I hope to be reviewing Mika's new album very soon, it's camp as custard :P
I hope to be reviewing Mika's new album very soon, it's camp as custard :P
Member since:09.06.2009
Reviews:13
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Introduction
I am one of those people who can't really afford Apple products, but buys them anyway out of desire for perfection, and spends the following four years living on bare essentials. But those four years are being made bearable for me, due largely to the wonderful machine I'm typing on at the moment. I have no shame in admitting that I have fallen under Apple's spell, like a rich old man being hastily married to a buxom blonde for the contents of his will, and I'm fine with the fact that I'm going to spend the rest of my life saving for their coming generations of products because they are just about the only company left in existence that promise so much, and deliver so much more.
I bought the Macbook largely on a whim, when I decided to stay on two extra weeks in my old job for a treat at the end of six months telemarketing, and what a treat it was...
Decisions, decisions, decisions
So off I popped to the Apple online store, and I began to read through the specification options, which were fairly straightforward (bearing in mind the starting price for the basic model is £749):
2 Gigs of RAM standard, or 4 Gigs for an added £80. I opted for the 4 Gigs on the advice of a friend, who has the 2 Gigs version and told me the upgrade would be better for running games in windows (which I'll come to later). He assures me, and I can back him up having used his from time to time, that the standard memory is enough to run all the main programs very smoothly. Personally I only chose the upgrade for gaming reasons, so I would recommend the basic for anyone who wants to do anything at all besides running large games.
Hard drive space of 160 GB for standard, 250 GB at plus £40, 320 GB at plus £80 or 500 GB at plus £160. I kept the 160 GB for this, and its perfectly fine, enough to store a large music and video library on iTunes, documents and photos, and the data for some large games. However if you're planning to store a lot of mulch, I'd recommend a larger hard drive, but people usually know how much memory they're likely to need.
Keyboard and documentation language: basically you decide what language you want the documents to be in (English or French) and what keyboard configuration you want (British, US or French) any configuration is included in the price.
iWork '09: £54 to have the basic pre-installed, and £70 for the family pack. I had the basic added and its become very handy, its just like office suite but better and cheaper. You get Pages
(like Microsoft Word), Numbers (like Excel), and Keynote (like Powerpoint), and they are all straightforward and great for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, with a lot of templates to choose from. I'm not sure what's in the family pack, but can't imagine it's anything that extra special really, so I'd recommend the basic if you need that kind of thing.
All the other dirge and add ons they try and sell you: who can blame them? Some of the stuff might be useful, but I can't personally justify spending £126 extra on Final Cut Express when it comes with iMovie anyway. However if you're interested in that stuff then do research it, its obviously worth it to some people. There's also some adapters and an Apple remote that you might want, but I didn't opt for them so I can't really comment.
AppleCare Protection Plan: Gives you access to technical support and repairs. I didn't go for this, as it's covered by a warranty anyway and who ever thinks their new machines going to get broken? :P
Arrival
So you've decided what you want, and now you have to pay for it. To my knowledge you have two options: pay for it up front and get it over with, or sign up for the AFS (Apple Financing Service) and wait 3-4 weeks to be cleared, before having £30 taken out of your account monthly for the next three years. Guess what I did... thats right, my next payment is due tomorrow :P How I wish I'd stayed that extra week in the telesales office! Seriously though I would recommend paying up front, I'm going to be paying £200 extra for dragging it out, and while it was the easier option for me, I could do without the hassle of another bill to be honest.
However you decide to pay, if you buy online its going to come delivered, so make sure you're in! I missed my first delivery and had to kick myself rather hard. When it arrives, it's a bit like being drunk, so much to do, so much to see, so much all too pristine Apple packaging to unwrap. You get a laptop (surprise), a magnetic ended charging cable which I thought was just the coolest thing in the world, two different plug options for it, all the documents and discs, and a lovely little black cloth which to be honest isn't really much use. Make sure you've got some time to explore it and get used to everything, make yourself a cup of tea (but for Gods sake don't spill it), and press the modest looking power button above the keyboard.
Angelic Aesthetics
One of the first things you will notice about this laptop, is that it's very white. It's almost all white in fact, and this just adds to the immaculate impression you get from most Apple products. The casing is strong, and stays in place; I've heard of a couple of peoples Macbook's cases cracking in places, particularly around the edges and down the hinge, but I've suffered no such problems, and nor have the three people I know who've had theirs for much longer than me. I think the inside plastic composition has been changed from earlier models too, as it no longer becomes discoloured where you rest your hands or on the tack-pad. The click button is enormous, running the entire length of the tack-pad, and the tack-pad itself is blank and rounded at the edges.
Down the right hand side runs the CDslot, which is cushioned inside and doesn't need to spew out a load of mechanics for you to get your CD back, it just slides in, and slides back out again, smooth as you like. Along the left side you have all the ports for headphones, USB (x2), firewire, ethernet and something else presumably to do with video, and also the magnetic charging slot. This side doesn't look so pretty but its still better looking than a Dell :P
Finally, along the bottom is the battery, taking up a good quarter of the space, with a little turnable lock to eject it. The battery also features a small button and set of five lights to tell you how charged it is at any given time, and it also flashes when its charging, to tell you how full it is. The 'feet' on the Macbook are round and grey, and don't fall off like they did on my previous laptop.
All in all, its a sexy laptop. Plain, simple, sleek, strong and no frills needed. Unless you count the Apple logo which I failed to mention (you've all seen them), which lights up slightly when the machine is on.
The Magic Of The Dock
So you've turned it on, set up your internet and told it your name, and are ready to go. You are welcomed by the fabulous galactic background and a string of funny little icons that may make you miss the familiarity of My Computer and My Documents. But fear not, as it takes very little time to adjust to where everything is on your new machine, because it's all in front of you. I'll go through some of the basics:
Finder: The tool that opens automatically at start-up, it organises your discs, documents and applications, much like My Computer on Windows. Its easy to use, and should constantly be on, as it is also the bar at the top that controls your open windows and helps you to find things.
Dashboard: Quickly brings up a calendar, clock, calculator and the weather for you, which is handy I guess, and other widgets for it can be downloaded.
Safari: Your window to the internet. Click on it and it opens your browser window, with Apple as the default homepage.
iTunes: The all-in-oneMusic, TV, Movie, Podcast, Audiobook, Applications, etc library that lets you access and play your files, and doubles as an online store. The latest version is a breeze to use, and you can easily synchronise it with your iPod or iPhone.
Mail: You can set up an email account and easily access it here, nuff said.
iChat: Apple's version of Windows Live Hotmail, you can add accounts and get chatting, but only to your other Mac buddies. Don't fear, however, as you can download a version of hotmail designed for Macs, if you still need to, what with Facebook chat and all.
iMovie: A nifty little video editing tool. A bit difficult to get the hang of at first, but it's great for putting together home video's or stuff for youtube, and with the built in iSight camera you can record straight to the project at quite good video and audio quality. You can also add effects if you want to, but there's nothing phenomenal so don't expect to remake The Lord Of The Rings or anything, you'll want Final Cut Express for that :P
Garage Band: Now this is hours of fun! You can create your own songs, either by recording your own instruments onto it or using the preset tunes and sound effects. This is very cool, and good fun, and its free!
System Preferences: This is where you can change anything that annoys you a little bit so that it no longer does. Its a bit like Control Panel, and again its easy to use, making it easy to alter any specific things you want your laptop to do. Incredibly handy for all sorts of things, I personally used it to set up tack-pad preferences, customise the dock and manage printers, etc.
If you purchased any extra software programs like iWork, all those icons will be in the dock too, making them easy to access.
Several other default dock programs are Address Book, iCal, Preview, iPhoto and Time Machine, which allow you to manage your contacts, manage your life, look at photos and PDF's, store photos and back up your hard drive respectively.
The dock is fully customisable, so you can get rid of any icons you don't use, and add ones for programs you use more frequently. At the end of the dock you will find your Trash, a document icon that opens into a stack of your most recent documents and a downloads icon that does the same thing. These are also very handy for going straight to your documents and I probably use them more than I do the rest of the dock, with the exception of Safari.
On Safari
As stated above, Safari is the internet browser for the Mac Operating System, and can be accessed from the dock. When you turn the laptop on, it will automatically search for your router, and provided you set up your home router at the beginning, it will automatically connect within seconds of logging in. Clicking on the compass icon in the dock opens your browser after a further second or two, and you're free to go.
The interface is simple, with a domain bar, search bar, back and forward buttons, and a list of fully customisable bookmarks. The new version of Safari also features a Top Sites option, where between 6 and 24 of your most recently visited sites are shown with a preview of the homepage, and these can be locked in place for easy access. All in all, Safari does what it's supposed to, nothing less, nothing more, and is reliable and easy to use.
Performance & Longevity
I could drone on for days about the 'feel' of this machine and bore you to tears, but I'll try to be brief. Its fast. Very fast. Its as fast now, after four months continual use, a partitioned hard drive, and one heart pounding, accidental never again awful drop onto concrete, as it was when I bought it. I know I'm safe with it, and its that combined peace of mind and swift speed that for me, leaves Microsoft in the shadows. I spent the first couple of weeks in amazement of how easy it was to do things, how any job could be done once you've found the right program or application, and now that I know where everything is, it's even easier. I am yet to encounter an insolvable problem with this machine, and that's all I can honestly say. It's fast, reliable, and by all accounts will continue to be so for a number of years.
Running Windows
I always knew I would have to install Windows on my Mac. Not for work reasons, like I know many people do, but for gaming. There are next to no games for Macintosh computers, and the ones that do work don't appeal to me. I was dismayed to read reviews saying that Mac's were good for anything but gaming, but then I went to a friends house and saw her playing a full screen, real deal made for Windows game, and asked her what brand of magic she was employing. She proceeded to minimise the game, revealing something that shocked and appalled me in equal measure: the hideous Windows Teletubby Land background! There it was, Windows XP, running on a beautiful Macintosh, it seemed like sacrilege at the time, but when I decided to buy mine it became the only option.
All you need is a copy of a Windows operating system. There's a program called boot camp that should be on your Mac OS disc, and it allows you to partition your hard drive, so that Windows can run on it too. It then guides you through the set up, and before you know it you have two computers in one! You just hold down Alt when you turn it on and choose Macintosh or Windows, and you can manage the partition or delete it using boot camp or the Mac Disk Utility.
It really is brilliant, and leaves you wondering, what can't this machine do?? Windows works perfectly, the games I've installed are large in size (around 6-7GB) and run smoother than they ever did on my old laptop with Vista, and I still have my untarnished Macintosh disk in tact. I would strongly recommend this to anyone that needs to run Windows for whatever reason, and can attest to the fact that Mac computers can run Windows games perfectly well.
In Conclusion
It's fair to say that I like this laptop. Seriously, I can't imagine going back to any other laptop after this, and I highly doubt I'll need to. It's well build physically, its mechanically powerful but silent, and it can double up and run Windows as a party trick. If you need a new laptop, and you can by any means afford it, go Macbook. You won't regret it.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
(+) cool and quite robust trackpad, good display,64-bit windows 7 (-) few connectors,dell drivers only, not realy for gameing (most models), finger print prone!
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Advantages: Fresher than WIndows, Easy to use, Good looking, Nice colors, Good Value for money Disadvantages: Keyboard is not very responsive, One botton mouse
doubleheman 22.06.2008 (22.06.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Apple MacBook Core 2 Duo
Advantages: They have loads of other products to add and I can use my Iphone to controll the music Disadvantages: A bit on the expencive side but it's worth it in the long run.
Advantages: portable, runs very fast, large storage with TimeMachine application for backing up your work Disadvantages: some problems with using Safari, though this may be due to the wireless network I am using, costs!
exceptional by (10%):
very helpful by (90%):
