Would it be unwise to buy a Macbook?

[matty-hodgson]

I agree completely with the weight, but I think that's because of the "unibody" design.

And the stock 250GB HDD is fine for me .

[kmac]

You may want to get some protection for the body (of the Mac that is)

I have this and its pretty good, though adds a small bit of weight

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TR...co=MTM3NDcyMjc

[Shooty*]

3) The @ and " keys are in the wrong place and there is no "delete" key

This REALLY gets on my nerves.

[Boon72]

i converted a couple of years ago with a Mac Mini to give OSX a go, i've now got my work to convert 2 rooms into iMac room's and 3 of my sites have fully converted to iMacs and gave me a MacBook Pro to work with and paid for me to complete the ACSP & ACTC Apple qualifications :-)

[Steve B]

Just my 2 cents Matty: I purchased a Core Duo MacBook (1st generation white Polycarbonate casing) for ~£450 around 4 years ago, and it is still going strong, touch wood. My girlfriend, however, received an Acer Travelmate for her 21st birthday, which became broken and unusable after one year

The build quality appears to be higher, based on stories from colleagues too.

[matty-hodgson]

Just my 2 cents Matty: I purchased a Core Duo MacBook (1st generation white Polycarbonate casing) for ~£450 around 4 years ago, and it is still going strong, touch wood. My girlfriend, however, received an Acer Travelmate for her 21st birthday, which became broken and unusable after one year

The build quality appears to be higher, based on stories from colleagues too.

Well it's still going strong now . The battery life is the most amazing thing ever tbh, 8 hours of internet surfing with a C2D and a graphics card is just wrong.

I quite like the way it stays fairly cool too, even in bed or on my lap . Most laptops I've used get really warm/hot when they're being used but this just stays really cool. Genuinely great little machine this .

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Foxconn and Quanta actually manufacture almost all of the Apple notebooks. They also make notebooks for companies such as Acer,Toshiba and Sony too. I have a rebranded MSI S260 with a magenesium alloy body which is well over five years old and still working fine despite being well and truly battered.

Many of the early Intel MacBook Pro notebooks were affected by overheating due to inconsistent manufacturing by Foxconn - basically they had slapped on too much thermal compound on the cooling system!!The heat generated lead to the internal battery swelling and the case warping in many cases:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2006/05/4100.ars

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7...l?tag=mfiredir

A mate of mine had to get his MacBook Pro repaired due to this issue.

It also seems that the new Core i7 based MacBooks do run a bit on the hot side when pushed:

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/1...0-degrees.aspx

However the new unibody MacBooks are nicer than the earlier ones IMHO. I especially do like the MacBook Air(used one a few times at my last work place) although I wish it could have more than one USB port though!

[Fraz]

I quite like the way it stays fairly cool too, even in bed or on my lap . Most laptops I've used get really warm/hot when they're being used but this just stays really cool. Genuinely great little machine this .

Not always the case with Apple hardware. My first Macbook Pro (the first gen of dual core macbooks) was ridiculous. I seriously think I could have fried eggs off it.

[matty-hodgson]

Not always the case with Apple hardware. My first Macbook Pro (the first gen of dual core macbooks) was ridiculous. I seriously think I could have fried eggs off it.

Is that just doing "everyday tasks"?

When I was playing Portal the other day it got stupidly hot but that was probably because the graphics card and CPU both ramped up..

[Fraz]

Is that just doing "everyday tasks"?

When I was playing Portal the other day it got stupidly hot but that was probably because the graphics card and CPU both ramped up..

Yup. The metal between the function keys and the hinge was too hot to touch even when just idling. And it would be uncomfortable to have on your lap at any point. When the CPU + GPU were going, things got ridiculous. I ended up standing it on metal heatsinks when it was "docked" at work. Resting your wrists either side of the trackpad was seriously unpleasant after a while. Very sweaty laptop all round.

Amazingly, I was one of the lucky ones - my workmate's one which arrived a couple of weeks before mine was even hotter.

My current one (just over a year old) is superb though, like you say.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Like I said in post 23 the overheating issue was due to Foxconn slapping on loads of thermal compound onto the heatsink and on top of this a few of the very early ones had a piece of packing plastic which blocked an air intake partially!!

More details here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/5122...cbookheat.html

Here are some pictures of the excessive thermal paste on the coolers:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=199840

[Fraz]

Like I said in post 23 the overheating issue was due to Foxconn slapping on loads of thermal compound onto the heatsink and on top of this a few of the very early ones had a piece of packing plastic which blocked an air intake partially!!

More details here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/5122...cbookheat.html

Here are some pictures of the excessive thermal paste on the coolers:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=199840

Yeah, I read about it at the time. The Core Duo Yonahs were more that a little hot as well, I believe. The other *really* annoying problem it had was a constant whistling/chirping it made when idling and not plugged into the mains. Very strange. No issues at all with my current one, though.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The G4 PowerBooks in comparison were perfectly fine so these issues were quite annoying for many of the users. My mate was none too pleased by the fact his new MacBook was running so hot!

The only unibody Mac notebook I have had any really experience with so far is the MacBook Air.

It is a really nice piece of kit IMHO although another USB port would be nice!

[sprite-]

Personally - i can understand the argument of Desktop PCs vs iMacs...

But when it comes to the macbook - i've never owned such a solid and well put together laptop in my life. I don't think you can go wrong with it.

Only thing i will say though, is the HP Envy has the same build quality.. So if you're looking for a Windows based laptop with a little more punch for ya money, that is a good option to.

[usxhe190]

Personally - i can understand the argument of Desktop PCs vs iMacs...

But when it comes to the macbook - i've never owned such a solid and well put together laptop in my life. I don't think you can go wrong with it.

Only thing i will say though, is the HP Envy has the same build quality.. So if you're looking for a Windows based laptop with a little more punch for ya money, that is a good option to.

The Envys overheat. They aren't that good right now (new ones coming).

On the whole, in the laptop market, MBP is one of the best laptop design and constructions around.

[usxhe190]

I agree completely with the weight, but I think that's because of the "unibody" design.

And the stock 250GB HDD is fine for me .

Don't think the weight is due to the unibody design. It is because of the battery.