry about the color saturation. In cases where your screen shows dark tones you will love the glossy screen because normal screens do not display those dark colors, they rather appear washed-out.
For designers and picture editing the new screen can turn out to be a fatal flaw. Using my Cinema Display as an external screen (with an mini-DVI to DVI adapter) I have no problems optimizing colors. Now you see why I didn’t give away my 20″…
Buying the late 2007 edition you will get an all-round package for university needs (word processing) and your private life (pictures, movies, music and internet matters). Front Row is one of the things that I just love. Watching a DVD on either the Cinema Display or the Macbook’s display is so comfortable you don’t have to jump up to turn the volume down, hold for a pause and remote control actions. Keep in mind that the remote control functions can be extended with iRed Lite for example: Powerpoint presentations, VLC, …
The in-built iSight camera is fun to play around with. I could spend hours applying Photo booth effects on pictures of me and friends. A friend I skyped with said something like: “Wow, pixels are like non-existent.” So if you feel like skyping up with me, give me a call. Leopard’s iChat, I can give that away from my Leopard review, has extremely useful features, that I can’t wait to try. Too bad that most of my friends are not running Leopard. Bummer.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is pre-installed. I just added 2 GB of RAM (Europeans, go buy at dsp-memory.de) because I sense that Leopard loves having tons of resources to waste use. I am not quite sure where this whole glossy, transparent and blurry graphical user interface is taking us (obviously it takes us to the computer store to buy some more external drives and memory). Speaking of external drives: I haven’t had any experience thus far with Time Machine (an easy-to-restore application built into Leopard that takes you back in time, hence the nomenclature). I might get an external drive for Christmas because using a notebook - something mobile, something drop-able, something that can slip, fall, break, crash and burst into flames - can turn out to be risky business, so I figured that I want my backups to be safely stored.
In addition to RAM, I ordered a Belkin USB 2.0 Port. Plugged into my Cinema Display’s USB it offers 7 ports, supplied with an external power source. Last but not least, I have that all-new case: Black outside, how classy; compellingly flash green inside, how geeky.
For more pictures follow me to the gallery: Macbook Shooting.
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- Date · December 2nd, 2007
- Categories · All Posts, Everything Tech, Gallery Posts
- Tags · apple, belkin, colors, front row, leopard, mac, macbook, remote control, review, student
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haha, you are so obsessed. But that is completely true about flat keyboards vs the normal kind. I can’t stand the other ones.
oh it’s just an obsession for 3 days or so. it’s the excitement,…
All I read was: Macbook blah blah blah good blah blah macbook blah blah. :D
Haha.. Just kidding, good review, and congrats on finally get it.
Nice setup you’ve got going btw.. I have a great display (Samsung 226BW), now if I can find some money to update my other hardware, I’d be set.
Look forward to reading your Leopard review, but I hope it’s not a comparison with Vista.. :P or else…(It’s going to spark another long conversation…)
Well, maybe I said Macbook blah blah good because IT ACTUALLY IS GOOD :)
The Leopard review is going to take a little longer. Since I am experiencing the buggy part of Leopard since the weekend. I guess I installed something that the whiny cat doesn’t like.
Hi! You mentioned that you had some “minor challenges” with the viewing angle on your MacBook’s screen. Did the replacement do much better? The reason I’m asking is because a while back I bought and later returned a MacBook due to the viewing angle. I chose refunds instead of a new one since I didn’t know if the problem would be gone with a new one.
Martin, welcome to my blog. I asked for a new replacement, because I was afraid that the repair would take too long for me. Apple sent me a new Macbook and picked up the old one. The new Macbook doesn’t have that sort of defect.
The problem with the older one was that the viewing angle was too small, so when the colors on the top of the screen were perfectly fine, the bottom showed some black tones inverted. That wasn’t satisfactory.
Within the first 14 days after the delivery, they replace it with no questions asked. Whenever there is a problem, I’d recommend calling Apple Care to ask for your options. Within 1 year, they can repair that easily and don’t make tantrums (unless it is your fault)!
I returned my MacBook within the 14 days from the purchase, but decided to ask for a refund instead of replacing it with a new one, and do some more research and comparison. There seems to be some variation in display quality with the MacBooks. Some are bad, some are good.
For me it was the other way around. When the colors on the top of the screen were fine, the bottom was way too light. Flipping the screen until the colors at the bottom became acceptable yielded this “negative black effect” at the top.
Martin, due to the fact that I got a new Macbook without the same defect, I’d recommend ordering a new one. The chances to get another defect product are minimal. I also thought about the refund option, but I really needed the product.
Well, I also googled for the kind of problem I was experiencing, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else out there. So I sympathize with you and wish you good luck for getting a beautiful and working Macbook. Let me know what you are going to do now!
nice one :-D
I’m still working on setting up “your” powermac, but i’ll be fine soon :-)
have fun with your stuff!
That’s good news! Even so, I think I will hold off until after MacWorld 2008. Rumor has it that Apple currently is ordering large amounts of 13.3″ LED-backlit displays - maybe for the MacBook or a new product line?
Martin, the new sub-notebook sounds promising. However, I don’t think that this will be arranged between the Macbook and the Macbook pro. As I wrote above, I wouldn’t want to spend that much money on a mobile device.
Finally, it depends on how much money you want to spend. Isn’t that the omnipresent question when buying at store.apple.com? :)