I have been reading the various forums and am very close to purchase a 15" superdrive Al book. But recently I've had some concerns, so am keen to get some feedback from forums members.
1. White spots problem - does not seem to have been resolved (yet).
2. Dead pixels. I have only used Compaq and IBM notebooks to date and despite their hi-res screens (for their time anyway), I have not encountered any one with dead pixels. I read the amount of people on the Apple forums with dead pixels and am amazed how nearly everyone has some. Whilst I respect this is within the quality specs, it is annoying if this should be in the middle of the screen. Does this mean that Compaq/HP or IBM source better components. Note, I am not comparing to Dell.
3. The screen resolutions of the Apple Albooks look out of date. What are the users experiences. I compute the res to be 100ppi (pixels per inch). The HP (zt3000) I am comparing it to comes in WXGA, WSXGA+, WUXGA (100ppi, 130ppi, 150ppi). I can understand that 150ppi on a 15.4" screen is too small though. Even my 3 year old Compaq is 1024x768 on a 12.1" screen or around 110ppi.
4. People are complaining that the fonts on the Apple PB is fuzzy. I made a quick assessment in a store and they were indeeed very fuzzy in comparison to other admittedly Windows notebooks. Can this be resolved by some settings?
The last Apple I used was an Apple II+ in 1985, so I have no experience with the Mac OS, but I am tempted by a works colleague who maintains that things just works (no complicated software installs, easy plug and play etc...)- but then he has an eMac and I need a notebook. What I find frustrating about Windows is that it starts off very sprightly, but as you add more software/utlities, try out different programs and remove them, children install/uninstall games..., the computer slows because it is absolutely useless at managing the registry. This requires that every once in a while I have to do a clean-up, reformat, re-install.....which is a waste of good time.
What I intend using the computer for is digital photography (Adobe PS Elements 2), some business work (Office apps). I would also like to move my home Hi8 tapes to digital and do some very basic editing (assume Final Cut Express would be OK). Game playing has largely shifted to the XBOX anyway.
In the final analyses - are my questions/concerns valid?
nk
1. White spots problem - does not seem to have been resolved (yet).
2. Dead pixels. I have only used Compaq and IBM notebooks to date and despite their hi-res screens (for their time anyway), I have not encountered any one with dead pixels. I read the amount of people on the Apple forums with dead pixels and am amazed how nearly everyone has some. Whilst I respect this is within the quality specs, it is annoying if this should be in the middle of the screen. Does this mean that Compaq/HP or IBM source better components. Note, I am not comparing to Dell.
3. The screen resolutions of the Apple Albooks look out of date. What are the users experiences. I compute the res to be 100ppi (pixels per inch). The HP (zt3000) I am comparing it to comes in WXGA, WSXGA+, WUXGA (100ppi, 130ppi, 150ppi). I can understand that 150ppi on a 15.4" screen is too small though. Even my 3 year old Compaq is 1024x768 on a 12.1" screen or around 110ppi.
4. People are complaining that the fonts on the Apple PB is fuzzy. I made a quick assessment in a store and they were indeeed very fuzzy in comparison to other admittedly Windows notebooks. Can this be resolved by some settings?
The last Apple I used was an Apple II+ in 1985, so I have no experience with the Mac OS, but I am tempted by a works colleague who maintains that things just works (no complicated software installs, easy plug and play etc...)- but then he has an eMac and I need a notebook. What I find frustrating about Windows is that it starts off very sprightly, but as you add more software/utlities, try out different programs and remove them, children install/uninstall games..., the computer slows because it is absolutely useless at managing the registry. This requires that every once in a while I have to do a clean-up, reformat, re-install.....which is a waste of good time.
What I intend using the computer for is digital photography (Adobe PS Elements 2), some business work (Office apps). I would also like to move my home Hi8 tapes to digital and do some very basic editing (assume Final Cut Express would be OK). Game playing has largely shifted to the XBOX anyway.
In the final analyses - are my questions/concerns valid?
nk
