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iamnotmad · Jan 23, 2008, 10:21 AM

Hi all, I just got a new MB last Fri. I paid the black tax, and all I can say about that is that it was worth every penny - My wife however has the white one and loves it.

This is my first new mac since my trusty reliable QS PM (severely upgraded - see thread in the PM forum).

Wow, I really like this machine. I was going to wait on a MBP update but ever since we got my wife the MB in Nov when they updated them I've been envious and liked it better than the MBPs. The only reason I was even considering waiting for a MBP was the graphics card in the MB, but the fact is I don't really need any better than what's in the MB right now.

Did I mention the black is amazing, and I did not even realize (even while looking at it in the store) that the black was a matte black, that almost (not quite) feels rubberized slightly. Awesomeness.

shinykaro · Jan 23, 2008, 11:09 AM

Congrats! I just bought the 2.2 GHz white one yesterday! I'm so in love with this thing.

damiensmunki · Jan 23, 2008, 10:11 PM

Hmmm...your comment about the rubberized feel of the black case has me thinking the MacBook might be what I need. I was afraid the plastic would scratch easily. Any thoughts as to how scratch-prone the black case might be?

iamnotmad · Jan 23, 2008, 11:54 PM

I have not had it for very long yet, so not sure about scratch proofiness. I'd definitely check it out though, I knew I'd like the black but it is not what I expected (it's much better).

Simon · Jan 24, 2008, 04:35 AM

In my experience it's much harder to scratch the black case than the white one. OTOH you can see smudges better on the black case.

Personally, I prefer black.

Bearsfan34 · Jan 25, 2008, 12:39 AM

Congrats on the new MB! I got the 2.2 white MB mid-November after the release. I had my original purchase replaced due to the keyboard problem (Apple Geniuses thought it might be hardware...who was I to argue? Got 2 new MBs in about 3 weeks!), and I'm glad I upgraded. Gave my G4 iBook to my wife, who's in heaven now.

This is a great machine. I do sometimes wish there was a dedicated grafx card in the MacBook for a little PC gaming fun (COD4, BF2142, etc.) on occasion, but it's not a deal breaker. After a crucial.com RAM upgrade, this is the fastest machine I've ever owned.

iamnotmad · Jan 25, 2008, 09:38 AM

Yeah, the first thing I did was put 4GB of ram in it - may as well max it out. As far as games, like I said I was going to wait for a MBP upgrade, but the fact is all I'll be playing will be things like Civ4, WC3, SC2 - all of which will be fine on the X3100. I own game consoles so for things like FPS's I'll keep that in HD on my nice TV and sound system.

Cadaver · Jan 25, 2008, 11:20 AM

I gave my wife my 2.16GHz MacBook Pro and took over her 2.0GHz MacBook. Did a hard drive swap so we didn't have to lose or reinstall anything. I'm very happy. The size of the MacBook is much better for me - I take my machine almost everywhere, whereas my wife's just sits on her desk most of the time.

I'm permitted to buy a laptop through work once every two years. I bought the MBP two years ago, so now I'm up for a new one. I was going to order a MacBook Air, but I'm thinking I might just go for a new MacBook instead and pop 4GB of RAM in to it.

I knew the MacBook was a nice machine, but didn't realize just how nice until I started using one on a regular basis.

ctt1wbw · Jan 25, 2008, 11:49 AM

I have a question about the screen. Is there that much of a difference between a screen on a Macbook (non LED) versus the screen on a Macbook Pro (LED)?

pat++ · Jan 30, 2008, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

I have a question about the screen. Is there that much of a difference between a screen on a Macbook (non LED) versus the screen on a Macbook Pro (LED)?

Yes, the difference is huge. LED display on the MacBook Pro is way better. Notice that the MacBook will probably get a LED display for the next revision (same as MacBook Air).

damiensmunki · Jan 30, 2008, 11:28 PM

Does everyone else agree? Is the difference between the LED and non-LED screens that significant? I saw them side-by-side today, but it was in a store with horrendously bright fluorescent lighting. Couldn't tell much.

Simon · Jan 31, 2008, 03:37 AM

Crank up the brightness.

The max brightness of my 2.33 GHz MBP (CCFL) is definitely lower than that of my 2.4 GHz MBP (LED). And yes, of course the 2.33 GHz MBP has already faded somewhat and therefore has a lower brightness, but guess what, that fading won't happen on the 2.4 GHz. So even more reason to go with the LED backlit displays.

Cadaver · Feb 1, 2008, 12:23 AM

I think the LED-lit screens overall are better, but I wouldn't consider it a make-or-break item on my list. If you like everything else about the computer, and as long as you think the screen is bright-enough at around its 75% setting (my own personal criteria), then I wouldn't not buy the machine just because the screen doesn't have an LED backlight.

stugots · Feb 2, 2008, 10:10 PM

Congrats on the new addition...I switched to Mac a little over a year ago and I'm proud to say my MB is running as good today as it did a year ago. I LOVE MACS!!!!

JuanGuapo · Feb 8, 2008, 01:06 PM

Welcome to the family.

I've been an on-again/off-again switcher since 2003 (Mac, then back to Windows, then back to Mac) and Vista was the nail in the Windows coffin for me.

I picked up a white Macbook last week b/c my fiancee has one and she takes it everywhere w/ her....throws it in her bag and is off. When I was having Vista woes (BSODs), she took me to the Apple Store and I bought a 2.2Ghz white Macbook, .Mac, and then got a 4GB memory upgrade from Fry's for $80 on sale.

As of now, I'm running vmWare w/ Windows XP b/c some of my programs are Windows-only, but this little thing flies. Plus, the battery life can't be beat...I'm getting 4-5 hours on it w/ 1/3rd brightness, no bluetooth, and wireless off.

Ironically the one thing I've found myself using more and more is the iDisk part of the dot-Mac....I stopped using my flash drive for backing stuff up.

iamnotmad · Feb 8, 2008, 02:57 PM

I should put an update here on my poor MB.
So everything was great, until I noticed some nasty dithering on simple colors (even the green highlight color!). I looked at my wifes macbook, same model but white and bought right after the Nov update. She has NO such dithering. Her display looked good.

So I brought my macbok to the genius bar, they saw what I was talking about, and stated that it WAS within spec. However they would replace it, but if the new one has the same issue, that's it. By the way, NONE of the MB in the store exhibited this issue (they looked good like my wifes).

I was happily surprised how easy that was and fully expected (since no other MB i looked at had the issue) that this one would be fine. They HAD to do the exchange first before I could open it (oy!) so they did the exchange, I opened it in the store and the new one had the SAME issue!!! Oy! So I accepted it anyway (he said I had a new 14 days to return it if not happy), I went home and did a calibration and it actually helped quite a bit. I was generally happy again.

Until I notced that my manual calibration was way off since I did it sort of based at least partiall y on reducing the dithering. I recalibrated and got it good after several tries. The dithering was reduced (but not gone) but it looked pretty good still.

Then I looked at my wifes again, and wow, hers (same machine!) looked so much better, even the viewing angle was much better! That piled on top of the fact that my otherwise nice black macbook also had a mis-aligned top half, and a mis-aligned isight cam leads me sadly to return this machine.

I'm sad to do so really, I was surprised how much I liked the black macbook. But I cannot deal with the fact that apple clearly started putting less capable panels in at some point (my wifes shows a different manufacturer), and now I can apparently only get one with this not as good panel- reduced viewing angle and more dithering.

I'll wait for the MBP updates and get one of those probably. I can't really justify the air, too much sacrifice for thinness at the price it is.

I'm back to my wifes old Ti Powerbook G4 (667!) for now, until the MBP updated hopefully this month.

I would still highly recommend the MB to anyone not picky on the LCD, especially the black!. And the brightness on it was great.

Apple at the store was really nice and helpful. I cannot imagine getting such service elsewhere on a computer.

Zeeb · Feb 8, 2008, 03:21 PM

I hear ya brother. The powerbook I bought from Apple was flawless and worked like a dream. The macbook pro I later purchased has misaligned keys(not a big deal but a sign of things to come) and eventually the superdrive failed, as well as the logic board and inverter. My point is that if you get a computer which out of the box has misaligned parts it may mean the internals are screwed up as well. I hope you have better luck with your new mbp when it comes out--I'm looking to possibly upgrade myself. All I know is that if a $2500 computer isn't absolutely perfectly aligned when I pull it out of the box its going back immediately.