Peace of Mind (for the brother-in-law who supports it all)
Written: Jul 10 '07 (Updated Jul 10 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
|
|
|
Pros: Ease of use, "set it and forget it", everything needed under one roof
Cons: screen resolution could be better, somewhat underpowered for power users (when compared to Macbook Pro)
The Bottom Line: An absolute piece of cake to use without having to worry about supporting it. I have and would recommend this to anyone (depending on their needs of course).
|
|
|
| banditosway's Full Review: Apple MacBook MB062LL/A 13.3 in. (MB062LL A 2.16GH... |
Over the past few years I've gone from a PC guy who frequently bashed Apple products to someone would could appreciate them (once OSX came out and was based on BSD), to a proud owner of an iPod (now multiple iPods) and now a proud owner of a Macbook Pro (since my purchase last year).
I'm an IT pro by profession and as such, along with many other IT pro's get called upon by friends/family/etc. to help diagnose and fix a multitude of computer problems. It would be nice if I was paid for each occurrence, but truth be told you really can't charge family. I have parlayed helping friends and neighbors into free dinners though and that's helpful.
That being said there's one part of my family that I seem to be called by most often (aside from my wife & kids) and that's my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law who I have set up in the past with their computers and have even created their own home network. Every holiday that we visit I can be assured that I'll be called in to run some kind of diagnostic/troubleshooting... so I always go prepared with my USB drive handy. The older of my two sisters-in-law just graduated from high school and is heading off to college in the fall to study the Business behind Music Production. Her mother wanted to get her a laptop to take with her and of course I got the call, "What should I get?"
As my typical answer in the past would have led her to the Dell website for a nice compact laptop that would suit the needs of a college student and yet keep mom in her budget... I was sidetracked by the thoughts of those phone calls I was sure to get from clear across the state of my sister-in-law in a panic because of a problem with her laptop.
So the criteria here was as follows:
1. She needed a portable solution that she could easily carry between her dorm, classes, labs and library.
2. It would have to be able to handle her wants as a teenager which included music/chat/web surfing as well as her needs as a student to do projects, stay connected with teachers/other students/mom, handle possible audio/video projects, write papers, etc.
3. Be relatively inexpensive.
4. Be easy to maintain and simple to support (Ok, that was one of my needs)
5. Still have some that cool factor.
The answer?
An Apple Macbook
As an owner of a Macbook Pro I know how absolutely "rock solid" it has been. I haven't had a single problem (save a broken contact under 2 of my keyboard keys last year) with it. The operating system has been great. Updates are easy. Wifi has great range. My only concern about a Macbook would be the "shared" memory that it uses with the video card which is separate with the Macbook Pro. This shouldn't be a problem with any of the projects she may have in the near future though as she's more focused on audio than video. Also, a Macbook with a memory upgrade (to 2GB) is still well below the the price point of even the lowest end Macbook Pro.
So off to the Apple store my sister-in-law went with mom (and her credit card) and away they walked with not only a new, shiny 2.16 GHz Macbook (w/ 2GB RAM and a 120GB HDD) but also with a portable printer, a free iPod Nano (after rebate) and a copy of Office 2004 for Mac Students Edition. All with her Student Discount. Not a bad deal.
My sister-in-law is spending the next few weeks at my home helping out watching the kids and working at my wife's store and brought her new Macbook with her so I could give her a quick hand setting it up and showing her how to use it. She's had it running for the past week and I might have spent a grand total of 1 hour installing Office, connecting her to my wireless network and showing her some of the apps.
That's been it. What a pleasure. I helped her sync her iPod, installed Google Earth and QuickSilver for her (an absolutely MUST HAVE application if you're not familar with it). And that's it. She's kept herself busy on the laptop quite a bit this week and has loved it. When I asked her what she thought of it... I got two thumbs up.
Since she's used Macs at school before the interface was pretty familar. The addition of Quicksilver made it even easier for her to get to the few apps she likes to use often without her having to overload her dock.
Of the apps she likes to use the most.... iTunes, iChat and Firefox (which I installed for her to use instead of Safari) were the most popular. Now this is a teenager who not only LOVES music, but really has an appreciation for it. I mean how many teens have their iTunes library full of everything ever done by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and AC/DC as well as a vast array of the modern groups. She's one of a kind and will certainly give her iTunes a workout.
She likes having Office installed too since she expects to have a number of Word docs and Powerpoint presentations to deal with. Excel likely won't get much use, but hey... its there.
She LOVES the built in Wifi and being able to sit on the couch, at any table in the house or out in my backyard and just chat away online. The built-in bluetooth has also been impressive. The ability to sync her contacts with her cell phone was a big bonus. Now she can maintain and update contacts with the Address Book and then sync it w/ the phone for an update. Very nice. Wait 'til she realizes that those calendar entries in her iCal are synched too. And it being a cute little white notebook that easily can tuck into her backpack was a huge bonus too.
She liked the ability to watch DVD's on it, but hasn't done more than look at it quickly to be sure she can watch it.
When put on the table next to my 15" Macbook Pro however, she was a bit upset at how much larger my screen looked. This was especially exagerated since my resolution is set to 1400x900 where hers is only 1280x800 (which isn't so bad). But when she realized that the Macbook Pro wouldn't fit into her backpack, she cheered up (apparently she really loves her backpack which has a special sleeve for her 13" Macbook).
The best part of her using this Macbook?
It's been a whole week that she's been here and not a single call for help. Unfortunately the Windows PC that my kids are using has been another story. Next computer upgrade in this household is either going to be a Mac Mini or iMac for them.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1400
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 13 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: SuperDisk
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
banditosway
|
|
Member: Dave
Location: Temecula, CA
Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
IT Professional born and raised in New York now transplanted in sunny Southern California.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.