My turn on the MacBook

While both Cyrus and Dan have weighed in with their first-hand experience and pictures of the MacBook, I made my first contact with the-beauty-that-is-MacBook the other day. Here are some of my observances, and of course, it includes pictures (more on that after the jump).

First of all is the screen. While there has been a significant amount of concern over Apple’s new adoption of the glossy screen, I found it to be no real problem. Is it glossy and reflective? Well, of course. But even in a bright, reflective place like the Apple Store I found the reflective surface to be no nuisance to my computing pleasure. In fact, the glossy screen really does make things look better (like candy!). In fact I rather liked it.

Next off is the black version of the MacBook. I was excited to see a black Apple laptop, as we haven’t seen one of those in quite a while, but I also wanted to check out this new softer finish and check it for scratching/flaking. While there was no flaking on this black MacBook, it did seem to scratch rather easily, as I was able to make a small mark in the finish just using a little pressure and my fingernail. Also, the black finish seemed to be very sensitive to hand prints and oils. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but you can see some of the marks left by the hands of many curious users.

Finally, are two observations on new, yet subtle, features of the MacBook. The first is closure. As you may have read on Apple’s website, the MacBook features a new magnetic-style closure instead of the latch/button on the old iBooks. I wasn’t exactly sure what this entailed, and couldn’t see enough from any of the pictures I found online. So I checked it out for myself. As you can see from this picture, the closure is simply a recessed area on the front of the computer. Simply slide your finger under and push upwards; the MacBook’s lid will raise from its magnetic attraction to itself. Very clever, and very practical.

My second observation concerns feet. The new feet of the MacBook are far superior to any other feet I’ve seen (yes even my own). The feet of old iBooks were prone to becoming detached and lost, and also caused a fair amount of wobbling. These new feet are more rubbery, bigger, and better attached (or so it seems). I really liked them.

The remainder of my photos, along with higher resolutions of those already posted, can be found here on my Flickr site. I was actually asked by an Apple employee to stop taking pictures in the store, as he subsequently muttered something about copyright issues. So I just took pictures on-the-sly when he turned his back.

All in all I was very impressed with the MacBook. So much so that I’m almost convinced to buy one instead of my planned MacBook Pro. Apple has really outdone themselves, and the price-to-feature ratio on this computer couldn’t be better. What a beautiful machine.