Hello Friends
Last Christmas, Santa,.... well actually me, myself and I, got me a MBP (santa did not give me one cent). Besides an Apple II that I briefly used in college this was my first mac. It was also my first notebook and it replaced my home built Pentium4 desktop system and has become my only computer since. I am a freelance designer and needed something more powerful and portable.
I will try to give you guys a impression of my experience with a mac this first year. I have used windows since windows 95 so I guess that makes me a switcher.
Transition from a desktop PC to a Mac notebook.
I got rid of my desktop and everything that I had for it a replaced it with my MBP. Thinking that I would never get used to a laptop keyboard, I got an Apple wireless keyboard. It turns out that the MBP's keyboard is the best keyboard that I have ever used in a laptop. After a few months I found myself using the built in keyboard more than the full sized one (and I must say that Apple's wireless keyboard is very good too).
One of the things that I found priceless was being able to take everything with me, all my current and previous projects, right into my clients office and preview and edit them right on the spot quickly. In my field it is very important to communicate to your clients that your a professional and a serious creative designer. Every client that I visited was very impressed with the look of my MBP which helped me convey that 'professional" image that few windows laptops would have had.
If you were a PC user before, specially if you built your own systems, you will remember constantly upgrading your PC. From better video cards to USB video cameras, it seemed that you would never end adding more gadgets. I had a mess of cables collecting dust hanging behind my desk. With my MBP I got everything that I need (well maybe all but the printer). I dont need to buy more stuff for it. I did however add more ram which was pretty easy to install.
Software, games and Windows:
They say that there is not as much software for macs than there is for Windows. Yes its true, but I found the software written for mac better designed and was pleasantly surprised to find more software for mac than I expected. There is more software for mac than PC users would make you believe, they just dont know. All the adobe apps that I need are there and work great. I always preferred Firefox in windows but found Safari a lot better. There is nothing that can be compared to iLife in the windows world, at least that came built in to a PC. I have about 8 years worth of pictures in iPhoto and find it the best software for organizing them. I have since upgraded to iLife and iWork 08 and I am very pleased.
Games? Well, I dont own any games for mac. I am not a gamer. I get bored after 5 minutes playing a game. So this is not an issue for me. I did however installed windows though bootcamp and tried a few games and was very pleased with the performance. I really thought that I would use the windows XP partition more than I actually did. Eventually I felt that the windows partition was a waste of 40GB of HDD space so I deleted it. I am glad to say that I have been windows free for the past 8 months or so.
Hardware issues:
Not everything has been a honey moon. During the 1 year of using my MBP I have encountered a couple of issues. First the power button no longer sits flush with the surface of the mac. It is slightly slanted on the left side and although it works fine, it looks odd on a $2000 computer. The latch button has started to peel a little. I think that they should have used the magnetic latch from the macbook.
A few weeks ago I started to notice that my battery life was pretty lousy. From a full charge it would only last about half an hour. According to the system profile my battery capacity was down to about 2200 mAh. Soon my mac would start to shut down when the battery had around 40% of juice left. I got very concerned and contacted a local Apple dealer (there is no Apple store in Honduras). Even thou I did not get the mac from them, they were very helpful and once they ran their tests on my my mac, they agreed to contact apple for me and order a replacement battery. They told me to give them 3 to 4 weeks for the battery to arrive from Apple. It turned out that they sent me an email in less than a week telling me that my new battery had arrived. They did not charge me a cent since it was still under warranty. I am very impressed with the service and support I got from them and apple. My MBP feels as new as before.
Leopard
I have also upgraded to Leopard. I find it faster than Tiger although It seems to have a few bugs here and there. I love spaces and quicklook. Cover flow is nice but I am not sure how useful it is. Contrary to popular opinion, I find the new stack folders very useful and I used them all the time. I must say however that I did not use folders in tiger's dock. I love the look of the new dock, folders, and the general facelift.
Conclusion
My MBP is the best computer I have ever owned. I have never been as satisfied and proud with any PC. After a year it feels as capable as any other. In fact the very same model today is only 0.06 Ghz faster. I plan on keeping it for at least 2 more years but I dont see why not squeeze a few more years out of it.
I have seen my productivity go up ever since I got this mac. I design a monthly sales catalogue for a client and before I had my mac, I would take about 7 days to finish it, with my MBP, I have reduced the time to 5 days.
If you are considering a mac for the very first time, I hope that my experience with a mac helps in your decision. I am just glad I dont have to put up with vista.
Last Christmas, Santa,.... well actually me, myself and I, got me a MBP (santa did not give me one cent). Besides an Apple II that I briefly used in college this was my first mac. It was also my first notebook and it replaced my home built Pentium4 desktop system and has become my only computer since. I am a freelance designer and needed something more powerful and portable.
I will try to give you guys a impression of my experience with a mac this first year. I have used windows since windows 95 so I guess that makes me a switcher.
Transition from a desktop PC to a Mac notebook.
I got rid of my desktop and everything that I had for it a replaced it with my MBP. Thinking that I would never get used to a laptop keyboard, I got an Apple wireless keyboard. It turns out that the MBP's keyboard is the best keyboard that I have ever used in a laptop. After a few months I found myself using the built in keyboard more than the full sized one (and I must say that Apple's wireless keyboard is very good too).
One of the things that I found priceless was being able to take everything with me, all my current and previous projects, right into my clients office and preview and edit them right on the spot quickly. In my field it is very important to communicate to your clients that your a professional and a serious creative designer. Every client that I visited was very impressed with the look of my MBP which helped me convey that 'professional" image that few windows laptops would have had.
If you were a PC user before, specially if you built your own systems, you will remember constantly upgrading your PC. From better video cards to USB video cameras, it seemed that you would never end adding more gadgets. I had a mess of cables collecting dust hanging behind my desk. With my MBP I got everything that I need (well maybe all but the printer). I dont need to buy more stuff for it. I did however add more ram which was pretty easy to install.
Software, games and Windows:
They say that there is not as much software for macs than there is for Windows. Yes its true, but I found the software written for mac better designed and was pleasantly surprised to find more software for mac than I expected. There is more software for mac than PC users would make you believe, they just dont know. All the adobe apps that I need are there and work great. I always preferred Firefox in windows but found Safari a lot better. There is nothing that can be compared to iLife in the windows world, at least that came built in to a PC. I have about 8 years worth of pictures in iPhoto and find it the best software for organizing them. I have since upgraded to iLife and iWork 08 and I am very pleased.
Games? Well, I dont own any games for mac. I am not a gamer. I get bored after 5 minutes playing a game. So this is not an issue for me. I did however installed windows though bootcamp and tried a few games and was very pleased with the performance. I really thought that I would use the windows XP partition more than I actually did. Eventually I felt that the windows partition was a waste of 40GB of HDD space so I deleted it. I am glad to say that I have been windows free for the past 8 months or so.
Hardware issues:
Not everything has been a honey moon. During the 1 year of using my MBP I have encountered a couple of issues. First the power button no longer sits flush with the surface of the mac. It is slightly slanted on the left side and although it works fine, it looks odd on a $2000 computer. The latch button has started to peel a little. I think that they should have used the magnetic latch from the macbook.
A few weeks ago I started to notice that my battery life was pretty lousy. From a full charge it would only last about half an hour. According to the system profile my battery capacity was down to about 2200 mAh. Soon my mac would start to shut down when the battery had around 40% of juice left. I got very concerned and contacted a local Apple dealer (there is no Apple store in Honduras). Even thou I did not get the mac from them, they were very helpful and once they ran their tests on my my mac, they agreed to contact apple for me and order a replacement battery. They told me to give them 3 to 4 weeks for the battery to arrive from Apple. It turned out that they sent me an email in less than a week telling me that my new battery had arrived. They did not charge me a cent since it was still under warranty. I am very impressed with the service and support I got from them and apple. My MBP feels as new as before.
Leopard
I have also upgraded to Leopard. I find it faster than Tiger although It seems to have a few bugs here and there. I love spaces and quicklook. Cover flow is nice but I am not sure how useful it is. Contrary to popular opinion, I find the new stack folders very useful and I used them all the time. I must say however that I did not use folders in tiger's dock. I love the look of the new dock, folders, and the general facelift.
Conclusion
My MBP is the best computer I have ever owned. I have never been as satisfied and proud with any PC. After a year it feels as capable as any other. In fact the very same model today is only 0.06 Ghz faster. I plan on keeping it for at least 2 more years but I dont see why not squeeze a few more years out of it.
I have seen my productivity go up ever since I got this mac. I design a monthly sales catalogue for a client and before I had my mac, I would take about 7 days to finish it, with my MBP, I have reduced the time to 5 days.
If you are considering a mac for the very first time, I hope that my experience with a mac helps in your decision. I am just glad I dont have to put up with vista.
