Up Close with the MacBook

Went to the Ala Moana Apple Store and got to play around with the new MacBook. I gravitated to the black MacBooks since they’re so distinctive in the sea of white Apple products. These MacBooks look nice. The finish is a matte black, not a high gloss that’ll scratch easily. The funky looking keyboard feels and works great.

The MacBook’s glossy screen is reflective but sure does accentuate colors. Looking at the regular screen of a MacBook Pro next to the glossy screen of the MacBook, you can easily see the difference in colors and reflectivity. While I like the richer colors displayed on the MacBook, the 13-in widescreen display feels small. Compared to the 15-in screen of a MBP, I kept feeling like images were squished on the MacBook. Looking at iPhoto pics on both a MacBook and MBP, you can appreciate the difference in screen real estate.

The basic MacBook configuration comes 512 MB of RAM. That’s too little. Starting up iPhoto and viewing pictures felt slow. According to the Ars review, the MacBook and MBP have similar specs, but the MBP I played around with had more RAM and wasn’t pokey like the MacBook so I gotta figure the added RAM was the difference.

The MacBook is a solid laptop for its price, but the smaller screen was a deal breaker for me. If you got the funds, I’d say go with a MacBook Pro with the glossy screen option.

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