unboxing

Finally I’ve got the time to review this thing, LvB’s been nagging me since the first day I got it! Before I begin one thing you need to know is that everything I write is based on my own experience and not facts.

So this is what the packaging looks like when you get it, it’s nice and clean, and tiny! Well actually this isn’t the first thing you’ll see when you get it, because it comes in a standard brown cardboard box. But that wasn’t very interesting so I skipped that picture.

When you open it up the first thing you’ll be surprised of is the well organized packaging. Unlike most when you buy a PC where everything is thrown in like there was a 4-year-old boy working in the factory, everything is actually where it should be.

The unboxing was really simple and there’s no tape or anything that most likely would destroy the box, yay for that!

When the unboxing is done, this is what you get:
What I forgot to mention is that this is the MacBook 2.0GHz (the one with the combo drive), and this is what you get without customizing your order (except for the DVI adapter which I added in the order). Tip: If you’re just going to add a DVI adapter like me, buy it separately because for some reason it’ll take 4-5 extra days for them to ship it out if you just add that.

A good thing about this laptop is the weight. Even if it’s small it’s still pretty heavy, and I like that because it makes it feel more like a high quality laptop than a toy.

So when booting this thing up you’ll see the really nice welcoming video and then a simple step by step setup. It’s really simple and even my grandmother could make it through, probably…

That’s basically everything I had to say about the unboxing/start up part of this review. Now onto the next part!

Mac OS X
I’ve been using Windows for 13 years until I got this computer, so I wasn’t expecting it to be easy to switch to OS X. But it was really no big deal at all. Since I’m not a gamer anymore I can do everything I want to do just as good (or better) on OS X. However, I’ve had a couple of “problems”, for example I have an external hard drive using NTFS as the file system, and the Mac can’t write to it. But I’m not sure who to blame for that. I’ve tried to use Paragon but it crashes my computer. Also compatibility with poker clients suck, but that’s not Apples fault. You can’t view animated gif pictures in Preview nor Quicklook, dunno why they’ve missed that. Another thing that made me a bit disappointed is that I have to convert all .avi files to .dv or .mp4 before I can add them in iMovie. I guess I’ll have to get Final Cut Express or something.

Besides those smaller flaws I’ve been having a great time using OS X so far. There’s a lot of cool features like exposé, spaces, the dashboard and of course spotlight.

The MacBook
Of course the MacBook has it’s small flaws as well… though the only thing I find annoying is the LCD display. Because the display is glossy even the tiniest dust is annoying and I have to clean it all the time. I haven’t tried to use it outside yet though so I dunno how well it works in the sun.

The MacBook has every port I need, though the USB ports are too close to each other so I can’t have anything else connected when I’m syncing my MP3 player. But it’s the same for most laptops anyway. I’m going to buy an iPod soon so I won’t have that problem for long anyway.

Other than that everything is just fine. I like that it comes with 2 different power adapter thingys, that way I don’t have to unplug everything when I’m taking it with me. Right now I just have 1 GB of RAM so I’m going to order 4 GB next week.

On to the rating… (this is just for the MacBook and not OS X)

+
Small but solid laptop
The power adapter
The keyboard (feels really nice)
The Apple remote, very useful!

-
USB ports too close to each other
LCD display gets dirty really fast

Overall the MacBook is a great laptop and I’m very satisfied with it so far. I can’t say more about OS X right now though, I need more than 2 weeks with it before I can make a good review of it.

Later!

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