MB first thoughts

As some of you may know, I picked up a MBP for my wife as a gift a couple of weeks ago and she loves it. It's our first mac ever.

I needed a secondary machine that's small for travel and considered a MB but I thought the downgrade from a MBP would be severe. I cave in and picked up a MB this afternoon (the black one with 2.2GHz CPU, 160GB HD and 1GB RAM).

Here are some comparisons and first thoughts after using it for a couple of hours:

It came preloaded with Leopard, so initial start up was a little faster.
Build quality is superb. Definitely on par with the MBP. I love the magnetic lid closure - wish the MBP had that.

I was a little worried about the non-LED screen but I was pleasantly surprised to see a gorgeous screen with absolutely even backlighting - better evenness than on my MBP. The brightness is good also. Overall the screen certainly does not feel like a downgrade from the MBP.

The anti-glare coating, or glossy finish on it I'm not sure I love. During the last few hours here it's been dark enough that I haven't noticed any negative effects of it. I'll have to wait and see during daytime operation if it's still good.

The keyboard is surprisingly good. The keys are responsive and well spaced apart. I really miss the backlit keys on the MBP but otherwise these are fantastic. They feel more responsive than the keys on our MBP.

Fan noise and heat are almost non-existent. I heard the fans come on twice in three hours of use and no heat at all felt on the palm rest or trackpad.

The only negative that I can think of and it's not a huge one is that I feel the trackpad is a little less sensitive than the one on our MBP especially for tapping. Sometimes it would register a light tap and other times it won't. The MBP OTOH registered all light taps consistently.

Now, here's the big positive compared to the MBP; wireless reception. I would say it is noticeably better on the MB. I was able to see networks on my street that I am not able to see on my MBP and reception is full consistently. I heard the metallic frame on the MBP affects reception and after seeing this today I think there is some truth to that.

I am very impressed with this so far and it's definitely a keeper. I picked up two one-gig sticks of Kingston RAM with it although I haven't installed them yet. I haven't really noticed a huge performance difference in the things I typically use so I'm wondering whether it's ok to stay with one gig or should I upgrade to 2GB RAM?

I got the sticks for almost half price so I'm reluctant to return them, but I just wanted to hear whether 2GB is noticeably better using Leopard?

 

I would upgrade the ram simply because it is so cheap to do so, and you will enjoy the extra memory.

 

Yeah, I think you're right. Come to think of it, I may occasionally use iMovie for some light video editing and will definitely use iPhoto quite a bit so I would guess 2GB RAM would help those two applications.

 

First, congrats on your nice new machine, ATC. Nice to hear that you and Mrs ATC are enjoying your new systems.

I've also owned both machine, and, like you, found that the MB's wireless reception is definitely better than that of the MBP - and the MBP isn't bad.

 

Thanks. We absolutely are. We really should have switched a long long time ago. I'm absolutely smitten with this MB. I love the size. I bought an incase sleeve for it, similar to the one we got for the MBP and this fits it great. No give at all, just like it was made for it.

 

Congrats on your purchase man! Hopefully I will be joining you soon as a mac owner as well! And yes, you would definitely want to upgrade your memory to 2GB, how much did it cost you?

 

I don't know how good a deal I got but I think it's good.

It's from FutureShop, they had the Kingston 1 GB sticks for $99 each and the equivalent in the Comstar brand for $59 on sale. They only had one left of the comstar and plenty of Kingstons. I asked the sales person to check with his manager and see if he would match the kingston for the comstar since I needed two chips and the manager agreed.

These are the chips: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10087541&catid=

So almost half price, from $99 to $59 each. Not a bad deal, hey?

 

Looks good, ATC! Thanks for your first thoughts!

 

hey i also made the switch recently (got the black macbook ) it was definitely worth it! i also upgraded my ram from 1gb to 4gb. 4gb from ocz was on sale for $60 after a $30 mail-in rebate. i haven't noticed any performance boost though (probably cause OSX > windows)

 

What do you think about the screen size on the MB? I've read on other forums that a lot of people were complaining about the viewing angles on the MB. Im planning on buying a MB or an MBP pretty soon but still having trouble deciding which one.

 

You could get 2x1gb for 40$ from new egg if your interested.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134555
Or just 1 for 20$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134546

 

Wow, that's a good price. So you didn't notice any difference between 1GB and 4GB? hmm....that's strange.

 

The MBP screen does have a slightly better range of viewing angles but to be honest I haven't noticed the difference much in practise so far.

If you work a lot looking at the screen off-centre then the MBP is slightly better there. But like I said, the difference is very minor and not noticeable for me so far.

I was blown away by the evenness of the back-lighting on the MB. It's dead even on my screen. Our MBP has areas where you see a noticeable dip in brightness near the bottom, just off centre right and left. But that's also very hard to notice and becomes apparent mainly when viewing full-screen bright/white content.

As far as screen size goes, it's great IMO. I wanted something smaller than a MBP for travelling and also for when lying in bed working. I found the MBP to be slightly larger than ideal for those situations. It's not high res but due to the physically smaller size it looks just as sharp and easy on the eyes.

Having said that, I don't know if I'd want to watch movies on this unless maybe on an airplane.

 

I knew Newegg would blow the price I got out the water. I just wish they would deliver to Canada. I hear they're good to deal with too. Oh well.

 

Thanks Sam. So what are your thoughts about 2GB vs 1GB on a MB?

 

I'd say its your own choice...the MacBook runs fine on 1 GB of RAM, but it certainly feel faster and be more powerful with 2 GB of RAM. If you don't mind paying the bit more, then go for it! It was worth it, but at the same time, its also not necessary, so yeah, I would go for it while I'm investing this much money into a notebook .

 

Hey thanks for the info very much appreciated

 

I really should title this post "second thoughts". I've had the MB now for about a week and I will update the opinions I had from the first few hours of use.

So a week later, hundreds of photos edited and viewed later with a sprinkle of video viewing/editing and now I hold a slightly different opinion of the MB.

First, I really miss the backlit keyboard on the MBP. It's something that I'd rather not live without now that I've gone from using it to not and then back again.

Working on photos and videos on a MB and MBP side by side have really skewed my views of the display in favour of the MBP. I don't know if it's the LED backlighting, or the matte finish or a combination but image tones are way more natural on the MBP.

Viewing angles are also much better. On the MBP I was able to view and edit photos easily from just about any angle. On the MB, the tones and hues would change dramatically when I shifted from side to side or when I stood up, looking down on the display. The difference is quite noticeable.

Although I didn't expect the MB battery life to last forever, I am quite disappointed in it as I really haven't noticed much difference between it and the MBP which is driving a brighter and larger display with a dedicated GPU.

While the build quality on the MB is excellent, I have to say I prefer the MBP in that regard. After a week the palm rest area on the MB, specifically the right side, started having a give. It would bend slightly under some pressure.

The speakers on the MB are good for a 13" notebook but they have a slightly tinny output. The MBP sound richer but really this is not a biggy as they both sound terrible in the grand scheme of things.

The one thing that's driving me nuts is the black MB finger prints a lot. I mean it's near impossible to keep it looking somewhat clean. Some marks are really hard to get rid of. The MBP OTOH is really hard to mark; it almost always looked squeaky clean.

The other thing that has turned out to be a disappointment for me personally is how cramped my hands/wrists feel typing on the MB. It was quite uncomfortable after extended use.

Interestingly, I haven't found the MB to be that much smaller and lighter in practise than the MBP, which is the main reason for wanting to go MB. The MB generally felt slightly smaller, but with the same perceived weight and thickness it almost felt the same sitting on my lap.

Just as a side note; I didn't notice much of a difference in performance between the standard 1GB and 2GB RAM. OSX felt just as snappy and so did all the other applications that I used.

Having said all this, I really still like the MB for what it is and I think it's a great 13" notebook. What I realized for myself is that going from the MBP to MB didn't quite deliver the portability advantages that I anticipated and the other little differences, some weren't so little, were really missed from the MBP.

I returned my MB today and exchanged it for the same MBP that my wife has. I'm really happy with my decision.

The only problem now is that I ordered applecare for MB that I now have to send back and pay for all the shipping. I already ordered the applecare for MBP for $199 and I should get that early next week.

Sorry for the long post.

 

Yikes sounds like you really didnt like the macbook. It is a great machine. Yea pictures are going to look better on a 15inch screen with a matte finish.

 

I don't think it sounded like you didn't like the macbook, just that it's somewhat difficult to switch between the Macbook Pro and the Macbook.

Well we're always a little bit miffed when people return their Macbooks, but you got a Macbook Pro, so I guess it's okay. How is the LED screen? Like you, I splurged for my Black Macbook, but I ended up staying with it. I've been with it too long to separate with it now. x)

 

Though I have 2G on my macbook pro, I really can not tell the difference between 1G memory and 2G memory.

 

Yeah, I definitely liked the MB but the MBP turned out to be a lot more suitable for my needs. I'm not sure whether it's the LED screen or the matte finish, or both, but there is definitely a difference in IQ between both displays. That wasn't apparent at first but after a week of use, in various lighting conditions, I now see the difference easily.

This isn't a bashing of the MB, far from it, it's just a testament of how great the MBP is.

The sales person was really nice and said that if a new MBP comes out in the next two weeks I'd be able to exchange it if I wanted to.

I'm a little anxious about the MBP refresh now, especially after reading some positive Penryn reviews. But if they don't come out in time I'm definitely keeping this one.

If they do refresh it soon, I hope they keep the current keyboard even though many prefer the MB-style one. Also, I hope they increase the standard HD size to 160GB or better yet a 200GB.

I'm going to hold off activating my applecare for a couple of weeks.

 

Well, glad to hear at least you found the right notebook for you, Arquis! Of course, I prefer the MBP myself, I can't afford it .