In the Good Books: MacBook

If you want a new laptop, and have the money, go for the Apple Mac Book

When my my three-year-old IBM Thinkpad gave up on me about three weeks ago, I began my search for a new machine. After all, the Pentium 4 had been replaced with the Core 2 Duo, and my 2 GB RAM machine looked ancient. I had two options: buy another Thinkpad, or choose from an HP, the Asus Eee PC or the Apple Mac. For me the transition from PC to Mac wouldn’t have been difficult as I have been on Linux for years, and in many ways Mac works no differently from the Linux box. So I zeroed in on a Mac.

Today, when you can buy several laptops for under Rs 40,000, one doesn’t have to think of taking a home loan. But with the MacBooks starting from Rs 65,000, I needed to think. Since I haven’t been a Mac user, I needed to put down my requirements on paper. I needed a fast machine which would last at least three years. I needed a machine with a small screen, around 13 inches, and which would play DVDs, not necessarily write them. I also wanted a lot of RAM and power.

Among the Intel MacBooks, there were three models. I whittled my choice to a white model, the cheaper one, which came with a DVD reader, not a writer. I didn’t want to spend another Rs 10,000 on a DVD writer and RAM, but I did buy something called an Apple Care pack for Rs 13,000 that helped me extend the one-year warranty to three years.

Back home, I opened the machine, booted it up and 10 minutes later I had a shiny Mac with a wonderful software. All I had to do now was go online and grab freebies like the Firefox browser, Thunderbird for e-mails and Neo office (the open office port for Macs)—I didn’t want to pay Microsoft for the software.

After using the Mac for three weeks now, all I can says is it’s geek zen. One may face problems with the missing right click (yes, Macs have only one mouse button) and being on a PC that does not have Windows (there is boot camp, and there are things like Parallels / Vmware Fusion) may not make this the right choice for all, but if you are willing to learn, you have a perfect machine that looks and works well.

Still, some of the bigger problems with the MacBook are that even at 2 GB plus of RAM, it can be slow at times. The machine heats up a lot at the base, so it may not be a good idea to work for long stretches keeping it in your lap. The wonderful backlit keyboard is not present in the MacBook, only in the Macbook Pro series. The white Mac has killer looks but I would advise you to go for the black one as it doesn’t get soiled quickly. The web camera and sound are great, but it does not work in a low light conditions. Still, it’s a wonderful machine.

So if you are looking for a new laptop and have the money, go try this one.
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The Above Article was Printed In Indian Express, on Sunday, April 20, 2008

GS