Let me first start off by saying that the Macbook is my first ever laptop and that I have not owned an Apple computer in probably eight years. I have decided to go for “the switch” because of numerous problems with Windows computers and the fact that Windows Vista does not look like a very attractive purchase.
ShoppingMy trip to the Apple store was surprisingly painless. Usually when I am in there, the place is packed and I am struggling to find anyone to talk to. Since it was a Tuesday night it was only moderately crowded and I found a Mac sales person right away. The sales person who helped me, I think her name was Carol, was the nicest person in the world. She was probably in her sixties, but was very knowledgeable about what she was talking about. Being that she was a super nice cute old lady who was into tech gear, she could have probably sold me a broken laptop for $1,000 and I still would have bought it. How can you say no to a senior citizen, let alone a tech’d out one? In all honesty though, she was really great and didn’t try to push any sales on me. She even explained how the store didn’t do student discounts for iWork, and that I could get the student discount online for the software. I was very impressed when she said that to me. She could have easily just thrown iWork in the bag when I asked for it and not have mentioned a thing. She was also great about letting me know to look for 14” or 15” bags to fit the Macbook and that my best bet would be to go online to search for a bag.
I ended up buying the standard spec 2.0 GHz white Macbook with Applecare, a .Mac account and a keyboard cover to protect the screen. I will probably order a bag and iWork this week online. Overall the experience was extremely satisfying. I was not pressured or hounded by sales people (like at Guitar Center) and I was not pressured into purchases. Honestly, it was one of the best buying experiences I have ever had in my life. Everything was painless, the people were nice and informative, and I was out of the store in about fifteen minutes. Total cost with my student discount was ~$1500.00.
At HomeWhen I first opened the box up the packaging was very nice. Compact without wasted space and without any excessive, extraneous packaging. I'm a minimalist so that put me in a good mood right away when I didn’t have to wade through four layers of plastic wrap just to get to the laptop.
The Macbook is heavy, a lot heavier then I initially thought, but that just adds to the feeling that it isn’t cheap. It doesn’t have the dead weight sort of heavy, but instead has the tight compact sturdy heavy feel. The casing feels very solid and I have a good feeling it can take quite a beating. Although beautiful, the case is a fingerprint magnet. Not more then five seconds out of the box did I find a cat hair on it, and hair and dust stand out like crazy. After placing it on my desk I noticed all sorts of stuff on the bottom after I picked it back up. I know I will be buying a nice cloth to incessantly polish this little beauty.
Since this is my first laptop it is going to take me some time to get used to the keyboard and the track pad. I am used to my finger placement of my desktop keyboard and the Macbook has a completely different feel and placement. I actually had to look at the keys to type. The keyboard is very nice overall featuring some great feel and response. While the outside case has a clear glossy coat, the inside and keyboard has a matte “textured” finish which really feels nice on the fingers. I love how the keys have no spaces in-between them saving me from getting dust and crap in there.
What struck me the most when I was setting up the laptop was the little details that don’t functionally add to the machine, but in the long run just make it easier to work with. First off, the charger is designed really well. There is nothing I hate more then power adapters that have six feet of cable, then a huge converter block in the middle, and then another six feet of cable. They are clunky, inefficient and just look bad. The Apple adapter is right on the plug and has about a 4-5ft cable with an extension you can add on if you need. The charger also has little clips on it so you can wind up the chord and neatly clip it so it does not get tangled. Thank you Apple for not forcing me to use a ten foot long ugly cable. Awesome!!!!
Another feature that I really liked is the non-intrusive lighting and extras. The LED lights for the “caps lock” and charger for example are literally the size of a pin head. They are very bright and I can easily see them nicely in a fully lit room. What is even nicer is that the charger light is actually on the charger, and both LED’s are almost invisible when they are not on. The last thing I want is a 20,000 lumen searchlight telling me my “caps lock” is on. There is a very nice white LED light located on the front of the Macbook that lights up when I close the lid. I presume this is telling me the Macbook is on and in sleep mode.
The iSight and mic are also extremely small and non-intrusive. You can barely even tell they are there on the lid and to be honest it amazes me that they are as small as they are. The mic hole is nothing more then two pin holes on either side of the camera. The camera itself is probably smaller then the head on an eraser and is barely noticeable. The track pad is also very large which is a blessing compared to the little 2”x2” pads I have used on other computers.
Overall the screen is super crisp and is actually a lot bigger then I originally thought. Working on the screen is a breeze and text in most instances is plenty readable. I found while surfing the net the text does tend to be a little small. I’m sure I can adjust this somewhere, but it currently is not a painful experience.
SetupSetting up the computer was just as easy as Apple claims it to be. You turn it on, it runs you through an introductory wizard that lets you setup your internet and email and you are off and running. The whole process was painless, very easy and took probably ten minutes. I was able to connect to my wireless network right off the bat.
After the first startup I had to run the obligatory software updates. Unfortunately, there appeared to be almost 1 gigabit worth of updates to download, and it took about two hours to download everything and install it. No problem though because I was able to meddle around with all sorts of other things in the meantime.
Let me say right now that the laptop is very fast and runs very smoothly. I was running all sorts of iLife programs while surfing the net and playing with system settings while the updates downloaded and installed. I have to say that the programs loaded up super quick. It was almost like my Palm PDA. I clicked them and they just simply opened up as if I had just resized the window.
Temperature/Noise/Screen/Etc.TemperatureI know a lot of people were concerned with temperature on the Macbook Pros. I was on my Macbook for about two hours straight setting it up. It definitely got warm, but did not get painfully hot. I would assume this is within spec.
NoiseNoise wise there was an ever so slight hum, but this certainly did not sound anything like the whine other Pro users have talked about. It is probably a million times quieter then my old desktop, so not complaints there.
ScreenI have not noticed any lighting or color irregularities with the screen as some Pro users have complained about. The screen is super crisp and I like the glossy finish, but I can see how glare might be a problem outside.
Gripes.MacI setup my .Mac account and I seem to be receiving email fine from it, but whenever I try to send email it always times out (error 2500 I think) when use Mail. I’ll have to figure this out later. I don’t know if it is my wireless network or .Mac
SpeakersThe speakers really aren’t that great. Then again this is a consumer laptop. I’ll have to test out the headphone and audio outs at another point.
SuperdriveThe super drive is surprisingly loud. It sucks in the CD, eating it, and then screams when reading the CD. When you are sitting at your desk at 11pm at night in total silence you would think the thing is going to wake the dead. I suppose though with so many moving parts on those drives there is only so much you can do. I would suspect the noise seems amplified because I am used to a tower that is sitting three feet away and has casing around the drive
iChatIt seems that iChat cannot have multiple chat accounts open at once. I can only have my AIM or .Mac open, not both. Bummer.
HarddriveMy purchase came with a 60 GB HDD. I don’t believe I will fill this up anytime soon, because my old 40 Gb Dell only had about 20 Gb on it. Unfortunately it seems that about 23 GB are taken up by the OS and the system right out of the box (after updating). So basically I am starting with a 40 Gb harddrive, not a 60 Gb. Carol at the Apple store did say though that the harddrives are user replaceable and that I could even hook the old one up via firewire or USB if I wanted to. That sort of surprised me and seems interesting but I haven’t looked into it at all.
OtherWhere is the fan?I noticed that there does not appear to be a fan or any heat vents on the Macbook. I presume the heat dissipates from underneath the keys?
Where is the “cmd” key?I always thought Apple’s big thing was with the “cmd” key instead of “cntrl”. There does not seem to be a “cmd” key on the Macbook. I have a “cntrl” and while playing around it appears it acts as the key for right clicking.
Tiny ManualI really got a kick out the manual. It was soo tiny and was actually a very easy read. My girlfriend will like this. It had everything to get me up and running and then the detailed stuff in the back for more of a reference option.
OverallOverall from my first 2-3 hours of use I am very pleased with my purchase. I was initially expecting to pay $1499 for the specs that I got, but Apple released them at $1299. After my initial impressions with everything so far I personally could easily justify paying around $1700 base for what I got. I know people have complained about Apple’s prices, but for me the little things Apple added really make it worth it. A $599 Dell just does not have the same keyboard feel, build or little design influences that make the Macbook (in my opinion) just more comfortable to work with. Since I am an environmentalist snob too, the very efficient packaging made me very happy as well.
I feel myself very hesitant however with the computer. As I stated at the beginning I have been a Windows user for the past eight years and over that time I grew to know all of the little ins and outs of the system. Now with OSX I am a total “noob” again. I don’t know how to change settings, configure programs or even what is really going on when I install a program. Just the simple things like how the window’s maximizing/minimizing behaves is going to take some getting used to. The workflow in general seems to be very smooth and I am honestly looking forward to “de-geekifying” myself. I have grown tired of the endless configurations, optimizing, spyware, etc. of Windows.
Tonight I have to run the battery calibration, and I hope to get some of my basic applications up and running, but I will hopefully post up some opinions on the iLife software (particularly Garageband) and any other thoughts that come to my mind. If people have any questions feel free to comment and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.
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Apple Macbook impression
