Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple MacBook MB881LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

This is my 1st and LAST MAC. Only 6 weeks after arriving, the LCD screen cracked. The laptop was kept on my desk. It never even made it outside! The company refused to repair or replace the screen and after less than 2 months I had an expensive repair. The manager at the Genius Bar informed me that the device was dropped (it was not) and the company did not insure the LCD screens. The laptop is very user friendly, (easier than Visa). But had I known the screens cracked so frequently I would have purchased a Dell. It was a $250 nightmare.

My MacBook is my second Mac - my first was a 20" iMac G4 that lasted me four years and was still working fine when I sold it. My wife also had a iBook G4.

I use a PC all day at work, and after selling my iMac briefly used a work PC at home as my primary computer for about three months. That was enough for me, I needed another Mac for home - I just enjoy the experience much more.

I initially had shopped for PC laptops with larger screens, and was a bit hesitant to get the 13" screen, but it's worked out well for me - I use a DVI to HDMI cable to work at home on a 22" widescreen monitor, and still have a laptop that is small enough to lug around when needed.

I'm not thrilled with the initial specs on the MacBook, but a couple of them were easy to rectify - on the advice of another reviewer here, I immediately upgraded to 4GB of RAM on my own, and replaced the drive with a 360 GB 7200 RPM Seagate drive. The system screams now, and I have plenty of room for everything I need.

I also installed 64-bit Vista using Bootcamp for my occasional work-at-home projects, I can't speak highly enough of this functionality.

Included software is great - out of the whole iLife suite (iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb), I've used all of the software short of iWeb, and they've all been very handy and intuitive.

I will be purchasing more Macs in my future.

I believe this is a discontinued model and most people would probably order the latest version of this MacBook (unless this one is available for a lower price). But actually, I believe the 2009 13-inch MacBook Pro is worth the higher price for the following reasons:

- it's a little faster
- it's a little lighter
- the aluminum finish is more durable
- the all metal body should dissipate heat better
- the large glass trackpad is more durable
- multi-touch gestures make it easier to navigate
- keyboard lights up at night
- expands up to 8GB of memory (useful for the future)
- longer battery life
- the matte aluminum finish with black keys is beautiful

For me, these features justify the extra cost, which is why I purchased the Pro -- others might not feel they are important. I am writing this review mostly so people thinking about the white MacBook at least consider the Pro version before making a final purchase.

Note -- I got the least expensive of the 13-inch MacBook Pro which has slightly lower processor speed, smaller disk and just 2GB of RAM. The processor speed on the more expensive model is nice, but it's not significantly faster and the disk and memory can be upgraded later when prices drop (I eventually will get a solid-state drive and 8GB).

Disadvantages:
* The lowest back light is too bright to be used with the light off at night
* Can't download PC only software
* Doesn't have the voice transcribing software that Vista does.
* The Mac version of Word doesn't preserve the formatting when copy paste with Web texts.
* MacBook keyboard is not very easy to type compared to Windows computers.
and it's expensive compared to NetBooks that has Vista installed on them.

Apple MacBook works great however after getting it and turning it on for the first time the mouse didnt work properly. I had to take it back to the the Apple store nearby and they had to change out the key board. That the reason for the four stars and not five....