Apple Macbook - any views?...

specialman

specialman

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Pat MacInnes
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Have used Apple Macs since '94, going through the pain of system 7 to the niceness of OS X. I'm pretty certain of most things when it comes to macs but seeing as I've never used any of the new Intel-based Macs, need some opinions.

The missus has this thing about buying a laptop. I've said I won't let a Windows/PC machine darken our doorstep, no matter how cheap they are, so it's a Macbook that may be winging its way to us soon.

She wants to learn CS2 on it and do some artwork to reinvigorate her artistic sensibilities. I'm not allowed on it... apparently!! :)

Has anyone A) got a Macbook so can comment on them, B) had any problems with Macbooks/found any limitations (screen, system bus etc), and C) wished they'd bought the black one instead of the white version for obvious (or not so obvious) reasons?

I currently run an old Powerbook 'Pismo' that I like but is a bit long in the tooth no matter how many upgrades I fit. That's not an option for CS2 and anyway, she wants new.

Was trying to convince here to get a refurb Powerbook G4 because of the bigger screen but she wants white, new and modern.

Women, eh!!

Discuss..... :)
 
Have to say that I am not one of these Anti MS fanboys, but having used several high spec Dell laptops for some time, and over the last year moving across to a Macbook - the only choice for me now is the Macbook. Simple as.

Nowt wrong with the Dell, in fact it's a fabulous machine, and in some regards it's better than the Macbook - it has 1600x1200 resolution for a starter, which is way above the Macbook. But... and it comes down to simple personal preferences, though I will possibly purchase another Dell for business use on client sites, for my own use, and for the family's use I will only purchase a Mac.

Now my wife has a Macbook, my daughter has a Macbook, and my die hard PC fan 17yr old lad now wants an iMac.
 
I have been using a MacBook Air for nearly two months now after a lifetime of PC based machines ... :suspect:


It can all be summed up quite easily ... :thinking: ... I wish I had done it many years ago ... :D


That said the Air wasn't around then obviously and it is an absolute dream in almost every single respect imhgo ... :love:


So very easy, intuitive, beautiful and sexy ... :shrug:



Not that any of my drooling necessarily helps you ... ;) ... but I will be changing over fully to Macs during the course of this year and probably with an iMac very soon ... :D





:p
 
One word of caution CS2 doesnt work well with Leopard apparently (have never tried it though). CS3 is fine though (have tried that :)). Cant really comment cos my Macbook is Silver it being a pro i wont go back now :)
 
I've got a macbook pro and wouldn't be without it now - use for both work and home and it just works and does everything I want.

It runs both windows (as a virtual machine under Parallels) and OSX, it's currently been up and running for around 40 days without a reboot and has been used on my home wireless, work wireless and wired work network running both PC and Mac software (including CS3).

I think that the newer macbooks are just as well specced now as the original macbook pro's were so I shouldn't think that you will have any problems.

Oh, if I was choosing I'd go for the black one - but that's just me, I think the black ones look a little classier
 
I've got a macbook (bought last sept) with 2Gb of memory and I run CS3 just fine as well as anything else I can throw at it.

I used PCs for 20 years before I bought this mac. Until they went with Intel chips I would never have considered one. Now though, man, I became an overnight fan. Leopard's time machine is a beautiful, beautiful thing and the integration between the many applications that come with the install is just fantastic.

I also like the way I can leave it on standby for a couple of days and it'll barely drain the battery, and will start up at the push of the space bar in seconds.

My only tiny criticism of it is that the monitor is not brilliant for doing photo work if you move your head a lot as the colors change pretty drastically, but this is true of most laptops.
 
I got a MacBook a few months back after having used a Powerbook for a few years. The screen at 13 inches is smallish. You get used to it for everyday browsing etc. For photos, I do find it a bit limiting. It works great, just feels a little cramped.

On the other hand, speed is excellent. I have a 2.2GHz version with 2GB RAM and it's fast!

As you know I'm sure, Mac OS X is the best Operating System out there, so Mac is the way to go :thumbs:

If I wasn't traveling permanently between places, I'd have an iMac. I think that's the best-value computer out there for every reason. (The screen is incredible!). If the budget allows, go for a MacBook Pro. The extra screen real-estate is helpful, to say the least.

Having said that, I use a MacBook with PS/Aperture/iPhoto and everything else and I've survived.

Hope that helps. :thumbs:
 
Agree with the above. I use Macbook (white) with 4Gb, and it's not only very fast in OS/X, but Parallels runs XP faster than my desktop PC :)

It's damn fast in Lightroom also. Absolutely no complaints from me!
 
The CS2 issue is one I've only just considered. Of course, CS2 SHOULD work with any version of OS X above 10.2.8 but I have heard of problems, especially with Leopard.

The other consideration is that of other software working on an Intel machine. I have no experience with them so am hoping my OS X-enabled music software (Reason 3) will work too. Will have to check that one out...

I'm getting a vibe from you guys (and other peeps) that the Macbooks really are a step in the right direction for 'consumer' Apple laptops. The iBooks were a bit gash (slow system bus) and the difference between them and the MB Pros is one that won't be noticeable to the general user.

And you're right, the black ones do look cool, hence why I have a 'Pismo' - nice rubberised black case. Sweet as a peach!!! :)

So, are we talking a great laptop that only 'pro' users would find faults with (smaller screen, less RAM capability)? Man, £650 is a lot of money but when it's for this I'm really starting not to care....

... suppose I will when I come to upgrade from my eMac to an iMac!! Sod the mortgage for a month I say :)
 
I'm running a 2.0GHz White MacBook (base spec) , but spent another 52 quid at Crucial.com on a 4GB RAM upgrade, and I just can't say enough good things about it. It runs CS3 like a dream, has all the bells and whistles you'll know and love in Leopard, and as has already been mentioned it will run XP in a parallels virtual machine faster than any native windows box I've ever tried.

Would I go back to Windows? Well, yes, but that's only because I'm a Windows developer (currently between jobs if anyone is hiring ;) ). Best 700 quid I've ever spent on computer gear. Maybe next time I'll get an iMac, just for the screen real estate.

Oh yeah, the Black vs White thing? I don't see the big deal about the black one, tbh. Just spend the least amount of money on a decent spec white one, and add a new third party disk and RAM. I can't say the colour options justify the extra 100s of quid.

HTH
Marc.
 
Oh, and Venomator... I'm not jealous of your Air. Not at all, no. Anyone who says otherwise is fibbing. I am completely un-jealous.*


* This post may not be 100% true.
 
specialman said:
Didn't realise the standard MB could take 4GB of RAM... hmmm, interesting!!!
Click to expand...

Yes, but only the most recent incarnation with the Santa Rosa chipset. Older models will physically take 4GB, but only address 3.
 
Chillijam said:
Oh, and Venomator... I'm not jealous of your Air. Not at all, no. Anyone who says otherwise is fibbing. I am completely un-jealous.
Click to expand...


Something not ringing quite true about this ChilliJ ... or am I imagining things ... :suspect:


But really after all ... :thinking: ... it IS only a computer gadgety thing when all is said and done ... built to do a job and nothing else ... :shrug:


Nothing special in that is there ... ;)





:p
 
I have two complaints regarding my Macbook, which in general I am very happy with.

1). The edges of the casing are sharp, and I have cuts on my wrists from it. No-one elses seems to be this sharp, so i guess it's just bad luck

2). The screen does not push far enough back, so if you are lounging on the sofa with it, sometimes it's a struggle to see what's on the screen correctly (and the colours and contrast are dreadful when you are not face on).

Otherwise I love it, but will be upgrading to a Macbook Pro when funds allow because of the above reasons.

Cheers,
James
 
Moos3h said:
I have two complaints regarding my Macbook, which in general I am very happy with.

1). The edges of the casing are sharp, and I have cuts on my wrists from it. No-one elses seems to be this sharp, so i guess it's just bad luck

2). The screen does not push far enough back, so if you are lounging on the sofa with it, sometimes it's a struggle to see what's on the screen correctly (and the colours and contrast are dreadful when you are not face on).

Otherwise I love it, but will be upgrading to a Macbook Pro when funds allow because of the above reasons.

Cheers,
James
Click to expand...

Picky, picky, picky. You'll be telling me next that you don't like Les Pauls for the same reason. :)
 
I run my entire business off my little white Macbook. I bought it November 2006. Specs are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz
2GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
80GB SATA HDD
Intel GMA950 Integrated Graphics

I use the following applications without ant speed issues, no hangs, no burps, coughs, or colds. It is fantastic:

Photoshop CS3
Dreamweaver CS3
Aperture 2.1
HASH Animation Master (3D Character Animation, very complex too)
Final Cut Pro (Forgot to add earlier)

I too was a hardcore PC overclocker, tweaker, builder like your son (though a lot older). Now, I dont own a single Windows machine. Will never look back.

King.
 
Moos3h said:
I have two complaints regarding my Macbook, which in general I am very happy with.

1). The edges of the casing are sharp, and I have cuts on my wrists from it. No-one elses seems to be this sharp, so i guess it's just bad luck
Click to expand...


First time I have heard anyone complain because a Mac is sharp ... :suspect: ... they gotta be the sharpest needle in the haystack imhgo ... and that's a good thing isn't it ... :D





:p
 
I switched to Macs 18 months ago. I have a Mac pro Quad Xeon, a mac mini (running SERVER version of leopard) and an iBook in which I have installed a 250Gb hard drive and the max RAM. I have bought 4 Macbooks for the rest of the family and they are all running Leopard (with a family license).

We will NEVER go back to the PC. I have a high spec PC I built plus another 3 PCs around the house half running vista half XP.

In direct comparison using CS3 and lightroom the Mac is far stronger in my opinion.

One thing that I have noticed. The Macs are far better with lower specs. I can run CS3 on an ibook 1.33MHz under Leopard with 1.5Gb of RAM (yes its clearly not fast BUT it will run photoshop, allow me to touch up a picture, crop and print etc)! Try running that under VISTA with a similar spec machine - I don't think so....

When you do make the decision to buy a Macbook go for the lowest HD and Memory ! It will cost LESS to buy the higher spec devices elsewhere than to upgrade using Apple!

If you do not need an internal DVD writer get the Macbook 2.1GHz at £699 and add a 250Gb 5400 HD for £58 (320Gb for £88 and 200Gb 7200 for £91) and 4Gb Ram for £60 ADDED: CHANGED DUE TO ERROR



If you do need the DVD writer get the 2.4GHz version and add the same as above - NOTE these upgrades DO NOT void your warranty, you can buy an external SATA 2.5" hard drive case and use the original drive as a backup.

Re-installing Leopard on the new drive is simplicity itself, just boot the Macbook from the included media and follow the on screen instructions then in about an hour it will be all up and running with a VAST saving in money. Alternatively just upgrade the memory....
 
cowasaki said:
When you do make the decision to buy a Macbook go for the lowest HD and Memory ! It will cost LESS to buy the higher spec devices elsewhere than to upgrade using Apple!

If you do not need an internal DVD writer get the Macbook 2.1GHz at £699 and add a 250Gb 7200 HD for £80 and 4Gb Ram for £60
Click to expand...

Cowasaki (great name, by the way :) ),

I couldn't agree more on the hardware front. Crucial.com price for 2x2GB SODIMMS was £52 shipped a couple of months ago. Apple's price? currently £300.

Can I ask where you got the £80 price for a 7200 250GB drive? I'm about to jump to a bigger disk, and this sounds ideal.

Thanks
Marc.
 
Have noticed that RAM has dropped dramatically of late.

Yeah, was going for the base model for roughly £650. As it's for the missus and she won't be doing that much (although I might) I'll just be using external back-up drives.
 
Jesus, that is soooo easy.

Rebuilt my G3 powerbook and although adding RAM isn't too hard, you really do have to take the thing apart to do some things. I'm sold on the MB now :)

On the subject of RAM, just (five minutes ago) maxed out my eMac to 1GB (paltry, I know, but it is old!! :)) and it's amazing just how much of an effect extra memory has. It now runs like it's a new machine...
 
Scan..... www.scan.co.uk

The price today for 667MHz Corsair DDR2 So-dimms 2 x 2gb is £46.79+VAT or £54.98

There are lots of companies that will do a 250Gb 2.5" drive for similar prices but that was a typo I meant a 5400K drive DOH - They have them from £58 inc or 320Gb at £82

They do have a 200Gb 7200 seagate at £91 inc though!

If you join AV-FORUM you get free postage from Scan !!
 
love my macbook. will never go back to pc's

have had a couple of problems with my macbook

1) It does seem to write Dual Layer DVDs anymore (and the disks can foul the drive if you pick the machine up holding the drive side whilst its spinning)

2) the plastic around the edges has sheared right off

other than that, its excellent.
its hardly been turned off in the last year and a bit, so its doing quite well.

one word of advice. buy your mac from john lewis. same price as everywhere else, but you get 2 years warranty instead of one
 
badgerbaiter said:
love my macbook. will never go back to pc's

have had a couple of problems with my macbook

1) It does seem to write Dual Layer DVDs anymore (and the disks can foul the drive if you pick the machine up holding the drive side whilst its spinning)

2) the plastic around the edges has sheared right off

other than that, its excellent.
its hardly been turned off in the last year and a bit, so its doing quite well.

one word of advice. buy your mac from john lewis. same price as everywhere else, but you get 2 years warranty instead of one
Click to expand...

If you are talking about the plastic shell of the mac cracking and yours is in warranty then take it back, Apple are replacing the cases of any with that fault due to a manufacturing fault (which they have now sorted!!) They replaced the cases of my wifes and daughters whilst we waited a couple of months ago!
 
If you are going to use the computer for photography, there is no way I would ever get a macbook. The main reason is that they only come with gloss screens, and while they may look good, the colour is just not accurate. I do quite a bit of work where skin tone reproduction is very important, and the last notebook I had was a gloss screen and it took ages to get the print to look right.

I have only had my macbook pro (15.4 inch Matt screen) for about 2 months. I am quite enjoying it, but must admit that I run Windows XP under boot camp and VM ware fusion all the time (I probably use that partition more then Leopard).

Speed wise the 2.2 Core 2 duo Macbook pro is actually comparable to my desktop (dual core 2.5), but is limited by disk speed, even though I run all my processing on a external Firewire 7200rpm drive. The color acuracy is good enough after calibration that I now happily print from either computer (my printer had built in print server and is connected to my wireless router).

One final note. Buy refurbished direct from apple. I got my 2.2 gig macbook pro from apple for £929 including free slip and the standard apple warranty. (or you can get a regular macbook for $629 with super drive)
 
FranchiseJuan said:
If you are going to use the computer for photography, there is no way I would ever get a macbook.
Click to expand...

I think thats a bit much! I have used a Macbook with my Huey pro and the colour is still very close even with the gloss screen. I do prefer a matt screen and will be replacing my iBook with a 17" Macbook pro with 1920x1600 matt screen around christmas but the Macbook is certainly useable.

FranchiseJuan said:
One final note. Buy refurbished direct from apple. I got my 2.2 gig macbook pro from apple for £929 including free slip and the standard apple warranty. (or you can get a regular macbook for $629 with super drive)
Click to expand...

I have been rather disappointed with the refurbished route in the UK! I get a £699 macbook for £619 with higher education discount - I cannot get the same spec macbook for much less. I know most people still pay £699 BUT you would want more of a saving to get a second hand machine and you loose the ability to alter the spec. It IS worth looking though.

One last note. They will give you a minimum education discount (DIRECT WITH APPLE NOT THROUGH THE SHOP!) if you ring them up and say your child is doing art at school and will be using the computer (obviously if they are doing :) ) - I got 5% discount off my original mac mini that way.

The actual education discount varies depending on the school, college or university and also on what you are buying!
 
cowasaki said:
I have been rather disappointed with the refurbished route in the UK! I get a £699 macbook for £619 with higher education discount - I cannot get the same spec macbook for much less. I know most people still pay £699 BUT you would want more of a saving to get a second hand machine and you loose the ability to alter the spec. It IS worth looking though.
Click to expand...

That really depends on what you are buying. I agree that the discount is not really worth it on a macbook, but to me the configuration is irrelevant. The only things you can upgrade are the HDD and ram, and both of those things are things that I would never do through apple.

On a macbook pro where you save £370 off new with just slightly lower spec model (but still with LED backlight) it is a no-brainer to me.

And as for getting colours close on a gloss screen, if close enough was good enough, then there would not be a class action law suit against Apple right now in the US where photographers are mad that Apple changed the screens in their iMacs from IPS 8 bit screens to TN 6 bit pannels, without telling anybody and then charging the same price.
 
cowasaki said:
If you are talking about the plastic shell of the mac cracking and yours is in warranty then take it back, Apple are replacing the cases of any with that fault due to a manufacturing fault (which they have now sorted!!) They replaced the cases of my wifes and daughters whilst we waited a couple of months ago!
Click to expand...


yeah, but i cant live with out it :)

i arranged to have it fixed a few times, but every time it was supposed to go back i needed it for something..
 
FranchiseJuan said:
That really depends on what you are buying. I agree that the discount is not really worth it on a macbook, but to me the configuration is irrelevant. The only things you can upgrade are the HDD and ram, and both of those things are things that I would never do through apple.

On a macbook pro where you save £370 off new with just slightly lower spec model (but still with LED backlight) it is a no-brainer to me.

And as for getting colours close on a gloss screen, if close enough was good enough, then there would not be a class action law suit against Apple right now in the US where photographers are mad that Apple changed the screens in their iMacs from IPS 8 bit screens to TN 6 bit pannels, without telling anybody and then charging the same price.
Click to expand...

I agree its worth it for a saving of £370 on the macbook pro but I looked each time I bought a macbook and the saving there wasn't worth it (and we are actually talking about someone considering buying a macbook).

As for the screen I can only go off personal experience, albeit limited (I tend to use my mac pro with Dell 2407 monitor) - I have had no problems after using the Huey pro on a macbook (without it it was a bit blue!) I have compared the output from the photo printers with the output on screen and they are, for me, very close. If you are a pro or very serious amateur then go for the macbook pro by all means (I know I will be!).
 
badgerbaiter said:
yeah, but i cant live with out it :)

i arranged to have it fixed a few times, but every time it was supposed to go back i needed it for something..
Click to expand...

They did two of mine whilst I waited ! They also replaced the on/off button on the mac mini and the bluetooth keyboard at the same time!! - I took them all in, they looked at them and ordered the parts, I then returned when they rang to say they had the parts, left the computers with them whilst I went shopping, watched a demo and had a play with a new machine - then collected them 2 hours later.
 
As it's purely for the wife (yeah right - as if I won't be using it!!), as long as it runs CS2 I'm happy. She's an artist who's doing more graphicky stuff rather than colour-correct photography. That's what my iMac 20" will be for :)

As far as refurb goes, my work often buys refurd and has some problems now and then. I've bought refurb before (the eMac I'm using right now) and have never had a prob. My eMac has worked sweetly for four years now and it's only with too much crap on it that it slows down. I can live with that and it probably means I should spring clean more and by some more external HDs.
 
The Apple refurb store is good though - bargain prices that really are tempting...

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nplm=FB063

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nplm=FA700

So what do I go for?:

MB Black 2.0ghz/1gb RAM/120gb drive/Superdrive - £599
MB White 1.83ghz/512mb RAM/60gb drive/Combo drive - £599
MB Black 2.2ghz/1gb RAM/160gb drive/Superdrive - £659

The misssus prefers black (but doesn't hate white either) but in my eyes, the latter, even though it's the most expensive, is the better deal becase fo the bigger HD, the Superdrive, the slightly fast processor but moreso, the ability to accept 4gb of RAM rather than 2gb on the older models.
 
I've got one of the white Macbooks, it's a great laptop, I went for the slightly more expensive one that burns DVDs though, the only not so good thing about it is the gloss screen, although it is still very usable for photography stuff. I've not got CS2 running on it, but CS runs fine.
 
having used macs for about 4 years now, there is no chance i will ever go back to a windoze pc,

having owned an iBook and iMac, and my girlfriend has the macbook, i cant truly say its the way forward,

as posted before CS2 doesnt work very well on leopard, but CS3 works like a dream, as for the colour... go for white.. i wouldnt pay the extra money for black, save your money and get white and put the extra pennies towards CS3.

i dont have any complaints at all with anything mac. nothing, zilch, nada.

go on let your wife get one , you know you wont regret it.
 
I bought a black Macbook about 6 months ago and haven't looked back. I used to primarily a PC man, but as I restrict my gaming to my console I don't need a hugely powerful pc any more.
I'm running 4gb of Ram and run Vista on VMware so I get the best of both worlds, the machine really does handle this very well, even spread across two monitors.
 
Another fan here of macs. I bought my macbook pro last month kitted out with 4gb of ram. Realy impressed with it and wouldnt ever want to go back to pc. Just seems so fast and the layout is nice.
 
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