A week with the new 13″ MacBook
Last Monday night, I took a trip over to a local Apple Store and picked up a new 2.4 GHz 13″ MacBook to replace my older MacBook Pro. Now that I’ve had it for a week, I thought I’d post my thoughts and how I feel it compares to the older MacBook Pro.
The screen
Originally, I had a few reservations about “downgrading” from a 15″ MacBook Pro to the 13″ MacBook, with the big one being the size of the screen. After using the 13″ for the past week, I think I’ve adjusted pretty well. Some of my desktops (I use Spaces… a lot) are more cluttered than they were on the 15″ with the same windows open, but that’s to be expected with the smaller size. Overall, going down in screen size turned out be much less of a deal than I thought it’d be.
Another concern I had with the screen was that the matte option was no longer available—even on the Pro models. I don’t do much work while outside in the sun, but I do have a window to my back while sitting in my home office, so I was worried that the glare would be pretty bad. It took a few days to get used to the glossy screen—that’s for sure—but now that I’ve used it for a while, I don’t really mind it. On the upside (at least as far as price is concerned), the lack of a matte option on the Pro models helped me decide to go with the MacBook instead of the MacBook Pro since I couldn’t get a matte display on the Pro either.
The body
I don’t have much to say about the new “brick” manufacturing method, but it definitely does feel like the machine is more solid compared to the older, multi-part chassis.
The keyboard
I’m definitely liking the single-key-per-hole chicklet keyboards the new models have (the previous MacBook models and the MacBook Air had them, but the previous Pro didn’t).
The trackpad
This is the only place where I’ve had some issues. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the new no-button trackpads don’t always respond to clicks (the pad definitely clicks, it’s just not recognized). That said, it definitely seems more responsive if I click in the bottom-center of the trackpad versus the bottom-left where I’m used to clicking. I’m still getting used to it, so it could just be the positioning of my hand when I’m clicking. The problem seems to come and go, so I may end up taking it in to the Apple Store this week to get them to check it out to make sure that it actually is me and not the trackpad itself.
On the upside, the new gestures work as advertised and I’m really liking being able to bring up the application switcher by putting 4 fingers on the pad and swiping.
Lack of firewire
This is a huge deal-breaker for some people, but the only firewire device I have is an external hard drive that also happens to be USB 2.0-compatible, so it’s really a non-issue for me. If you absolutely need firewire, you’ll need to get the new Pro model (and if you’re doing any serious video-editing or audio recording, you should be using the Pro anyway).
Final verdict
Overall, I’m definitely pleased. Everything feels snappy with pre-installed 2 GB of RAM vs the 4 GB I had in the MacBook Pro, and the brightness of the display is stunning. These machines are definitely gorgeous looking. With the exception of the trackpad issue I mentioned above, I’ve had absolutely no problems at all and would definitely recommend looking into the MacBook if you’re in the market for new laptop. If you’re looking for a decent, well-taken-care-of used machine and are in the Portland area, drop me a line… I have a 2.2 GHz 15″ MacBook Pro for sale :-)
