Remote control, Design, Style, Max OS better than windows
Disadvantages:
not windows compatible, a bit heavy
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Hi,
the Macbook 13 inch is a stylish, fancy toy - no question. It has been hyped, it won many awards, and if you use it, you will be the "think different" guy when surfing the web at Starbucks. But what other requirements should one have for a well functioning laptop, also concerning usability and compatibility?
For each section I will give a grade on the following scale:
Poor, Sufficient, Average, Good, Execellent
1. Hardware & Performance 2. Warranty 3. Mac OS X 4. Compatibility 5. Iphone 6. Overall and Price
1. Hardware & Performance
The Macbook is equipped with a 13 inch screen. It's not the best you can get, concerning viewing angle and colors, but it can satisfy everybody's wishes (except maybe designers and gamers, but sorry, that's not what the Macbook was made for. It's rather made for surfing, office applications and multimedia tasks due to its dual core processor). The 2 Ghz Dual Core Processor has enough performance for almost all tasks. We don't need to discuss this point. Gaming performance is - I have to admit - poor compared to windows laptops, as the graphics chip is only an mobile graphics chip. The 80 GB harddrive is enough for me, and the RAM is not too much, but for surfing and office stuff it's working fine. In general, one should see it as a working device and not as a gaming machine or graphics workstation. Then it's Overall: Good
Battery: The battery life is one of the Macbook's biggest strengths. It runs, depending on the usage of mainly wifi and screen brightness, usually about 4 hours. That's enormous. Apple has found some really good powersafe mechanisms, I would like to see other laptops of that size with a similar stamina. Overall: Excellent
Remote: One thing that's really convenient is the shipped remote control. Together with the Media Center "Front Row" that's built in and the TV-out (with adapter), it's really useful and nice to play it from the couch.
2. Warranty
I took my Macbook with a two year limited warranty. It's not the classical Applecare Protection Plan, but a standard warranty. And: it's great! I had already three defects: Status LED and IR remote didn't work, the display was not working any more and the cover was broken additionally once. For each of the defects, my Apple dealer repaired it within one or two days for free! Including working hours and parts. Also, the Apple hotline is really competent and friendly. Only the waiting times are a bit too long. Overall: Good
3. Mac OS X and shipped software
One of the best operating systems ever is running only on a Mac. It's true, sometimes it's difficult to adopt your 1993 stock keeping software to the Mac. But usability on a Mac is the best you can get for a personal computer. The best thing about Mac OS X is that everything is where it should be. For example the finder can be reached from everywhere, and the elements of the search field are clearly. One nice feature is that you can have different "work spaces" or desktops, that can be switched easily. For example I use one desktop for music production, one for surfing and another one for coding and programming. All elements and icons can be customized just the way I like it. The biggest disadvantage for me is that I can't use the Mac with my windows mobile phone, an HTC touch. And also, to mention, currently Microsoft Office for Mac is almost unusable slow.
The ilife software suite gives everything you need for multimedia. Video editing, authoring, podcasts, music production, media center, everything. And it's the easiest to use software on the market. Good job, apple! Overall: Good
4. Compatibility
There are several points of incompatibilities on a Mac:
1. Microsoft Office. Yes, there is MS Office for Mac, but it's almost unusable until Office 2008 will be released, due to a lack of performance. 2. Programmes. If you have special designed software, running only on PCs, you will have to use a virtual environment and to run the programs in that virtual machine. It works ok, but not too performant. 3. Printers, USB devices etc. For most devices, you can find drivers nowadays Overall: Average
5. Iphone The Iphone integrates seamlessly into the Apple environment, so I really recommend a to have a mac instead of a PC for usage with Iphone. Overall: Excellent
6. Overall and Price
For now we have: 1. Hardware & Performance: Good 2. Warranty: Very Good 3. Mac OS X and shipped software: Good 4. Compatibility:Average 5. Iphone: Excellent SCORE: Very Good
The Macbook can be shopped from 999 $. Mine was 1249,- $ at the orginal Apple Retail Store. I can really recommend you the Apple Macbook 13 inch, with 2 Ghz. It's stylish, convenient, and its weak points are not as important as its strengths. In combination with Iphone, it's unbeatable!
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