The Snow White fairy-tale . Review on Apple Macbook

My dilemma was really about whether the macbook is worth spending so much on, when there are cheaper options form dell and hp which give more for the same amount of money. I took 6 months to decide and used a range of laptops including the dell studio, HP models and a macbook Pro 15’ that my classmates had.

I am sure you guys have read countless reviews, seen all them youtube videos and I am sure you haven’t made up your mind on what to buy.

Well I have been there and I know what exactly you feel like. Worst part if you are a student, your folks at home will think you are trying to make a fashion statement instead of buying the need of the hour.

I took the decision of buying the macbook overnight and was feeling little uneasy about the decision till I went and picked up my piece up.

And what a piece it was.. man the first boot was really really awesome, the screen resolution and richness has to be seen first hand to believe.. only problem was the first boot was done by the apple technician and not me  … man it looks stunning.. the gloss.. the white gloss…

Buying the piece itself was an adventure, when I called and booked the piece on 19th dec at the mg road i-store, they told me they don’t have stock till 26th dec, then I got the contact of one Mr. Aravind (9686685429) from Ample technologies who did his best and got me my macbook over night. Other than getting you your mac, the guy is also very helpful with upgrades, support and APP (Apple protection program).

Now that I am united with my macbook, let me give you the specs-

• 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo

• 2 GB (2x 1067 MHz DDR3) Ram

• 250 Gb Hard disk

• 3 Mb l2 Cache

The machine is really fast.. I mean lightning quick compared to a windows 7 based laptop with 4gb ram. I usually run photoshop and a couple of browsers are usually downloading installs from various sites. It does get slow when I end up running 10-15 applications, but when I mean slow, I mean the doc items will take a couple of seconds to animate. The battery backup is mind blowing, I get 5 hours on full charge (screen brightness kept at half cos full brightness will literally make you blind.) and the Mag safe power chord is pretty handy to carry around unlike the big bulky chargers from other laptop manufacturers.

Now I am simply raving about the macbook… I am patronizing it.. it does have a few problems like its only 2 usb ports, missing sd card slot, single jack for audio in and out, and the missing fire wire. I didn’t need any of these which made my decision of buying the macbook really simple. I already have a couple of desktops with high end graphics cards that I use for gaming, so the limited games (3 at the moment) made for the mac doesnt hurt me..  

Here is another interesting thing.. use a macbook for a couple of days and then try using a dell or a hp or a Toshiba laptop.. you will figure the superiority of the mac toch pad.. the other laptops will feel as though the laptops have a loose connection between the touch pad and the processor.. the multi touch gestures are very very easy to get used to… I use photoshop regularly for my college assignments and also my making some quick prototypes, I bought a wireless mouse and I have probably used it twice, max for 20 min. Right click is 2 finger touch, 4 fingers will show all open apps or the desktop, depending on the direction of the finger movement.

I have used it for 2 weeks now and I have managed it to hang (apple mail didn’t respond) once, that too due to slow internet connection and about 8372 mails that it was supposed to download. Other that that occasion, its never let me down. I wont even get started on the superb keyboard, video calls on ichat and skype, the absolute silence of the machine (though it gets a little heated when used continuously for hours together) or the lightness and the ease of carrying it.  

My verdict – If you are a student/normal user and have a budget of 54k, and don’t need sd card/firewire and are happy with a 13’ screen you have to buy the mac… Don’t give it a second thought..

if  you are going to use high end application for video editing, 3d, I suggest you go for the 4gb ram upgrade, it will cost you about 8k extra.

If you are going to buy a laptop for academics, normal computing, I completely recommend the macbook.

Rebooting video - https://youtube.com/watch?v=d9n1LGSJh68

Some interesting resources–

50 must have mac apps

https://instantshift.com/2009/12/17/50-useful-mac-applications-for-freelancers-
and-professional-designers/

5 reasons to buy a mac (get a push and take the plunge)

https://smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/26/five-reasons-why-designers-are-switchin
g-to-mac/