One weekend with a new Macbook - Some thoughts and questions and a difficult decision.
After tormenting myself for as long as possible finally cracked open the box and here are my first impressions:
- I am new to Mac computers and I love OS X, it feels kind of sophisticated after Windows .
- The Macbook oozes quality and feels beautiful and it's wonderfully small
- Plug in, switch on and go
- illuminated keyboard is cool, but to be honest a bit overwhelming with a lot of light leaking from around the keys, but overall I think very useful.
- Sound - I am a little worried by this as it sounds like it is only coming from the right hand side and that seems unbalanced. Should this be equally from both sides? Nice and loud though and OK quality for a laptop.
- Battery cover - Does not fit too well, a slight gap at one end.
- Firefox - I cannot maximise the window to view full screen as I can in Windows. Thisi s really annoying, I am used to viewing webpages without any unnecessary menus/toolbars. A bit of research suggests this is a problem.
- THE SCREEN....hmmm. Now I can see why there are a lot of posts about this. The blacks really are not black enough and getting the perfect angle is frustrating. Viewing images full screen with large areas of black is difficult as the dark areas tend to appear 'negative' and lacking in detail.
I was testing out watching a DVD on the Macbook and behind it the TV (old and cheap) was on and this emphasised that the Macbook screen did seem very washed out colours, a really average and unexciting image with poor viewing angles
I am seriously considering returning the Macbook because of the screen. It seems such a shame as I could love this machine (yes...I am sad). £200 more for a Pro = better screen, firewire, graphics card, express port, better sound, hmmm.....
I was thinking to purchase an external monitor as I mainly wish to use the Macbook for photo editing but to be honest I think the frustration of the screen in general use would be too much. Has anyone else made the swap and what is their experience of the screen difference in particular?
After tormenting myself for as long as possible finally cracked open the box and here are my first impressions:
- I am new to Mac computers and I love OS X, it feels kind of sophisticated after Windows .
- The Macbook oozes quality and feels beautiful and it's wonderfully small
- Plug in, switch on and go
- illuminated keyboard is cool, but to be honest a bit overwhelming with a lot of light leaking from around the keys, but overall I think very useful.
- Sound - I am a little worried by this as it sounds like it is only coming from the right hand side and that seems unbalanced. Should this be equally from both sides? Nice and loud though and OK quality for a laptop.
- Battery cover - Does not fit too well, a slight gap at one end.
- Firefox - I cannot maximise the window to view full screen as I can in Windows. Thisi s really annoying, I am used to viewing webpages without any unnecessary menus/toolbars. A bit of research suggests this is a problem.
- THE SCREEN....hmmm. Now I can see why there are a lot of posts about this. The blacks really are not black enough and getting the perfect angle is frustrating. Viewing images full screen with large areas of black is difficult as the dark areas tend to appear 'negative' and lacking in detail.
I was testing out watching a DVD on the Macbook and behind it the TV (old and cheap) was on and this emphasised that the Macbook screen did seem very washed out colours, a really average and unexciting image with poor viewing angles
I am seriously considering returning the Macbook because of the screen. It seems such a shame as I could love this machine (yes...I am sad). £200 more for a Pro = better screen, firewire, graphics card, express port, better sound, hmmm.....
I was thinking to purchase an external monitor as I mainly wish to use the Macbook for photo editing but to be honest I think the frustration of the screen in general use would be too much. Has anyone else made the swap and what is their experience of the screen difference in particular?
