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jaydon34 · 09:56 AM

UPDATED - Battery test added

Episode I: Outside of my grey box
My infatuation for apple computers started several years prior around time when they released there first switch campaign. The commercials were well thought out and simple. So simple that I began to think outside of my windows 98 box and contemplate owning a mac. I went back and fourth wondering if a mac would suite my needs until one day I took the plunge and ordered a g3 ibook. I still remember the day when the UPS guy delivered that baby to my door step. I thought it would be the end of my problems not so. The laptop shipped with OS9 and OSX pre-installed. OS9 just didnt cut it for me and at the time OSX was just slow. Even it its slow state OSX intrigued me. I wasnt worried about spyware, virus's or any of the garbage that bogged down my windows box. But when it came to speed I was like a snail in a rabbits race. I was lost in world where speed and compatiblity mattered most. My G3 just didnt cut it and it was sold for an HP ( big mistake).

Episode II: Return of the Ibook
Several years have gone by as well as several computers. From laptop's to desktops I had them all. But I was never happy, I hated the fact that I could never just use my computer when I needed. It seemed as if I was always cleaning, scanning or appyling some sort of tweak just to get it to run. A pain it was until I came across another Ibook. Passed on to me buy a co-worker for $250 bucks. This machine was a G3 and ran at 900mhz. Now OSX had gone threw several iterations and was actually quite useable on this machine. Infact I loved it and wanted more. I soon sold the G3 and upgraded to a current model. Enter my G4 this machine coupled with my ipod was really a combo that couldnt be beat. It was then that I realized why I loved Apple and OSX. It was about total integration, and ease of use. Not to mention the Ibook G4 was icatcher. Then Apple did something dramatic they anounced the switch to the intel-chipset. The day the Intel Imac's debuted at my local Apple store I was there. I was blown away by the speed and now my Ibook G4 seemed to be showing its age. With the release of the Macbook Pro it was time to say goodbye to my Ibook. I sold it anticipated upgrading to an intel mac. Months went buy and still nothing that was really in my price range. Apple now had 3 of its computers using intel proccessors. I now was back to using a pc. A pc which my brother and girlfriend shared in the living room. It served it purpose but it just wasnt the same. I checked sites daily such as digg, engadget,macnn and thinksecret for just a bit of info on when something else was gonna be released. Apple was good I had no clue.

Episode III: A New Hope ( The review)
Until today. Today marked the release of the Macbook successor to the Ibook line. A machine whos specs rivaled that of the Macbook Pro with the exception of the graphics card and pc express slot. Well enough rambling on to the pros and cons.

Pros
Display - 13.3 inch widescreen is beautiful and topped off with a glossy finish
Speed - Now fitted with dual core processor this thing zips.
Camera - An added bonus that may come in handy
Magsafe plug - just cool as well as a life saver or maybe a laptop saver.
Front row and remote - Amazing

Cons
Keyboard - Spaces between the keys = ugly as well as a learning curve for current ibook users
Heat - runs hot but I havent heard a fan come on
Battery - battery only last 3 hours on best battery setting display on highest setting.

discotronic · May 16, 2006, 09:58 PM

How about battery life?

jaydon34 · May 16, 2006, 10:02 PM

I will update ya on that tonight. Ive only had it for around 3 hours. I want to do a full charge then let her rip.

discotronic · May 16, 2006, 10:04 PM

Cool. That will be the make it or break it factor for me. I will have to go with black if I get one because it reminds me so much of my Wallstreet.

jaydon34 · May 16, 2006, 10:15 PM

Black is nice but I couldnt justify that much more money for a case and minor upgrades.

jaydon34 · May 17, 2006, 12:59 AM

added battery test

rei · May 17, 2006, 03:01 AM

Thanks for the review ! Still mulling this, a MBP or a Dell XPS M1210...

BTW, don't pluralize with apostrophes!

harrisjamieh · May 17, 2006, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by rei

Dell XPS M1210...

Pfff. Couldn't think of anything worse than one of those bricks

rei · May 17, 2006, 03:53 AM

http://forums.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=51856

please keep an open mind. it is only 1 or 3 or so 12-13" inch subnotebooks with a discrete video card that have decent company support (as opposed to dealing with the oem directly like asus)

i want to play world of warcraft on a lappy that isn't 14-15 or 17 inches. or prohibitively expensive like the mpb.

sony sz110/140 (nvidia 7400 + intel gma950) or dell xps m1210 or lg tx1 are the only ones with decent gaming video card for small form factor. sony i don't trust for support ($50 more to get international warranty to even get support for a sony usa laptop in canada) with lots of proprietary software/drivers/hardware are the tradeoff.

the xps m1210 is just a rebadged asus w5a it seems.

Obi Wan's Ghost · May 17, 2006, 05:54 AM

What is XP/Bootcamp gaming like with GMA950?

Gee4orce · May 17, 2006, 06:12 AM

sorry, but that was a lot of waffle for not much review ! Where's the beef ?

duck · May 17, 2006, 09:01 AM

What is the optical drive in it? Make and model if you can please

jaydon34 · May 17, 2006, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

sorry, but that was a lot of waffle for not much review ! Where's the beef ?

I'm not much of a power user so I won't be posting benchmarks or anything of that nature. I will leave that for the real mac geeks.

hadocon · May 17, 2006, 02:42 PM

Lame review... Sorry.

jaydon34 · May 17, 2006, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by hadocon

Lame review... Sorry.

Calm down buddy it was my first one. Just trying to share a user experience.

Velocity211 · May 17, 2006, 03:12 PM

The big touchpad is so nice. My PB looks really ugly with the small touchpad.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 17, 2006, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by hadocon

Lame review... Sorry.

I have to agree. Lets hear less about your history with computers and more about the MacBook.

Obi Wan's Ghost · May 17, 2006, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by jaydon34

Calm down buddy it was my first one. Just trying to share a user experience.

I think it was good enough, need to know more about how the keyboard performance is compared to MBP, PB and iBook.

hadocon · May 17, 2006, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by jaydon34

Calm down buddy it was my first one. Just trying to share a user experience.

I am calm. I even apologized in the post. I'm just voicing my opinion about your "review". There was almost zero value to it. If I was not calm when makinng my initial post I would have loudly demanded the 5 minutes of my life that it took to read your "review" back.

Don't worry it's not a big deal. Perhaps your next review will be a bit more useful to those who are interested in hearing about the actual product that is being reviewed, and not the life story of the reviewer.

P.S. The pics are OK, but also could have been better... IMHO you could have framed them a bit better to show off the features. All of your pics are essentially the same.

Nonetheless, we all appreciate your efffort. I hope you appreciate my constructive criticism.

Kerrigan · 04:07 PM

It's not as bad as SuperChicken's review, posted on his blog. In it, he describes most of the features as being both pros and cons at the same time, conveying a striking sense of indecisiveness.

hookem2oo7 · May 17, 2006, 04:21 PM

i just went to the austin apple store and ran two instances of terminal with yes > /dev/null

99.5% total load and the bottom was no hotter than my ibook g4 gets.

just thought i'd share

edit:: oh, i let it run for about 10 minutes

tomacwhite · May 17, 2006, 06:09 PM

jaydon34, thanks for the information and write-up, much appreciated. Always good to hear solid information from a user a opposed to a press release. I have a 800mhz G4 iBook at the moment thats had a very hard life and has travelled the world, and although it works perfectly (apart from its inabilty to sleep now) I badly want one of these MacBooks

dfbennett · May 17, 2006, 06:43 PM

can someone post some benchmarks using xbench or something like that? I know it's faster but I'm curious to see how much faster it is than my G4 iMac.

jaydon34 · May 17, 2006, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by tomacwhite

jaydon34, thanks for the information and write-up, much appreciated. Always good to hear solid information from a user a opposed to a press release. I have a 800mhz G4 iBook at the moment thats had a very hard life and has travelled the world, and although it works perfectly (apart from its inabilty to sleep now) I badly want one of these MacBooks

Yeah anytime. Sorry I couldnt please the masses. Everyone is always so critical and negative on these boards. Its okay you cant bring down my natural high because Im a proud new owner of a macbook

turnedge762 · May 17, 2006, 07:16 PM

I think the people who were critical of your review were on point, but could have been a little more tactful in their delivery.

The main thing is just that the title of the thread probably made it so people expected there to be more discussion of the MacBook. But I thought the explanation of your background was good nonetheless.

icruise · May 17, 2006, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by jaydon34

Everyone is always so critical and negative on these boards. Its okay you cant bring down my natural high because Im a proud new owner of a macbook

Don't take it the wrong way. It's just that your review consisted of two sentences and a list of pros and cons.

cal-ov-whe · May 17, 2006, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by jaydon34

Yeah anytime. Sorry I couldnt please the masses. Everyone is always so critical and negative on these boards. Its okay you cant bring down my natural high because Im a proud new owner of a macbook

While I do agree that you gave more of a life story than a review, you're certainly right. As a newcomer, I must say the members of this forum are a tough crowd. Anyway, congrats on your new purchase, yo!

iXavier · May 17, 2006, 11:12 PM

I kind of like to hear users' experiences. I've read enough reviews of the thing, everyone generally has the same comments. Sometimes, it's a nice change to hear of a switcher who is satisfied with their decision (as many of us are).

x.

Oneota · May 17, 2006, 11:23 PM

Gotta chime in to agree with the critics - a lot of fluff, not much meat. While we appreciate the effort, bear in mind that review-readers don't usually care about your computing history, but rather they care about the machine itself. If you need to give a little history to properly frame your comments about the machine, that's fine, but the history shouldn't be the main point.

Oh, and get yourself a spell- and grammar-checker, stat! 'Cause..hoo-boy, that puppy needs some cleaning up.