Powered by the latest generation of Intel processors, every new MacBook is even faster than the previous generation. Right out of the box, you can have a video chat with friends... more
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1,8GHz Intel Core2Duo processor with 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz frontside-bus, 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 ram, 80GB P-ATA hard drive, Intel GMA X3100 grafic processor, iSight-camera, AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, audio output, micro-DVI-connector, incl. MacOSX 10.5 Leopard and iLife08, incl. Apple Care Protection Plan, "Please note: registration of the operating software with the entry of your personal information will invalidate the 30 day-money back guarantee. As of this moment you have agreed to the terms of Apple software license. We don´t accept the return of opened and used software!" APPLE MACBOOK AIR 1,8GHZ (order code 204032), APPLE APPLECARE IBOOK/MACBOOK (order code 163287)
A review by nickbrown60 on Apple MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz - 13.3" TFT February 15th, 2009
Author's product rating:
Speed
Very fast
Look & Feel
Excellent
Comfort & Portability
Excellent
Robustness & Durability
Excellent
Value For Money
Satisfactory
Advantages:
Very Fast, Never Freeezes,
Disadvantages:
Hard to get used to,Expensive
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Hello everyone and welcome to this review.
I bought this lovely laptop around 7 months ago. I bought it from Apple at the rather hefty price of £930! Ahhhh, allot I know but I still cannot decide if its been worth the money.
When My lovely Apple Macbook dropped on the doormat I was over the moon. It was in a stunning white very classy looking box with a picture of my dream machine on the front:)
Inside the box everything was extremely well wrapped, it was all in different sections. Inside was:
The laptop A charger An ethernet cable And all of the instructions:)
I couldn't help but notice the smell inside the box! Weird I know but I loved it..... It was like one of those new catalogue smells but in an Apple sort of way. Lovely! If you do buy one of these do be sure to smell the inside of the box.
Anyway back to the laptop.
I opened it slowly trying not to mark the lovely shiny Macbook. It is white in colour.... All white, every single part of it is white, a nice touch if you ask me, looks very clean and modern. When I opened it up I couldnt help but notice how simple it looked. For the price I was expecting a big thing covered in stickers showing off its features but nope! Just a plain white laptop.
Before using the laptop I had to charge it. The way this thing charges is amazing. The end of the charger is a flat piece of plastic. You do not have to push the charger into a little hole to start the charging like all other chargable products. The charger port on the laptop is a small magnet on the side, it just attatches with a strong magnet built of the end of the charging cable and can be easily removed. If someone in the room was to trip over the cable it would not damage your laptop at all. The magnet would just simply detatch and your cable and laptop charging port are fine! Yay, great design.
Once charged I turned it on and went through the start up process which was easy... Such as enter your name, internet options etc! The screen is very nice. Its a thin screen with a matt finish rather than the glossy like a lot of other laptops. The good thing with these matt screens is that they do not reflect in the sunlight! really handy for using the laptop in the car or outside. All colurs are great on the screen and it is fully adjustable.
The speakers built into the laptop are fantastic. The Macbook uses the apple software OSX 10.5.5 which I had some trouble getting used to but I will talk about that in a second. Anyway back to the speakers. All music is easily downloaded into the iTunes software. Most songs are 99p to download which is an okay price I suppose. I bought a 5 Pound voucher from Tesco to give it a try. Just choose the song you want, enter your voucher number and then your song downloads into your Itunes or iPod. When I pressed the play button I was so suprised by the quality of sound coming out of the Macbook. It was also very quick to load the song unlike my Windows laptop.
Now onto the specifications of the Macbook: 2.4 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo processor 2 GB ram 160 GB HDD ( Hardrive)
Now those specs are pretty good! It runs really fast and everything loads in an instant. I must say that the system loads applications and the web a lot faster that any Computer or Laptop I have had on Windows, they seem to freeze a lot but Apple does not! Honestly it never freezes. Its such a stable operating system.
Now onto the Apple Operating system ******************************************* The operating system is okay when you get used to it. When I first started on this Macbook I really did not know where I was as it is so different to Windows. The menu's and options are all totally different. When you get used to the layout it really is okay to use. Everything on the Mac is of use, Windows seem to enjoy filling their systems up with a pile of rubbish programs and trial software before selling to its customers which really is a bad thing. That is one of the main reasons that windows is so slow ( So I have been told )
The menu system is nothing like windows at all. At the bottom of your home screen is your menu. It looks a bit childish and simple at first. There is a line at the bottom such as "Safari" - This is Apples Web Browser In the world of Apple
Although the menu does look a bit childish it really does do everything that you need it to do. It is so simple when you get used to it but it will take time if you have never used a Mac before.
I just sat there...... How the heck do I use this?? repeated that all evening lol
Battery Life ************
The battery life on this laptop is absolutely amazing, the Macbook comes with a 6 Cell battery. This provides a good run time of about 5 hours!! Which is pretty huge compared to all of the laptops and notebooks I have used. Spare batteries are great. I picked a fake copy of a battery up for £24.99 and it works really good. It is easy to switch batteries by clicking a little button underneath and out pops your battery.
Now the most annoying thing I have found with this Macbook is that it is not compatable with most of the software and hardware that I use in my day to day life. Its not like a Windows where nearly everything is ready to use just by popping a disk in... No no no, not with a mac. You will have to search the web for hours and hours to find programs to run your hardware etc Its a real pain. That is why I am using Windows as my main operating system at the moment,
BUT! I have just learned that you can actually put windows onto your Apple Mac. Apparently its very easy to do but as I paid so much for a Macbook I think I will keep it a mac. Otherwise I might aswell have gone to comet and bought a 400 pound laptop with the sam - If not better specs.
The keyboard of this laptop is lovely. It is inset into the actual laptop so there is a flat plat of white strong plastic and the buttons pop out through this. Great for cleaning..... Nothing ever get stuck in between my keys. All of the keys are well spaced out and very nice to press. They also do not make loud clicks when typing unlike other laptops I have used.
The laptop has a nice 13.3 inch screen. This makes the laptop very portable compared to some and really makes a difference when travelling. The screen may be smaller than most but it is big enough. Text is displayed large for comfort and ease of use. The laptop is also very lightweight, light enough to easily carry around with you.
The Macbooks Looks: ************************ The Macbook is a real stunner. It looks so nice and elegant. I have already mentioned that it is all white.... But this looks lovely! However it does bring problems. The top cover really does show up the dirt terribly. Its very easy to clean though as it is so smoothly crafted. On the back plate of the laptop there is the rather traditional light up apple with a bit taken out of it. This seems to be the Apple company's symbol and if you ask me it makes the laptop look lovely..
Now something I have not mentioned yet is the touch pad. The touchpad on an Apple is lovely. Its a huge flat off white colour and is very smooth so its easy to run your fingers accross. There is one button on the bottom of the pad which is the click. Unfortunately on this model you cannot click using the pad itself. You have to click using the button. And no no no!! It only has one click unlike windows. I really miss having just one click as I miss the right click and copy function. But this can still be done by holding down ctrl and c.
A few more features of this laptop before I end this review. *************************************************************** There is a great built in webcam. It really is of good quality. I believe it is 1.3 MP which is okay for a webcam. I have used this on Msn and it worked well. But believe me..... Getting MSN on a mac is hard work! As it is windows software afterall
There is also a built in microphone which is very responsive. I have used this for video calls and it worked well ( So I was told:) )
The laptop has 2 USB ports Built in - Not a lot compared to other laptops I've owed but they will do.
Overall this laptop is greatly designed. It runs super fast and overall the value side of things..... I don't think I would pay that price again. Its good but im sure you could get better. But I think thats just me... I just cannot leave windows:) I have tried but I cannot pull myself away.
I hope this has been helpful Thank You for reading Nick
Advantages: Fast, robust, easy to use, extremely good value for money Disadvantages: not as many programs as windows
...and of course the glowing apple logo on the front. Another really good feature, as mentioned before is the Magsafe power connecter. Instead of having a physical latch to connect the power cable to the laptop. The Macbook uses magnetism to make a power connection. This means if you accidentally walked onto the cable: 1. Your Mac won't be pulled down as the power cable pops out. 2. You won' suffer injury from a fall. MAC OS X LEOPARD Like Microsoft ... ...around on one in an Apple store. Once you do however, you will be shocked at how you didn't switch sooner. Everything is integrated and streamlined to a point that you can get to wherever you want in one or two clicks. All your files like Word Documents, Excel and Powerpoint stuff can all be read by both iWork (read my review) or Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. So file compatibility is no issue. The issue is with programs. Your windows programs will ...
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Advantages: no viruses, looks good, easy to use, Its an Apple Disadvantages: NONE!
...but ended up back with Apple and purchased the MacBook Core 2 Duo with Intel processor.
I went for the smallest one of the 3 - only because it was purely for home use. I only use it for surfing the internet, downloading pictures and music so I did not need to much memory. Plus I have an external hardrive should I need to free up space.
The software you get with a Mac is excellent -everything is much more 'friendly' compared to Microsoft - OK, Vista ... ...all that years ago! Plus Apple have a new software edition called Tiger which comes out October 2007 which will knock socks off Vista. I Photo - the new version is brilliant - much better than the previous ones - it just gets better. You can store you photos in mini projects and flick through them when you move your cursor across the 'front window' of the project. Double click and open all the pictures - genius. You can even hide the not so good ...
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Advantages: it works unlike windows. fantastic machine. great battery life, great looks. Disadvantages: none
...it, and the people at apple certanly knew what the were doing when they designed it because its like typing on a peice of art.
And say you need to print off a document, if your printer is not wireless or bluetooth, and if it is you will find it because the range of the bluetooth and wireless outbeats anynotebook ive ever used, just plug in the printer, and it will start printing, no need for stupid instalation cd\'s so no using up your hard drive ... ...you might be scared leaving windows behind, ut even if you dont want to, mac run windows to, you can download a free progra called bootcamp from apples site which will alow you to install windows. and thats it... no leaving windows behind, but having the power of a mac.
Dont be scared, get one of these fantastic machines today, ( but dont forget to order by phone so you get them goodies!)
- Sam ...
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Advantages: Very fast and responsive, nice design, stress free Disadvantages: LCD viewing angle could be better, A little heavy at 2.3kg
...and minimal with the trademark apple logo glowing from the lid of the screen. It has kept its looks nicely and I haven't noticed it looking grubby even though its white. It includes a lot of nice touches such as the magnetic power connector, a large trackpad, slot loading optical drive and a built in webcam. This isn't what I'd call lightweight though at 2.3kg
LCD quality is good but not great. I have noticed the light isn't perfectly spread near ... ...money was buying reconditioned from Apple direct. I save £150 and the machine is no different in condition than if I bought it new.
For me I've found its really removed a lot of the frustrations I've had with my computer at home and provided the performance and responsiveness that I been wishing for a long time. After switching computers constantly trying to get something I can be satisfied with this I believe is it and should hopefully serve me ...
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Advantages: Small, well made, unix, Mac OSX Disadvantages: small screen, white key board can get dirty
...Windows is already available, because Apple only supply the one operating system, and this does impact a little on the available disk-space. Personally I think this is an extravagant way of getting a Windows PC , unless you really want that Apple style. This can however be used in a dual-boot arrangement, with the machine switchable between operating systems e.g. if you have software that only runs on a PC you can reboot into Windows mode to run ... ...but any software specifically for Apple from any source will generally be as expensive as the PC equivalent and probably available some time later, because there are fewer users of Apples (unless you run Windows on your macbook) In terms of performance it is a fast machine, with Intel dual-core processors, which can be made ever faster by doubling or quadrupling the RAM (1 GB is standard) although buying extra memory from Apple is expensive so upgrading ...
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...of its. Apple's Migration Assistant software now be able to assist users through a wireless network from the old Mac ® Express documents, applications, and System Preferences transmitted to the MacBook Air.
MacBook Air users can buy an external drive MacBook Air SuperDrive, which is a specially designed for the MacBook Air compact external drive, the price is only 99 U.S. dollars. MacBook Air SuperDrive ® through the MacBook Air's USB port power supply, so users need to carry a separate power adapter. Lot of MacBook Air users will find do not need to drive now because they can wirelessly from the iTunes ® store rental video, use the Time Capsule to wirelessly backup files, access to remote PC or Mac on the CD-ROM to wirelessly install on the MacBook Air software applications.
MacBook Air is equipped with a speed of 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz...
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...The AppleMacBook MB062B/B is executively designed for a mobile lifestyle with Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 1GB of memory, and large hard drive. It also has a number of innovative features, including a built-in iSight camera for 1 to 1 or group video chat on the go, iLife '08, Front Row, a nice 13inch widescreen display and supports dual displays. I have used Mac Notebooks before and have to say this is the most advanced and affordable MacBook. It gives you power and mobility, neatily packed into a beautiful compact design. The MacBook comes in 2 colour, white and black, I prefer the white being Apple's trade mark colour. The MacBook will keep you glued to it as you wont need anything else courtesy of built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and AirPort Extreme 802.11 which gives you up to five times the performance and twice the range of previous...
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Advantages: Beautifull design, Integrated WebCam, thick and very cool indeed Disadvantages: Lack of USB ports, no optical drive
...MacBook Air may not be too many expectations as ultraportable, but entry in the category of small-sized notebook. Can be a tie with the MacBook screen 13 "has a thickness of only 0.76 inches, suitably enough so that if Apple as a call for the notebook in the world.
Design and engineering of making MacBook Air extraordinary, to have more special product from the MacBook 13 "standard. As a note, MacBook Air only has a USB port and is not available in integrated (built-in) optical drives, FireWire, Ethernet and mobile broadband. Apple also is not complete with a media card reader and card expansion slots.
MacBook Air using IDE hard disk type Processor and Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz with the support of L2 cache of 4 MB. MacBook Air design can be revolutionary, the shape of a thin current may not understand other notebook....
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Powered by the latest generation of Intel processors, every new MacBook is even faster than the previous generation. Right out of the box, you can have a video chat with friends or family, record a video at your desk, or take fun pictures. MacBook makes it easy to hit the road thanks to its tough polycarbonate case, built-in wireless technologies, and innovative MagSafe Power Adapter that releases harmlessly if someone accidentally trips on it. Treat yourself or your friends to a show - hear music, view photos, or watch videos on your MacBook's ultra bright widescreen display from across the room. Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz - 13.3" TFT
Operating system / software
OS Provided: Apple MacOS X 10.4 - English, Apple MacOS X 10.4
Software: Drivers & Utilities, Apple QuickTime, Apple Hardware Test, Apple Mac OS X Mail, OmniOutliner, Apple iCal, Apple DVD Player, Apple Address Book, Apple Safari, Apple iChat AV, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive, Apple Dashboard, Apple Spotlight, Apple XCode Developer Tools, iWork (30 days trial), Front Row, Apple iLife '06, Freeverse Big Bang Board Games, plasq Comic Life
28.03.2009
26.10.2008
