I just picked up a MacBook over the weekend. 2.0 GHz, white, with the standard 1/2 GB of RAM. For reference, I've been using Macs for over a decade for work and play.
I have to say I'm impressed with this baby. The design is classic Apple - sleek and stylish. Even the box it comes in is compact. Plug it in and turn it on, and it comes right up (though not as fast as I'd been led to believe). Configuring the network to work with our home WiFi setup was the only tricky part, but fortunately I have a lot of practice at this.
There's certainly plenty of CPU horsepower for a laptop, even if the graphics capabilities are limited and the factory skimps on RAM. It's quiet until you put the CPUs to hard work... then it sounds like a jet preparing for takeoff, but at a lower volume.
It will run Mac applications compiled for PowerPC (G4, G5) in emulation. Of course this means they run more slowly, but the MacBook has twice the CPU horsepower of previous PowerBooks. So the net result is a modest slowdown.
You get a lot for your $1300. The MacBooks have Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, and FireWire built in (but no modem, a $40 USB modem can be hooked to it). It will hook up to external video displays in spanning or mirror mode, with the addition of a $20 connector. The 2 GHz models come standard with DVD burner drives. I didn't feel like spending the extra $200 to have it in black.
The biggest issue I see with the MacBook for photography is the LCD screen. The contrast and color balance change with viewing angle. Side to side it's pretty consistent, but up and down it changes dramatically. I wouldn't recommend using the LCD for any critical photo editing work. It's plenty bright and has adequate resolution for other uses.
For my money the MacBook is a big win. Just make sure you throw some more RAM into it, and plug it into a better display if you want to do critical photo editing.
I have to say I'm impressed with this baby. The design is classic Apple - sleek and stylish. Even the box it comes in is compact. Plug it in and turn it on, and it comes right up (though not as fast as I'd been led to believe). Configuring the network to work with our home WiFi setup was the only tricky part, but fortunately I have a lot of practice at this.
There's certainly plenty of CPU horsepower for a laptop, even if the graphics capabilities are limited and the factory skimps on RAM. It's quiet until you put the CPUs to hard work... then it sounds like a jet preparing for takeoff, but at a lower volume.
It will run Mac applications compiled for PowerPC (G4, G5) in emulation. Of course this means they run more slowly, but the MacBook has twice the CPU horsepower of previous PowerBooks. So the net result is a modest slowdown.
You get a lot for your $1300. The MacBooks have Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, and FireWire built in (but no modem, a $40 USB modem can be hooked to it). It will hook up to external video displays in spanning or mirror mode, with the addition of a $20 connector. The 2 GHz models come standard with DVD burner drives. I didn't feel like spending the extra $200 to have it in black.
The biggest issue I see with the MacBook for photography is the LCD screen. The contrast and color balance change with viewing angle. Side to side it's pretty consistent, but up and down it changes dramatically. I wouldn't recommend using the LCD for any critical photo editing work. It's plenty bright and has adequate resolution for other uses.
For my money the MacBook is a big win. Just make sure you throw some more RAM into it, and plug it into a better display if you want to do critical photo editing.
