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small MacBook review

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a new black MacBook and named him Bernard. (Why? It's in the comments thread for that post.) I bought the black MacBook off-the-shelf, walking into my local Apple Store to do so. Separately, I ordered 2 GB of RAM and a 120-GB hard drive. Installation of both was a snap. I also got a purple foofbag, which I really like. It's just a little sleeve, but that's what I want to keep it from getting damaged while it's sitting in my messenger bag.

Bernard is now my primary personal machine, and I couldn't be happier. I suddenly have wi-fi range that I didn't before. In my apartment (on the fifth floor of an eleven-story building), my old personal laptop (the last of the TiBooks) shows three or four different wi-fi networks, depending on its mood, the phase of the moon, etc. Bernard, on the other hand, has a list of 15-20, including my apartment complex's free wi-fi that's available by the pool (four stories below my flat).

I wasn't sure about the glossy screen, but it hasn't been a concern so far. I've used it in several environments: at home, on a dark plane, outside on my balcony, in various cafés. I haven't had an issue with being able to see anything on the screen. I vastly prefer this screen to the one on my TiBook. It's certainly a lot brighter.

The apps that I use the most are Entourage, Word, Safari, Quicken, Remote Desktop Connection, Xcode (just the interface builder, I'm not compiling code), and (oh yes) The Sims 2 with the University and Nightlife expansion packs. I'm not sure if launch times are longer or not, since I use these apps (aside from the game) on all of my Macs, all of which have different specs, so I'm not really used to a single launch time for any of them. I did try those apps before my extra RAM arrived, and they felt sluggish. I wouldn't dream of trying to use any laptop without at least a gig of RAM. I have run Photoshop a few times, but I cannot consider myself an expert Photoshop user. It's observably slower, but not so much that it actually impacts me. I'm not a Photoshop wiz, and I'm not doing anything very advanced.

The Sims 2 runs quite well. It's a universal binary now. It runs significantly faster on Bernard than it does on my personal Mac Mini (which is the last of the PPC minis). I do have a MacTel Mini sitting on my desk in my office, so maybe I should install the game on there. ('Honest, Roz, I've just got this game on here to compare performance ... ') Scrolling on the edges of the screen can be a bit slow if you've got a lot of objects or people, but it's never horrible. I have to admit that I've always found the ports of The Sims to run slower than the Windows versions, but I don't envy the Aspyr guys their job of getting the graphics engine to port at all, not to mention compile under Xcode.

Others have complained about heat issues or the sound of the fans. I haven't noticed anything at all. Bernard gets warm if I use him for several hours at a stretch, but not so warm that I'm uncomfortable with the computer in my lap. The fan noise has never disturbed me or anyone else.

I adore the keyboard. I'm picky about my keyboards. I touch-type 120 wpm. I'm really hard on keyboards. I type with so much force that I usually rub the highly-used letters off of my keyboards within a few months. (I've got one of the Microsoft ergonomic keyboards sitting on my desk at the office. The N and M are gone, the E and L and T are mostly gone.) There are few laptop keyboards that meet my requirements. Thankfully, Apple laptops have always met my standards. (For Windows-based laptops, Thinkpads have always had my favourite keyboards.) I haven't made a final decision yet, but the MacBook keyboard might just be my favourite laptop keyboard of all time.

I'd been a bit concerned about going from a fifteen-inch laptop to a thirteen-inch one, but that hasn't bothered me at all. The screen resolution is great, so I haven't felt like I'm missing out on anything.

In all, I give the new MacBooks a hearty thumbs-up. For the price, they're really nice little laptops. I had been hoping for a backlit keyboard like the MacBook Pros, but that's mostly because it seems nifty. I wouldn't mind a beefier graphics card, but that's only on the assumption that The Sims would be a little bit better with a better graphics card.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2006
    How does the screen hold up against dust & schmutz?

    Still working towards a 17"...if nothing else, it's the only one that lets me rest my coffee on it.
  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2006
    No issues with dust on the screen.  I did buy a screen protector for it from ShaggyMac, which also functions as a screen cleaner, so it's easy to quickly wipe off any fingerprints/dust/cat hair/Nadyne hair/whatever.
  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2006
    How do you cope without an illuminated keyboard?

    How well does Parallels run?

    Is the MacBU going to use the hybrid NAND/hard drive that MS has been working on with Samsung and make sure the next releases of VPC and Office take advantage of these technologies?

    http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/19/hybrid-hard-drives-hhds-shipping-january-faster-boots/
  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2006
    How do you cope without an illuminated keyboard?

    I've got an illuminated keyboard on my work PowerBook, and I don't really notice it.  As I mentioned in my original post, I touchtype, so I don't really need the illuminated keyboard.  I never look at my keyboard.  So I really just like the idea of the illuminated keyboard, but it's not that I actually need it.

    How well does Parallels run?

    Dunno.  Haven't installed it, and have no intent of doing so on my personal computer.  At home, I'm exclusively a Mac user.  I haven't found a need for Windows software in my personal usage.  The only reason that I'd be tempted to run Windows software is if I wanted a game that wasn't available on Mac, but then I'd be more interested in Boot Camp.  That said, I partition my hard drive (25 GB for the system drive, the remainder for my data drive, which is where most of my apps, all of my data, and my user folder live), and the current Boot Camp doesn't handle existing partitions.  

    Is the MacBU going to use the hybrid NAND/hard drive that MS has been working on with Samsung and make sure the next releases of VPC and Office take advantage of these technologies?

    It's a hard drive.  What's there for us to take advantage of?  
  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2006
    Don't you think you should try out Parallels in MacBU, considering your product VPC is a direct rival? Or by your answer do we take it as a general indicator of MS attitude to developing VPC further on the Intel Macs?

    There is a lot of use a hybrid NAND/hard drive could be put to, again by your display of lack of knowledge about it,  do I take it that MacBU does not even have this technology on the radar?
  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2006
    have you ever (offhandedly) thought about wearing cotton gloves while using your ICBM? At least it'd prevent the transfer of natural (or unnatural if you like eating pizza while typing) oil while using it.
  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2006
    Yah, I'm sure a Goddess Of All That is Good And Right (GOATIGAR) would want to wear some cutton gloves and keep her oils to herself...
  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2006
    Heh.  No gloves.  Maybe I'll wear those at the next MWSF, though ... ;)
  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2006
    You can't eat pizza with gloves, it's unnatural. Besides, a laptop's not even broken in until you start resting food on it :-P
  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2006
    Oh, speaking of food, are you going to be at the WWDC?
  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2006
    Funny you should mention that.  I just got the approval from my manager to get my ticket (as in, the email is timestamped 15:01, and your comment is timestamped 15:03 in my inbox).  So barring a major change, yeah, I'll be there.
  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2006
    I wanna go as well :(((
  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2006
    Yeah Asam, we're all bummed you won't be there.

    Sweet. I'm trying to organize a sunday cuban food lunch or early dinner with a bunch of people, so if you're going to be in S.F. on Sunday, lemme know, and I'll add you to the list. You haven't lived until you've had enough cuban coffee in your system to where you can see PHOTONS...moving SLOW!
  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2006
    I already live in the Bay Area, so unless I've got something else that the MacBU folks want me to do for WWDC on that day, count me in. :)
  • Anonymous
    June 27, 2006
    With regards to getting Windows games to run on the Mac, I believe Aspyr uses some code from TransGaming (http://www.transgaming.com/) to do the job. It's apparently a modification of the Wine stuff for Linux, and basically handles translating DirectX calls into something more palatable for OS X (OpenGL).

    It just doesn't "work" though, the TransGaming/Aspyr guys use it along with the original game source code to make a bastardization that runs under OS X, hence the slowness compared to the original Windows game; essentially the game runs thru a "filter" of sorts (But not an emulator).
  • Anonymous
    June 27, 2006
    I'm quitting trolling, I don't have any purpose to it and you all hate me anyway what ever I do so I quit. It's only made me enemies and sent be negative energy :(((
  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2006
    Um...you're surprised that being a troll didn't make you any friends?

    This would seem to be rather obvious. But if you're stopping, well good.  You may find that the "hate" was rather tied up to the "troll". If A then B, if !A then !B.
  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2006
    No, you hate me because I spoke the truth, and that's what you don't like.

    And I won't lie or sell out, so I'll always speak the truth, so in your eyes, what ever I do will be trolling for which you'll always hate me.
  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2006
    Ha! I was thinking how much of a troll Asam seemed as I was reading through the posts.

    Nice to see someone put him in his place. :-)
  • Anonymous
    July 07, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    July 08, 2006
    The comment has been removed