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Review by D. Bowman:
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UZDPX5TFLZ8G

I made this video to hopefully add a little more life to the product.

Snow Leopard adds a lot more than I thought.

This is a great computer if you want to play with pics, surf the web, mess with your music collection.

This is not the Mac if you want serious processing power of lots of inputs to create a home network.

Look to a MacBook Pro or iMac for that.

I would have given it 5 stars if it had more inputs.

This is a pricy computer already, now I have to spend more to get adaptors.

I wish it was still available in black or you could opt for the non-glaze display.

I hope you enjoy the video, I had fun making it.

Review by Stephen Hall:
I had intended to purchase my mother a Macbook for some time now. I wobbled between the several models I considered. However, Apple’s late October 2009 update to the white polycarbonate MacBook made the decision much easier.

Reasons for my Decision – With this update to the 13-inch white MacBook, Apple gave its entry-notebook impressive numbers. The processor a 2.26 GHZ Core 2 Duo is the same processor found in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. 2GB of memory? Same as the Pro. Nvidia 9400 Graphics, Same as the Pro. Hard drive? 250 GB, bigger than the MacBook Pro (it has 160GB only).

Yes, considering the larger hard drive, 250 versus 160, this white MacBook actually gives you a higher specification computer in some regards than the 0 more expensive MacBook Pro 13-inch. Remember this updated white MacBook also now incorporates the unibody under its polycarbonate shell. The unibody provides strength, and I must say this notebook is very solid. Furthermore, Apple has incorporated a long-life battery! The only downside is Apple must replace it, though it has a longer life cycle. In terms of performance, my mother reported to me simple usage of nearly six hours on a charge. Impressive. Blows away my older Mac notebook’s battery.

Yes, this white MacBook does lack the remote control sensor, Firewire Port, and backlit keyboard that the MacBook Pro would offer, but my mother would likely not use those features and she had an affinity towards the white polycarbonate. The white does look nice, but handle and place it on surfaces very carefully as it will show light scratches easily.

The bottom of the MacBook is a bit strange. It is a rubber seal so to speak like what is found on the bottom of Airport Extreme and Apple TV. I’m not certain I like that choice by Apple. The material does pick up dirt easily. I would recommend wiping off whatever surface you are going to sit the computer on, to remove light dust, if you worry about the computer’s appearance.

Overall, I was looking to find a quality Mac, for my mother. I didn’t want to compromise performance, and I feel I didn’t despite choosing this entry-level MacBook. Truly, with its stats, it can hardly be called entry level. My daily Mac is only slightly faster. These computers are getting faster and faster, and they impress me. Snow Leopard is great, and my mother is enjoying iPhoto and iMovie, all included with the computer.

The price to value of this MacBook is remarkable. At two hundred less than the MacBook Pro you get the same speed and memory, plus a larger hard drive. You can’t argue with that. I didn’t, and the MacBook has impressed.

Review by M. Bray:
After scoping out several options on the casing market, I finally settled on the Speck See Thru Satin, Soft Touch Hard Shell Case in Black for my new MacBook Pro.

Pluses:

- What I love about the Satin Soft Touch is that it provides the protection of a hard shell plastic case but has a nice rubbery coating that provides a light grip and nice feel.

- Texture allows the added benefits of not showing fingerprints and other smudges.

- Although I will admit to liking the Apple logo, I also like the sleekness provided by the fact that the Apple logo is hidden when laptop is closed, and only shines through when open & on.

- Open cutout on side for ports does not hinder access whatsoever.

- Almost unnoticeable that it’s on there, I can still easily fit it inside my already snug neoprene sleeve when traveling.

Minuses:

- The cutouts for the remote sensor and the battery check button aren’t 100% dead on, but aren’t so far off as to handicap the features.

- It’s inevitable that some dust and other particles will cling to it, but it’s fairly easy to clean by simply dusting or blowing on it.

- I’ve noticed in reviews of similar Speck products that people have experienced difficulty in removing the case for cleaning, and while I haven’t removed mine yet, it seems like a simple enough operation as long as you are somewhat delicate and pay attention to all of the tabs that allow the case to snap on to your computer.

Overall:

I’m completely satisfied with this case.

Review by Charly Girl:
I spent quite a bit of time debating over whether to purchase an Incase or Speck cover to protect my new Macbook Pro. The reviews were mixed–pretty much equal pros and cons on both. So since I have a Speck Candy Hardshell case for my iPhone and LOVE it, I decided to try out Speck’s See Thru Satin case. The cranberry color is awesome–looks very rich. The satin finish has a nice grip, so I don’t have to worry about my Macbook slipping out of my hands! Additionally, I found it very easy to put on and, after watching the instructional video on the Speck website, found it easy to remove. The case has NOT scratched my Macbook. I am a perfectionist and this was a great concern. I must say that overall I am pretty pleased. Nevertheless, I do have two complaints: 1) the edges on the lower cover were very rough. I used a nail file to make them smooth, otherwise they would have continued to irritate my wrists when I typed on the keyboard. 2) the satin finish retains fingerprints. You cannot clean them off. For these reasons, I can only give Speck’s See Thru Satin case 4 stars. I’m so glad I checked for this item on Amazon before purchasing through the manufacturer or Apple…I saved on the case and received free shipping as a Prime Member! This makes me feel better about keeping a case with minor imperfections!

Review by Dardopete:
Unless you are very new to the game, you know what you are getting. This is a MacBook Pro battery. It does exactly what you’d think it would do. It powers the machine up. With luck, I get two to three hours of life before I plug it in again. Mine lasts two years. Then, I buy another one. Complaining that it should be something else doesn’t increase its playtime or lifetime. I’ll take this machine, even with this battery, over any other non-Mac computer, and most Mac computers, any time. It runs hot (which can’t help the battery), but it’s true, durable, reliable, and paid for. If there’s a better battery out there now, buy it. Otherwise, this for for 80 bucks runs the machine well enough.

Review by S. A. Trost:
I purchased this item as a replacement for 1.5 year old battery that came from the manufacturer. My previous battery had something wrong with it, in a period of 2 months, it went from 85% health, to about 40% health, and then in a period of about 2 days it dropped below 20% health. This made it so i was getting < 1 hour battery life which was unacceptable. I was at about 290 cycles when it was at 40% health, and I called apple, but they said since it’s been over a year they wouldn’t do anything about it (which contradicts a lot of things I’ve heard from other users experiencing the same issues).

At any rate, my new battery is here, popped it in, drained it, gave it a boisterous charge, and now i’m getting somewhere between 3.5 to 4 hours battery life on a full charge. I was appalled after 1 cycle though, the health dropped to 99%, but now I’m nearing 20 cycles and it’s still at 99%. Works for now, hopefully this one will last the rated 300 cycles (apple says 300 cycles should have a health of 85% still).

Review by Jeffrey Stanley:
This is my first Mac computer. My first four computers ran Win 3.1, Windows 95, XP, and Vista (from about 1995-present). I have quite a lot of time spent on each of them. Switching from Windows to Mac is not difficult, but it can be a bit frustrating for a week or so. There are Windows features that you will miss, but they are mostly overcome by overall advantages in my opinion.

I’ve spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I would have probably stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After getting more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.

This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.

The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB (from the 160GB base option). I am using 2gb of ram and the lower-end processor.

My Mac OS impressions:

The biggest thing I missed from Windows at first was the task bar. Mac uses the “dock” to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the quick launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the entire bar, with large icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the ability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running-programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock is not nearly as useful for multitasking as the task bar.

The saving grace that rescues the Mac from awkward app-switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture (four-finger swipe). Expose uses the entire screen to display all open windows and allow you to switch between them. It’s like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at first, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing multiple windows while multitasking.

The controls for open-windows are quite different than in MS-Windows. In Mac, there is a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To close an app on the mac you need to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it’s a bit more awkward. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal viewing without using the entire screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the ability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button may be better on an enormous monitor, but not on a 13″ notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it is only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I’ll give the window size-management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical in my opinion. It isn’t a deal-breaker, but I do miss the Windows “window controls.” If you are a frequent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you’ll have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full-screen.

Windows Explorer is “replaced” with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older versions of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista’s explorer is quite a bit easier and more logical to use. I prefer Vista’s preview pane to Mac’s coverflow. I miss the “up folder” button. I have found myself mostly using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for easiest computer browsing, and it just isn’t as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button has caused frustration especially in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a very small window unless you drag the corners.

The Safari web browser is nice and quick and has a decent security reputation. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox has crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I’m leaning toward making Safari my main web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it’s difficult to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.

I absolutely hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto does not allow you to organize and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and sorts them itself based on time/date stamps on the photos. This works fine for personal vacation snapshots but it completely mixed up the rest of my images. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Right now I’m just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work isn’t possible in the preview app and I still haven’t decided what to use for a basic photo editor yet. Vista’s photo app is junk but it’s still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your own folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to whether you want the ability to organize your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you’ll love iphoto’s ability to organize them via event and face recognition.

Edited to add: you can organize your photos into “albums” after you import them into iPhoto, but be prepared to spend a lot of time reorganizing everything. Even after you organize into albums, the main library screen gives you views of your entire collection (perhaps things you don’t want everyone to see).

I have not used Garage Band or iMovie yet. I’ll update later when I get a chance.

Edited to add: I played with garage band a bit and it’s pretty powerful. It allows you to import and export AAC and MP3 tracks and record sound in multiple tracks. Very easy to use. The only other audio app i’ve ever used is audacity and I much prefer Garage Band. I haven’t used any of the music lessons it offers yet but plan to soon.

I played with iMovie for a few minutes and it seems pretty nice and very intuitive. I actually don’t mind Windows Movie Maker, which is included with Vista. I would not consider it a big step up from Win Movie Maker, but it’s a nice app.

The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very very well. The address app will import common file types easily. It will sync with yahoo out of the box. Address book will only sync with Google contacts if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I’m a big fan of it. It’s exactly like the windows version only it runs a bit faster without the bugs. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Windows-iTunes bug with time/date being wrong after the computer sleeps is not an issue on the Mac.

Time machine is the Mac’s backup app. It is amazing and very simple. I’m using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive right away and went to work backing up my files (after asking permission of course). Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I’m in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup according to a set schedule, but it lacks the ability to easily look through backups for specific files. Time machine is wonderful and make wireless backup effortless.

The Mac disk utility is almost as good as the one in Vista and it’s easier to use. It’s far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router couldn’t read NTFS formating (although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for some reason).

The graphics control software is a joy to use. When I plug in my external monitor it immediately extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation couldn’t be any easier.

Boot camp is a utility that allows you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system (you need to own or buy a legal single-disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista). When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either 5 or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 won’t fit into 5GB. You need to give it at least the 32 GB (which left me with almost exactly 200GB on my “250″ GB drive). Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes quick work of installing drivers for all of your laptop’s hardware. It’s too bad that Nvidia and HP aren’t as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. In order to boot into Windows, you simply press the “option” key during bootup and it allows you to choose which OS to run. Windows XP absolutely screams on this hardware.

The hardware:

The hardware is where this computer really shines.

The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer purchase was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The main reason I turned to mac for this purchase was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the entire system.

I have connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has “just worked.” The hardware is a joy to use when it just works. It is difficult to put into words how happy I am with the lack of effort in using this machine.

The speed isn’t blazing-fast but it runs very well, even with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has similar specs, but my new Mac feels slightly faster.

One outstanding productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly prefer it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can’t say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right-click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it is part of you. Having the entire surface of the touchpad as the button is brilliant, especially for drag and drop operations. The large size of the touchpad makes it very precise.

The keyboard is really nice. At first I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now prefer it to my more “clicky” desktop keyboard. I don’t know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is more useful than I thought it would be.

The display is beautiful. It has good color, a wide viewing angle, and is plenty bright for indoor environments. I would prefer that the screen wasn’t glass, but the reflections aren’t as bad as I feared. If there is a bright light source behind you, you’ll need to angle the screen to reduce the glare but it’s workable.

The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes a lot of noise. I’ve never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and quiet, and this one isn’t any exception. It works well, but isn’t anything special.

The battery life is incredible. The seven hour battery life is not an exaggeration if you are using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4-5 hours if you’re using it for heavy web browsing and a bit of media. Listening to music with the display off would easily last over the advertised 7 hours. Streaming high definition video on netflix using wireless will knock it down to at or below three hours. I haven’t watched DVD movies on battery power but I expect it to barely get you through a single two hour film with a bit left over.

The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs doesn’t exactly feel light until you compare it to similarly spec’d machines that weigh a full pound (20%) more. I wouldn’t want a larger machine if I had to lug it around much.

The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. Don’t expect much bass, but the sound is very clear with good mids and highs. The speakers are plenty loud for listening to podcasts or music in a semi-quiet medium sized room or office. I won’t need to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.

The “magsafe” power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The “power brick” itself is a lot smaller than my last dell laptop. It’s exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick includes fold-out wings to wrap the cord around. It is very well thought-out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5″ x 3″ x 1″ in your bag. When you are using it at home or at the office there is an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you aren’t as tethered to your desk.

The computer runs very cool compared to most laptops. Also, there are no vents where super-heated air blows out. While I’m sure it uses a fan, I’ve never audibly actually heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you don’t notice it. Edited to add: it does get rather warm when watching high resolution video, but stays quite cool when web browsing or using normal office apps. Even when very warm, the fan is still quiet (the only way to actually hear the fan is to hold it near your ear).

The only drawback to the hardware compared to Windows machines is the fact that there is no option to hibernate when closing the lid. It sleeps when you close the lid but it still is using a small amount of power. If you’re only going to be away for a couple hours this isn’t an issue, but you must completely shut down when on battery power if you’re going to be away much longer.

This machine is a lot more expensive than similarly spec’d Windows machines but I feel that it’s worth the money. I’m a very satisfied Mac switcher.

Review by Nate:
Well I must say I am very happy i did not buy apple’s first iteration of the 13″ aluminum macbook last year b/c they really got it right the second time around upgrading it to a macbook pro! Its nice to have that “pro” stamp on a 13″ now! Apple has listened to their customers adding almost everything we have asked for and more, and managed to reduce the price! Thanks Apple!

CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR

- 0 less

- 13″ aluminum macbooks became macbook pros

- 2.53Ghz up from 2.4GHz dual core

- 4GB RAM up from 2GB

- led display has 60% greater color gamut than previous model

- new advanced built-in battery that lasts up to 7 hours vs 4hrs

- FireWire is back (after all the complaints of first model)

- SD card slot (replaces express card slot)

- new models now come with iLife ’09

- separate digital audio input is gone

- new model uses the same integrated mic and headphone port as the iPhone

PROS

- finally a price cut with a performance upgrade! i knew apple could do it. i was tired of paying for aesthetics and not performance.

- new Snow Leopard Operating System comes pre-installed! Same great ease of use with much faster performance!

- much better lcd screen! inline with the pro models…still glossy and still some glare but much nicer!

- backlight keyboard on all 13″ models now! ( i really enjoy this as it can be controlled from low to high)

- battery life is significantly better than last year.( i get about 6 hours w/ regular use not the 7hrs that is reported)

- the computer is designed beautifully truly a head turner.

- iLife 09 suite is superb for pictures, movies, and music. Good software really does sell hardware.

- SD card slot accepts SDHC, which goes up to 32GB and works like a charm. (can boot from SD card as well)

CONS

- aluminum outer casing does dent easily if dropped. (buy a soft case for it!)

- power cord is short and does not reach as many places as I would like…must sit very close to power outlet.

- battery can’t be removed easily

- SD card sticks about half way out of slot. eye sore.

- blu-ray option would have been nice but understandable given licensing fees. (many blurays are offering digital copies which help)

Taking into consideration all the great improvements over last year with a nice price cut I can now truly recommend this near perfect Macbook Pro!

Review by T. Truong:
I bought this to replace the original 85W which came with my macbook pro.

This new one has a better rubber extension on the magsafe so it won’t fall apart as easily like the first one did. The size of the “brick” has been reduced, it’s no longer a rectangle, it’s now a square. -About an inch shorter then the old one, although still suppling 85watts. If you have a non pro macbook, get this rather then the 65w(same price). this will work with all the macbooks, macbook air, macbook pro. so it’s more universal if you plan on upgrading laptops.

Review by ***MATT***:
Just do a google and you’ll see the life of this adapter is about a year. Way too many incidents out there. My first adapter lasted exactly one year. One day I was charging my macbook and I started to smell wires burning. It turned out to be the wire from this adapter, specifically where it attaches to the macbook. The key is not to put *any* stress on the wire at all by letting it bend. Apparently the plastic wire is so cheaply made that it will wear out and expose the inner wires to each other. Luckily my macbook was not damaged, and I was there to unplug the adapter when it started to smolder. While I love the smart magnetic design, it’s made quite shoddy. Of course the price is very high also at !?! Ridiculous for plastic and cheap wiring! When I went to the Apple store to replace my adapter, there was a 3 week wait as well! I was lucky to find one on eb*y for just under .

My best advice is not to put any tension on this wire because it obviously can’t handle it, and I’d avoid leaving it charging alone simply because I don’t trust it and I’ve googled quite a few horror stories. Check out the apple store and you’ll see all the reviews about sparks, smoke, melting , and fire.

Currently, I’m on my 3rd adapter in 3 years. The current version I bought on ebay and it’s re-enforced at the weak spot I mentioned. This version seems to be the best. Check out the photo I posted, and you’ll notice that the end that connects to the macbook pro is different, with a bigger plastic shell.

While this newer version is square and more compact, photos indicate that it’s still got the same old weak end.

Review by T. Hackwith:
I am on my third adapter in the past year, the plastic wire cover breaks at the connecter and no longer functions. After the first two went out I was extremly careful about using this cord and it still broke! and as Apple has a patent on this product I cant get one by a different manufacturer, I am stuck ordering yet another one. Let me know if someone is starting a law suit over this one!

Review by Mama Crawford:
Both of my children have macbooks, they use them at home, and they are careful enough with them. BUT, the power cord adapters keep breaking, fraying off at the point where the wire and the connector meet. At first I thought maybe the children were mishandling them, but after the first go-round, they were so careful, and still the problem returns. At a whack, this is getting outrageous! And using a frayed adapter is dangerous, no?? Hello… Apple… wake-up on this issue…this is a defective product and needs a recall/reissue.

Review by Jeffrey Stanley:
This is my first Mac computer. My first four computers ran Win 3.1, Windows 95, XP, and Vista (from about 1995-present). I have quite a lot of time spent on each of them. Switching from Windows to Mac is not difficult, but it can be a bit frustrating for a week or so. There are Windows features that you will miss, but they are mostly overcome by overall advantages in my opinion.

I’ve spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I would have probably stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After getting more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.

This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.

The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB (from the 160GB base option). I am using 2gb of ram and the lower-end processor.

My Mac OS impressions:

The biggest thing I missed from Windows at first was the task bar. Mac uses the “dock” to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the quick launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the entire bar, with large icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the ability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running-programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock is not nearly as useful for multitasking as the task bar.

The saving grace that rescues the Mac from awkward app-switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture (four-finger swipe). Expose uses the entire screen to display all open windows and allow you to switch between them. It’s like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at first, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing multiple windows while multitasking.

The controls for open-windows are quite different than in MS-Windows. In Mac, there is a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To close an app on the mac you need to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it’s a bit more awkward. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal viewing without using the entire screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the ability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button may be better on an enormous monitor, but not on a 13″ notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it is only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I’ll give the window size-management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical in my opinion. It isn’t a deal-breaker, but I do miss the Windows “window controls.” If you are a frequent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you’ll have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full-screen.

Windows Explorer is “replaced” with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older versions of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista’s explorer is quite a bit easier and more logical to use. I prefer Vista’s preview pane to Mac’s coverflow. I miss the “up folder” button. I have found myself mostly using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for easiest computer browsing, and it just isn’t as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button has caused frustration especially in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a very small window unless you drag the corners.

The Safari web browser is nice and quick and has a decent security reputation. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox has crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I’m leaning toward making Safari my main web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it’s difficult to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.

I absolutely hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto does not allow you to organize and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and sorts them itself based on time/date stamps on the photos. This works fine for personal vacation snapshots but it completely mixed up the rest of my images. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Right now I’m just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work isn’t possible in the preview app and I still haven’t decided what to use for a basic photo editor yet. Vista’s photo app is junk but it’s still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your own folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to whether you want the ability to organize your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you’ll love iphoto’s ability to organize them via event and face recognition.

Edited to add: you can organize your photos into “albums” after you import them into iPhoto, but be prepared to spend a lot of time reorganizing everything. Even after you organize into albums, the main library screen gives you views of your entire collection (perhaps things you don’t want everyone to see).

I have not used Garage Band or iMovie yet. I’ll update later when I get a chance.

Edited to add: I played with garage band a bit and it’s pretty powerful. It allows you to import and export AAC and MP3 tracks and record sound in multiple tracks. Very easy to use. The only other audio app i’ve ever used is audacity and I much prefer Garage Band. I haven’t used any of the music lessons it offers yet but plan to soon.

I played with iMovie for a few minutes and it seems pretty nice and very intuitive. I actually don’t mind Windows Movie Maker, which is included with Vista. I would not consider it a big step up from Win Movie Maker, but it’s a nice app.

The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very very well. The address app will import common file types easily. It will sync with yahoo out of the box. Address book will only sync with Google contacts if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I’m a big fan of it. It’s exactly like the windows version only it runs a bit faster without the bugs. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Windows-iTunes bug with time/date being wrong after the computer sleeps is not an issue on the Mac.

Time machine is the Mac’s backup app. It is amazing and very simple. I’m using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive right away and went to work backing up my files (after asking permission of course). Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I’m in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup according to a set schedule, but it lacks the ability to easily look through backups for specific files. Time machine is wonderful and make wireless backup effortless.

The Mac disk utility is almost as good as the one in Vista and it’s easier to use. It’s far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router couldn’t read NTFS formating (although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for some reason).

The graphics control software is a joy to use. When I plug in my external monitor it immediately extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation couldn’t be any easier.

Boot camp is a utility that allows you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system (you need to own or buy a legal single-disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista). When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either 5 or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 won’t fit into 5GB. You need to give it at least the 32 GB (which left me with almost exactly 200GB on my “250″ GB drive). Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes quick work of installing drivers for all of your laptop’s hardware. It’s too bad that Nvidia and HP aren’t as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. In order to boot into Windows, you simply press the “option” key during bootup and it allows you to choose which OS to run. Windows XP absolutely screams on this hardware.

The hardware:

The hardware is where this computer really shines.

The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer purchase was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The main reason I turned to mac for this purchase was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the entire system.

I have connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has “just worked.” The hardware is a joy to use when it just works. It is difficult to put into words how happy I am with the lack of effort in using this machine.

The speed isn’t blazing-fast but it runs very well, even with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has similar specs, but my new Mac feels slightly faster.

One outstanding productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly prefer it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can’t say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right-click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it is part of you. Having the entire surface of the touchpad as the button is brilliant, especially for drag and drop operations. The large size of the touchpad makes it very precise.

The keyboard is really nice. At first I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now prefer it to my more “clicky” desktop keyboard. I don’t know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is more useful than I thought it would be.

The display is beautiful. It has good color, a wide viewing angle, and is plenty bright for indoor environments. I would prefer that the screen wasn’t glass, but the reflections aren’t as bad as I feared. If there is a bright light source behind you, you’ll need to angle the screen to reduce the glare but it’s workable.

The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes a lot of noise. I’ve never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and quiet, and this one isn’t any exception. It works well, but isn’t anything special.

The battery life is incredible. The seven hour battery life is not an exaggeration if you are using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4-5 hours if you’re using it for heavy web browsing and a bit of media. Listening to music with the display off would easily last over the advertised 7 hours. Streaming high definition video on netflix using wireless will knock it down to at or below three hours. I haven’t watched DVD movies on battery power but I expect it to barely get you through a single two hour film with a bit left over.

The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs doesn’t exactly feel light until you compare it to similarly spec’d machines that weigh a full pound (20%) more. I wouldn’t want a larger machine if I had to lug it around much.

The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. Don’t expect much bass, but the sound is very clear with good mids and highs. The speakers are plenty loud for listening to podcasts or music in a semi-quiet medium sized room or office. I won’t need to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.

The “magsafe” power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The “power brick” itself is a lot smaller than my last dell laptop. It’s exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick includes fold-out wings to wrap the cord around. It is very well thought-out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5″ x 3″ x 1″ in your bag. When you are using it at home or at the office there is an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you aren’t as tethered to your desk.

The computer runs very cool compared to most laptops. Also, there are no vents where super-heated air blows out. While I’m sure it uses a fan, I’ve never audibly actually heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you don’t notice it. Edited to add: it does get rather warm when watching high resolution video, but stays quite cool when web browsing or using normal office apps. Even when very warm, the fan is still quiet (the only way to actually hear the fan is to hold it near your ear).

The only drawback to the hardware compared to Windows machines is the fact that there is no option to hibernate when closing the lid. It sleeps when you close the lid but it still is using a small amount of power. If you’re only going to be away for a couple hours this isn’t an issue, but you must completely shut down when on battery power if you’re going to be away much longer.

This machine is a lot more expensive than similarly spec’d Windows machines but I feel that it’s worth the money. I’m a very satisfied Mac switcher.

Review by Nate:
Well I must say I am very happy i did not buy apple’s first iteration of the 13″ aluminum macbook last year b/c they really got it right the second time around upgrading it to a macbook pro! Its nice to have that “pro” stamp on a 13″ now! Apple has listened to their customers adding almost everything we have asked for and more, and managed to reduce the price! Thanks Apple!

CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR

- 0 less

- 13″ aluminum macbooks became macbook pros

- 2.53Ghz up from 2.4GHz dual core

- 4GB RAM up from 2GB

- led display has 60% greater color gamut than previous model

- new advanced built-in battery that lasts up to 7 hours vs 4hrs

- FireWire is back (after all the complaints of first model)

- SD card slot (replaces express card slot)

- new models now come with iLife ’09

- separate digital audio input is gone

- new model uses the same integrated mic and headphone port as the iPhone

PROS

- finally a price cut with a performance upgrade! i knew apple could do it. i was tired of paying for aesthetics and not performance.

- new Snow Leopard Operating System comes pre-installed! Same great ease of use with much faster performance!

- much better lcd screen! inline with the pro models…still glossy and still some glare but much nicer!

- backlight keyboard on all 13″ models now! ( i really enjoy this as it can be controlled from low to high)

- battery life is significantly better than last year.( i get about 6 hours w/ regular use not the 7hrs that is reported)

- the computer is designed beautifully truly a head turner.

- iLife 09 suite is superb for pictures, movies, and music. Good software really does sell hardware.

- SD card slot accepts SDHC, which goes up to 32GB and works like a charm. (can boot from SD card as well)

CONS

- aluminum outer casing does dent easily if dropped. (buy a soft case for it!)

- power cord is short and does not reach as many places as I would like…must sit very close to power outlet.

- battery can’t be removed easily

- SD card sticks about half way out of slot. eye sore.

- blu-ray option would have been nice but understandable given licensing fees. (many blurays are offering digital copies which help)

Taking into consideration all the great improvements over last year with a nice price cut I can now truly recommend this near perfect Macbook Pro!

Review by Daniel Kester:
Warning: as they do with many things, Amazon lumps all reviews of this battery together, irrespective of who the seller is. Some sellers sell brand new batteries, some sell used or refurbished or non-Apple batteries. This you can see from some of the other reviews. Read the description carefully, to see what the seller that YOU are dealing with is offering. I got mine from “Nextop2100″. They sold an authentic Apple OEM battery (new), but in bulk packaging. The battery I received was brand new, made by Apple, exactly what I wanted.

If you’re not sure what you’re ordering, email the seller and ask!

Oh, and in case you haven’t figured this out yet: most non-book items sold on Amazon.com are NOT sold by Amazon; they are sold by third parties. It’s like buying on eBay, but somewhat more reliable (if you don’t get what was described, Amazon will help you out). Near the top of the page it will say “Ships from and sold by (name of vendor)”.

Review by M. Carminati Garbino:
I purchased this battery on March 9, 2009. It does not hold charge. It does not function as a battery, in essence it is a very expensive paper weight. I contacted Rocio Valdivia, the seller, who simply stated that he does not have to send me a refund.

Do not purchase from this seller. This is at best a very bad seller, at worst, fraud.

Avoid Rocio Valdivia.

Review by Jorge Alberto Reza:
I love apple products.. they are the next best thing as cheese singles.. but their laptop batteries get old fast.

Thankfully they still sell these batteries because my macbook has a lot of good remaining life.

PS: I got a generic battery from ebay that was half the price and the thing lasted two months… dont waste your money and go with the original battery.

Review by The Emperor Has No Clothes:
It’s pretty simple – just a replacement battery, but it has the usual Apple high quality build and ease of use. It arrived quickly and is working well!

Review by XYZ:
I bought this apple mackbook adapter from the store front at amazon and was completely amazed to find out that its a fake macbook adapter, Guys please stay away from this store front “bobcatpower Storefront” and i would not recommend anyone to buy anything from this bobcatpower Storefront. The plug is loose and its very low quality. If you see the picture on the storefront it shows “APPLE LOGO” on the adapter but the adapter that received has no such logo.

When i ask the seller to take it back in return at the same time i wrote a honest feedback saying that the seller “bobcatpower” is selling a fake adapter and i really wanted other people to know so that they dont make the same mistake as i did, Now the seller threaten me saying that if i dont remove the negative feedback the storefront “bobcatpower” would the same to me. I am completely amazed as how amazon allows this kinda store front to operate. I am a valuable customer of amazon but now i really have to think hard before i make any other purchases on amazon’s store front.

When i asked the seller to return my shipping cost, the store front “bobcatpower” is replying me back with another threaten email saying that they would only return back my shipping cost only if i remove the negative feedback. But i dont care much about the shipping cost and i would make sure that this store front is banned from amazon who indulge themseleves in threaten their customers and also by selling wrong and fake items to their customers.

I would also suggest amazon to stop allowing this fake store fronts to operate on such a reputed online store.

Review by A. Armas:
The adapter box gets extremenly hot, enough to wrinkle the label and melt in the center. Within 6 days it died completely.

Review by R. Nathan:
I bought this a few months ago, and there is one major complaint: it affects the closure of the lid of the macbook. I tried a speck a long time ago with my regular macbook and also noticed this, but wasn’t sure if it would also affect the new macbook pros: it does.

If the lid is not at a normal opening (for normal use), then the additional weight of the lid will cause it to either close (when opened a little bit), or lean back further than you want it to. Basically, this case is too heavy for the Macbook Pro. I wanted something that would protect the computer, but not at the cost of functionality of the lid. Sometimes I want the lid closed just a little bit, or maybe I want to carry the macbook somewhere without closing the lid.. both of these are hard to do with the Speck attached.

Sorry guys, the case looks nice and it’s a good idea, but you have to make it lighter!

Review by Kevin R:
This case arrived a couple days after I ordered it. It fits both the October 2008 and June 2009 unibody Macbook Pros (15.4″) perfectly. The case has a snug fit, feels great, and looks very professional. It was very easy to snap on and doesn’t scratch the laptop whatsoever–it’s very protective (although I can’t guarantee it will do much if you drop your Macbook–for that I recommend the polyurethane case by Be-Ez). I love how the apple icon on the back of my Macbook illuminates through the case. Although fingerprints (which can be cleaned off) show up more on this satin Speck case than the hard-body Speck case, the Satin case doesn’t accumulate scratches as much. Overall I love this product and would recommend it to any Macbook Pro user.

Review by M. L. Chesner:
I needed a second AC adapter for my MacBook Air for when I bring it to work. This adapter works perfectly. Not complaints.

Review by James:
Compared to all other laptop chargers out there, this is definitely one of the world’s smallest. But as small as it is, I’m with the guy that said it should be thinner. Even though it won’t fit in a slim case without bulging out an inch, it fits in your pocket nicely, more so than previous Apple laptop chargers.

Review by Third Wiley:
The first battery I received was an absolute failure, would not hold a charge and would not shut off automatically when fully charged. The second battery works as advertised and my only gripe is that it doesn’t fit as smoothly on the bottom of my Macbook as the original battery. The only really satisfactory aspect to this entire episode was the Brilliant Store which provided me the best customer service I have ever received.

Update: If I could I would lower this review to one star. The battery failed to hold charge after less than one year.

Update II. I gave up and finally ordered a replacement battery from Apple. Now, six months later it is working perfectly. My Macbook Pro will operate down to 1% charge remaining. Lesson, its better sometimes to spend a little more; in future I will only buy replacement parts from the Apple Store.

Review by Meg’s Mom:
Apple has some serious explaining to do: I’ve had 3 PC laptops and never had a battery fail so rapidly— and to physically expand!

Read the blogs on Apple’s own website, and you’ll see this problem is rampant. Some users’ batteries expand into the case and destroy the track-pad. But call Apple, and they’ll tell you, “All batteries expand when their fuel cells are empty,” and “Batteries are consumables so if you didn’t buy our extended warranty, you have to buy a new battery.” [NEVER MIND THAT ON THEIR OWN WEBSITE MORE THAN 370 USERS HAVE HAD THESE CRITICAL BATTERY FAILURES]. I have an HP from 2002 and the original battery is still running. Same for my 2004 Compaq, and even the original battery in our kid’s knock-around Dell (circa 1999) is still running.

Sorry to say, but Apple really stinks on this front. Their customer service is seriously dropping the ball and is not at all competitive with HP.

BOTTOM LINE: Don’t be surprised if your replacement batteries fail quickly (even Apple’s “Senior Advisor” says they don’t last longer than 300 charges or 9-15 months); and if your machine isn’t under warranty be sure to replace the battery every 12 months so it won’t expand and destroy your computer.