A couple months ago, my trusty Dell Inspiron laptop started showing signs of age, the most annoying of which was random malfunctions of the space bar (turns out it's really hard to type documents when the space bar doesn't work reliably). After discussing with The Hubby, I started research into replacements.
Now, I've always been a PC girl. Never really had monumental difficulties with them. But Macs have always intrigued me. Ultimately, I have wound up with PCs because of price, and once I totaled up the cost of machine and required software I once again shelved the thoughts of a Mac. But just as I was about to close the deal on a middle-of-the-road, but perfectly suitable HP Pavilion, my brother-in-law offered me Office for Mac for free (legally, I assure you). Hmm. And I didn't really need Quicken immediately, right? After all the Dell was still functional and I had time to evaluate options for home finance.
Another trip to BestBuy was in order. I looked at the Macbook (not the Pro). I got a demo. I was sold. One white, 13" Macbook please - just a shade over $1,000 including tax (and I got 18-month financing).
Two months later, the verdict is in: I love this thing. I can't believe it took me so long to buy a Mac. Seriously, I might never buy a PC again.
How do I love my Mac? Let me count the ways (in no particular order).
1. Form Factor
Even folks I know who don't like using Macs admit it: Macs are pretty. Apple may not have the monopoly on sleek design, but they seem to do it consistently better than anybody else. The Macbook is no exception. The thing is all slim lines and rounded corners, no jutting edges or weird angles. When closed, the Macbook is truly "closed," as the curved lid meets curved body. Apple calls it "unibody design." The only "gap" is a small finger ridge to grasp when opening the lid. The result is a sleek, slim rectangle with rounded corners, easy to carry, easy to slide into any kind of bag. Closed, the Macbook is just over 1" thick and it weighs less than 5 pounds, so it's actually, you know, portable. I don't feel like I'm carrying a bag of bricks.
Of course like so many things Apple, the battery is internal - no popping it on and off (Apple critics will mention that this only means I can't change the battery myself). There doesn't seem to be a fan - no vents anywhere and I found the lack of whirring a bit unsettling at first. Yet the bottom of the Macbook stays cooler than any laptop with a fan I've used; I can put it directly on my lap and nothing gets uncomfortably warm.
There is no CD drawer - it's a slot much like a car CD player. So no jutting drawer to bump into things, get blocked, or get snapped off. Of course this also means no lame "my cup holder is broken" tech support jokes, but I can live with that.
The keyboard is not quite "solid surface," but the keys are much lower profile and seem "tighter" than the ones on my Dell, which means less wiggling - and they feel simultaneously sleeker and "grippier" to my fingers. The trackpad is sensitive without being slippery; much more precise and reliable than my Dell (I found myself restarting the Dell to reload the trackpad driver on occasion). The Multi-touch functioning is both intuitive and flexible (and it does pinch thing too); I like how just using a two-finger swipe scrolls, instead of having to scroll along the edge of the pad.
At first I couldn't figure out where the power jack was. Where was the standard round hole? After finding the MagSafe Power Adapter, I realized this might be the most genius power attachment ever. You mean when my kid trips over the cord it just breaks away and doesn't drag the machine to the ground? Brilliant!
Okay, I wish it came in something other than white, but when you're nitpicking on the color, you know you don't have a lot to complain about.
2. Battery Life
Apple rates the battery usage of the Macbook at 10 hours. I don't know exactly how long it lasts, but I know I used it for about four hours unplugged and still had 65%-70% of my battery remaining. The Hubby and I watched a forty-minute streaming video at almost full brightness of the screen, and the battery was still full of juice. Despite the fact that I paid for the 9-cell battery on the Dell, I never got more than 4-5 hours of computing out of it, and an hour-long streaming video took it down to the wire. Clear advantage to Apple.
3. Ease of Setup
So I arrive at home with my tiny Mac box, unpack, and settle in for what I think is going to be hours of setup and configuration. Wrong. I turn on the Macbook and it steps me right through initial setup. Oh, Mac has detected a wireless network - do you want to connect? No installation of router drivers or fancy software to get connected. It detected other machines in the network without problem. Plugged in an external hard drive - bingo, files transferred. Printer drivers? Who needs them! First time I wanted to print, the Macbook detected printers on the network. Configuring Mac's Mail application to connect to my Comcast.net account was equally flawless (I will admit that Office 2007 was much better at that on Windows than previous versions of Office). The only thing it won't detect when plugged in is my phone (a Samsung Omnia running Windows Mobile Pro 6.1). Oh, and I did wind up retyping my Outlook contacts, but only because I didn't feel like downloading Thunderbird, installing, exporting, and then importing. I don't have that many contacts to make it worth my time.
4. Responsiveness
Whenever you turn on a Windows machine, or "wake" it up, there is a time lag while Windows gets itself settled. Mac, not so much. Push the power button and it's on in less than 30 seconds. I open the lid and boom! its ready to use, no "resuming" lag. Call it responsiveness, or instant on, or whatever. I don't know what to call it, but I like it.
5. Display clarity
The screen on the Macbook is smaller than my Dell (13" as opposed to 15"), but I sure don't miss those two inches. Maybe because everything is so crisp. The colors pop and it's a pleasure to look at the screen. Everything from web surfing to watching videos is easy on the eyes.
6. Stability
No quirks, no finicky behavior. Nothing hesitates or goes into a weird "hourglass" state. I have not had a dropped wireless signal in the two months I've been using it (something that cannot be said for the PCs in the house). No, "Word has encountered an error and needs to close."It's trite, but really, "it just works."
7. Software
The only "external" applications I've installed are Word and Excel for Mac. I've found everything else that comes with the Mac (Mail, iCal, Address Book, etc). to be perfectly adequate. I have friends who say the Mac versions of Word/Excel pale before the Windows versions, but really, for home use they are just fine (I don't need most of the fancier features to type a letter or create a spreadsheet to track Scout dues).
Where the Mac really shines is the multi-media software. It's long been held that Apple does the "artistic" stuff better. I can't speak to animation or CAD, but for what I need it is outstanding. I have thousands of digital photos. For years, all I've wanted to do is put them together in a slide show with some music. And while I won't say I couldn't figure it out under Windows, I couldn't figure out how to do it both easily and cheaply. I didn't want to learn to be a pro with Photoshop, I just wanted a stinking digital photo slide show.
Not only does the Mac come with all the software necessary (iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, iDVD), it's all ridiculously simple. I am always wary when a company touts how "easy" it is do something. But armed with nothing except the 10 minute demonstration from the Apple rep at BestBuy and my own determination, I created a slide show with music of our beach vacation in about 15 minutes. I created a slide show for my son's Cub Scout pack of their summer camping in about 30 minutes - and most of that time was spent selecting photos and appropriate music. Put the photos in iPhoto, import them to iMovie, dump in music, select a theme, and hey presto! Semi-professional looking slide show. The folks at Cub Scouts couldn't thank me enough for all my "work." Honesty compelled me to admit it hadn't been that hard - the Mac did all the hard work.
And I love the Dock. I'm just saying.
Conclusion
It's hard for me to categorically say, "Never buy a PC," because really, you have to pick the right tool for the job. But for home computing, you don't need a Cray. If you're a hard-core gamer, a Mac may not be for you. If you're on a really limited budget, Mac may not be for you (I don't think Apple sells anything for $300). But if you've got the cash, and you want computing to be fun instead of work, I highly recommend shelving any suspicions you may have and looking at the Apple line. Heck, it might not cost as much as you think. You might just be pleasantly surprised.
And taking a bit of this Apple won't even get you thrown out of the Garden of Eden.
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