Apple MacBook Core Duo 1.83 GHz - 13.3" TFT

...I ended up at the Apple Store (now called something weird like KRCS) looking at the beauty that is the MacBook, and that is how I ended up spending a small fortune on this stunning machine. The laptop itself costs £750 although because I dragged my Dad along I managed to make a discount, this being because he is a teacher and teachers get discounts for some reason.

In Box
**********

As I was presented with the ...
...on the lid is Apple's Apple which lights up when the laptop is on and just adds that little something to the whole appearance. Also in the box you will find the charger, a remote control (how many computers have you owned with remote controls?!) and the guide - but let's be realistic, who is going to read that?!

Setting Up
**************

I couldn't wait to turn it on, plugging it into the charger and pressing ... more

It's now well over a year since I got my laptop, I know it pretty well so I guess it's time I let you all in on one of my favourite possessions. Now before I even start let me apologise in advance for my lack of techno knowledge, if you speak technology as a second language then you may well find my review tiresome as it won't be adequate for the information you are desiring from a computer review, I'm sorry. However I'm pretty sure the majority of Ciao are probably more like me technology wise, so I hope it all helps.

Last year it seemed to be decided that I was going to buy a laptop, this had been something I had been considering for a long time, but suddenly I had my parents support which made the whole thing a lot more real, however my parents told me that I couldn't buy one until I had finished my GCSEs, which was probably a very clever idea as let's be honest, laptops can be very distracting when you are supposed to be working on exam revision. I had my last exam on the 15th June, which was quite early compared to most of my friends, and a day I loved (no more exams!! Well I though that at the time, then along came AS exams), so the following Saturday I trotted off into town with my Dad off to the "Apple Store". I must say I didn't do much research beforehand, I went onto a few websites, understood very little, so much RAM, so many bites… means nothing to me, then went onto www.apple.com/uk and fell in love with the MacBook, and once I'd fallen in love nothing could tear me apart from it. This is why I ended up at the Apple Store (now called something weird like KRCS) looking at the beauty that is the MacBook, and that is how I ended up spending a small fortune on this stunning machine. The laptop itself costs £750 although because I dragged my Dad along I managed to make a discount, this being because he is a teacher and teachers get discounts for some reason.

In Box
**********

As I was presented with the stylishly clean white box containing my monster a huge smile spread across my face, one that didn't leave until many hours later, I couldn't wait to get home and play with my new toy! Opening the box was a pretty special moment for me, I removed the pieces of foam covering and revealed the beautiful machine, and it certainly is beautiful. The design is modern and smooth, it manages to include clean lines and yet be rounded and smooth, the white casing is shiny and simple, stylishly understated, on the lid is Apple's Apple which lights up when the laptop is on and just adds that little something to the whole appearance. Also in the box you will find the charger, a remote control (how many computers have you owned with remote controls?!) and the guide - but let's be realistic, who is going to read that?!

Setting Up
**************

I couldn't wait to turn it on, plugging it into the charger and pressing the on button, which feels nice with it's satisfying click. Setting up was very simple, it took a matter of minutes and was so easy, you were guided through every step and when you chose your language and connected it to the Internet (or not, as I didn't have an internet connection at the time) there is no need to download ridiculous amounts of programs and operating systems, these are already on the computer, as soon as you have sorted the language and stuff you can just go and start enjoying the machine, if you've seen the Mitchell and Webb adverts where they say how you can use the Mac straight away, it isn't an exaggeration.

Included Software
***********************

The software included is amazing, there are so many different applications, some which I didn't find until many months after having the machine. With this machine I discovered iTunes, having not owned an iPod the first time I had seen iTunes was actually the day before I got the laptop when I saw it on a friends computer, the first time I used it was when I got my laptop, compared to Windows Media it is a fantastic piece of software, so easy to use and amazingly quick to search for certain songs, I loved it so much I was quick to share it with the PC downstairs and now the whole family are iTunes users.

Also on the laptop is a copy of the Oxford American Dictionaries, this is an amazingly useful resource, I have in my room a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, however this is much quicker to use, just type in your word and it follows you as you type each letter, if you have used iTunes, the search feature is basically the same as that and almost as quick.

If like to mess around with music then you will love GarageBand, this software allows you to record music, play about with it, and then lets you publish it as a song in iTunes which you can share with your friends.

Other applications like iMovie and Comicbook are good fun, iMovie is used to edit films, home videos, more complex pieces, we use this software at college for our Media work, so it is great to be able to work on that at home if needs be, you can then burn this work onto a DVD using iDVD, however you need a DVD burner for that and I don't think this computer has that. With Comicbook you get to create a comic book surprisingly enough, you choose a page format, then put in pictures which you can edit into a comic style, this is great fun if you wish to kill an hour or two.

There are other applications, including several games, many of these you will probably discover by accident as I did, there is certainly anything you could possibly want or need, that is until you start craving some of the better Microsoft software, when I was buying the laptop I also ended up buying a Microsoft Package including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Entourage and Microsoft Messenger (although the latter is available free off the internet), I needed these for college, I do believe there are samples of these products already on the laptop which can be used for a short period and if you go to the right places on the internet you can get equivalent products for free, however I do not regret paying an extra £100 for the software package as I have got a lot of use out of it, I am in fact getting use out of it right now.

What I love
***************

So, what about the MacBook do I love so much? Well for a start the Mac-ness of it, it has been said once you have used a Mac you can never return to Microsoft, and I would agree with this, whenever I'm on a PC I get very frustrated having got used to the smooth, fast workings of a Mac, the slow clunkyness of the PC infuriates me. With the Mac everything works fast, unless you are putting it under a ridiculous amount of stress, and even when it does slow down it handles it a lot better than a PC, only occasionally has the machine crashed on me, and these times worry me as I feel that there might be a problem with the computer that needs sorting.

Another feature I love is the absolute control you feel you have over the computer (although you probably have very little), in Systems Preferences you get to personalise your computer almost completely, from how it looks, to how the keyboard works (using the F shortcuts or the apple shortcuts) and the mousepad (allowing you to drag, left click and scroll just with finger movements). I love the way I can change how the computer works for me, my computer tells me the time every hour, which makes anyone else in my room who is not used to it jump, much to my amusement!! I can also talk to it if I don't much feel like clicking and stuff, with my voice I can make the computer open applications, shut them, tell me the time and even tell me jokes amongst other instructions, the problem with this is that it doesn't always recognise my voice, and it can be hilarious watching my sister shouting at the computer "TELL ME A JOKE".

If you ever get a bit confused about how something works there is a beautiful feature called 'Help Viewer', this is basically your guide but stuck on a computer and gives you the ability to just type in a term or question and it will pick up the closest matches, this makes it so much easier, I mentioned earlier how no one reads the book guide, well you see you don't need to you can just type in a problem and the results jump up and you can usually sort out whatever problem you having, and if you can't find it, then go to a geeky forum and ask - you really have got to respect the geeks, they are the rulers of the Internet and they'll help you out. Similarly to this, have you ever tried to find a file or folder on a PC using the search feature, it takes forever, in 20 minutes of searching random files you may still not have got your results, it is so much quicker on here, if you go to the 'finder' part of the laptop, this is basically your documents section, it holds everything on your computer, there is a search feature and as you type in your word the computer eliminates all results that don't fit your search as you put in each letter, a search takes a matter of seconds rather than an hour only to realise that the file was called something completely different than what you were searching for.

I'm a bit of a vain girl, I love to take pictures of myself, so luckily for my there is a built in web cam with this laptop on which in the application 'PhotoBooth' you are able to take many thousands of pictures of yourself, when taking pictures here you get a range of effects in which to take your photo, you can take it in normal so it comes out like any photograph, or perhaps you feel like imitating Marilyn Monroe in the Andy Warhol picture, just click onto the Popart effect and this is a possibility, you can also choose to take it in a comic book style, x-ray, mirror, light tunnel and many others beside, this is a favourite feature of mine, I can murder several hours just messing around with these.

You may remember I mentioned a certain remote control earlier, well this has to be another of my favourite features. While sitting on one side of the room you can use the remote control to open another part of the computer which looks very like an iPod display and using this you can start music, movies, photo slideshows, all which sitting on a completely different side of the room, it is a pretty cool feature to be honest.

The computer also comes equipped with Bluetooth, which is ridiculously useful, I use it almost everyday, moving stuff to and from my phone, it could also be used with Bluetooth speakers or similar. The airport is the way the computer connects to the internet, it picks up signals very easily, possibly too easily, I was illegally using someone else's internet for a while last year (I hadn't realised that it was illegal at the time).

What I don't love so much
*********************************

I have to say though that my MacBook experience hasn't been all gravy (to quote Christina and Romeo), I have had several problems, one of these being setting up the internet, downstairs I have a wireless router thingy which does nothing seeing as I just cannot set it up, the computer seems to acknowledge the signal but won't use it, and when I try to use the internet it just tells me that the computer is not connected to the internet even though there is full signal, I couldn't tell you whether the problem is with the laptop or the router, however it is of great annoyance to me, and to be honest I really ought to call up the apple helpline and see if they can help me at all.

Another problem is my charger, I am currently on my third one so far, this is due to the others just dying on me, sometimes the plastic covering has worn through and the wire thing has broken. For this model of laptop the charger was changed to a magnetic one so that if the wire is pulled the charger comes out without pulling the laptop with it, a problem with the last one, the problem I have been having apparently is quite rare according to the helpful guys at the Apple shop and one they don't see much, so either I'm cursed or something else. However I haven't had much trouble with this recently, so maybe my struggles are over, I do hope so!

Another fault with the laptop is the heat it reaches, the laptop gets ridiculously hot, this fault has been acknowledged by the manufacturers and I think they have done something so if you buy a model today it may well not struggle with this, but the older models certainly do, so don't put it on your lap, which you shouldn't really be doing anyway, have it on a surface.

A further problem would be the inner edges of the laptop, they are very sharp and when I'm writing my wrists rub against these edges and it pretty sore which is a shame, but when you get used to it the pain is less noticeable.

A few months ago I had a problem with the laptop randomly blanking off and shutting down unless I turned it on by resetting it (holding down the on button until the little light starts flashing). I ended up taking it into the shop and apparently this is another known fault with the laptop, it was fixed within two weeks and I haven't had a problem with this since.

Also you may have issues with the built in speakers, they aren't particularly amazing, the sound is quiet and tinny, when I want to listen to music or use the sound for any other reason I managed to steal the speakers from our old computer, which was from back in the days when PCs were white so doesn't look particularly out of place.

Spec and other technical stuff
*************************************

Now I will put in the basics, I don't understand the spec but it may mean a lot to some of you, so here it is:

Dimensions (WxDxH): 32.5 cm x 22.7 cm x 2.8 cm
Weight: 2.3 kg
Localisation: English / United Kingdom
System Type: Notebook
Built-in Devices: Stereo speakers, wireless LAN aerial, camera, Bluetooth aerial
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz ( Dual-Core )
Cache Memory: 4 MB - L2 Cache
RAM: 1 GB (installed) / 2 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM - 667 MHz - PC2-5300 ( 2 x 512 MB )
Hard Drive: 80 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm
Optical Storage: CD-RW / DVD-ROM combo - integrated
Display: 13.3" TFT active matrix 1280 x 800 ( WXGA )
Graphics Controller: Intel GMA 950
Audio Output: Sound card
Networking: Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft), Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
Notebook Camera: Integrated
Input Device: Keyboard, trackpad
Power: AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
Battery: Lithium polymer
Run Time (Up To): 6 hour(s)
Operating System: Apple MacOS X 10.4 - English
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year warranty

There are other versions of the MacBook, including a black version and the MacBook Pro which have a better spec.

To be honest I don't know what much of that means when applied to a laptop, 80GB, Fast Ethernet, means nothing to me, but as far I am concerned the laptop fits all my needs, it works fast, holds everything I need it to, or at least has done so far.

Battery wise I must say I usually just leave it with the charger in much like using a computer as I don't move around with it much, but when I take it out it seems to have decent battery life, at the moment I have Microsoft Word running as well as iTunes, the lighting is quite low, the volume is at max, Bluetooth is on, but the airport isn't, the battery is at 100% and is promising me 4.24 of time, which is probably enough for most things, if you are travelling and need to use it you should have enough unless you're off to the other side of the world. I have seen the battery at as much as 10 hours which I found slightly unbelievable, at the time is was running much though. The battery time does vary depending on what you applications you have open, but on the whole it is pretty decent, it has lasted me journeys from Cumbria to Nottingham while watching DVDs, what more can you need.

Apple Care Plan
***********************

I feel that I ought to give a little mention to the Apple Care Plan thing, which I was offered when my first year of the laptop was running out, this is basically a further 2 years guarantee, the first year being free, and it allows your to use the phone service, besides others. I believe it is worth going for, certainly after the amount of times I've had to get replacement chargers and small repairs, I can't remember how it cost, I do know it isn't cheap, but I would say go for it. The only problem being that you can't decide to get it after your first year is up, you must sign up for it during the first year, I was a bit tight with this and signed up very shortly before the deadline.

I love my laptop, it serves me very well, it wakes up with me every morning (it can turn itself on!!) and contains a lot of my life, photos, music, writing etc. I can live without it, but it is a case of, I don't want to. At times I use it as a very expensive CD player, others it is my revision centre. I would highly recommend this laptop to anyone, for a first laptop it is a little bit pricey, but you do get what you pay for, and I would say it is worth every penny. The laptop is easy to use, a centre of fun, very well organised, it also looks great and is light so easily transportable. So if you are looking for a very good laptop then go for it, join the Apple crew, once you come over to this side you won't be returning.

I would recommend that you buy the laptop from an Apple store, or an official Apple seller, as they do seem to have a better knowledge of problems when you need help, it can be slightly more pricey though, the laptop can be picked up for £700 on Amazon and yet I paid nearer £750, however the help I have got when I go in to see my Appley friends at the shop has been very good, they work with Macs so know what problems to look for.

I really hope I have included everything you wanted to know if you are interested in the laptop but I know different people look for different things in a review and if I have missed anything out that you are dying to know, just ask me, I will tell you anything you want to know, if I know it, and if I don't, I'll make it up. I want to apologise again to those of you who would have preferred a load of numbers of letters and techno language, I hope you also managed to find some use from my review. 

...less